Petite C.
Yelp
I will start this tale by being totally honest. I am a vegan who eats honey. Honey is the only animal product I eat. Of course, most people say that if a person eats honey they aren't a vegan but, that's a debate for another day. I will also say that I speak six language and I am VERY compassionate towards anyone who learns a language beyond their mother tongue.
I found out abut Sanato's via the Door Dash app as I was doing a search using the word "vegan". On 3 occasions in May 2018 I ordered the "vegan panini" as listed on the Door Dash app and also as listed on the Sanato's website. Then on Saturday, May 26th during Subtropical Depression Alberto, I physically went into Sanato's. The man there, maybe the owner, I don't know, was very nice and friendly. I told him how much I had been loving the "vegan panini" and I ordered one. We began a conversation in Spanish and I told him that the cheese on the "vegan panini" was the best vegan cheese I had ever had. We even spoke about how disgusting Daiya cheese is. He told me that all the vegans love the cheese on the "vegan panini". I asked him what kind of cheese it was. He showed me the package. I made sure to note the brand so I could research it when I got home. The brand was Lisanatti. I got home and checked the Lisanatti web page where I read their Product FAQ page. On this page, they explain what casein is, which, I already knew. However this had me suspicious. Did Lisanatti have vegan cheese or not? I looked further and read this on their page, "Our current products contain some casein (dairy milk protein) so they are not dairy-free." I called the man at the store, and he remembered me, surely, as he said so and I was the only one in the store the whole time I was there during Alberto. I told him that the Lisanatti cheese was not vegan because it had casein in it. He told me that it was vegan and stated, "It's almond cheese"(Well, he said it in Spanish, but he said it's almond cheese). I replied to him, ok, sure, it can be almond cheese but just because it is almond cheese doesn't mean that it's vegan and there could be animal products in it. He said he would check the package and I told him I had already investigated the website. I do understand that maybe this man is not well versed in all English words, like casein, because, being from Venezuela, English is probably not his first language and let's be honest, many native English speakers don't even know what casein is. I also understand that he might be ignorant of some aspects of veganism. BUT, if he is in the restaurant industry, he SHOULD not be participating in false advertising and should have had a well versed English speaking vegan do some proofing, quality control or something!
Before writing this review, I decided to wait until the day after Memorial Day and call the Lisanatti company. To my surprise it was very easy to call them at 866 864 3922 and get in touch with Jennifer at extension 229. I wanted to make sure with the company that none of their products were vegan like their website indicated. Jennifer confirmed this for me that none of their products are vegan.
So, not only am I frustrated about the false advertising I'm sad that I found what I thought was a vegan cheese that I loved only to find out that it's not vegan. And, obviously, I'm very angry that I unknowingly ate a cow product!
So, now you know in case you don't want to eat cow products.
I will say that the other items I had from there were good, you know, the ones that were undeniably vegan.