Lord of The Fries - Fried Chicken False Advertising?

Recently ate at Lord of The Fries and ordered their fried "chicken" - Chick’n Wings & Drumsticks.
(Not knowing it was all vegetarian/vegan menu)

Three pieces of deep fried triangular objects came out and not the wings and drumsticks I expected.
After speaking to staff, I was told thats what their chick'n wings and drumsticks looks like (this is when I realised it was all vegetarian/vegan menu) Their website even says FRIED CHICKEN.

I found this very misleading and annoying as I really wanted fried wings and drumsticks! Anyone else have had this issue with this restaurant? Is this something that needs to be clearly stated on their website/in restaurant? Can they still call it wings/drumsticks? Their fried chicken much box also says CHICKEN.

Edit. interesting disclaimer on their website:
"DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that food prepared at Lord of the Fries is manufactured in facilities that may process non-vegan products and may therefore contain traces of non-vegan material. Nutritional Information is indicative as products vary from state to state."
Maybe there is some chicken in their chick'n afterall

Related Stores

Lord of The Fries
Lord of The Fries

Comments

  • +1

    The breadcrumbs on the page don't mention vegetarian, but the actual URL does. They are using WP Bakery Wordpress visual builder, should be pretty easy for them to make changes to the breadcrumbs and other indicators on the page template.

    • -6

      I think they shouldn't use the word "chicken" on their website and if they say wings / drumsticks then it should be shaped accordingly. Their chick'n drumsticks and wings are identical triangular "nuggets".

  • +9

    Lord of the Fries is a 100% vegan restaurant, what exactly did you expect them to give you?

    I can definitely see how this would be misleading if they advertised meat products next to vegan products though, personally I don't think they should be allowed to call it Chick'n.

    But this is like going to an Indian restaurant and complaining that the vindaloo was spicy.

    • +9

      You think they would be proud of the fact and plaster at the top of every page "100% VEGAN".

    • +1

      Well it's not obvious anywhere on their store front or on the tables where they have a QR code to order
      Surfers Paradise Qld

    • It’s like going to an Indian restaurant and complaining that you didn’t realise all the dishes you ordered were going to be Indian, and that each menu item didn’t state they only use Indian recipes and flavours. Some things should reasonably be implied from context.

      But that said, Lord of the Fries does have a problem with not wanting to use the ‘V word’. A little more context would be good.

  • -5

    Lefty snowflakes have hijacked fried chicken now!?

    Thanks Albo!

    • +1

      But at least you can charge your EV overnight from your solar array….

    • +2

      hands off our chooks soyboys!

      • Bet they’re tweeting or snapchatting their mates at the ABC right now about my common sense comment

    • +2

      How could Dan do this?

    • +1

      it was that lefty, Trump

  • +1

    Try kfc next time. i heard they sold real chicken

    • Could be rabbit, could be pigeon or seagull.

  • +8

    Personal opinion is the use of "Chick’n" is fine as that has no defined or colloquial meaning.

    However, the fact their website/menu literally says "FRIED CHICKEN" when it's not, is indeed incredibly & intentionally misleading. Not everyone will automatically know it's a meat-free place.

    https://www.lordofthefries.com.au/menu/vegetarian-sides/frie…

    • +1

      To be fair, to get to that page you need to click on the menu and click on a link that clearly states it’s vegetarian.

      It could be better, I agree, but it’s unlikely to mislead the average person clicking through the site.

  • -2

    Pic of receipt or it didn't happen. Nice troll though, GG.

  • +2

    Reminds me of that dairy intolerant lady who got upset with Aldi because she thought Dairy Fine chocolate said Dairy Free.

    Now, back on topic, I think fake names for vegan food are here to stay so you have to look for the signs carefully and intentionally.

    On several occasions I've picked up (what I thought were) meat products in the clearance section at woolies only to discover later it's just squished corn in the shape of traditional meat products. FFS. Lucky Mrs Muzeeb is vegetarian and happily eats it.

    • +1

      Reminds me of that dairy intolerant lady who got upset with Aldi because she thought Dairy Fine(pdbimg.choice.com.au) chocolate said Dairy Free.

      Or the person thinking that the ‘Free From’ range of gluten free meat pies in Cole’s were vegetarian ’free from meat’ pies.

      Gotta read that fine print.

      • Common sense isn't as common as we'd hoped.

    • We're only 2 or so steps away from Soylent Green.

  • +2

    I agree they have a problem… and I am vegan but the first time I tried Lord of the Fries I quietly hesitated before ordering (hearing internal alarm bells) because I was searching and nowhere on the menu board said vegan. It was a pretty shitty experience. They’ll put it in other little places, on posters and the website, but their marketing department seems to have heeded the data that says that consumers see “vegan” as a warning label and that explicitly putting it on products hurts sales, even if nothing else changes about the product.

    IIRC Lord of the Fries’s burger descriptions on the menu board said stuff like “veg bacon”. No; screw that; I want clear and unambiguous and explicit vegan labels please.

    However, it really has become a pretty universal thing for vegan restaurants and products (definitely not just this chain) to call faux-chicken “chick*n” or “chick’n” and faux-fish “phish”, and so on. I don’t love it, but it is so widespread that I think that particular fight is lost.

    Those two headlines on their site calling things “chicken” are just weird. More weird because everywhere else on those pages says “chick’n” except the headlines. I guess “Fried Chicken” is a “dish name”.

    • Great point, this is the flip side of the issue, a vegan who can't eat meat not being able to tell if the menu is vegan or not and causing anxiety. I suspect the issue is that they kinda want to trick people because fried chicken is a lot more popular than whatever plants "chick'n" are made of.

      • +1

        I don't think its to trick people into thinking they're about to eat meat, so much as the fact that a lot of meat eaters will straight up refuse to try anything labelled as "vegan", although they would absolutely give something a go if it wasn't labelled that way. Eg:

        "I'm hanging for a greasy snack, what options do we have in the food court?"

        Vegan sides: Chips, wedges, fried apple pie…
        "Vegan choices only? Hell no, let's go somewhere else"

        Sides: Chips, wedges, fried apple pie…
        "Sweet, none of that wussy vegan shite like the other place!"

        I think what is happening here is the majority of the vegan community knows the place is vegan, so LOTF see labelling things that way as limiting their potential customer base.

        The chicken/chick'n thing is pretty bad to be fair, but I'm referring more to the subtle vegan references generally

        • -1

          Is there a chicken shortage? Why not just eat chicken if you’re not a vego.

    • Fine print on their website also says this:
      "DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that food prepared at Lord of the Fries is manufactured in facilities that may process non-vegan products and may therefore contain traces of non-vegan material. Nutritional Information is indicative as products vary from state to state."

    • Lord of the fries isn’t trying to target vegans though, they’re aiming for the larger population that wants to decrease their meat intake or feel like it’s somehow healthier because there’s no meat.

      Like the rebel burgers that are cooked on a regular grill at hungry jacks or how everything is gluten free these days. They’re just leveraging you as a marketing tool.

  • -7

    more plant based bullshit.

    call it what it is….textured and flavoured processed soy

    and ffs…..keep your grubby hands hands of our meat!

    • +4

      keep your grubby hands hands of our meat!

      Isn't that the whole point of vegetarianism?

  • +4

    The website does say chicken actually, OP may have a point.

    The place should now be forced to cook chicken.

  • +1

    Hahahaha this reminds me of one night of partying in Melbourne city where my mate was about to order from there and we were laughing at him and he couldn't work out why (just before hand he'd been saying he was craving a bucket of KFC). We pointed out to him the reason it wasn't busy was because it was all vegetarian and even the assistant at the counter laughed and told him how he could find the local KFC!

    Do agree its not well signed, I only picked it up based on some of the other items on the menu and asking at the counter if it was all vegan previously. Just looked at someone's photo links above - Its good to see that they now have the extra vegan mentions on their menu boards and signage to help customers identify this.

  • +1

    If you don’t see a chicken crossing the road, it’s fake meat

  • I agree that it's deceptive, the heading says "Fried Chicken". At least with their burgers and hot dogs the description says 100% Vegan at the end.

  • +6

    Calling something fried chicken that isn't actually chicken fits the definition of misleading/deceptive advertising and should be reported.

  • Seems very deceptive to me. I'm curious though - how did it taste?

    • Burgers were nice but the attempt at wings and drumsticks were lame

  • -1

    They are using ibis, not chook

  • Hilarious

  • How does looking at their website after you ordered equate to false advertising? It sounds like you didn't get what you wanted and are finding ways to justify blaming it on them because you didn't read the signs properly.

    Chalk it up as a mistake and move on. There are much bigger things to be outraged about in the world.

    • +1

      Calling something Fried Chicken in-store or online that isn't chicken is false advertising.

      How about I go mixing some glucose, refined oils and detergent and we will sell it off as "milk". They do it in India and a lot of people have gone to gaol for it.

      • -1

        They don't call it Fried Chicken in store though, they call it "Chick'n".

        And the issue in India had little to do with it being called milk and everything to do with being illegal. They didn't go to jail for false advertising.

        • +2

          "Fried Chicken" is still on the website and that's misleading. Unless it's actually chicken there's no way anyone can say otherwise.

          Fake milk in India isn't an isolated incident and it's very common. I'll happily pull up some articles of people receiving imprisonment if you think otherwise.

          • @Clear: I know people went to jail for it. The problem is the charges were because they were selling what was basically poison, not false advertising. Adultering the milk supply is a different issue to someone not knowing their "chick'n" isn't actually chicken. Much like soy milk isn't milk, a hotdog isn't made of dog (hopefully) and head cheese is definitely not cheese but people have figured it out by now.

            And I agree it's misleading on the website, but OP didn't read the website, they read the menu. You claimed it was wrong in-store, that is incorrect, it's called "chick'n" in-store

  • +3

    Judging by the ingredients list, they are Lords of Fake Foods. 71% meat free portion? Please explain.

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