This is a comment that often comes up on vegan forums when somebody gives a negative comment about a vegan (friendly) place. You shouldn’t criticise them! You should be supportive. At least they are making an effort, don’t be so negative. They need our love and support, not criticism.

The reasoning behind it is that these vegan (friendly) places already have a hard time surviving in a predominantly non-vegan catering world, and we should not be making it any harder on them, but only encourage them and support them, and as such, not criticise them.

Of course we support vegan places and wish them the best and try to visit as many of these places as we can! We hope their numbers will increase rapidly in the future. Whenever we see a new vegan place opening, we are excited to go try it out and we give it our support. And when non-vegan places start offering vegan options, we encourage their efforts! We have had plenty of positive experiences over the years and have documented them in our reviews.

Lovely appetizer at Hortus, The Hague (Netherlands)

But just the fact of being a vegan business or offering vegan options, does not mean we will lower our treshold for standard of food or service, and applaud them uncritically. In our reviews, we do not turn a blind eye for possible shortcomings in service, comfort or opening hours.

Informed by a professional attitude, the catering bussiness will thankfully take the critical comments – whether it be regarding the food, service, comfort or atmosphere – into consideration and look into ways to raise the bar.

Is everything ok? You haven’t photographed your food

Maybe the bar should even be raised higher for vegan places, since non-vegans visiting such places are likely more skeptical or even unforgiving of any mishaps just because it is a vegan place.
Also, If vegans univocally applaud these places and keep possible minor points under wraps, that produces a very distorted view. It also unrealistically sets high expectations for readers of such unilateral reviews. One ends up going there with (non-vegan) friends expecting to have a fantastic experience, and it turns out to be not quite what you had expected based on the ravissant and wonderful (but onesided) reviews.
It backfires in the long run and possibly leads to disappointment. And the non-vegan company will surely question the standard of vegan places, if this was supposedly a ‘good one’.

That is why it is very important to honestly share your dining out experiences, good and bad.
We try to be honest and fair in our reviews, whether the business is vegan or not, we try to apply the same standards. Informed by a professional attitude, the catering bussiness will thankfully take the critical comments – whether it be regarding the food, service, comfort or atmosphere – into consideration and look into ways to raise the bar. Aiming to enhance their overall quality, and to improve customer satisfaction in the future.

One of the best dishes we ever had on restaurant (a starter!): tapas platter at Terre à Terre, Brighton (UK)