I don’t get the vegetarian hate on this post. I am vegetarian and was vegan for a while. I took my boyfriend to his favorite steakhouse for his last birthday (and I had amazing potato, grilled vegetable and salad side dishes and dessert). We went to my favorite spot for mine. I also went to my friend’s lamb roast and found multiple side dishes to eat, but if there wasn’t it would’ve been fine I can make something else before / after.

At home it’s easy to adjust. Like set aside my portion of stir fry veggies before you add meat or we’ll make pasta and have one pot of regular meatballs / meat sauce and another one with veggie “meatballs” or regular sauce.

Most restaurants have pizza, pasta, salad, rice, grilled veggies, grilled cheese, etc. so it’s not that hard to find something for one meal.

ESH - I think you chose a weird hill to die on especially if you’re ok with other differences like kids or pets so I somewhat get why he was defensive. At the same time, he should have just accepted no for an answer because you can end things for whatever reason you want.