Mum slams cafe’s ‘shocking’ $18 vegan breakfast

A holiday-maker has taken aim at a cafe that served her this “shocking” vegan option for breakfast – which cost the same as the meat version.

A mum has revealed her shock at the meagre vegan breakfast she was served while on holiday with her family in the UK’s famous Sherwood Forest in Nottingham.

Jennifer Carr, 37, from Stirling in Scotland, said she was served up the $17.85 dish during a visit to the Sports Cafe at the Centre Parcs Holiday Village.

The “shocking” offering featured half a piece of brown toast, half a cooked tomato, one mushroom, a small helping of baked beans, two hash browns and four thin slices of red capsicum, The Sun reported.

Due to the risk of spreading coronavirus, Center Parcs allows customers to order their meals via an app, and there was both a meat cooked breakfast and a vegetarian version that came with an egg and a veggie sausage.

Jennifer Carr was unhappy to be served up this $18 dish on holiday. Picture: Jennifer Carr

Ms Carr and her husband, who is also vegan, were given the option to make the meal vegan, but when the dish arrived it appeared that had simply involved removing the sausage and the egg.

“I was really quite shocked. It was pretty small, so we had to order extra mushrooms, beans and tomatoes on top,” she told The Sun Online.

“When we ordered on the app, it gave us the option of making the vegetarian breakfast vegan so we chose that, but that just meant they removed the egg and the vegetarian sausage and substituted them with four small slices of pepper (capsicum) – not even an extra mushroom.

“I looked at it and thought, I’ve paid £10 for this. And we were starving afterwards.”

On top of the $17.85 plate of food, Jennifer paid $5.35 for a coffee, as well as $2.65 each for extra baked beans, mushrooms and hash browns.

Ms Carr at Center Parcs with her son. Picture: Jennifer Carr

Meanwhile her son, who ordered the normal full English breakfast, was given a much larger plate of food for the same price of $17.85.

“My son had sausage, bacon, egg, baked beans, hash browns, tomato, mushroom and two pieces of toast for some reason, while we only got one piece,” Ms Carr said.

“It wouldn’t be hard to improve it given the range of items you can buy in the supermarket these days.

“We love the Richmond vegan sausages, so they could have added those or even just some extra mushroom and extra tomato would have been nice – even a bit more pepper (capsicum).”

Ms Carr and her husband also had a disappointing meal at the Pancake House in the holiday park.

The non-vegan version of the breakfast, which also cost $18. Picture: Jennifer Carr

“It’s just vegetables cooked inside the crepe, and it tasted raw – they obviously didn’t know how to make a proper vegan substitute for pancakes,” she said.

“They are making a token effort which we really appreciate, but if they really looked at what they were offering, they would know that is not a pancake.”

Despite their disappointing meals, Ms Carr said that the family had a great time and that the staff went the extra mile to make guests feel safe during the pandemic.

“The trip was lovely. Center Parcs was great, the staff were lovely and everything was clean – we felt very comfortable. It was just the food that was an issue,” she said.

A vegan crepe that was served on the same holiday. Picture: Jennifer Carr

“The reason I want to share it with people is just so that they are warned – if they order the vegan breakfast this is what they’ll get, so maybe order extra.

“This is more about awareness from the restaurant really. If you don’t have anything extra to add to the dish that’s fine, but just lower the cost of the meal.”

Center Parcs told Sun Online Travel: “This is clearly not up to our usual high standards and we apologise.

“We are in the process of reviewing our vegan offering and will be introducing new dishes very soon.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission