bad dining experience at La Madeline…

I rarely find myself at non-vegan restaurants, usually only going with family/friends when the situation arises. Tonight I ended up at La Madeline with my boyfriend's family, thinking that it wouldn't be an issue at all since they have a lot of salads. Before ordering, my boyfriend explained to the manager that I was vegan and confirmed with him multiple times that my meal (a spinach salad and pasta salad), was completely cheese-less. He assured us that everything was definitely vegan and I did not need to worry at all, making us both feel really assured. However this confidence quickly dissipated after a few bites of the pasta salad, which of course had tons of what appeared to be parmesan in it… My boyfriend asked the manager again if there was cheese in it, to which he replied again that there was no meat in anything I was eating. His wording made us both realize that he did not have a clear understanding of the difference between vegetarian/vegan, thinking that vegan just meant excluding meat. I'm so annoyed that a manager at a restaurant assured me that he knew what veganism included, only to find out that he really didn't.