Carlini restaurant sorry as vegan jibe cooks up storm

Carlini restaurant, in Shifnal, found itself at the centre of a social media storm after comments emerged online.

Laura Goodman, who co-owns the restaurant in Market Place, posted on a Facebook page how a ‘pious, judgemental vegan’ had gone to bed ‘still believing she’s a vegan’.

The restaurant received a flurry of online messages following the posting and its Tripadvisor and Google were flooded with comments.

The restaurant today admitted the comments by Ms Goodman were “ill judged” but said they had been misconstrued by those making online comments.

Its Facebook page appears to have been taken down and now shows ‘not available’ when clicked on.

Shropshire Council confirmed today it had received complaints.

A spokesman for the council’s regulatory services department, Gareth Profitt, said: “We have received complaints in relation to this matter and are currently investigating. We are therefore unable to comment further at this time.”

Restaurant co-owner Michael Gale today said: “We appreciate the outrage Laura’s ill-judged comment on social media has caused and would like to apologise for what it insinuated.

“She had spent a lot of time designing a special vegan menu for a party, who then decided to choose something from the existing menu – one meal of which was a cheese-based pizza, which isn’t vegan friendly. This is what she meant by the Facebook comment. In no way does this excuse the comment and we totally understand the anger it has subsequently caused.

“However, we want to assure everyone that the meals were all prepared to our usual high standards and in accordance with the Food Standards Agency.

“No meat was used in any of the dishes.”

“We are passionate about creating high quality food and all of our chefs are trained to understand the different dietary requirements of our customers, many of whom are vegetarian and/or increasingly vegan.”