Rating on food & helpfulness of kitchen team.

I went to The Taren Point Bowling club for lunch yesterday. As a vegan, a bowlo/sports club obviously isn’t my go-to choice for food but I was there for work & there’s always a basic option like a burger or salad to choose from at these types of places & I’m happy with that 😊.

There were several vegetarian menu items but I couldn’t tell if there was egg/dairy in most of them by the descriptions so I asked the FOH team member to assist me (obviously with these being allergens you’d expect a chef to know). The FOH team member wasn’t sure but was keen to help & zipped out to the kitchen and was back within about 10 seconds (register is next to kitchen). I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. Now, I’m not going to say the BOH staff put NO time/effort/care in, but what I will say is zero support was provided by the BOH team - The FOH team member informed that I could not eat at the bowlo- there were zero options for me. I was refused service.

I was pretty taken back as obviously this isn’t right. Surely some of the vegetarian curries etc have no egg & cheese & surely chips, side salad & side veg are suitable (maybe I’m wrong, maybe this bowlo is doing something crazy different with their cooking of these types of basic/plain options but without help I can’t tell).

I explained that cross-contamination isn’t an issue & I told the FOH staff member that this response from the BOH team honestly isn’t really okay. This was bold of me & very uncomfortable to do but it would be worse to make a scene at my work function by not eating. Leaving wouldn’t be a socially viable option.

The FOH team member obviously understood and rushed back to the kitchen and again came back within about 10 seconds. The BOH team said I could have fried rice without egg. This option isn’t one of the veg menu items (so obviously isn’t vegan), it has 2 types of meat in it, so I declined it. At this stage I accepted they probably just didn’t want to help me. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe they’ve been briefed not to help with dietary requests.

It looked like I was causing a scene by now but I persisted to ask for help and requested the avo salad without cheese (punting that the dressing would be suitable but not being able to 100% tell without help).

The FOH team member was kind, obviously wanted help (but wasn’t provided the support to do so) and was apologetic despite none of this being his fault or problem. My problem here also isn’t the lack of options to support various diets. I don’t expect that especially at a sports club in Taren Point. My problem here is the lack of help and skills by the BOH team for a foundational request, which comes across as a lack of care or training. The inability (& perhaps disinterest) to suggest basic solutions makes customers be relentless, which is an uncomfortable feeling. In 11 years of being veg I’ve actually never had that. Usually chefs are enthusiastic to tell you what you can eat & helpful in explaining which veg options are suitable & yes, sometimes you just get a basic chips & garden salad but that’s okay too!

I wonder how often this happens with various dietary questions here & people just leave because they can’t get support & don’t want to speak out because it is embarrassing and bold to do so after being told that they are not able to eat anything on the menu.

In the future I hope that support is provided to BOH team to then be able to support FOH team to be able to help customers with food ingredient enquiries.

As for the actual quality of the avocado salad, it’s uninventive & plain as expected when I ordered it based on the description so I’m not too focussed or worried about this part of the review. It’s a bag of 4 leaf mix with a few pieces of chunky tomato, onion, avo & I chose the Italian dressing (I’m guessing it was something like praise Italian dressing) + it usually comes topped with cheese. I ate the veg on the top and left the plain greens (I do LOVE veg, just prepped a bit more creatively). Would be cool to have some fun salad options.