We eat out as much as we did when I could eat gluten, but just like we did in the past, we tend to visit our favorite places and choose to venture out to new ones pretty infrequently. I enjoy trying new places when meeting friends for lunch. We usually go early or late, avoiding the crunch time for the kitchen staff and servers. This way, we feel like there is a better chance our meals will be prepared and served safely.
As a general rule, we don’t usually go out to eat on Saturday night. That is because everyone another person in Atlanta goes out that night and there is no way to beat the crowds unless we go to dinner at 4:30 pm. One day I might be thrilled to enjoy early bird specials, but I’m not there yet.
For some reason, I had a hankering for a steak at Ted’s Montana Grill last weekend. The weather here was gorgeous and we could have easily saved money and grilled our own steaks at home. But the truth is our steaks are never as good as those we get at steak houses. I assumed that as long as we arrived plenty early on Saturday, I should be able to get a safe meal at Ted’s.
We were seated at 5:50 and the restaurant was not on a wait. It was busy, but not overly so, and not as much as it would be an hour later. It turned out that we were seated at one of two tables with a clear view of the kitchen. We both ordered our meat medium well so of course, it took a while to complete our ticket.
My husband always enjoys watching the kitchen since he used to cook for a living. Finally, two plates that looked like they could be ours were placed on the counter for pick up. Before the ticket was put with the plates, the expeditor dressed them. That meant the plate with the steak got a roll. My husband saw the roll get tossed onto the plate and said “I hope that’s not our food”. In a flash, the line cook looked at the ticket and swooped in and threw the roll into the trash. It had been on my plate and my meal was served as if nothing had happened. Needless to say, I did not accept it. I asked for a new baked potato and for the steak to be taken off our bill. I was not in the mood to wait for another steak to be prepared by that time.
We witnessed a little pow-wow with the expediter and manager and the latter appeared at the table to apologize for the mistake. She offered to have some chicken grilled for me, presumably because it was much faster to cook than a medium-well steak, but I declined the offer. I did not have a lengthy conversation with her about what happened because, by the time this happened, the place was crazy busy and very loud. I would have had to yell in order for her to understand what I was saying. Instead, I sent a complaint to the corporate office.
We were charged for my drink and my husband’s meal. The salad and potato I had were comped, but I would much rather have had my steak. I left the restaurant annoyed and disappointed. I was disappointed with the staff at Ted’s and annoyed with myself. It was too busy for them to take the time to prepare my food safely and for that part, I take some responsibility. But when they messed up, someone should have known not to serve my food as if the bread had not been placed on my plate, touching my steak. That part was Ted’s bad – not mine.
Clearly, the staff at our location needs to brush up on gluten-free service and be told why people order off the gluten-free menu. Maybe a color-coded plate system would be feasible there. It’s no problem that people make mistakes, but it’s a huge problem when whoever does it pretends it never happened when it comes to serving allergen-free meals. Would I end up in the hospital if I’d eaten the meal presented to me? No, I would have just been doubled over in pain and wondered what they did to mess up my food.
In the end, I made a poor choice and paid for it. While I did not get sick and I’m very grateful we sat where we did that night, I’m not sure how I feel about going to Ted’s again. One thing is for sure, we will not be going back on Saturday night and will do our best to avoid dining anywhere on Saturday night unless at a gluten-free restaurant or on vacation. This choice increases the chance that I’ll be served safely and is respectful of the staff at places trying hard to serve our market.
My husband and I have had to give up going to Ted’s also. It was a favorite place to go for a couple of years, then it kind of fell apart on being gluten free. I’ve also had a steak delivered with a roll on the plate, then have the manager come to the table, take my salad dressing off the plate & say that none of their dressings were gluten free. I shared with her that they were indeed gluten free, she went back to the kitchen & verified what I had said. We tried Ted’s again two more times after that, DH & I both got sick & we finally gave up. Such a shame – I wonder if Ted knows how his restaurants are being run?
Marilyn – I’m very sorry to hear that. There is another location of Ted’s that has had many complaints about their gf service, so I stayed away from it. But my location has always done a good job and I’m very disheartened that this happened. And to date, no one from corporate has contacted me regarding even though I contacted them Monday morning.
I got gluten at our Outback which has a very strict kitchen protocol. They made my main dish salad off the line and the cheese was contaminated by croutons. When I showed the owner my salad with a crouton on it, she went white as a sheet. By then I had already eaten a fair amount of cheese. She reported the contamination of the cheese to me, gave me a new salad made by her on the house and Chocolate Thunder comped. I still got sick. When I go there, I tell them what happened and they pay very close attention!!! I’ve been there several times with no problems but I always recount the experience to push home the message.
I was dx’d 11 months ago and didn’t try to start eating out until this past November. There are two restaurants in my home town that have done A LOT of training with GF and so those are the only two I have attempted to eat at. Jac’s even has a dedicated gf fryer. After eating there twice and having very good experiences and responsive wait staff, I felt like I’d finally found a safe place to dine out. Unfortunately, third time WASN”T the charm. They served me fries made in the regular fryer by mistake. I got severely ill for over a week. And the exposure to gluten stirred up one of my other autoimmune disorders, which I am still dealing wtih. I am back to being too scared to eat out. You are only as safe as your server, even in restuarants with excellent training.
I am sorry to hear about your experience. I have always had good experiences at Ted’s Montana Grill in Columbus, OH. I was concerned because I had plans to go there on Saturday night and your post came across the day before. I am happy to report that I ate there last night without incident.
It does show that everyone in the restaurant needs trained. I think Disney has the best protocol. Upon telling the server of your needs, the server immediately alerts the chef in the restaurant. Then the chef comes to the table to discuss options, prepares the food, and servers it to the table. There is no exchange between wait staff, chef, and others and therefor less room for error. I have not had a bad experience at Disney.
After reading the article about Ted’s I had almost decided never to go there again, even though I had never really had any problem with the one nearest me, in Kennesaw, GA. But last night — a Saturday — we needed an option close to all of the other errands we were running, and since my husband likes Ted’s, I agreed, although a bit nervous about it…. I was immediately concerned when I got two different answers to my question about whether or not the “Beer Can” Chicken was GF — after all, since they use Sam Adams beer to make it, that would seem to render it off limits, which it ulitimately did in spite of an opinion from the kitchen to the contrary. However — once it was known that I was ordering gluten-free, we were assigned the “gluten waiter” named James, who was EXCELLENT. He took care to oversee the production of my meal, which according to protocol at that particular restaurant, is prepared by the manager. The food was great — the first prime rib (without the au jus, of course) I’d had in three years, and it was the best I’d ever had. James took a few minutes after our meal to converse about the problems finding “safe” food at restaurants; he himself had food allergies and had to use an Epi-pen twice, which explains his close attention to the preparation of my meal. Of course, sometimes even the best intentions of the wait staff get sidelined by a busy or inattentive kitchen staff — but at the end of the evening, I was glad I had returned to Ted’s, and will make sure I ask for James by name should I go back again.
I have always had great meals at Ted’s in the past so I’m sure I’ll eventually go back – just not on a weekend evening. I’ve never been impressed with the knowledge of any of the staff there, including two managers I’ve spoken with. And I wish there was a “James” at my location….he sounds like a fabulous server to have! The very first time I went to Ted’s, I popped in while shopping and asked for a gf menu. The two people up front handed me a take-out menu and continued chatting. There were no customers in the place at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon. I didn’t have any readers with me and could not read the tiny print on the menu. I went home and read it and saw there was nothing about gf anything on it. I called the manager of the store and asked if they had a gf menu and he said yes and I explained what happened. The manager apologized, but I didn’t try the place until some very reactive friends of mine went and ate without incident. The corporate office took a week to figure out if all their locations had dedicated fryers when they rolled out the updated gf menu over a year ago. It clearly lists fries on the gf menu so that was surprising to say the least. Ted’s has a few things to tweak re: their gf service, at least at our location.