My (29f) boyfriend (30m) got mad because my niece chose a restaurant he doesn't like for her birthday dinner

My niece and I are vegetarians. My boyfriend of 4 years is not. Last year for my 29th birthday, I requested to go to a new vegetarian restaurant (the only one in our town). I liked it. It had a ton of veg options. My boyfriend didn't like it, but he put up with it. But he did make a few snide comments. Ok whatever.

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Yesterday was my niece's birthday (her 20th, so a big deal as she's no longer a teenager...I felt honoured she wanted her birthday dinner with us). Restrictions in my area have been lifted a bit, and a limited number of customers can dine-in at restaurants in my town (but not the surrounding towns). My niece, being a vegetarian, requested to go to that vegetarian restaurant. It would just be me, her and my boyfriend. She expressed concern if my boyfriend would be ok with this. I said "of course...it's your birthday and you can choose the restaurant, and right now restaurant options are limited anyway. It might not be his favourite food, but there are several pasta dishes he can eat." And I truly believed that.

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When I told him that I'd made reservations at that restaurant, he said "ok, sure". Then a short time later, he texted me back and said he was going to skip our dinner...that my niece and I should go have a good time and come by his house after for cake (which I baked and left there for after our dinner). I questioned him why he wasn't coming with us. He said "well obviously neither of you care if I'm there or not if you picked that crappy restaurant". The restaurant is an award-winning restaurant. There's nothing wrong with it other than it serves healthy options exclusively (and he found it pretentious that they only serve their homemade condiments rather than store-bought brand names).

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We argued on and off all day leading up to the dinner. He just kept saying he wasn't going there. He said I was selfish and only thought of myself. I wasn't even the one who picked it. I reminded him she's vegetarian and she loves this restaurant and it's HER special day and we should just go along and be happy....if he feels so strongly he could eat ahead of time and just get a small appetizer there. He just continued arguing with me and refusing to go.

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In the end, 30 minutes before our reservation he said he would come and be on his best behaviour. And he was. My niece didn't know he was even threatening not to come (I was so embarrassed so I didn't tell her).

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But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Who acts like that??? Or is he right? Are we wrong to have expected him to go to a restaurant we both know he hates?

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tldr: my niece wanted to go to a restaurant for her birthday dinner that she knows my boyfriend doesn't like...he thinks we were being very selfish.

Submitted December 23, 2020 at 07:58PM by Bright_Flower_7595 https://ift.tt/3hf6VT4