We went to a Steak House today, which normally is no problem because you can just get a steak with fries and salad. I also got the allergene card, which said my ordered dish is glutenfree. When I got it, of course there was bread on the plate 😭 I said I can't eat that and that I didn't mention that there shouldn't be bread on it, because it was certified glutenfree on the menu. She took it back and got back with a plate after like 2 minutes. I really hope she didn't just take the bread, she told me of course not. I hate eating in restaurants so much since being celiac, you really have to trust the staff...
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Keep the plate with the bread on it while you wait for them to bring you a new one!!
That’s pretty brilliant
Unfortunately, you ALWAYS have to mention that it needs to be gluten free. Every time. Sometimes menus change without the actual menu changing.
Yeah I’m not celiac just gluten intolerant, and I always emphasize it at least twice to confirm. I’ve actually only gotten glutened, to my knowledge, one time. And and it was in a foreign country so it was a language barrier issue. But obviously handling cross contamination makes the process of not getting glutened so much easier.
My wife and I have decided that we will politely tell them that she can not have the bread as specified before, and we will no longer be able to dine at this restaurant. We just can't trust a restaurant that can't properly communicate allergy needs to the chain of custody related to her meals. If someone is going to touch the plate, whether it's prep, cook, or server, it should be properly communicated. If it comes out with bread, it's not a great sign that the attention to detail is there at the level to trust it will be prepared with no allergen contamination. She has been glutened too many times by restaurants only to recieve an Oops or a snarky offer to pay a hospital bill.
….have you ever taken them up on the hospital bill? Seems like they’d learn real quick.
I bet they offer this because most (but not all) GF people don’t end up in the hospital. They are just home miserably sick.
Happy cake day!
Thank you!
Yeah, I got poisoned at an Outback over a stupid fucking salad. Same thing, tell them you're celiac, order salad, express "NO CROUTONS", they bring you fucking croutons, you tell them "I can't eat this, I'm celiac, i said no croutons" they say "you can't pick them off?"
You try being polite
You get sick anyways
It's like a fucking script.
I gotta start keeping the plate until they bring me a new one, but honestly I rarely eat out anymore. I'm glad my husband is such an amazing cook and I don't have to worry about it much.
My sons dietician told us to slip a sugar packet into the bottom of the salad to make sure we got a new one
That's really smart
I’ve all but stopped ordering salads because they fuck it up every time and I know damn well most of them just pick off the gluten items if I say something.
Last time I ordered a salad I tried to make it super easy on them, it was a grilled chicken southwest salad that had no gluten containing ingredients. They brought that fucker out with fried chicken on top, tried to tell me I should’ve specified that I wanted grilled chicken on a grilled chicken salad, sent the fucker back out covered in crispy fried chicken bits, and probably spit in my food when I told them to go make a new one.
Like fuck, I surrender, just give me a plain grilled chicken breast and steamed vegetables.
I started having better luck with salads after I started telling them I also have an anaphylactic allergy to cucumbers.
If they don’t want me to die in their restaurant they have to make it special anyway, so they might as well be carful with the croutons while they are at it. 🙄
It’s so stressful
When I had a salad come out with croutons on it years ago at outback the waitress took it back and I could hear here going off on the kitchen about them messing it up when it was marked allergy on the slip.
If celiac, like me, you pretty much can't eat out. It's too risky, celiac isn't just gluten intolerant, we're basically extremely allergic. With celiac, cross contamination can still be extremely bad. Just cause they say something is gluten free doesn't mean it's not been cooked on the same grill as gluten dishes. I don't trust that a single thing in a restaurant is truely gluten free.
Yeah I only feel safe in dedicated gluten free restaurants.
Right! We don't have any where I live unfortunantly.
I'm in a similar situation so I learned to cook. 🫤
Completely agree. People think it just makes us feel bad for a few days and don't realize it's an autoimmune disease. Triggering these episodes increases our risk of developing both small businesses and well cancer and other autoimmune disease.
I am so appreciative of this typo because while the information is correct, I really want to develop the mutant power of developing small businesses when I eat allergens. 😂
Lmao 😳🤦♀️🤣
I eat gluten. In fact, I bake several times a week.
I have long understood the severity of the effects of eating gluten on someone with celiac.
What I didn’t know until recently is the ways that gluten can sneak into food. I learned that wood utensils hold onto gluten spores. I also learned that as a stand mixer has many crevices, if it has been used with gluten containing ingredients it can’t be used to make gluten free dishes no matter how thoroughly it is cleaned.
Also, from what I understand, celiac comes in degrees of sensitivity. I used to be an Airbnb host. I had two separate guests who had celiac.
I warned each of them that as I am a home baker, they shouldn’t eat anything I made and should assume that my kitchen is covered in gluten. They both told me that they weren’t that sensitive. One told me that he used the same toaster as his girlfriend who ate gluten with no negative consequence.
Wow you brought up some points I never thought of! Thanks for sharing!
"small businesses". Beautiful, never edit this comment, it's perfect.
I also do not eat out. Its not fun. It is super stressful.
I get this. I’ve made my home into a place that meets my needs. Going out shocks me back to reality and I always suggest restaurants where I’ve had success in the past. Hope everything ends up ok for you!
That was my last visit to Red Robin too. I got the burger, and the bun looked good, and then I noticed croutons on the salad. I flagged down the waitress and asked her to bring me another salad, and then asked about the bun being gluten free. I had told her when I ordered. She apologized and took them away, and returned a couple of minutes later with a fresh salad and burger with the correct bun. I ate, and my stomach started acting up by the time I finished. I was going shopping, but I decided I should go straight home. I barely made it. I’m pretty sure she just switched the bun and didn’t give me a fresh burger.
It’s really important to explain that you need a new burger, not just a new bun too. I’m sure you did. But, it’s not as obvious to some people as it should be.
I feel like an idiot sometimes, but I always make sure things are gluten free. Mashed potatoes- you didn't put any wheat in there, right? BBQ sauce, you assholes don't make it with soy sauce, right? SO many BBQ places have been safe for me that I got lazy and got hit by soy sauce in BBQ sauce once.
She lied to you. They did not remake your food in 2 minutes. She took it out of your view, removed the bread, and lied when you asked.
Well, it's possible that she changed my plate with someone who also ordered this dish. Until now I had no reaction, so I will probably be fine
Did you tell the waiter that your meal needs to be gf?
Does that restaurant have a dedicated fryer? If not, the fries aren’t safe.
First sentence was wrong. No you can’t usually go with fries because they fry other things in there and I would have the opposite attitude you have. You have to check ahead of time and find out the bottom line. Is it a gluten free place that knows what that really means or are you just risking it because you’re eating food that doesn’t normally have wheat/gluten… this was the first mistake ya made.
It suck’s but that’s how it is…. I have 2 restaurants near me that took years to pop up that are legit gluten free. I would never go to any place like “Texas roadhouse” for instance who can make me a steak AND microwave some broccoli (that’s how they make your rice and sides 😂)… it would almost definitely get touched by a fork, a knife, end up near something with some flour being thrown around or something.
No, first sentence is not wrong. They only do fries in there. I don't live in America where they fry every shit and where they have nuggets in a steak house, lol.
Second, if a restaurant has an allergene card, I expect it to be correct (EU standard and fines if it's not). So I checked it out before, my mistake was trusting them and not saying that I am celiac (which I said after I got the first plate).
I’ve had this happen. Hubby cut a line in the steak that we’d see if they brought it back. They did. We left.
Did you tell them that you needed a new one, not just the offending food removed?
Absolutely. And they tried to convince me they had. 🤷🏻♀️
Cover it generously with salt or pepper before sending it back. If they just remove the offending item, the salt will tell you it's the same dish when they bring it back.
I was in a restaurant once which prided itself on gf food. I ordered an ice cream and it came with a gluten wafer. They took it back and returned it with a wafer shaped hole. I complained and the waitress told me the chef would be angry! The chef would be angry that I noticed that he tried to poison me! I posted a very balanced review on Google and the manager of the restaurant started messaging me at 1am saying she'd take action against everyone who was working, which I thought was disgraceful and fully explained why you never saw the same staff twice. It's so scary putting yourself in the hands of others.
We’re going out of town next month, I’m dreading trying to eat while traveling
I had this issue last night. I went to a Mediterranean restaurant and ordered a dish marked gluten free. It was supposed to be rice and lentils, but what came out was rice and vermicelli noodles. I explained I couldn’t eat that and they told me all their brown rice had vermicelli noodles in it, so they offered me something else. I asked my mom why it would be marked gluten free then. After ten minutes of back and forth with different people, I got the correct dish I had ordered and it was gluten free. But everyone else was done eating so I boxed it up for the next day 🙄
I went for dinner today, and ordered the GF onion rings. I had been told they could do them GF multiple times in the same place, as most of their menu can be made GF. The waitress came back and said they don't do GF onion rings and never have. This explains why I felt glutened on my birthday when I had dinner there! Sadness.
I hope you don’t get sick. This is why I don’t eat out. And when I do I have extreme anxiety and I’m ultra paranoid and can’t enjoy the outing
Honestly it’s on you for not telling your server that you need your meal gluten free and/or that you have celiac, intolerance, allergy, etc.
Menus can mark GF options but there could still be a ton of cross contact if you don’t tell them. AND gluten free usually means a gluten free option. Many chefs and cooks are great with gluten free food but they need to know
I’m sorry, you seem to be assuming that the staff aren’t being told that the client needs a gluten free meal.
Often the restaurants want to advertise as being able to accommodate gluten free or allergen free requests, but don’t really want to take the necessary steps.
What we’ve experienced lately when travelling is a lot of looping questions and replies along the lines of
Do you really need a strict gluten free meal?
Yes
Are you ok with cross contamination?
No. We need a gluten free meal.
Well, some people are ok with cross contamination.
Are you saying that you can’t provide a strictly gluten free meal? You have gluten free items listed…perhaps we had best eat somewhere else.
To make it strictly gluten free, the kitchen staff needs to work in a separate area. Are you sure you need that?
Yes we do please.
that will take longer.
we’re happy to wait.
ok, I’ll check with the manager to see if we can accommodate you tonight.
I went to a steak house once that said their entire menu was gluten free, except the croutons in the caesar salad.
I ordered meat and a caesar salad with no croutons.
First thing they did was bring out complementary bread (not gluten free). Second thing was bringing out my salad covered in croutons. I ate my meat but I just couldn't trust their kitchen after that, and I couldn't trust the "remade"salad either.