Avila’s El Ranchito, you had such promise.
Nine Orange County restaurants. A location walking distance from my house. Extensive vegetarian menu items. Busy on a Friday night, but still quick seating. What’s not to love?
The food, unfortunately.
It’s not that the food I ordered tasted bad; on the contrary, the vegetarian fajitas were well seasoned, presented beautifully, and a lot of food for the money. The Chile Rellenos were some of the best I’ve ever tasted. However, the liberal use of the word “vegetarian” on the menu spoiled the rest of my meal when I thought to actually ask about ingredients.
To start, the chips — served at every table — are cooked in lard. How did I know? It certainly wasn’t listed on the menu anywhere, and it wasn’t volenteered to me when I asked about the meat content of the tortillas, rice, and beans. I had to ask. Perhaps this was just an oversight by my waiter, who didn’t make the connection. Still, I found myself worrying about every item I was served after that.
To my surprise, I was told the tortillas were all vegetarian. The refried beans, like at many southern California Mexican restaurants, are cooked in lard, but the “Frijoles frescos”, served with every vegetarian dish, had no meat. The rice, however — also served with every “vegetarian” dish — is cooked in a chicken stock. Most vegetarians wouldn’t worry about ordering rice that’s listed under “vegetarian” on the menu — I’m glad I decided to inquire further.
Either chicken is a vegetable here, or they really don’t know (or care) what “vegetarian” means. Either way, it’s disheartening for me, as I really wanted to like El Ranchito, and wanted to go back and try some more dishes. But I can’t enjoy food if I’m wondering the entire time what’s in it.
This is truly appalling. Law should preclude labeling something as vegetarian when it is not. How else can the consumer make an educated choice. We need the same kind of law as that which is required for organic labeling.
Lots of other counties have labeling laws like this - the only reason we don’t is the food lobby that would really rather people not know what’s in the food we buy. All I’m asking for is a little symbol (like the Kosher ‘K’) that tells me if something is vegetarian or vegan. Alas, I don’t expect it anytime soon.