Um. Yeah — check out that “General Disclaimer” at the bottom of the article, folks.

I understand the disclaimer, and I appreciate it, but given the title of the article, it would be nice to have more of a talk with the owner and less of a “to the best of my knowledge” thrown in the article as an aside, when vegan is mentioned in the title and is why I clicked on it.
This place catered my wedding, and the owner always remembers my name and is the nicest guy.  I hope there’s a vegan dish there, but even after this nice article, I doubt that there is one.  There’s too much cross-contamination, and I don’t think they call any of their dishes vegan.
 I would hate for people, because of this article, to get the wrong impression and then get pissed at a place that did nothing wrong, when the owner is always willing to talk and give as much information as possible.  
Thanks for pointing out the ghee factor, blu4none, and I hope vegans reading this talk to the owner before eating something that would bother them and give them a bad impression of SP as well as a fantastic local eatery (both buffet and on-campus dining,) when the owner is extremely accommodating (and sometimes sends a portion of my favorite dish over to my table, even when I get the buffet.  Seriously, I love this place.)
Good article, but next time just put vegetarian in the title.  

(Not to talk too much, but I would delight in being proven wrong.  I hope that there are many vegan dishes, and next time I am there, I will ask the owner for dishes that are vegan that are offered and post them as a comment here, if I am not beaten to it by a barrage of information.  Trivia tip, the chef at the Bombay off-campus is the owner’s father.)

Beth —
 
Thanks for the thoughtful response, but quite honestly, we value our audiences’ abilities to both read and comprehend the clearly defined disclaimer at the bottom of these articles. This is not a column about vegetarian food. It’s about vegan food, and “to the best of the author’s knowledge. If you follow the vegan diet strictly, always ask before trying the recommended dishes.”

While I appreciate what you are all driving at, I think that you are just nitpicking to feel something… what, I am not sure?
 
Anyhow, we’re always going to allow our authors to determine what it is s/he wants to do with their series. We tend to defer in favor of those who are willing to write for our magazine, and put themselves out there, with their real name.
 
That said, I appreciate the dialogue. I just tend to disagree with you all. Most folks, especially vegans, are really pretty good at asking enough questions to make sure that they are ingesting animal-free foods.
 
The disclaimer is there simply for folks who might not understand that everything, even Smile Politely, can be fallible at times.
 
I’m just glad there is someone willing to write about vegan food in our community. Aren’t you?
 
And if you don’t think it’s adequate:
 
http://www.smilepolitely.com/contribute
 
or even:
http://the217.com/pages/buzz/contact
 
Word.
 

if you want to get technical here, then perhaps you should not dine out at all ever unless the restaurant is a specifically vegan restaurant b/c by eating at any restaurant that even SERVES meat, dairy, etc. then you are supporting a business that goes against your ultimate quest to eat entirely vegan. it’s central illinois.
the most pertinent issue to my vegan diet is to eat a little more healthy than i might if it included items like meat,  cheese, eggs, milk, butter, etc. i’m sorry if you think my articles are misleading and i give you the option to stop reading them.
as for others reading the article and mistakenly believing an item is 100% vegan, perhaps they should learn some media literacy and think critically about the information they find on the internet.

Disclaimer or not, this is an article titled “...vegan options” talking about “eating vegan.”  Discussing a specific menu item with no verification that the dish you’re specifically mentioning is vegan is irresponsible.  When it comes to being vegan, there’s no “90% vegan”, it’s all or none.  Maybe there’s butter in the dish, or maybe they use a meat-based stock.  Did you ask?
What if the review was about kosher or halal food?  Would you post an article claiming that food adhered to some specific standard without asking first?

I hope you also made certain that the car, bike, bus, or shoe you used to get there wasn’t rolling on tires made using Stearic Acid.  There’s really no such thing as “being 100% vegan,” although the point about asking about the restaurant about the food before categorically declaring it vegan is right on.  Anyway, I think this is a good review and good series. 

 
Gee—many.
 

For what it’s worth, the first 5 hits for “vegetable jalfrezi recipe” on Google make no mention of ghee, butter, dairy, or anything like that.  So unless Bombay is doing something out of the ordinary, it seems like this particular dish should be okay.  
 
And really, you can ask servers or cooks about the ingredients in a dish, but even then you can’t be certain if they know for sure or if they understand the question.  Most of the time, I’ll check the listed ingredients on the menu, ask a question or two, and hope for the best.  And of course, recipes changes, cooks change, people have different definitions of “vegan”, etc, etc, etc…so I think the disclaimer to always ask before dining and taking the author’s word for it is wise.  
 

Thank you, Jason, for a wildly rational and thoughful response that should, by all accounts, end this silliness once and for all.

thanks for bringing up the google search jason! i did the same thing when deciding what i might be able to get at bombay before i did the article…maybe not considered adequate research, but still research nonetheless i suppose.

No hostility from my end, Zeleni. Please do not mistake mild frustration for a writer of mine with hostility — something that is meant to invoke anger and vitriol. That isn’t what you are reading.
 
But speaking of which, thank you for doing so — the reading part.
 
And whether I am vegan or not, I can appreciate dietary restrictions. I am Jewish, and have many kosher folks in my family, and I live with people who must adhere to some of based on their own accord.
 
That said, based on all of my experiences, which are ample, these friends and family of mine always ask when dining out.
 
And I reckon you do too.

Thanks, Alexx!  I was hoping to stop by this week to ask.  I love the Saag Aloo, so rock on to hear that it’s made without ghee.  The people have always been super accommodating there.