Celebrity chef bans vegans after complaint over plant-based meal

A celebrity chef has taken the drastic move to ban vegans from his restaurant after receiving a complaint about his plant-based offering.

UK-born chef, John Mountain, who owns Fyre restaurant in Perth, Australia, posted an angry note on Facebook, which read: “Sadly all vegans are now banned from Fyre for mental health reasons. We thank you for your understanding. xx”

Big yikes.

John Mountain banned vegans with a pass agg Facebook post (Credit: Fyre/ Facebook)

The restaurant, situated in Connolly in northern Perth, took the decision on the ban after someone complained about the food on offer to her, as a vegan.

“A young girl reached out to me and said she was coming to the restaurant… and asked if there were vegan options,” the chef – who has worked with Heston Blumenthal and Marco Pierre White – explained.

“It was my only shortfall… I said I would accommodate her, I said we had gnocchi, vegetables… and that was that.”

The chef then forgot about the plant-based dish he had offered the punter due to a busy service catering a private party.

His sous chef proceeded to reprimand him for “not telling them about the vegan customer,” and the next day, the vegan woman complained about the food she’d been offered. 

“My only option was the vegetable dish… it was okay but not that filling… and I was shocked to see it was $32 (£17.14),”she wrote in her complaint sent via Facebook message, according to PerthNow.

“I think it’s incredibly important nowadays that restaurants can accommodate everyone and to not be able to have actual plant-based meals shows your shortcomings as a chef,” the woman said.

The chef didn’t hold back on social media (Credit: Fyre/ Facebook)

She added that she wanted to see “improvements” to the menu, and demanded they “get with the times” if they wanted to succeed.

And… well, it seems the restaurant’s owner didn’t take the complaint too well (in case you hadn’t already gathered).

The account replied to her: “As for vegans/vegetarians being a very low minority, especially in the northern burbs’ I try to accommodate everyone else.

“Thanks for your negative review… please feel free to share your sh*tty experience and I look forward to not seeing you again.

“How very childish. You and all your vegan mates can all go and enjoy your dishes in another venue. You are now banned.”

Anyone reasonable will probably agree it’s the restaurant’s stance that is childish here, but it won’t come as a surprise that the internet was split into two camps – pro and anti the plant-based ban.

“Shoe on the other foot, can I go to a vegan or vegetarian restaurant and demand a meat dish? I think not. You do you, Fyre,” one person said of the move.

Whilst another defiantly wrote: “I’m in love with the food. I especially love the fact that the menu doesn’t waste space on a vegan option.”

“Hope others decide to follow suit,” said a third. 

However, others disagreed. 

“I‘m not vegan but some of my loved ones are and I have to say I’m very disappointed to see this stance being taken,” someone else chimed in, in support of the customer and plant-based punters.

“It reads very discriminatory,” agreed a fellow internet user. “In this day and age, most restaurants try to accommodate a couple of vegan options.”

Before long, a whole bunch of competing one and five star reviews started to crop up on the restaurant’s Facebook page, with some people angry at his social media activity, whilst others showed their support. 

The restaurant was flooded with reviews (Credit: Fyre/ Facebook)

His restaurant’s rating plummeted from 4.2 stars to 2.8 stars overnight, and the chef has since said the one star reviews have badly “hurt” his restaurant’s reputation. 

“F*ck vegans seriously… I’m done. At the end of the day, it’s not what I want to do, they can f*ck off,” he said, bluntly.

Despite the initial drop, a bunch of sympathetic reviews have since boosted the restaurant to a higher rating than it was before, and it now sits at a score of 4.5. We guess scandals are the answer, ey?

The chef’s name might sound familiar to you, and that’s because he has previously starred on TV shows like Great British Menu and Chef Race UK v US. 

Whilst he has been in Aus seven years now, he used to be represented by the same agent as Gordon Ramsay when he was on British soil.

We’re all for chefs curating a menu however they please, but banning people with a certain dietary requirement purely because of one complaint seems a little (read a lot) rash to us.

What do you think?!

Featured image: Fyre Restaurant/ Facebook