The restaurant, Carlini in Shifnal, has been flooded with one-star reviews (Picture: Tripadvisor)

A restaurant has been flooded with one-star reviews after its chef appeared to boast about spiking a vegan group with meat.

Laura Goodman, the chef and co-owner of Carlini in Shifnal, Shropshire, posted in a Facebook group about a ‘pious, judgmental vegan’ who had booked to eat at the restaurant on Friday night.

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‘Pious, judgmental vegan (who I spent all day cooking for) has gone to bed, still believing she’s a vegan,’ Goodman wrote in the early hours of Saturday morning.

When commenters asked her if this meant she had put non-vegan food in the group’s meal, she responded: ‘Actually I should have said “they’re” not a vegan… not “she’s”. Started with asking me to telephone them, over Christmas, to discuss the dietary requirements of their guests within a set time frame, and ended with me wondering why I’m explaining this simplistic post to a pious c**t.’




Elsewhere in the group, on the same night, she wrote: ‘Spiked a vegan a few hours ago.’

Laura Goodman (Picture: Laura Goodman)

Laura Goodman sparked backlash with her post (Picture: The Boring Group/Facebook)

The group had booked to eat at the restaurant on December 29 (Picture: Facebook)

She also wrote that she had ‘spiked a vegan’ (Picture: Facebook)

People – vegans and non-veggies alike – were outraged by the chef’s admission.

One commenter, Robbie, wrote on the post: ‘You feed vegans (who have trusted you and presumably paid for their meals) non-vegan food, boast about it on social media in a group that represents quite a broad cross-section of society, and get roundly chastised. You then decide that the problem must be with all the people in the group, rather than your own reprehensible behaviour?’

Another, Jonathan, added: ‘I am not a vegan but if someone was I would never feed them non-vegan. I am a fox-hunting Tory but your behaviour is despicable.’

And one group member, Elaine, compared it to spiking someone’s drink.

The post attracted a flood of comments (Picture: Facebook)

People pointed out that contaminating someone’s food can have serious medical consequences (Picture: Facebook)

They said that if Goodman wasn’t willing to prepare a vegan meal she could have told the guests she couldn’t cater for them (Picture: Facebook)

‘I’m an omnivore but I am a lifelong teetotaller, and would be very upset if someone spiked my drink,’ she wrote.

‘There is no reason, medical or otherwise, why I can’t drink alcohol – I just don’t. On Christmas Day I take my own bottle of non-alcoholic wine because most people don’t see the point of getting it in, and I’m stuck with pop or Schleour, which is just grape juice. Or even worse, they think it’s funny to openly give me alcohol and say “Oh, just get it down you, live a little”. Very insulting.’

One commenter, James, compared it to a previous case where a barista reportedly used cows milk to make a customer’s soya latte – causing them to ‘collapse and start fitting right after one sip’.

Debbie Ireland, an admin of the Facebook group Goodman posted in, told Metro.co.uk she was ‘not at all surprised by the backlash’.

‘To eat at any restaurant, you are placing your trust and health in them,’ she said. ‘A lot of damage can come from food not being prepared properly, or in this case, contamination.

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‘I think people were outraged, as this could happen to any one of us, if that chef disliked you.

‘It’s quite unnerving, and makes you think twice about eating out anywhere, when you hear a chef and restaurant owner not only admitting to this, but gloating about it afterwards – mentioning on other posts that she had “just spiked a vegan”. I can’t imagine what else goes on at their eateries.’



Since Goodman’s post, Carlini’s Facebook page has disappeared and its Tripadvisor and Google pages have been flooded with one-star reviews.

The restaurant’s Tripadvisor page has been flooded with one-star reviews (Picture: Tripadvisor)

As has its Google page (Picture: Google Reviews)

‘Dishonest cook bragging about offering special meals that were not so,’ one review said. ‘If you have any kind of medical or ethical dietary constraints, don’t trust they will be honoured here.’

Reviewing the restaurant on Google, Debra wrote: ‘To boast on social media about her deliberate contamination of food shows a distinct lack of professionalism and judgement on her behalf.

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‘People are vegan for many different reasons. Whatever these customers’ choices are, she did not have the right to interfere with them.

‘On another worrying note, there are many people who are vegan for allergy reasons and if that had been the case she could have caused the customer to go into anaphylactic shock.’

A spokesperson for the Food Standards Agency told Metro.co.uk: ‘People should be confident about the food they buy and be able to choose according to their particular requirements, whether for diet and health or for personal taste and preference reasons.

‘The description, advertising or presentation of food must not mislead consumers.

‘If someone is concerned about being sold food which has been falsely labelled or the information about the food does not properly describe it, they can report it to the business’s local authority.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted Laura Goodman and Carlini Restaurant for comment.