I totally agree. I was just checking the grammar of "Vorspeise", and was shocked as well to find just "starter", which to me is the class of restaurants like TGI Friday's.

Any fancier restaurant is going to call them appetizers, and many not so fancy restaurants as well.

appetizer (also -iser)
noun a small dish of food or a
drink taken before a meal or the
main course of a meal to
stimulate one's appetite.


starter
[...]
chiefly Brit. the first
course of a meal,
especially one with three
or more courses.

[New Oxford Dictionary of English]

1. Nur weil etwas in dict.cc steht, heißt das noch lange nicht, daß es auch in LEO stehen muß.
2. Welche Einträge sind falsch und wieso?
3. Bitte nicht vergessen, daß es Unterschiede zw. BE/AE gibt. Was sich in der einen Sprache vulgär anhört, ist in der anderen ein ganz gewöhnlicher Ausdruck, ebenso kann ein Wort im AE und BE verschiedenes bedeuten. Eine bessere Markierung der Regionen schafft hier Abhilfe (z.B. starter {Brit.} -- die Vorspeise)

The Michelin-starred Gordon Ramsey calls his appetizers "starters" as do other fine-cuisine chefs. It is not at all uncommon or déclassé, although it is not the primary American usage.

The LEO team has not changed this entry, but Leo should definitely include all three English terms for Vorspeise, and Vorspeise for all three English entries:
starter, appetizer and hors d'oeuvre

All three are common in American English and, it appears, in British.

an #0 und #1: Ich unterstütze #3. Die Engländer haben schon lange begriffen, dass man nicht alles den Franzosen nachmachen und nachplappern muss, um gute Küche zu produzieren. Schonmal was von reverse snobbery gehört? ;-)

M-W:
ap·pe·tiz·er
1 : a food or drink that stimulates the appetite and is usually served before a meal

hors d'oeuvre
: any of various savory foods usually served as appetizers

start·er
4: something that is the beginning of a process, activity, or series ; especially : appetizer

AHD:
ap·pe·tiz·er
NOUN:A food or drink served usually before a meal to stimulate the appetite.

hors d'oeuvre
An appetizer served before a meal.

starter
6. The first in a series, especially the first course of a meal; an appetizer.

OALD:
ap•pet•izer (BrE also -iser) noun a small amount of food or a drink that you have before a meal: Some green olives make a simple appetizer.

hors d’oeuvre noun [C, U] (pl. hors d’oeuvres) (from French) a small amount of food, usually cold, served before the main part of a meal—compare starter

start•er noun
1 (especially BrE) (NAmE usually ap•pe•tiz•er) a small amount of food that is served before the main course of a meal: This dish serves 4-6 people as a starter.—compare hors d’oeuvre

CALD:
appetizer, UK USUALLY appetiser
1 a small amount of food eaten before a meal:
At 6:30, everyone gathered for drinks and appetizers in the lounge.
2 MAINLY US the first part of a meal:
The average cost of a full three-course meal - appetizer, main course and dessert - including tip and a modest wine is about $25.

hors d'oeuvre
noun [C] plural hors d'oeuvre or hors d'oeuvres
1 UK a small savoury dish eaten at the start of a meal
2 US small pieces of food eaten at a party

Chambers:
appetizer or appetiser noun a small amount of food or drink taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite.

hors d'oeuvre noun (plural hor d'oeuvres or hors d'oeuvres) a savoury appetizer, usually served at the beginning of a meal, to whet the appetite.

starter noun
4 the first course of a meal.

DWDS:
Vorspeise, die; -, -n Vorgericht, Ggs. Nachspeise: als V. gab es Hummermayonnaise

BERTELSMANN Wörterbuch
* Vor|spei|se [f. 11] kleines Gericht, das man vor der Hauptmahlzeit isst; Syn. [geh.] Horsd′œuvre

As Karsten is not going to provide any references, here are some. They don't exactly agree on the definitions but I would think they support SMG's proposal.

Note that there is scant evidence to support LEO's claim that 'starter' is exclusively BE.

I agree that despite the boneheadedness of the original post, the suggestion 'appetizer - die Vorspeise' itself is correct. It basically represents a gap in LEO and should have been added long ago.

In fact, I assumed it must have been, after we had such long discussions on all of this previously. I think there used to be even more threads on similar topics in the archive; they may still be there somewhere and just not have one of these words in the title.

I also feel that 'hors d'oeuvre' is obvious and should have been added long ago, but it needs a selection of other translations. As I previously tried rather hard to explain, 'Vorspeise' is in my experience not its primary sense, because hors d'oeuvres are usually described in the plural and eaten with the fingers at a party. So I could only support 'Vorspeise' as one choice among several.

hors d'oeuvre - das Häppchen
hors d'oeuvres [pl.] - die Häppchen  [pl.] 
hors d'oeuvres [pl.] - das Fingerfood [pl.]
hors d'oeuvre [chiefly Brit.?] - die Vorspeise

Marking any or all of the regional descriptions 'chiefly' would be okay with me. My impression is that the AE/BE appetizer/starter distinction is actually pretty clear-cut, and I don't recall ever having seen 'starter' on a menu in AE. But if I did, it wouldn't sound un-fancy to me but quite the reverse, like someone trying to sound pretentiously British.

There are probably other choices for Vorspeise, too; 'first course' is certainly one. And IIRC, the word 'entrée' appears on AE/BE lists because in BE it's a less common word for Vorspeise, but in AE it's a Hauptgericht.

Oops, sorry, copy-and-paste error. Whoever finds an extra [pl.] marking, please take it home and treat it kindly.