Have you ever gone onto a celiac online forum and read about all thee horrible gluten-free dining experiences people rant and rave about? I can’t imagine anyone going out to eat regularly without someone eventually messing up their meal and making them sick. However, it’s shocking how many people shout it from the rooftops how awful a place is, but don’t bother to report the goof to the actual restaurant. It’s like people want to make sure no one else goes there, which is understandable. They are just hoping to protect others from having the same bad experience they did. Guess what though? Not everyone in the world that is gluten-free visits online forums.
If you really want to keep others from suffering your fate, please tell the people that can correct the situation. Tell everyone in the world too if you want to, but know that isn’t going to help protect every other gluten-free diner who walks through the doors of the offending restaurant. Also, know that most places (not all for sure) will try and make it up to you that they messed up your meal. One of the places here sent a $100 bouquet of flowers to someone I know. The most common way places try and make it right is to give you a gift check to come back on them. If you don’t trust them enough to ever return, ask for a refund for the meal that made you sick.
With so many well meaning chefs jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon, without taking the time to learn what that even means, it’s up to us to help them when they mess up. If we don’t, then we can’t complain when they all jump onto the next dining fad and forget about us. We know we’re not part of a fad, but more people eating gluten-free today are part of a fad that will soon fade away, than those that will know if someone serves them gluten by mistake. We might not like admitting that fact, but it’s true none the less.
How can a place improve their gluten-free service skills if no one there knows there is a need for them to do so? If you’re not comfortable dealing directly with the place that didn’t it get it right during your visit, contact the corporate office. If you do complain to the actual location and don’t get a satisfactory result – please make sure and report that to the corporate office. Most restaurant employees are not trying to make anyone sick on purpose, of course. It isn’t good business for a restaurant to make people sick regardless of food allergies and intolerances. Remember, they don’t know if you’re going to go into anaphylactic shock and have to be rushed to the hospital if they mess up your meal. Most places are trying to get it right. Many are failing at the task miserably and need to know when they do.
People who get sick when dining out deserve to rant and rave all they want to. However, if they don’t do it to the right people, they are wasting their breath. If you visit online celiac forums, think about asking someone ranting about a place messing up if they told the restaurant what happened. You might be surprised by how many people tell you no – or totally ignore the question.
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Great post!! I just had an experience on Saturday night at a restaurant that just rolled out a GF menu in the past few weeks. The food was GF, but the pasta in 3 of our dishes ended up being so salty that it was not edible. I spoke with the manager, who had seen me taking pictures of the food earlier. She knew that I was there to write a review. I told her that I was not going to write the review until I come back another time because I want to give them a chance to correct the issue. I am not out to destroy companies. I am out to spread the word about good gluten-free food that is becoming more available to those who have to follow the diet. There are always things that the kitchen staff/chef/managers can learn from us, so why not use that voice to help?
So true Tiffany! Great work. I had to really work with my local Outback Steakhouse in Texas when I was first diagnosed. They didn’t even know that they had a gluten-free menu! It was a long road, and I got sick a couple of times, but the managers were very willing to hear my thoughts and work with me, and I appreciated that more than anything. We can’t expect them to know when there is a problem if we don’t tell them!
Hey Tiffany, great article and so true! It’s great that awareness for celiac disease is on the rise and more and more restaurants introduce gluten-free and/or allergen friendly menus. It feels like the chains are ahead of the game in this respect though. Kudos to the restaurant owners that jump(ed) to action and realized the need for GF menus.
@Tiffany Jacubowski: it struck me that you mention it being a long road working with your local Outback Steakhouse. We just did a poll about the road to diagnosis with celiac disease, and it turned out that 30.3% of all respondents had to see between 5 and 10 doctors. Who can then blame restaurants for taking a little longer when even medical professionals are this slow in realizing the issue?
Not that it is an excuse but I think people should do exactly what Tiffany suggest in her article: inform the manager of the restaurant and be understanding for change taking a little while to take place.
Thanks Kim and Tiffany! As you might know, the best OB in the world is in the Atlanta area. The reason it was transformed was due to a manager moving here from another state. She has celiac and she got sick at Bonefish and at least one Outback shortly after moving here. Both concepts are owned by the same group. Anyway, she set them straight and that is how the gluten-free bloomin’ onion was born. Her store here created a training video and when we stopped in an OB in Dothan, AL on a road trip, the staff proudly informed me that they had just completed training for gf service. Hopefully, the training program is going to all OB locations if it hasn’t already. It makes a HUGE difference, of course.
Hajo – agreed! I had a hostess ask me once why gf customers were so paranoid about dining out. I nicely explained that most people see 10 doctors for 10 years (or longer) before finally finding out what’s wrong with them. So, they can’t trust doctors to understand what celiac is – or know how to test for and dx it. Why then, should they trust a server at a restaurant to feed them safely? These days though, I think I know more people in restaurants that know what gluten is than I do doctors. It’s ridiculous.
Hi Tiffany ~ We have discussed approaching a few of our favorite local independently owned restaurants to request they offer gluten free fare. Do you have any suggestions or recommendations to help us to do this in a more effective way?
Thanks,
Rita
Hi Rita – Sorry I’m just seeing this comment. I would refer the place to GIG (www.gluten.net) to go through their certification process for restaurants. If they can’t do that, at least have them buy Shelley Case’s book (www.glutenfreediet.ca) so they know what is and is not gluten-free. Then they might need guidance from you about what items they could offer – including where to buy product. For instance, my pizza place was willing to bring in pasta for me, but the only dist. that offered a gf version quoted the owner twice what the pasta is on retail shelves here. I sent the owner to get the Trader Joe’s pasta (just until he can get something better through normal restaurant supply channels). Good luck!
I agree that contacting the restaurant is the most appropriate thing to do. I had a situation a few weeks ago. I was attending a farewell lunch for a friend at a restaurant in Washington D.C called Acadiana. In preparing for the lunch, I called ahead and spoke with a manager to make sure that they could provide gluten free food for me and to explain that I wanted to prearrange my order so I did not have to make a big deal in front of all the other guests about my need to have gluten free food (I am newly diagnosed with celiac disease). Over the phone, the manager said he would make sure they had options for me the day of the event. When I arrived, he went to the chef and they circled items for me to order from the brunch menu. When my food came out, the salad had croutons. I told my waiter I required a new salad, to check with the manager because I required strict gluten free food. They brought out another salad and they said it was new and after eating, I found a crouton buried in the salad telling me it was the SAME SALAD. I checked again about the entree and was assured all was well. then my dessert (just berries) came out with a pastry cookie on top. I declined it. That night I became very ill and remained ill for about 5 days. All of my healing that occured in two months put me back in the same condition before I started the diet. I contacted the head manager of the restaurant by email, and I copied the head chef. This is a very upscale restaurant in DC. I explained how I talked to the manager on site prior to arriving and the day of my dining, how I informed all of the waiters. each time they assured me that my requests were being honored. I also informed them about the crouton mishap and the cookie on the berries. I explained how ill I was. I did not ask for a refund or a rain check. I just told them how important it is to honor dietary food requests since they are legitimate. If I had a peanut allery, I think I would be dead on the spot at that restaurant. Three weeks later, my friend told a a DC food industry friend of the manager at Acadiana about how they handled me and how they did not call me back or email me. He was appalled. Right after that, I got a call from Acadiana. They only called because they were exposed to someone in the local food industry. I have not called them back since frankly what more can I say. I would never accept an offer to return there. I’ve been wanting to contact some celiac advocacy group about this. What would you do?
Hi Beth, sorry to hear you had such an awful experience! Some people might call us paranoid (see above) but stories like yours unfortunately confirm that this level of paranoia is needed! It’s also sad to find out that some places seem to care only for their own good.
In this context I have learned two lessons: never tell the waiter what a gluten-free diet is or why you need it – as your example shows they will agree to anything even though they have no clue. Instead ask them to explain it to you – that truly tests their knowledge!
Secondly, if you return something to the kitchen (like your salad), do the evil trick and hide a toothpick underneath the dish. When the food comes comes back out from the kitchen and you find it still there you know what to do….
Beth – I’d refer the place to GIG’s site as well because they certainly need professional help!!! Also, the fact that the manager didn’t reply to you until they were caught – so to speak – says that they might not want to cater to ‘high maintenance diners’. That is in fact what we are, even though most of us don’t like that term. Hajo gives excellent advice about having the staff explain what they do and don’t know – great idea! However, what I do when there is a mistake where I know there is a risk they’ll just remove something from my plate and return the same dish back to me is a bit different than the toothpick trick. I literally hold on to the dish so the server can’t take it away and I ask for a new salad (or whatever) and I tell them I’ll swap them for the new dish. This way, they can’t try to trick me – no one is embarrassed (I mean them) and they aren’t annoyed that I tricked them.
Hey Tiffany, your approach of holding on to the salad or dish is definitely much more diplomatic, thanks for sharing. Will change to that now in case I have a dubious gluten-free dining experience again.
If any of you have positive stories to share, please join the discussion . So much more fun to talk about the good things!
Thanks for the great advice. Yes, I get the impression from Acadiana that they don’t want to cater to those with special dietary requirements. But, to provide positive experiences, these outweigh the negative. So many places where I dine are so helpful. These range from Wendy’s (national) to upscale places. Some great ones in the DC and Northern Virginia area are Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Virginia. Not only will they prepare a top notch GF meal to order, but they have great GF homemade bread. To make sure you can have this, it is best to call ahead and let them know about your GF needs before the time of your reservation. Also, Rosa Mexican at the Maryland harbor across from Alexandria, VA even prepares your own individual serving of tortilla chips so as to avoid cooking them in an oil that fries flour battered food (again, calling ahead about this is helpful). I also enjoy Asian Bistro in Alexandria, Virginia since they keep gluten free soy sauce on hand to use in many dishes. You can ask for the owner Nun and tell him your needs for gluten free food. Again, the bulk of restaurants realize that there are diners with dietary needs and they are happy to accommodate those needs.
Beth – I’m so glad you have such nice places (and people!) to accommodate your needs when dining out. We have a Rosa Mexicano here too and I love it!