Shifnal's Carlini restaurant sorry as vegan jibe cooks up storm

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

Carlini 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 online commenters and that no meat was used in any of the dishes.

The jibe came after Ms Goodman created a special vegan menu for a party, only for them to then choose to eat a cheese-based pizza, the restaurant said.

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

Carlini co-owner Michael Gale 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.”

A spokesman for Shropshire 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.”