OpenStreetMap as a HappyCow alternative
It's not a perfect replacement, but searching OpenStreetMap via https://overpass-turbo.eu/ with a query like
[out:json][timeout:25];
(
nwr["diet:vegan"~"yes|only"]({{bbox}});
nwr["cuisine"~"vegan"]({{bbox}});
);
out geom;
can be useful and is often more up-to-date with respect to restaurants that actually still exist.
An example: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/2shI
8 replies
There is an existing OSM based map https://veggiekarte.de/ that also has filtering options. The biggest issue is that OSM doesn’t have much detail on POIs and they’re often out of date. Even in Western Europe where most other stuff is up to date. Mostly because POIs require on the ground surveys which only a handful of contributors can do in more than one region.
So, please consider contributing to OSM using simple apps like StreetComplete or EveryDoor if you have some spare time.
So I will say as a contributor to OSM that your coverage is going to vary unbelievably vastly depending on where you are. There are many areas in the US, for instance (in fact, I'd argue most), where HappyCow has an active community but where OSM will be functionally useless and where you'll have to bootstrap it yourself. Moreover, OSM even given an "ideal" level of maintenance has extremely poor granularity, very minimal standards for what constitutes a restaurant serving a dietary option, poor accessibility (having to issue a JSON query or use something like JOSM, the latter of which I would recommend as easier than Overpass; OpenVegeMap is dead IIRC), no inherent guardrails against outdated information that HappyCow lacks, no community of vegans maintaining it in most places, no reviews, and crucially no real way to express nuance via text (there's a "note" param, but nobody in their right mind is regularly using it to explain the intricacies of a restaurant's vegan options; that isn't why it exists.)
Your example is in Paris, which is – I cannot emphasize enough – wildly unrepresentative of the map's progress in most places. At least in the US, the average person is entirely better-served by HappyCow than OSM for this specific problem. Picking out Paris specifically is near-best-case for OSM.
I say all this recognizing that HappyCow for me has always also been a noticeably flawed experience.
Edit: As an example even for this near-best-case for OSM, here's Mannie's listing on HappyCow. It has three contemporary reviews, the contact, hours, and location info OSM has (OSM even in such a complete area funnily lacks the
website:menuparam, which the website definitely has; nice for convenience), images of the vegan dishes, an explanation of the veg options, and is overall just a much better, more thorough experience.The OSM item tells me vaguely that vegan option(s) exist(s); HappyCow tells me that they're clearly labeled (massive), that there are multiple of them and what they are, what a vegan thinks of the quality, that there are gluten-free options (I don't need this, but OSM allows it, yet it's not there), and what the meals physically look like.
Edit 2: Accidentally duped my comment.
My post may well be tainted by my growing frustration with HappyCow growing increasingly out of date in my region. I frequently find restaurants listed that have long since closed and new restaurants not listed at all. But criticism in my workaround and its deficiencies has been wholeheartedly acknowledged and appreciated.
Though HappyCow is closed-source and proprietary, it's like OSM in that it relies on user reports. Have you submitted new restaurants and reported closed ones?
Happycow always had editor/staff issues, they frequently introduced mistakes, and modified copy to make it worse, not better.
These days happycow tends to either not act on submissions, or they take a ridiculously long time to act, even for submissions of completely vegan eateries. (The suggested priority).
Happycow also accepts money to promote non-vegan establishments first, and even increases their search radius to the point where you can be sitting in a vegan eatery 10 suburbs away from a fish and chip shop, that doesn't even meet the listing criteria, but will appear at the top of your search because they paid.
I used to be a contributor, had over 1,000 submissions/additions, and many more updates. Dealing with Eric and his staff was a constant nightmare, and the site just kept getting worse and worse in every respect, including promoting items as vegan, that the Vegan Society, peta, and every legitimate vegan body globally state are not vegan.
My partner was an ambassador, she removed herself from that role a year, or so ago, and now rarely interacts with the site due to its growing issues, errors, and uselessness.
Something like happycow can only work via user effort, as is the case with wikis. Most people are unwilling to put that effort in, they expect to be spoon fed, but happycow is more likely to hit you with the spoon, so why would anyone bother?
Thanks for posting. I haven't used Happy Cow, but I've been getting deeper into OSM. I'll definitely make a custom filter in OsmAnd for this.
As other people have said, the friction seems to be the quality of the data on OSM. Personally I'm trying to update the data of all the veg places by me. If anybody else is interested, here are some resources:
Are there any other recommended fields? I would do hours, toilets, website, etc. Another commenter mentioned
website:menuwhich is awesome but I didn't even know about it... I'm still kind of n00b.I've build a platform initially based on OSM imports. It's good to have it, but the data quality is not reliable enough. I keep researching and cleaning up the data + working on repeatable import from OSM + OSM enrichment, but it's quite tricky on a scale. Mapped ~50k vegan and vegan-friendly places so far and everyone can add/save their favourite places, add reviews etc. All free, no ads and run by 2 people. And mobile app is available - maybe this will be another optional alternative to consider :)
https://www.plantspack.com/
Yep this is what I do. Changes I suggest to osm are integrated quickly as opposed to never in HappyCow.
I change the filter to vegetarian==only if a region doesn’t have much vegan only places.