My place has grilled flatbread that is finished with salt. I don't mean seasoned I mean you can actually see the salt crystals on top. Lady goes on and on about needing a salt free meal. She can't have salt. She can't have cheese on her salad because of the sodium. I need to check that the shrimp she wants on her salad isn't marinated because she can't have salt. I put her order in and immediately she asks if she can get flatbread. I said "oh unfortunately it has a good amount of salt" and she says "oh that's fine."
There’s one place near me that’s middle eastern food. The garlic naan flatbread is actually really good. And it’s huge.
But I’m not on a low sodium diet
My father HATED that he had a low-sodium diet and I held him to it. No more double-cheeseburgers and fries from McDonald’s. No more doughnuts. We had to be mindful of him and his wants.
It can be a hell of an adjustment. Convenience foods definitely go out the window. Thankfully I already cooked at home quite a bit.
I’m just thinking “Damn, lady, if you wanna piss your cardiologist off that much go for the Mac and cheese”
He had CHF, COPD, and a diabetic who was uncontrolled. Between that and the Alzheimer’s he was suffering from, he lived until last October. We went hospice due to a foot wound that would not heal and he was adamant that no one would take his leg.
Diet modifications are definitely hard, especially since comfort foods are so delicious. It's definitely up to the person to a point. My dad back in his 50s was held more responsible to a lower sodium and heart healthy diet. My grandma in her 80s on hospice... Well, if the woman wanted to go to the Chinese buffet, I wasn't saying no.
Exactly. In my father’s last hospital visit just before hospice, he wasn’t eating. He eventually conned a tech out of a donut (from ones I brought for the nursing staff (that is so my father!). I’m not about to fight it.
That is such a sweet story. I'm a nurse and will be honest that the patients that have conned me out of goodies are ones I tend to remember fondly. ❤️❤️
There is a lot that was a con artist about, but that’s for another time.
Thank you for all you do as a nurse. In so many ways, nurses do more than I can say and I appreciate you for being that amazing person.
I went low sodium years ago because I'm a full-time caregiver for a family member and it's much easier to cook what they can eat. It is SO hard to go out to eat now because everything just tastes too salty. I don't put salt in anything when I'm cooking.
I had a lady just like this who started out saying she couldn't have any salt because of a medical issue. Without even checking with the kitchen I said we had a couple great desert options and we could do a salad with olive oil.
She did the saaaame thing as in the OP, kept trying to pick things and finally said a little bit was okay, and I was just like nope. I've seen an ambulance get called to places I work before. I am not about to see it again because you're being wishwashy.
Same thing with the numerous allergies to onion, garlic, or nightshade. Sorry, not doing it.
I once had someone order a dish with peanuts on it and not tell me til midway through their meal that someone was supposedly allergic to peanuts and they might have to leave right away so can they cash out. 1) At that place my introductory spiel ended with "We currently have shellfish and peanuts on the menu so let me know if there are any allergies!"
2) It was an appetizer, so the first thing they received (and yes, I do first bite check backs, they said nothing) and the peanuts were ON TOP, plainly visible.
3) They sat there for another 45 minutes not having an allergic reaction and finishing their drinks and dessert 🙄
Just say you hate it if you want options. If they don't pay attention or fuck up your order, send it back and get the right one!
You mentioned nightshade. Is this something you see a lot?
I'm pretty sure I have a sensitivity to them, but the only one that makes me truly sick is bell pepper. I don't much care for most of the others, so I mainly avoid them (except tomatoes because I love salsa). Bell peppers won't kill me, just make me wish they would...
Exactly this. It’s not anaphylaxis but it’s no walk in the park either. Got stuck and had to eat pizza or go hungry, should have gone hungry. I was pregnant at the time and had a reaction that lasted until after the pregnancy. Painful enough that I had to ice the skin before I tried to sleep.
Nightshades are funny with me. Eggplant makes me violently ill. Bell peppers aren’t my friends. I adore tomatoes, and as long as I eat them in moderation I’m ok, and potatoes are just fine. I’ve never smoked, so I have no idea about tobacco.
I’m allergic to egg yolks, but only as actual egg yolks themselves. Once they’ve been combined into another product, like bread, or pancakes, or something, whatever chemical alchemy they undergo changes the part of the yolk that makes me react. It’s always fun to try and explain this allergy someplace, especially if it’s a place that has EggBeaters (pourable egg substitute made of egg whites, some seasoning, and coloring to it looks like real scrambled eggs).
I worked in a lot of Italian or Latin American restaurants so it did come up more often than you'd think. Not super common, but common enough that I still have a pretty good recollection of what someone can and can't have 😂
If I eat green bell pepper I burp and have indigestion for a day red or roasted red pepper I’m fine. The green is unripe and terrible to digest. Same with tomatoes. Most tomatoes are picked green so they still upset me even when they turn unless I grow them myself.
Low fodmap diet talks about it! That’s what I have for tummy issues allergies more like intolerances in excess and some foods off limits… but it rarely changes how I order, modifications r your friend! Just don’t be an ass or lie about it!
I assume her body magically flags this particular salt as coming from very tasty flatbread and so it magically won't affect her blood pressure or water retention problems. /s
it often has a ton of sugar too! Subway in Ireland is not allowed to call their product "bread." it has to be labeled "cake" because of how much sugar is in it.
I usually stick to sourdough. or rye.
I used to work at Subway. In The USA there was a scandal because a news story about their bread containing the same material used to make yoga mats. I haven't eaten there since. At least European countries give a crap about what their people are being fed. It would be nice if we had that here in the USA.
Sourdough has a lot of salt but less sugar than most bread.
The cake thing was a ruling on what tax bracket their sandwiches should be placed in. Subway wanted the lower bracket, the courts said “no it is the higher one”.
Haha, you just made me think of my late Grandma. In her defense, this was near the end of her life when she was suffering from dementia, but she would always tell servers: "I have allergies."
"Oh, what are you allergic to?"
*waves hand dismissively*
She wasn't allergic to shit. One of us would just wave the server over and let them know not to worry about it.
Thank you for taking things seriously! I can’t have onion (not sure if it’s a full allergy or just an intolerance but I will get sick). I have lost count of how many times I’ve said onion allergy & places seem to work hard to give me extra onions 😡
I’m really sorry you have to deal with that; this is partially due to the situation OP is talking about. I have so many people tell me about onion allergies you’d think it’s super widespread, but half of them at least just don’t like onions and they back track when they realize most the menu has onion in some form. I also take allergies very seriously and some people abuse it. It makes servers think none of them are real, and the real victim in the situation is people with real allergies.
I have a shellfish and salmon allergy. I alerted a manager and my server at Applebees when I went to eat as the dish I was eating came in both chicken and shrimp. I tell them “Hey just a heads up if you grill on the flat top like the one I work in, I need my chicken cooked in a separate pan as I’m allergic to shrimp. Manager says “okay no problem!” I am about to tuck into my dish and I look down before eating to see a shrimp in my chicken dish. Talked to manager and he says “Let me guess you are allergic to shrimp!” Yeah man and I just told you. First time I ever called corporate. I am highly allergy and I know it’s on me too but I did everything I should have. I also worked for the company for six years so I knew allergy protocol. They dropped the ball bad that day. I’m just glad I looked down and caught it.
So what did the manager do? Cooked me a new dish that I wanted 45 more mins for. Everyone else was done. No sorry, no discount, nothing. He seemed more put out. I tipped my server well as it literally wasn’t her fault at all and left.
I carry my epipen everywhere. I suggest you consider placing the epipen on the table and say “I just want to have my epipen available while I am waiting for the ambulance in case the kitchen screws up on my “no shellfish” order.
Ugh that sucks and yeah shellfish is a serious allergy!
My worst experience was ordering a burger from Red Robin. I put onion allergy on the notes and they *added* extra onions that aren’t normally on that burger, buried in the cheese. Haven’t gone near that restaurant since.
Why is that a thing? I have had things like this happen with customers too. It’s always when someone else runs the food too, because if an allergy ticket comes up I will check the food myself to make sure it’s fine.
That’s scary though. I’m glad you saw them.
There was a cook at a restaurant I worked at that flat out told me he wouldn’t cook my table’s food in skillets when they had alpha-gal (red meat/dairy allergy) and would cook it on the flat top next to bacon and burgers and was all shocked pikachu face when I went and informed the table that they should leave because the idiot cooking was going to risk their lives because he didn’t want to be inconvenienced. Told them to call corporate and everything.
He didn’t wanna do it because four out of five people at the table couldn’t eat anything that had touched red meat and that was just too much effort to literally not kill people. He’d already started their order when I came back and told him they had left but what do you expect?? 4/5 people would have likely left in an ambulance so I wasn’t gonna let that happen. But this was a janky breakfast joint (think Waffle House) so nothing came of it
I saw this so much in restaurant I worked! It freaking was on me to make sure their dish was cooked safely it felt like bc half the time the cooks can’t be bothered! 😕
I have a great aunt who has celiac disease. She can't even be in the kitchen/area where food is being fried because the fumes irritate her skin, nose and throat. She's super paranoid of cross contamination when we go out, and she gets frustrated by servers frustration when she asks a lot of questions about ingredients and cross contamination. She used to try to bring rice cakes with her when we'd go out so she'd have something to eat, but was worried about getting in trouble or outed for bringing outside food into an eatery. She doesn't go out anymore, and if she does (very rare), she won't eat.
Ugh that’s rough.
To be fair, I wouldn’t eat either. There’s just too much that can happen and most cooks/servers aren’t familiar with what has gluten and doesn’t. I know a few things but not down to the nitty gritty.
I get annoyed when people make me run back to the kitchen several times to check ingredients in things when I’m in the middle of getting my ass handed to me during a dinner rush, but I try to remind myself that it’s for someone’s health.
For sure, I'll always do the runs back to check for allergens if I don't know, that's my job. I never want to hurt anyone. But I'll be a whole lot happier to do it outside of peak hours.
My boyfriend has celiac, but not to that severity. I pride myself in knowing gluten allergens. I've checked syrup labels for people who have informed me of a gluten allergy. I wish people were more thorough while explaining their allergies. I didn't know freaking soy sauce has gluten in it!!
That said, we did have one scary experience because of a kitchen error. If the intolerance is that severe, it might be safer to not eat out.
>I didn't know freaking soy sauce has gluten in it!!
That depends on the brand. This is also true of ketchup and some types of salad dressing.
I once made a gluten-free taco salad for a potluck birthday party for someone with gluten issues. Much reading of ingredient lists ensued, and of course I consulted with the "birthday boy" about known-safe options for some of the ingredients.
This makes me so mad for you and it makes me mad that places you go to give us a bad name.
I take allergies very seriously and I could go on a whole thing about this, but it makes my blood boil too much. I just wanted to say that me, OP, and anyone else who takes pride in their job are here to keep you safe from a reaction AND to make sure your meal is great!
> I can’t have onion (not sure if it’s a full allergy or just an intolerance but I will get sick).
For many people, their onion intolerance is limited to raw. This is because cooking denatures the protein that causes the discomfort to begin with. My wife will get severe stomach pains if she eats raw onion, but will devour a bowl of French Onion soup like it's going out of style.
I just discovered raw red onion and I don't agree, but I've never had an issue with cooked onions in my life. I've never been a fan of the bite of raw onions so they've never been a huge part of my meals. But the restaurant I went to last weekend uses an overwhelming amount of raw red onion in their tuna salad.
I always take allergies seriously. After 9 years in hospitality, I’ve learnt that people with allergies will be grateful and willing to work with you, people who are faking will be assholes and moan. No one with a real allergy is going to whinge and make it difficult when I give them safe food options
I don't like bell peppers. Every time I try to modify an order to exclude them, I get double bell peppers. Thank goodness I'm not allergic! All that to say, I don't feel your physical pain, but your emotional pain.
That stinks! I mean, order modifications are for a reason and should be respected!
(I also tend to ask for no peppers, I’m not a fan but my friend & I suspect I might also have trouble with those)
I am allergic to bell peppers. This sounds horrible. Technically I’m intolerant but anything that makes me spend a week glued to the toilet is an allergy by restaurant standards and no one really needs to know the difference.
I also am highly intolerant (allergic? Idk) of peppers — if anything has been in the vicinity of peppers while cooking, even if they aren’t included in a dish, I will be sick for days. It’s happened so often at brunch where the eggs have been cooked near peppers I shy away from brunch now. I’m also allergic to shellfish, bananas and I believe developing some kind of nut issue bc when I eat certain nuts or nut butters my throat becomes very itchy. The older I get the more food problems I have. It’s frustrating when kitchens don’t take these issues seriously because by the time I realize a mistake has been made I’m already getting sick or in some cases having trouble breathing.
Celery, walnuts and cantaloupe too with a latex allergy.
Please have yourself checked for a latex allergy. Thankfully hospitals are latex free now but before it was horrible and some restaurants still use latex gloves, even our hair salon was latex free as I’ve had my allergy for over 40+ years.
I know many have talked about allergies and dining out for me it’s too life threatening and nerve wracking. I’ve learned to carry TWO epi pens incase the first one doesn’t work. I learned this from the Red Sneakers for Oakley https://www.redsneakers.org/oakleys-story
I've sat there pulling peppers out so I can eat, but the flavor lingers. I'm so sorry you have the actual allergy. That sucks. I hope you never get my bell pepper luck!
No idea. Sometimes I think it's that their minds are so busy they miss what's actually said. Or, if you vary from what they expect, everything is thrown off. There have also been language barriers to contend with. There is one thai place where I live now that I'm confident I can get a curry with different vegetables, but that has taken years to find.
It might be because I'm a day's drive from the border, but I don't understand how "no" can be misunderstood. I've worked at multiple places that have an allergy button, and the kitchen is trained on that, even if they aren't fluent in English. I don't know of any language where "no" could mean "extra" or "this specific ingredient is totally fine, I just feel like pushing buttons."
My husband has a raw and cooked onion allergy. I'm sorry!!! It sucks how many places don't taken it seriously. But he is super appreciative of the places that do.
I hate when people do that. As someone with life-threatening allergies, I worry sometimes that servers don't take it seriously because so many people say they have an allergy to something when they really just don't like it or are avoiding eating it.
It downplays all of us who have a serious allergy, irritates the kitchen staff and servers, and can even bring the kitchen to a halt, trying to clean an area so there's no cross contamination.
I appreciate every server and restaurant who takes it seriously, but as one of my allergies is peanuts, I won't go to a Thai restaurant for instance because they have peanuts in everything and it's not fair for me to expect them to serve me uncontaminated food.
I have really awful allergies. No quite life-threatening/epi-pen levels, but the reaction gets worse with every exposure. And they are "unusual" allergies.
Allergy-liars are the bane of my existence and I'm so sick of getting side-eye from wait staff when I disclose my allergies.
Yeah, same. I have un-diagnosed Celiac (I feel like I got hit by a bus and have hangover symptoms that last for days if I have something that's even just cross-contaminated, so I don't need a doctor to confirm anything with me). But I have other sensitivities to things like corn, certain seed oils, etc. that many don't take seriously. I ordered scrambled eggs at my own work and specified that I need them cooked in pure butter, not oil, and the guy on the line thought it was stupid and just used oil anyway. I only had one bite and my face was flushed, and I felt like crap and lightheaded. I had to leave work early, and the guy ended up getting fired (not by my recommendation, but management was furious because that could've been a guest and something much more severe). I just believe that we should take all sensitivities and allergies seriously, even if they won't kill someone. There's a reason they're saying them.
Unless it's really obviously BS like this lady I had who claimed she can't have her steak cooked in its own fat because of her gluten allergy. There's no gluten in that. lol
I read an old Reddit story about a young girl who was sleeping over at her grandparents’ house. She was allergic to coconut, grandma smeared coconut oil on her hair and gave her OTC medicine to ‘muffle’ the allergic reaction before bed. >!The girl died in her sleep, and the family is broken.!<
I read an old Reddit story about a young girl who was sleeping over at her grandparents’ house. She was allergic to coconut, grandma smeared coconut oil on her hair and gave her OTC medicine to ‘muffle’ the allergic reaction before bed. >!The girl died in her sleep, and the family is broken.!<
Thanks, u/LabradorSmartphone for linking the story!
My SIL tells servers she's allergic to gluten. She is not. She chooses to avoid it. So after the server made.sure there was no gluten in her meal, and dessert order time, she orders the brownie. The server says, "that can't be made gluten free". My SIL says that's fine, she isn't really allergic... 😡 We didn't see the server again and the manager took over the table. I'm sure the server was ready to throttle her! I sure was!
I'm right there with you on that too. I won't step foot into a 5guys, don't eat thai, etc...
The only exception that I make, because it's never seemed to be cross contaminated is places that serve kung pao, never had any issues with any japanese place that served it, never cross contaminated or anything.
Husband is allergic to eggs, like anaphylaxis, always informs as soon as we're seated. The number of times he's been given salads with chopped eggs is insane. What's worse is when we get dropped a "fresh" with egg bits they didn't pick out. He won't touch it and one server admitted they just assumed he meant he didn't like it. He stays calm, I struggle not to lose my shit.
My friend doesn’t eat gluten. She isn’t allergic to it. When we go out for dinner she asks the server for the gluten free choices. Then she immediately tells the server that it isn’t an allergy, just a choice. Don’t worry about cross contamination.
This is what I do, I'm intolerant to tomatoes, I'll get a migraine and it sets off my stomach but I'm not gonna get anaphylaxis so I'm always really clear I want to avoid it but they don't need to be avoiding cross contamination etc. in however many times I've eaten out I've only had a problem once, they actually only lasted a few months so I think they had a lot of issues anyways!
Same with me and the allium family.
I always tell servers I’m intolerant but make sure to emphasize that I’m not in any sort of “real” danger if I ingest any. I will just have horrible stomach aches, but usually the honesty makes them more willing to believe me.
I mentioned this too. I don’t like nuts and it’s such a common allergy I’m very clear it’s a preference so they don’t have to stress about any contamination issues. And luckily they are usually just a topping and easy to leave off. If they are baked in something I just don’t order it.
I’m mildly intolerant to gluten and I do the same thing. Like yeah, it could probably be considered an allergy, but I tell them not to sweat it too much since I’m not Celiac and it takes multiple glutened meals for me to start getting sick. Especially since sometimes I cave and get gluten anyways, I really do treat it like a preference.
Not my place to ask for crazy vigilance on it if I don’t hold myself to that standard either!
I really wish it was acceptable to ask people, when they announce an allergy, "is this a genuine allergy, or pretend?" I have started asking upfront about the severity of the allergy, and explain that severe allergies will be taken seriously, and so have a much longer ticket time. People with genuine allergies will be happy to hear that they'll be taken care of, and pretenders or those with a mild intolerance will not want their food held up. Usually.
Here's how the conversation went when I was a restaurant manager (all allergy notifications were required to get a manager).
Me: "Allergy or preference?"
Karen: "Why does it matter?"
Me: "Because if it's allergy your tables food will take an extra 30-45 minutes longer since we have to shut down the line and sanitize it before making your tables order to prevent cross contamination. We also can't have anyone at your table order anything with that ingredient for that same reason."
Karen: "Well, in that case, preference."
Should be able to add this to the menu:
"Lying about allergies just because you don't like an ingredient will result in a 50% surcharge for your entire party. If you just don't like something, just say so."
With my wife's allergies and intolerances, we have to be very specific.
"Raw onion is out (severe intolerance) but fully cooked onion is fine. Raw ginger will send her to the ER, but ginger powder is ok."
And of course we found out the hard way once that she has an allergy to horseradish; thankfully the ER was only a few minutes down the road, but I still had to literally carry her through the entry doors in my arms.
Once at Capital Grille, despite being told no raw onion, for some reason they decided to use a giant raw onion ring as a garnish on her filet. Before sending it back, I made sure to make a screwed up cut into the meat to ensure that they didn't just take the onion off and bring her the same piece back. I think they thought she was lying because she also had the French Onion soup as an appetizer and wanted to fuck with her.
Agreed 100% with all of this! As someone with celiac disease I don’t mind when they ask because it usually means that they will put in the work to prevent cross contamination as much as they can when they ask this.
Yes!! Co-workers rarely understand but through my own relaxed allergy situations they have often come to understand.
With my dairy intolerance I can eat dairy and not die, but if I have too much I will be shitting my brains out rather than working. I know what will set me off more such as cream or cheese days in a row so it's worth not dismissing just because I can tolerate SOME.
Then my nut allergy, I won't die... But it makes me miserable and causes pain so please don't be ridiculous but also don't leave the trace of satay on the food you accidentally plated then wiped off because I said it won't kill me. I get mouth sores for days, headaches and stomach pain. Just because I wont die doesn't mean I'm making it up.
I genuinely just say no when they ask because I can eat some nuts better than others and it's too much to explain and I see the panic in their eyes about nut allergies.
I get that with banana and kiwi. Even cooked banana. Takes till the last bite of the muffin, but still. I get a burning feeling in my mouth and lips and bumps on my tongue.
>if asked, I might say "No carrots in the salad, I'm allergic" but still want cooked carrots as a side.
Couldn't you specify raw carrot instead of just carrot? I have OAS and have no problem saying that raw apples/pears/peaches/cherries/whichever-thing-is-most-likely-to-show-up cause me to itch but am okay if thing is cooked.
Your omission of the word "raw" to the server when explaining you have an allergy to raw carrots comes off as trying to cause unneccessary confusion and resentment (like OP's) when you then order cooked carrot.
Interestingly, for me raw carrots don't cause any itchiness but they do taste terrible in my opinion.
Yeah, when I worked at a place that took it seriously, we were encouraged to ask if it's a sensitivity or something anaphylactic just so we can ensure there's no chance of cross-contamination. Like a sensitivity, you can probably get away with a gluten-free food going into the fryer that also fried gluten items, but severe Celiac, you can't. It's good to have clarity so you know what you're up against.
I've got a couple of v annoying unusual allergies (including cinammon which has got way harder to manage the last few years of everyone dumping cinammon in everything) that aren't anaphalactic but will either cause violent throwing up (pine nuts) or cause intestinal damage and about a week of pain. Had some cool tests done and yep allergy, just doesn't cause the can't breathe stuff. It's a horror show trying to explain pine nuts, cinammon, and alliums to servers. They won't kill me, but they'll debilitate me for a couple of hours (pine nuts) to around a week, depending on the volume.
I usually say allergy but non-anaphalactic so don't panic too much that I'm gonna die at the table.
Best ever was a 2 Michelin star restaurant that made me an entire tasting menu without anything in and I love them for that. They were so excited to give me each course and I had an amazing time.
Other than that, I basically only eat out and have bread!
Who knew there was so many alliums in so much food. And that cinammon isn't a declared listed spice!
Right and celiac can sometimes have no symptoms with exposure (but still internal damage), or the symptoms can take up to more than a full day to appear. And lots of people aren’t even aware of this themselves when they have celiac. Even though there can be varying severities of *symptoms* celiac is celiac, no one really has it worse than someone else.
I always approached it as "what is the nature of your allergy? Severe, intolerance, or distaste?" Most people clarified a distaste but there were several times people would claim severe and get upset when I followed safety guidelines to the T.
Best story I have is a woman who claimed to be strict vegan (super doable in Italian just some more hoops for the line) and was getting upset that she couldn't get a "plain" spaghetti (ours was made with chicken stock so we couldn't just take it out). I offered pasta with olive oil and pepper and she straight up says "olive oil, butter, whatever, just something good!!" 🙃 Homegirl, vegan is strict and I'm gonna be too now that you've shown your truth.
It's also frustrating when someone is clearly lying or BS'ing about an allergy. I had a woman come into a steakhouse I was working at and claim a gluten allergy. She said this in reference to not being able to have any oil on her food. Now unless I'm unaware of a new wheat-based oil, there literally is not an oil that has gluten in it. I reassured her that there is no gluten in any oil and that our steaks are cooked in their own tallow (fat) anyway. She said that's *exactly* what she can't have because of her allergy and that I need to trust her because she's been gluten-free for a year. I very kindly told her I have Celiac, so she can trust me that I would never mislead her because I've been navigating restaurant menus for half my life. She completely shut up there.
Another woman at the same restaurant claimed an onion allergy, then proceeded to order our soup of the day which had onions pureed into it. No way to substitute or remove them. I told her this, and then she said, "Oh, I can have onions when they're pureed." I refused to serve it to her because she said *allergy.* It's clear that she just doesn't like onions and wanted to be able to really affirm that she doesn't want them, but that definitely bit her in the butt when she couldn't get the soup she wanted.
I don't like having those arguments, but if you're going to make up an allergy, at least know what the hell it is so you can be consistent. And be honest. It's just silly. I take allergies very seriously, so it's just annoying when you're being weird about it. If someone claims an onion allergy, I confirm if it's just onion or all allium. Tomato allergy? Is it also all nightshades? I'm happy to do everything I can to accommodate you because I have my own dietary sensitivities, but again, just be up-front and don't BS things. I definitely understand making up an allergy if you really, really, really cannot have something for whatever reason because more often than not, servers don't take it that seriously. But you also better know what you're pretending to have because when you get someone that does know all about it, you're going to look pretty foolish.
...and what does that have to do with pureed onions? Lmfao. She said she can have them when they're pureed - that's literally just putting it in a blender or food processor. It's a different texture, not a different composition.
I have low-level food allergies. As in, they are technically allergies in that they cause a histamine reaction, but usually I just get the sniffles. The only thing that bothers me is if I ask for gluten-free I get the response of “is this an allergy or a preference, because if it’s an allergy we have to shut down and clean the kitchen before making yours.” It rankles my OCD to lie and say it’s not an allergy when technically it is, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to force them to shut down the kitchen during a lunch rush so I can avoid a stuffy nose. My point is that “allergy” is a very dangerous word to throw around in a restaurant, don’t use it unless you absolutely need to.
So ridiculous, I hate it too.
I had this lady come in to my bar one day and told me her friend was meeting her there, but also that her friend is super allergic to natural wines. We are literally a natural wine bar. She wanted me to choose a bottle for them, before her friend got there. I asked her more about the allergy, like how severe which she informed me it was really severe, then if they have had natural wine before. She said at a different wine bar. I asked if she knew exactly what it was in the wine that made her allergic, she had no idea. I told her I didn’t feel comfortable serving her natural wine when her friend is allergic, and I wanted to wait to speak with her friend personally for more details when she arrived. She was arguing with me about it. Her friend eventually comes and is telling me the same thing, I continue to tell them I don’t feel comfortable. They ask me if we have any wines that aren’t natural, I inform them they came to… a natural wine bar lol that’s when they both started back peddling about how it actually wasn’t that bad and her face just turns red, and that it was totally ok to serve them some sort of rose.
People who fake allergies and medical conditions because they don't like the flavour of something are human garbage, they just make things for those with actual allergies and conditions terrible.
I worked at a Jason's deli in a rich snobby area. I had worked there for like a month and never had anyone ask for gluten free anything (mainly I suppose because if someone literally couldn't eat gluten they wouldn't be going to a sandwich place). Then I can't remember if it was someone on Oprah or The Doctors or Oz or whoever, but I remember hearing that one of them on some daytime pseudoscience talkshow was saying that 'oh actually gluten is extremely bad for you'. Within that week we went from an average of 0 people to about 1 in ever 3 orders needed gluten free. So we would have to stop working on anything else, sanitize the while area, go get the special allergy station down, make one special sandwich, sanitize everything again and put it away. Not working on any other orders for about 10 minutes. Multiple times a shift. And the part that made me absolutely lose my mind once, was after all of this, one of them ended up getting a cookie. When I noticed her pick it up and bring it to the register I pointed out it wasn't gluten free and she said 'oh that's fine, I can have a little.'
It's not that hard to tell your server you hate an ingredient, or are sensitive to it... Like why lie?? It's so much extra work for the cooks/preps to clean and change everything
I think a lot of people don't realize that the line has to be shut down and sanitized. which is why it's a good idea for the server to clarify how severe the allergy is or if it's an intolerance. green bell peppers give me stomach cramps. I deal with it by not ordering things that contain them. I might ask they not be included in a salad but I'm not going to ask for modifications beyond that. I just get something else.
Thank you, OP, for taking allergies seriously. I have an anaphylactic allergy to alcohol and take extraordinary precautions prior to going out anywhere (I take antihistamines before leaving my house and carry an elipen).
The number of times that people argue with me stating that “the alcohol cooks off” is mind boggling. That’s like telling someone with a peanut allergy that you wiped the bowl.
People like this customer put those of us with real allergies and intolerances in danger everyday. Just state that you don’t like garlic (or whatever), order something that doesn’t have it or eat a somewhere else.
As a parent of child who has a life threatening food allergy, Thank You.
To every one who uses "I have an Allergy" to get special treatment or try to manipulate a menu,
F### You
Absolutely. I’m not going to get sued or let my restaurant take a hit or a bad review because someone lies about an allergy.
I take them seriously, and if you lie you better believe that you will still be treated as if you have one too.
I used to say I was allergic to shellfish as it seemed simpler. I'm really just intolerant, which is much less of a problem than EpiPend and getting rushed to the hospital.
Now I just say No shellfish. I don't really eat seafood anyway, so its not normally a problem.
I do miss Lenten fish fries, though.
Well, allergies can always change and sometimes even if you’re intolerant, if you continuously eat that food you may make the allergy worse. I think it would be acceptable for you to tell servers you’re allergic.
I don’t see this as an issue either. It’s in the same vein that it makes you sick, just not epi pen sick. I feel like intolerance is a sort of allergy in and of itself, the body is rejecting it - just in a different, slightly less deadly form.
I don't think this is wrong. I have sensitivities/intolerances that won't kill me but still make me feel bad enough that I actively avoid them entirely. I say I'm allergic just so there's no chance they'll not care and give it to me anyway.
I'm this way with fish and wet eggs, but I highly dislike peanuts and cherries. So I'll casually say I can't have peanuts which taste nasty to me the same way I'll say egg whites Must be cooked through. One time I had the sweetest waitress come back looking very nervous because the chef couldn't guarantee there would be no cross contamination of the peanuts, and I felt so bad having to backtrack a bit stating that I really really just hated their taste and that it was okay. Seriously, I can pick the taste of a tiny bit of peanut out, and it ruins the entire dish for me.
My BIL tells servers that he's "allergic to onions" because he doesn't like them. I know that because he proudly told us that this is his way of making sure they don't put onions in his food. He is always such a dick about it; he will make a huge deal about it to the server, and he refuses to touch anything with visible onions in it, like if they accidentally leave an onion slice in his burger, he will send it back instead of just picking off the damn onion.
I use onion powder in my homemade pasta sauce - you can't really taste the onions per se, it just enhances overall flavor. I totally plan on serving it to him (if he ever visits us, he lives in a different state), and I'm willing to bet money he won't notice. Allergic, my ass.
I feel bad for people with true garlic allergies. I knew a guy like that, and he was so limited as to what he could eat. We were part of a group that did potlucks on a regular basis, and we would try and make sure that at least a few dishes had absolutely no garlic, otherwise he'd be stuck eating nothing but dessert (no, it's not nearly as much fun as it sounds :)
I remember once spending FOREVER with a woman trying to figure out a perfect gluten-free meal for her. I went back and forth with the kitchen multiple times and finally we figured out just what she wanted. Then the bread came out and she demanded a piece as well! I could have choked her with it
the whole 'if you don't like something, just tell people you're allergic to it' thing is what needs to die, this is just a symptom of it.
just teach people to be honest, and teach other people to accept it when someone says 'I really don't like that'.
I do the same thing with allergies.
If you don’t want to be treated like you have a serious allergy, don’t lie about it. Someone who truly has an allergy appreciates the effort. People who don’t make themselves look like assholes for lying. You don’t even have to try.
I’m from the UK and everyone had to change the way they dealt with allergies after a customer died from eating a mis-labelled sandwich at Pret. This happened just after that took place. We serve 3 different types of soup with a bread roll or a pre-packaged gluten free bread roll, I had a customer ask which soups were gluten free. I had to ask her to wait while I found someone who was level 3 food safety trained to discuss her options. I carry on serving other customers while she speaks with my coworker, which takes a while, and my coworker eventually serves her a suitable soup with a gluten free roll. As soon as my coworker leaves, this customer comes back to me and asks if she can have the other bread roll because she doesn’t like the gluten free one. I apologise and tell her that it contains gluten and she deadass looks me in the eye and says “oh, I’m not allergic to that type of gluten”.
I am severely allergic to sourdough bread, mildly intolerant to white bread, but rye doesn’t bother me at all, so I try to get that but places don’t usually have it
That’s fair, and I will do my absolute most for people with allergies and intolerance, but she made it pretty clear that it was a preference after my coworker who gave her all the allergy advice had left.
Rye bread isn't made with 100% rye flour. It's made with wheat flour with anywhere between 10-30% rye flour.
I wonder what is it about the rye flour that cancels out your intolerance to wheat flour.
These people ruin for everyone with an actual allergies.
I dislike nuts and if I see them as a topping I say “I’m not allergic but can you leave them off?” I don’t want them to go through a crazy allergy protocol because I just want them left off a salad.
I managed two separate Friendly’s locations. Because it’s a corporation and a large bulk of our sales included nuts and dairy (and the entire place specifically caters to children), there were serious protocols in place. All of the servers and BOH staff were wonderful at complying. Any time an allergy was mentioned, it was understood that a manager was to come by *before* the order was entered into POS to verify everything, oversee cooking/assembling, be there for delivery, and check in after a few bites. The amount of times that I was “called off” by clientele was staggering. They’d often immediately admit that there was no actual allergy, just a strong dislike. Too bad, we had a strict regimen to follow and often had Secret Shoppers dining or district managers visiting. If you uttered “allergy,” we weren’t allowed to give you anything with the ingredient and followed our strict procedure. I guarantee none of those lying did it ever again, as it held up the entire group’s order. Washing and sanitizing all tools, scrubbing the flat top, absolutely nothing from the fryer or fountain (ice cream) area, manager must be available to aid in ordering, cooking and food delivery. So many incredibly grateful people who became regulars (because they actually had allergies and finally found a safe place that they could eat), so many being ribbed by their fellow guests for blatantly lying about a possible life-threatening situation. I wish all restaurants handled things in this manner. It took the burden off of the wait staff and assured safe dining for those with allergies.
Where I work, the printer in the kitchen prints a chit when a guest is seated if they've added an allergy tag on their reservation. If I ring something in that has that that allergen, chef calls me over to clarify. It happens so much that people say "Oh, I just don't like shrimp" or "I just try to avoid it" that we have a mod that says "Ignore allergy note" that I add to each dish that I know contains that allergen. It's so stupid.
This is why im very specific about onions. Im intolerant to raw/cooked onions. But CAN have onion powder. So thats what i tell the server when they come by so i dont look like the customer above.
I completely agree with that. If they tell you they are allergic and then you serve it to them (even if they backtrack), you can be sued and potentially found liable. As for the customer, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Once had a lady order a burger with “NO tomatoes because I am super allergic!! They can’t even touch my burger!” I made sure to flag her order and went back to tell the line cooks in person too.
Came back and she’s chowing down on the chips and salsa 🙄
I have a weird food allergy (melons), and I can always see servers look at me questioningly, like I’m making it up, and people like this are why. If there’s even the smallest chance that my food has touched something I’m allergic to, I’m not going to eat it because I don’t want to spend the evening in the hospital after using an epipen.
Good on you for doing this. People like this make it harder for people like me to order food safely. I hope she’s learned her lesson.
A lot of people aren’t informed about difference between allergies and intolerance, which are two different things, one can kill you other usually glues you to a toilet. Now a days all restaurants are taking allergies extremely seriously in a sense that there are completely separate set of utensils just for making food without cross contamination. Also in last couple of places ive worked there is a separate track list of full details for each guest served with allergies(time,date,table no., seat no, guest name, server name, chef name and manager/executive chef sign off on dish served, even just server will run food for that table to reduce cross contamination chance). Its always a mandatory first question about allergies and intolerance.
I just wish customers would be honest. Save all that trouble. Had a lady with an 'MSG Allergy", which is just code for racist and ignorant. I wouldn't give her ketchup and made sure no caesar dressing went on her caesar salad. Customer service Barbie it.
Foods with naturally occurring MSG:
Carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, grapes, anchovies, squid, clams, oysters, red meat, chicken, cured ham, egg yolk, cheese, potato chips, peas, walnuts, molasses, sugarcane, beets, mushrooms, seaweed, green tea, corn, marmite, vegimite, oysters sauce, kimchi, miso, soy sauce...
MSG is also naturally produced in the human body, and it's an essential neurotransmitter in the brain.
Are you sure your friend is really allergic to MSG?
Ugh. This is so annoying and frustrating for people that DO have legitimate allergies, because they're often not taken seriously about it in the future.
We had someone with a tomato allergy once that got mad cause we had to take longer preparing their food cause they needed all separate utensils. 😂 like, do you want to be safe or not?
I always ask if the item they don't want is an allergy or preference and explain it because I need to think about cross contamination.
I've not had an angry guest, and usually, it's a preference.
There are truly people with severe food allergies out there. My 13 year old has celiac disease and it is so limiting for him and us in so many ways. Thank you for taking these allergies seriously, in spite of the assholes.
I have a sensitivity to peppercorn and fresh ground pepper. I get immediate severe acid reflux. I tell waitstaff I have a sensitivity, not an allergy. I found that phrasing very helpful. They know they don't have to worry about cross contamination, but to leave pepper off my food.
FYI downing a few straight sugar packets usually calms the acid.
People like them make *my* life so much harder too, I have an anaphylactic allergy to seafood and the amount of people who falsely claim an allergy put people like me at risk of not being taken seriously and getting sick or dying as a result
For like 6 months, I was on a smoothie kick. Almost every place uses banana in their smoothies.
I. Hate. Bananas.
Like with a passion.
But every time I'd ask to sub it for strawberries and I'd clarify that it was not an allergy, just a preference so they didn't feel the need to do any extra steps.
But damn, bananas are disgusting.
Fuck yes! I've never encountered a fellow banana hater. Seriously, with a fiery passion. The smell, the taste, the texture. Strangely enough, I'm not fully disgusted by the smell of banana bread.
Are there any other fruits you find nasty?
Hi! No banana in any form- natural or flavored for me. Texture, smell and taste - ick!!! Aldo on my list avocados (texture) and eggs. Don’t care how they are cooked - nope, nope, nope. Also no soufflés or quiches - am one of those people who ends up with several sides for breakfast at a restaurant. 🤷🏻♀️
This is an unnecessary round about way of her asking you to go light on the garlic and trying to ensure you comply. Meanwhile if she just said that you’d have asked the kitchen to do so
Just say "without garlic please". And if the restaurant can't accommodate, suck it up or order something else. I had a roommate who has digestive distress whenever she ate any garlic and onions. So if she inhaled the aroma of it cooking, she was fine. The rest of us mainline that stuff, we love it so much. My roommate, an adult, did not make it anyone else's problem. She was always careful at restaurants and never threw a fit about not being able to eat something due to that. I have a sensitivity to certain foods and just, you know, don't order stuff with those foods in it.
That is the key, just be honest with your server. If you don't like something, that's fucking fine. But if you claim you're allergic to something and backtrack it, or on some fad diet that you can't eat any carbs or gluten or whatever, then order what is suggested. Backtracking just hurts people with actual allergies. And if you tell us your diet and you go completely off of it, just makes you look like an idiot.
Why lie about this period? I get not wanting certain things but just ask for something without that thing. Like I don’t like onions on my burgers but I’m not going to say I’m allergic, damn
I do catering with a regular 10 choice menu. I remember one lady saying she couldn’t have anything on our menu because she was gluten free(we have gf options on the menu) and then demanded plain pasta as a substitute.
Like if you have the palate of a 10 yr old just say so damn
I have minor food allergies that just make my mouth itch and sadly I've learned to NOT tell the server about them because they pull this. And I get it, yall don't want to be liable. But I'll just ask for things like "nuts on the side" and then don't eat them. Sometimes though, if someone says they're allergic but can actually have it in certain formats, they're not lying.
I am allergic to tomatoes. But, I can eat some BBQ sauces and hunts canned spaghetti sauce in moderation. I think it’s because the super processed method to make it kills whatever in tomatoes triggers my system.
I also have sensitivity to some other stuff, but can eat in moderation. It gets frustrating at times because I may order the “gluten free” dish to lower gluten, but be fine having a little of x item that also has gluten. (Gluten seems to be triggering intestinal issues for me, but I am not Celiac, AFAIK. Still trying to figure out if it’s dairy or gluten causing the issue.)
I’m happy you take allergies seriously! I have a gluten intolerance that I thought was Celiac at first. So I used to treat gluten like an allergen, then learned that cross contamination doesn’t really bother me.
There’s a family diner in my town and the food is amazing, but I always felt like crap after eating there. I couldn’t figure it out! Over a year later a new waitress mentioned the fries are flour coated! 😑I’m only having tater tots now and I don’t get sick…
Traditional tater tots and store-bought frozen tater tots are typically not gluten-free. Standard tater tot recipes include wheat-based ingredients in the coating to achieve a crispy texture and flour in the potato mixture to bind the tots. As far as I know, only Ore-Ida brand tater tots are gluten-free!
I'm severely allergic to Lavender but love London fogs. I'm always very grateful if the baristas are truthful about their blends of tea upfront.
Thank you for taking allergies seriously!!
Thank you for being this kind of server.
Sincerely,
Someone with Celiac Disease, who will likely be hospitalized or sick in bed for weeks if she gets exposed to gluten, and is always scared the server/kitchen won't take it seriously
I have a very distinct memory from my childhood of my dad throwing a fit in a restaurant and sending back a steak with a pineapple slice then demanding a fresh one made because he was “deathly allergic” and they initially just removed it. imagine my confusion and annoyance when a few weeks ago (at least 20 years later) he mentions eating pineapple lately and really enjoying it… so basically yeah I’m totally on your side
I think it’s really important to take allergies seriously but also remember that sometimes people have intolerances or digestive problems that are not anaphylaxis, but will absolutely ruin their night. Sometimes (non-anaphylactic) people can decide to risk it, or that it’s worth it, like a lactose-intolerant person deciding they really want ice cream. A lot of the trickiest food allergies, like gluten, dairy, nightshades, and alliums, tend to fall in this category, and it’s really unfortunate because your choice is between having a night of discomfort (like, eating a tiny bit of garlic and having gas/shits for a few hours), eating the single thing on the menu that doesn’t have garlic which you didn’t want in the first place, or not going out at all. And meanwhile service people will say, if you can’t eat garlic eat at home.
I know it’s frustrating to serve people who shift goal posts on what they can eat but imo it’s also important to remember from their perspective they might be shifting the goal posts from “eat great meal without shitting myself” to “eat thing I really want and just shit myself a little”.
Just to clarify with the gluten, if someone has celiac, it’s much more than just digestive problems as internal damage is occurring that puts them at risk of potentially life threatening complications. Non celiac gluten sensitivity is more like what you’re describing and less of those people say it’s an allergy compared to celiac, but if they’re sensitive enough they still might. Just wanted to clarify :)
Edit to add: I see you said “tend” so that’s my bad, but leaving this up just in case it’s helpful to someone!
Couldn't agree more. It makes it incredibly difficult for people with clinical food allergies to be taken seriously if people claim an allergy when they have an intolerance or even food preference. Pisses me off.
I somewhat understand her…. I hate onions now since I had Covid, even one can contaminate a whole dish. But no one respects this unless I tell them I’m “allergic”. That’s the only thing most people seem to comprehend Otherwise, on more than one occasion, onions have found their way into my food. I want them treated like peanuts or human hairs — 0.
However, that runs the risk of what happened with this lady… :\
But, I understand your side too
So, to play devils advocate, I have a friend who is allergic to garlic and onions, but only in their natural form, not as garlic/onion powder or flavoring. She is the furthest thing from picky or a drama queen, so I believe this is a true allergy.
Of course she's also not stupid, so would tell a server exactly what she was allergic to and (going back to not a drama queen) would happily take the options offered...
I was a line cook at a Mexican place, and a guy came in and said he was allergic to cilantro! A server came back and asked if there was anything that didn't have cilantro. Nope! It's a Mexican restaurant! There's cilantro in every dish! Turns out he's just one of those people that tastes soap when they eat cilantro. He had the chicken taco plate. (The chicken was marinated in cilantro!)
I have a bunch of intolerances that can make me feel shitty- as well as celiac disease. I believe it is fair for me to voice that fact, and up to me to make the call as to whether or not I want to go with a certain dish based on how much of something is in it
a few nights ago i had some customer say they absolutely couldn't have dairy but then decided to get garlic butter with their steak and said "aw a little bit should be right"
Sometimes it’s easier to say “I have an allergy but cross contamination is okay” than to say “I have a sensitivity that will aggravate my eczema and give me a rash but I can tolerate a little bit so cross contamination is okay, but I really try to avoid it if I can, and we’ve been out all day and I’m starving, and I know the wait is 30 minutes, but it’s my fastest option, and you’re not my doctor, so don’t try to tell me what I can and can’t eat because I know my body better than you.”
My place has grilled flatbread that is finished with salt. I don't mean seasoned I mean you can actually see the salt crystals on top. Lady goes on and on about needing a salt free meal. She can't have salt. She can't have cheese on her salad because of the sodium. I need to check that the shrimp she wants on her salad isn't marinated because she can't have salt. I put her order in and immediately she asks if she can get flatbread. I said "oh unfortunately it has a good amount of salt" and she says "oh that's fine."
I’m on a low sodium diet myself, and I’m thinking “Of anything you could possibly blow your sodium allowance on, she picked a damn flatbread?”
There’s one place near me that’s middle eastern food. The garlic naan flatbread is actually really good. And it’s huge. But I’m not on a low sodium diet
My father HATED that he had a low-sodium diet and I held him to it. No more double-cheeseburgers and fries from McDonald’s. No more doughnuts. We had to be mindful of him and his wants.
It can be a hell of an adjustment. Convenience foods definitely go out the window. Thankfully I already cooked at home quite a bit. I’m just thinking “Damn, lady, if you wanna piss your cardiologist off that much go for the Mac and cheese”
That’s all my father ate, processed crap. Him being with me for a month was a big change. I literally grilled almost everything.
How’d it all end up?
He had CHF, COPD, and a diabetic who was uncontrolled. Between that and the Alzheimer’s he was suffering from, he lived until last October. We went hospice due to a foot wound that would not heal and he was adamant that no one would take his leg.
💕Xoxo 💫 🕊️
Thank you. It was bitter sweet, but also he went out on his own terms. The funeral and everything beyond what we did for him was befitting of a movie.
That's when you breathe a sigh of relief and pour one out for the stubborn old man. You gotta love em when you're not fighting with them! RIP❤️
Diet modifications are definitely hard, especially since comfort foods are so delicious. It's definitely up to the person to a point. My dad back in his 50s was held more responsible to a lower sodium and heart healthy diet. My grandma in her 80s on hospice... Well, if the woman wanted to go to the Chinese buffet, I wasn't saying no.
Exactly. In my father’s last hospital visit just before hospice, he wasn’t eating. He eventually conned a tech out of a donut (from ones I brought for the nursing staff (that is so my father!). I’m not about to fight it.
That is such a sweet story. I'm a nurse and will be honest that the patients that have conned me out of goodies are ones I tend to remember fondly. ❤️❤️
There is a lot that was a con artist about, but that’s for another time. Thank you for all you do as a nurse. In so many ways, nurses do more than I can say and I appreciate you for being that amazing person.
I went low sodium years ago because I'm a full-time caregiver for a family member and it's much easier to cook what they can eat. It is SO hard to go out to eat now because everything just tastes too salty. I don't put salt in anything when I'm cooking.
And she should get told: "Sorry, NO! We take allergies seriously!"
I had a lady just like this who started out saying she couldn't have any salt because of a medical issue. Without even checking with the kitchen I said we had a couple great desert options and we could do a salad with olive oil. She did the saaaame thing as in the OP, kept trying to pick things and finally said a little bit was okay, and I was just like nope. I've seen an ambulance get called to places I work before. I am not about to see it again because you're being wishwashy. Same thing with the numerous allergies to onion, garlic, or nightshade. Sorry, not doing it. I once had someone order a dish with peanuts on it and not tell me til midway through their meal that someone was supposedly allergic to peanuts and they might have to leave right away so can they cash out. 1) At that place my introductory spiel ended with "We currently have shellfish and peanuts on the menu so let me know if there are any allergies!" 2) It was an appetizer, so the first thing they received (and yes, I do first bite check backs, they said nothing) and the peanuts were ON TOP, plainly visible. 3) They sat there for another 45 minutes not having an allergic reaction and finishing their drinks and dessert 🙄 Just say you hate it if you want options. If they don't pay attention or fuck up your order, send it back and get the right one!
You mentioned nightshade. Is this something you see a lot? I'm pretty sure I have a sensitivity to them, but the only one that makes me truly sick is bell pepper. I don't much care for most of the others, so I mainly avoid them (except tomatoes because I love salsa). Bell peppers won't kill me, just make me wish they would...
Nightshades cause an inflammatory response in a decent amount individuals even if it’s not an allergy.
Exactly this. It’s not anaphylaxis but it’s no walk in the park either. Got stuck and had to eat pizza or go hungry, should have gone hungry. I was pregnant at the time and had a reaction that lasted until after the pregnancy. Painful enough that I had to ice the skin before I tried to sleep.
Nightshades are funny with me. Eggplant makes me violently ill. Bell peppers aren’t my friends. I adore tomatoes, and as long as I eat them in moderation I’m ok, and potatoes are just fine. I’ve never smoked, so I have no idea about tobacco. I’m allergic to egg yolks, but only as actual egg yolks themselves. Once they’ve been combined into another product, like bread, or pancakes, or something, whatever chemical alchemy they undergo changes the part of the yolk that makes me react. It’s always fun to try and explain this allergy someplace, especially if it’s a place that has EggBeaters (pourable egg substitute made of egg whites, some seasoning, and coloring to it looks like real scrambled eggs).
Shit, I didn't know tobacco was a nightshade! I don't smoke except the occasional hookah, but I figured I was sensitive to it. It all makes sense now!
I worked in a lot of Italian or Latin American restaurants so it did come up more often than you'd think. Not super common, but common enough that I still have a pretty good recollection of what someone can and can't have 😂
If I eat green bell pepper I burp and have indigestion for a day red or roasted red pepper I’m fine. The green is unripe and terrible to digest. Same with tomatoes. Most tomatoes are picked green so they still upset me even when they turn unless I grow them myself.
Low fodmap diet talks about it! That’s what I have for tummy issues allergies more like intolerances in excess and some foods off limits… but it rarely changes how I order, modifications r your friend! Just don’t be an ass or lie about it!
Sounds like they were planning to pull a Dine and Dash.
I assume her body magically flags this particular salt as coming from very tasty flatbread and so it magically won't affect her blood pressure or water retention problems. /s
also, in the USA, bread has a ton of sodium in it. So does a lot of cheese.
it often has a ton of sugar too! Subway in Ireland is not allowed to call their product "bread." it has to be labeled "cake" because of how much sugar is in it. I usually stick to sourdough. or rye.
I used to work at Subway. In The USA there was a scandal because a news story about their bread containing the same material used to make yoga mats. I haven't eaten there since. At least European countries give a crap about what their people are being fed. It would be nice if we had that here in the USA. Sourdough has a lot of salt but less sugar than most bread.
The cake thing was a ruling on what tax bracket their sandwiches should be placed in. Subway wanted the lower bracket, the courts said “no it is the higher one”.
I hope Subway bread in Ireland is free of yoga mat foam at least.
I wouldn't have given her that flatbread! If dhe wants to be a pain in the ass, she doesn't deserves flatbread.
I'm sorry you served my mother last night 🫥🙄 The line "I decided I don't get paid enough and got my manager" made me glow inside 😁
Haha, you just made me think of my late Grandma. In her defense, this was near the end of her life when she was suffering from dementia, but she would always tell servers: "I have allergies." "Oh, what are you allergic to?" *waves hand dismissively* She wasn't allergic to shit. One of us would just wave the server over and let them know not to worry about it.
That's adorable but also reminds me of Tony Soprano's mother.
Everytime I watch I realize more and more that Livia is my grandmother to a T (minus the mob stuff).
It be your own family
Thank you for taking things seriously! I can’t have onion (not sure if it’s a full allergy or just an intolerance but I will get sick). I have lost count of how many times I’ve said onion allergy & places seem to work hard to give me extra onions 😡
I’m really sorry you have to deal with that; this is partially due to the situation OP is talking about. I have so many people tell me about onion allergies you’d think it’s super widespread, but half of them at least just don’t like onions and they back track when they realize most the menu has onion in some form. I also take allergies very seriously and some people abuse it. It makes servers think none of them are real, and the real victim in the situation is people with real allergies.
I have a shellfish and salmon allergy. I alerted a manager and my server at Applebees when I went to eat as the dish I was eating came in both chicken and shrimp. I tell them “Hey just a heads up if you grill on the flat top like the one I work in, I need my chicken cooked in a separate pan as I’m allergic to shrimp. Manager says “okay no problem!” I am about to tuck into my dish and I look down before eating to see a shrimp in my chicken dish. Talked to manager and he says “Let me guess you are allergic to shrimp!” Yeah man and I just told you. First time I ever called corporate. I am highly allergy and I know it’s on me too but I did everything I should have. I also worked for the company for six years so I knew allergy protocol. They dropped the ball bad that day. I’m just glad I looked down and caught it. So what did the manager do? Cooked me a new dish that I wanted 45 more mins for. Everyone else was done. No sorry, no discount, nothing. He seemed more put out. I tipped my server well as it literally wasn’t her fault at all and left.
I carry my epipen everywhere. I suggest you consider placing the epipen on the table and say “I just want to have my epipen available while I am waiting for the ambulance in case the kitchen screws up on my “no shellfish” order.
lol 😂 yeah I really should. I don’t admittedly. I know one day that’s going to bite my ass.
Ugh that sucks and yeah shellfish is a serious allergy! My worst experience was ordering a burger from Red Robin. I put onion allergy on the notes and they *added* extra onions that aren’t normally on that burger, buried in the cheese. Haven’t gone near that restaurant since.
Why is that a thing? I have had things like this happen with customers too. It’s always when someone else runs the food too, because if an allergy ticket comes up I will check the food myself to make sure it’s fine. That’s scary though. I’m glad you saw them.
What the actual fuck??
There was a cook at a restaurant I worked at that flat out told me he wouldn’t cook my table’s food in skillets when they had alpha-gal (red meat/dairy allergy) and would cook it on the flat top next to bacon and burgers and was all shocked pikachu face when I went and informed the table that they should leave because the idiot cooking was going to risk their lives because he didn’t want to be inconvenienced. Told them to call corporate and everything. He didn’t wanna do it because four out of five people at the table couldn’t eat anything that had touched red meat and that was just too much effort to literally not kill people. He’d already started their order when I came back and told him they had left but what do you expect?? 4/5 people would have likely left in an ambulance so I wasn’t gonna let that happen. But this was a janky breakfast joint (think Waffle House) so nothing came of it
Yeah I don’t blame you for telling the customer. I would have too.
I saw this so much in restaurant I worked! It freaking was on me to make sure their dish was cooked safely it felt like bc half the time the cooks can’t be bothered! 😕
I have a great aunt who has celiac disease. She can't even be in the kitchen/area where food is being fried because the fumes irritate her skin, nose and throat. She's super paranoid of cross contamination when we go out, and she gets frustrated by servers frustration when she asks a lot of questions about ingredients and cross contamination. She used to try to bring rice cakes with her when we'd go out so she'd have something to eat, but was worried about getting in trouble or outed for bringing outside food into an eatery. She doesn't go out anymore, and if she does (very rare), she won't eat.
Ugh that’s rough. To be fair, I wouldn’t eat either. There’s just too much that can happen and most cooks/servers aren’t familiar with what has gluten and doesn’t. I know a few things but not down to the nitty gritty. I get annoyed when people make me run back to the kitchen several times to check ingredients in things when I’m in the middle of getting my ass handed to me during a dinner rush, but I try to remind myself that it’s for someone’s health.
For sure, I'll always do the runs back to check for allergens if I don't know, that's my job. I never want to hurt anyone. But I'll be a whole lot happier to do it outside of peak hours.
My boyfriend has celiac, but not to that severity. I pride myself in knowing gluten allergens. I've checked syrup labels for people who have informed me of a gluten allergy. I wish people were more thorough while explaining their allergies. I didn't know freaking soy sauce has gluten in it!! That said, we did have one scary experience because of a kitchen error. If the intolerance is that severe, it might be safer to not eat out.
>I didn't know freaking soy sauce has gluten in it!! That depends on the brand. This is also true of ketchup and some types of salad dressing. I once made a gluten-free taco salad for a potluck birthday party for someone with gluten issues. Much reading of ingredient lists ensued, and of course I consulted with the "birthday boy" about known-safe options for some of the ingredients.
This makes me so mad for you and it makes me mad that places you go to give us a bad name. I take allergies very seriously and I could go on a whole thing about this, but it makes my blood boil too much. I just wanted to say that me, OP, and anyone else who takes pride in their job are here to keep you safe from a reaction AND to make sure your meal is great!
Thank you, I very much appreciate that there are people like you who do care. 😊
> I can’t have onion (not sure if it’s a full allergy or just an intolerance but I will get sick). For many people, their onion intolerance is limited to raw. This is because cooking denatures the protein that causes the discomfort to begin with. My wife will get severe stomach pains if she eats raw onion, but will devour a bowl of French Onion soup like it's going out of style.
So far it seems like raw or cooked doesn’t matter. I react to both.
I just discovered raw red onion and I don't agree, but I've never had an issue with cooked onions in my life. I've never been a fan of the bite of raw onions so they've never been a huge part of my meals. But the restaurant I went to last weekend uses an overwhelming amount of raw red onion in their tuna salad.
I always take allergies seriously. After 9 years in hospitality, I’ve learnt that people with allergies will be grateful and willing to work with you, people who are faking will be assholes and moan. No one with a real allergy is going to whinge and make it difficult when I give them safe food options
I don't like bell peppers. Every time I try to modify an order to exclude them, I get double bell peppers. Thank goodness I'm not allergic! All that to say, I don't feel your physical pain, but your emotional pain.
That stinks! I mean, order modifications are for a reason and should be respected! (I also tend to ask for no peppers, I’m not a fan but my friend & I suspect I might also have trouble with those)
It makes getting thai curry other than green challenging. Or eggs. People are desperate to throw bell peppers in omelets.
I am allergic to bell peppers. This sounds horrible. Technically I’m intolerant but anything that makes me spend a week glued to the toilet is an allergy by restaurant standards and no one really needs to know the difference.
I also am highly intolerant (allergic? Idk) of peppers — if anything has been in the vicinity of peppers while cooking, even if they aren’t included in a dish, I will be sick for days. It’s happened so often at brunch where the eggs have been cooked near peppers I shy away from brunch now. I’m also allergic to shellfish, bananas and I believe developing some kind of nut issue bc when I eat certain nuts or nut butters my throat becomes very itchy. The older I get the more food problems I have. It’s frustrating when kitchens don’t take these issues seriously because by the time I realize a mistake has been made I’m already getting sick or in some cases having trouble breathing.
If it’s both bell peppers and bananas check for a latex allergy.
Interesting. Thank you. I’ll look into this.
Latex allergy can also cross react with kiwifruit and avocado. It sucks.
Celery, walnuts and cantaloupe too with a latex allergy. Please have yourself checked for a latex allergy. Thankfully hospitals are latex free now but before it was horrible and some restaurants still use latex gloves, even our hair salon was latex free as I’ve had my allergy for over 40+ years. I know many have talked about allergies and dining out for me it’s too life threatening and nerve wracking. I’ve learned to carry TWO epi pens incase the first one doesn’t work. I learned this from the Red Sneakers for Oakley https://www.redsneakers.org/oakleys-story
I've sat there pulling peppers out so I can eat, but the flavor lingers. I'm so sorry you have the actual allergy. That sucks. I hope you never get my bell pepper luck!
That's crazy. I'd be sending that shit back every single time. WTF is wrong with people??
No idea. Sometimes I think it's that their minds are so busy they miss what's actually said. Or, if you vary from what they expect, everything is thrown off. There have also been language barriers to contend with. There is one thai place where I live now that I'm confident I can get a curry with different vegetables, but that has taken years to find.
It might be because I'm a day's drive from the border, but I don't understand how "no" can be misunderstood. I've worked at multiple places that have an allergy button, and the kitchen is trained on that, even if they aren't fluent in English. I don't know of any language where "no" could mean "extra" or "this specific ingredient is totally fine, I just feel like pushing buttons."
My husband has a raw and cooked onion allergy. I'm sorry!!! It sucks how many places don't taken it seriously. But he is super appreciative of the places that do.
I hate when people do that. As someone with life-threatening allergies, I worry sometimes that servers don't take it seriously because so many people say they have an allergy to something when they really just don't like it or are avoiding eating it. It downplays all of us who have a serious allergy, irritates the kitchen staff and servers, and can even bring the kitchen to a halt, trying to clean an area so there's no cross contamination. I appreciate every server and restaurant who takes it seriously, but as one of my allergies is peanuts, I won't go to a Thai restaurant for instance because they have peanuts in everything and it's not fair for me to expect them to serve me uncontaminated food.
I have really awful allergies. No quite life-threatening/epi-pen levels, but the reaction gets worse with every exposure. And they are "unusual" allergies. Allergy-liars are the bane of my existence and I'm so sick of getting side-eye from wait staff when I disclose my allergies.
I have a child in my nursery that has 17 allergies- some of them are VERY random. Do you know how many things contain pea fibre?! It's insane
Yeah, same. I have un-diagnosed Celiac (I feel like I got hit by a bus and have hangover symptoms that last for days if I have something that's even just cross-contaminated, so I don't need a doctor to confirm anything with me). But I have other sensitivities to things like corn, certain seed oils, etc. that many don't take seriously. I ordered scrambled eggs at my own work and specified that I need them cooked in pure butter, not oil, and the guy on the line thought it was stupid and just used oil anyway. I only had one bite and my face was flushed, and I felt like crap and lightheaded. I had to leave work early, and the guy ended up getting fired (not by my recommendation, but management was furious because that could've been a guest and something much more severe). I just believe that we should take all sensitivities and allergies seriously, even if they won't kill someone. There's a reason they're saying them. Unless it's really obviously BS like this lady I had who claimed she can't have her steak cooked in its own fat because of her gluten allergy. There's no gluten in that. lol
I read an old Reddit story about a young girl who was sleeping over at her grandparents’ house. She was allergic to coconut, grandma smeared coconut oil on her hair and gave her OTC medicine to ‘muffle’ the allergic reaction before bed. >!The girl died in her sleep, and the family is broken.!<
https://rareddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/comments/7qmed5/you_can_come_over_again_when_you_bring_me_my
I read an old Reddit story about a young girl who was sleeping over at her grandparents’ house. She was allergic to coconut, grandma smeared coconut oil on her hair and gave her OTC medicine to ‘muffle’ the allergic reaction before bed. >!The girl died in her sleep, and the family is broken.!< Thanks, u/LabradorSmartphone for linking the story!
My SIL tells servers she's allergic to gluten. She is not. She chooses to avoid it. So after the server made.sure there was no gluten in her meal, and dessert order time, she orders the brownie. The server says, "that can't be made gluten free". My SIL says that's fine, she isn't really allergic... 😡 We didn't see the server again and the manager took over the table. I'm sure the server was ready to throttle her! I sure was!
I'm right there with you on that too. I won't step foot into a 5guys, don't eat thai, etc... The only exception that I make, because it's never seemed to be cross contaminated is places that serve kung pao, never had any issues with any japanese place that served it, never cross contaminated or anything.
Yep - we were going to 5 Guys for the first time and before I entered I saw the peanut shells and said "nope!"
1st time I went, I t wax new store near my house, so I entered and then that peanutty scent hit me and I looked around and turned and left
Husband is allergic to eggs, like anaphylaxis, always informs as soon as we're seated. The number of times he's been given salads with chopped eggs is insane. What's worse is when we get dropped a "fresh" with egg bits they didn't pick out. He won't touch it and one server admitted they just assumed he meant he didn't like it. He stays calm, I struggle not to lose my shit.
My friend doesn’t eat gluten. She isn’t allergic to it. When we go out for dinner she asks the server for the gluten free choices. Then she immediately tells the server that it isn’t an allergy, just a choice. Don’t worry about cross contamination.
This is what I do, I'm intolerant to tomatoes, I'll get a migraine and it sets off my stomach but I'm not gonna get anaphylaxis so I'm always really clear I want to avoid it but they don't need to be avoiding cross contamination etc. in however many times I've eaten out I've only had a problem once, they actually only lasted a few months so I think they had a lot of issues anyways!
Same with me and the allium family. I always tell servers I’m intolerant but make sure to emphasize that I’m not in any sort of “real” danger if I ingest any. I will just have horrible stomach aches, but usually the honesty makes them more willing to believe me.
I mentioned this too. I don’t like nuts and it’s such a common allergy I’m very clear it’s a preference so they don’t have to stress about any contamination issues. And luckily they are usually just a topping and easy to leave off. If they are baked in something I just don’t order it.
I’m mildly intolerant to gluten and I do the same thing. Like yeah, it could probably be considered an allergy, but I tell them not to sweat it too much since I’m not Celiac and it takes multiple glutened meals for me to start getting sick. Especially since sometimes I cave and get gluten anyways, I really do treat it like a preference. Not my place to ask for crazy vigilance on it if I don’t hold myself to that standard either!
I really wish it was acceptable to ask people, when they announce an allergy, "is this a genuine allergy, or pretend?" I have started asking upfront about the severity of the allergy, and explain that severe allergies will be taken seriously, and so have a much longer ticket time. People with genuine allergies will be happy to hear that they'll be taken care of, and pretenders or those with a mild intolerance will not want their food held up. Usually.
Here's how the conversation went when I was a restaurant manager (all allergy notifications were required to get a manager). Me: "Allergy or preference?" Karen: "Why does it matter?" Me: "Because if it's allergy your tables food will take an extra 30-45 minutes longer since we have to shut down the line and sanitize it before making your tables order to prevent cross contamination. We also can't have anyone at your table order anything with that ingredient for that same reason." Karen: "Well, in that case, preference."
Should be able to add this to the menu: "Lying about allergies just because you don't like an ingredient will result in a 50% surcharge for your entire party. If you just don't like something, just say so."
I wish we could have done that where I used to work lol
Same vein as “is this a genuine service animal, or pretend?” 🙃 sorry we can’t accommodate your labradoodle that’s yipping and peeing under your chair.
With my wife's allergies and intolerances, we have to be very specific. "Raw onion is out (severe intolerance) but fully cooked onion is fine. Raw ginger will send her to the ER, but ginger powder is ok." And of course we found out the hard way once that she has an allergy to horseradish; thankfully the ER was only a few minutes down the road, but I still had to literally carry her through the entry doors in my arms.
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Once at Capital Grille, despite being told no raw onion, for some reason they decided to use a giant raw onion ring as a garnish on her filet. Before sending it back, I made sure to make a screwed up cut into the meat to ensure that they didn't just take the onion off and bring her the same piece back. I think they thought she was lying because she also had the French Onion soup as an appetizer and wanted to fuck with her.
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Agreed 100% with all of this! As someone with celiac disease I don’t mind when they ask because it usually means that they will put in the work to prevent cross contamination as much as they can when they ask this.
Yes!! Co-workers rarely understand but through my own relaxed allergy situations they have often come to understand. With my dairy intolerance I can eat dairy and not die, but if I have too much I will be shitting my brains out rather than working. I know what will set me off more such as cream or cheese days in a row so it's worth not dismissing just because I can tolerate SOME. Then my nut allergy, I won't die... But it makes me miserable and causes pain so please don't be ridiculous but also don't leave the trace of satay on the food you accidentally plated then wiped off because I said it won't kill me. I get mouth sores for days, headaches and stomach pain. Just because I wont die doesn't mean I'm making it up. I genuinely just say no when they ask because I can eat some nuts better than others and it's too much to explain and I see the panic in their eyes about nut allergies.
I get that with banana and kiwi. Even cooked banana. Takes till the last bite of the muffin, but still. I get a burning feeling in my mouth and lips and bumps on my tongue.
>if asked, I might say "No carrots in the salad, I'm allergic" but still want cooked carrots as a side. Couldn't you specify raw carrot instead of just carrot? I have OAS and have no problem saying that raw apples/pears/peaches/cherries/whichever-thing-is-most-likely-to-show-up cause me to itch but am okay if thing is cooked. Your omission of the word "raw" to the server when explaining you have an allergy to raw carrots comes off as trying to cause unneccessary confusion and resentment (like OP's) when you then order cooked carrot. Interestingly, for me raw carrots don't cause any itchiness but they do taste terrible in my opinion.
Yeah, when I worked at a place that took it seriously, we were encouraged to ask if it's a sensitivity or something anaphylactic just so we can ensure there's no chance of cross-contamination. Like a sensitivity, you can probably get away with a gluten-free food going into the fryer that also fried gluten items, but severe Celiac, you can't. It's good to have clarity so you know what you're up against.
I've got a couple of v annoying unusual allergies (including cinammon which has got way harder to manage the last few years of everyone dumping cinammon in everything) that aren't anaphalactic but will either cause violent throwing up (pine nuts) or cause intestinal damage and about a week of pain. Had some cool tests done and yep allergy, just doesn't cause the can't breathe stuff. It's a horror show trying to explain pine nuts, cinammon, and alliums to servers. They won't kill me, but they'll debilitate me for a couple of hours (pine nuts) to around a week, depending on the volume. I usually say allergy but non-anaphalactic so don't panic too much that I'm gonna die at the table. Best ever was a 2 Michelin star restaurant that made me an entire tasting menu without anything in and I love them for that. They were so excited to give me each course and I had an amazing time. Other than that, I basically only eat out and have bread! Who knew there was so many alliums in so much food. And that cinammon isn't a declared listed spice!
Right and celiac can sometimes have no symptoms with exposure (but still internal damage), or the symptoms can take up to more than a full day to appear. And lots of people aren’t even aware of this themselves when they have celiac. Even though there can be varying severities of *symptoms* celiac is celiac, no one really has it worse than someone else.
Yeah, exactly. A lot of people benefit from removing gluten even when they weren’t necessarily having severe reactions.
I always approached it as "what is the nature of your allergy? Severe, intolerance, or distaste?" Most people clarified a distaste but there were several times people would claim severe and get upset when I followed safety guidelines to the T. Best story I have is a woman who claimed to be strict vegan (super doable in Italian just some more hoops for the line) and was getting upset that she couldn't get a "plain" spaghetti (ours was made with chicken stock so we couldn't just take it out). I offered pasta with olive oil and pepper and she straight up says "olive oil, butter, whatever, just something good!!" 🙃 Homegirl, vegan is strict and I'm gonna be too now that you've shown your truth.
That's smart!
It's also frustrating when someone is clearly lying or BS'ing about an allergy. I had a woman come into a steakhouse I was working at and claim a gluten allergy. She said this in reference to not being able to have any oil on her food. Now unless I'm unaware of a new wheat-based oil, there literally is not an oil that has gluten in it. I reassured her that there is no gluten in any oil and that our steaks are cooked in their own tallow (fat) anyway. She said that's *exactly* what she can't have because of her allergy and that I need to trust her because she's been gluten-free for a year. I very kindly told her I have Celiac, so she can trust me that I would never mislead her because I've been navigating restaurant menus for half my life. She completely shut up there. Another woman at the same restaurant claimed an onion allergy, then proceeded to order our soup of the day which had onions pureed into it. No way to substitute or remove them. I told her this, and then she said, "Oh, I can have onions when they're pureed." I refused to serve it to her because she said *allergy.* It's clear that she just doesn't like onions and wanted to be able to really affirm that she doesn't want them, but that definitely bit her in the butt when she couldn't get the soup she wanted. I don't like having those arguments, but if you're going to make up an allergy, at least know what the hell it is so you can be consistent. And be honest. It's just silly. I take allergies very seriously, so it's just annoying when you're being weird about it. If someone claims an onion allergy, I confirm if it's just onion or all allium. Tomato allergy? Is it also all nightshades? I'm happy to do everything I can to accommodate you because I have my own dietary sensitivities, but again, just be up-front and don't BS things. I definitely understand making up an allergy if you really, really, really cannot have something for whatever reason because more often than not, servers don't take it that seriously. But you also better know what you're pretending to have because when you get someone that does know all about it, you're going to look pretty foolish.
raw onions vs cooked onions can react differently in allergies just saying
...and what does that have to do with pureed onions? Lmfao. She said she can have them when they're pureed - that's literally just putting it in a blender or food processor. It's a different texture, not a different composition.
I have low-level food allergies. As in, they are technically allergies in that they cause a histamine reaction, but usually I just get the sniffles. The only thing that bothers me is if I ask for gluten-free I get the response of “is this an allergy or a preference, because if it’s an allergy we have to shut down and clean the kitchen before making yours.” It rankles my OCD to lie and say it’s not an allergy when technically it is, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to force them to shut down the kitchen during a lunch rush so I can avoid a stuffy nose. My point is that “allergy” is a very dangerous word to throw around in a restaurant, don’t use it unless you absolutely need to.
So ridiculous, I hate it too. I had this lady come in to my bar one day and told me her friend was meeting her there, but also that her friend is super allergic to natural wines. We are literally a natural wine bar. She wanted me to choose a bottle for them, before her friend got there. I asked her more about the allergy, like how severe which she informed me it was really severe, then if they have had natural wine before. She said at a different wine bar. I asked if she knew exactly what it was in the wine that made her allergic, she had no idea. I told her I didn’t feel comfortable serving her natural wine when her friend is allergic, and I wanted to wait to speak with her friend personally for more details when she arrived. She was arguing with me about it. Her friend eventually comes and is telling me the same thing, I continue to tell them I don’t feel comfortable. They ask me if we have any wines that aren’t natural, I inform them they came to… a natural wine bar lol that’s when they both started back peddling about how it actually wasn’t that bad and her face just turns red, and that it was totally ok to serve them some sort of rose.
What’s the difference between natural and regular wine?
Natural wine, there are very few to no interferences in the process of making it. So no pesticides, no additives, nothing added for clarity.
Soooo, it should be safer then? No sulfa and stuff?
So no sulfates? I’m going to have to try this. Normal wines give me an instant hangover/headache
People who fake allergies and medical conditions because they don't like the flavour of something are human garbage, they just make things for those with actual allergies and conditions terrible.
I worked at a Jason's deli in a rich snobby area. I had worked there for like a month and never had anyone ask for gluten free anything (mainly I suppose because if someone literally couldn't eat gluten they wouldn't be going to a sandwich place). Then I can't remember if it was someone on Oprah or The Doctors or Oz or whoever, but I remember hearing that one of them on some daytime pseudoscience talkshow was saying that 'oh actually gluten is extremely bad for you'. Within that week we went from an average of 0 people to about 1 in ever 3 orders needed gluten free. So we would have to stop working on anything else, sanitize the while area, go get the special allergy station down, make one special sandwich, sanitize everything again and put it away. Not working on any other orders for about 10 minutes. Multiple times a shift. And the part that made me absolutely lose my mind once, was after all of this, one of them ended up getting a cookie. When I noticed her pick it up and bring it to the register I pointed out it wasn't gluten free and she said 'oh that's fine, I can have a little.'
It's not that hard to tell your server you hate an ingredient, or are sensitive to it... Like why lie?? It's so much extra work for the cooks/preps to clean and change everything
I think a lot of people don't realize that the line has to be shut down and sanitized. which is why it's a good idea for the server to clarify how severe the allergy is or if it's an intolerance. green bell peppers give me stomach cramps. I deal with it by not ordering things that contain them. I might ask they not be included in a salad but I'm not going to ask for modifications beyond that. I just get something else.
Thank you, OP, for taking allergies seriously. I have an anaphylactic allergy to alcohol and take extraordinary precautions prior to going out anywhere (I take antihistamines before leaving my house and carry an elipen). The number of times that people argue with me stating that “the alcohol cooks off” is mind boggling. That’s like telling someone with a peanut allergy that you wiped the bowl. People like this customer put those of us with real allergies and intolerances in danger everyday. Just state that you don’t like garlic (or whatever), order something that doesn’t have it or eat a somewhere else.
As a parent of child who has a life threatening food allergy, Thank You. To every one who uses "I have an Allergy" to get special treatment or try to manipulate a menu, F### You
Absolutely. I’m not going to get sued or let my restaurant take a hit or a bad review because someone lies about an allergy. I take them seriously, and if you lie you better believe that you will still be treated as if you have one too.
I used to say I was allergic to shellfish as it seemed simpler. I'm really just intolerant, which is much less of a problem than EpiPend and getting rushed to the hospital. Now I just say No shellfish. I don't really eat seafood anyway, so its not normally a problem. I do miss Lenten fish fries, though.
Well, allergies can always change and sometimes even if you’re intolerant, if you continuously eat that food you may make the allergy worse. I think it would be acceptable for you to tell servers you’re allergic.
I don’t see this as an issue either. It’s in the same vein that it makes you sick, just not epi pen sick. I feel like intolerance is a sort of allergy in and of itself, the body is rejecting it - just in a different, slightly less deadly form.
I don't think this is wrong. I have sensitivities/intolerances that won't kill me but still make me feel bad enough that I actively avoid them entirely. I say I'm allergic just so there's no chance they'll not care and give it to me anyway.
I'm this way with fish and wet eggs, but I highly dislike peanuts and cherries. So I'll casually say I can't have peanuts which taste nasty to me the same way I'll say egg whites Must be cooked through. One time I had the sweetest waitress come back looking very nervous because the chef couldn't guarantee there would be no cross contamination of the peanuts, and I felt so bad having to backtrack a bit stating that I really really just hated their taste and that it was okay. Seriously, I can pick the taste of a tiny bit of peanut out, and it ruins the entire dish for me.
My BIL tells servers that he's "allergic to onions" because he doesn't like them. I know that because he proudly told us that this is his way of making sure they don't put onions in his food. He is always such a dick about it; he will make a huge deal about it to the server, and he refuses to touch anything with visible onions in it, like if they accidentally leave an onion slice in his burger, he will send it back instead of just picking off the damn onion. I use onion powder in my homemade pasta sauce - you can't really taste the onions per se, it just enhances overall flavor. I totally plan on serving it to him (if he ever visits us, he lives in a different state), and I'm willing to bet money he won't notice. Allergic, my ass. I feel bad for people with true garlic allergies. I knew a guy like that, and he was so limited as to what he could eat. We were part of a group that did potlucks on a regular basis, and we would try and make sure that at least a few dishes had absolutely no garlic, otherwise he'd be stuck eating nothing but dessert (no, it's not nearly as much fun as it sounds :)
I remember once spending FOREVER with a woman trying to figure out a perfect gluten-free meal for her. I went back and forth with the kitchen multiple times and finally we figured out just what she wanted. Then the bread came out and she demanded a piece as well! I could have choked her with it
Oh God and then there was the lady who was allergic to "big tomatoes but small ones were fine"
the whole 'if you don't like something, just tell people you're allergic to it' thing is what needs to die, this is just a symptom of it. just teach people to be honest, and teach other people to accept it when someone says 'I really don't like that'.
I do the same thing with allergies. If you don’t want to be treated like you have a serious allergy, don’t lie about it. Someone who truly has an allergy appreciates the effort. People who don’t make themselves look like assholes for lying. You don’t even have to try.
I’m from the UK and everyone had to change the way they dealt with allergies after a customer died from eating a mis-labelled sandwich at Pret. This happened just after that took place. We serve 3 different types of soup with a bread roll or a pre-packaged gluten free bread roll, I had a customer ask which soups were gluten free. I had to ask her to wait while I found someone who was level 3 food safety trained to discuss her options. I carry on serving other customers while she speaks with my coworker, which takes a while, and my coworker eventually serves her a suitable soup with a gluten free roll. As soon as my coworker leaves, this customer comes back to me and asks if she can have the other bread roll because she doesn’t like the gluten free one. I apologise and tell her that it contains gluten and she deadass looks me in the eye and says “oh, I’m not allergic to that type of gluten”.
I am severely allergic to sourdough bread, mildly intolerant to white bread, but rye doesn’t bother me at all, so I try to get that but places don’t usually have it
That’s fair, and I will do my absolute most for people with allergies and intolerance, but she made it pretty clear that it was a preference after my coworker who gave her all the allergy advice had left.
Rye bread isn't made with 100% rye flour. It's made with wheat flour with anywhere between 10-30% rye flour. I wonder what is it about the rye flour that cancels out your intolerance to wheat flour.
It may be the sulfate aka reduced iron. I know the problem I have with wine is because of sulfate, so…🤷🏻♀️
These people ruin for everyone with an actual allergies. I dislike nuts and if I see them as a topping I say “I’m not allergic but can you leave them off?” I don’t want them to go through a crazy allergy protocol because I just want them left off a salad.
I managed two separate Friendly’s locations. Because it’s a corporation and a large bulk of our sales included nuts and dairy (and the entire place specifically caters to children), there were serious protocols in place. All of the servers and BOH staff were wonderful at complying. Any time an allergy was mentioned, it was understood that a manager was to come by *before* the order was entered into POS to verify everything, oversee cooking/assembling, be there for delivery, and check in after a few bites. The amount of times that I was “called off” by clientele was staggering. They’d often immediately admit that there was no actual allergy, just a strong dislike. Too bad, we had a strict regimen to follow and often had Secret Shoppers dining or district managers visiting. If you uttered “allergy,” we weren’t allowed to give you anything with the ingredient and followed our strict procedure. I guarantee none of those lying did it ever again, as it held up the entire group’s order. Washing and sanitizing all tools, scrubbing the flat top, absolutely nothing from the fryer or fountain (ice cream) area, manager must be available to aid in ordering, cooking and food delivery. So many incredibly grateful people who became regulars (because they actually had allergies and finally found a safe place that they could eat), so many being ribbed by their fellow guests for blatantly lying about a possible life-threatening situation. I wish all restaurants handled things in this manner. It took the burden off of the wait staff and assured safe dining for those with allergies.
Where I work, the printer in the kitchen prints a chit when a guest is seated if they've added an allergy tag on their reservation. If I ring something in that has that that allergen, chef calls me over to clarify. It happens so much that people say "Oh, I just don't like shrimp" or "I just try to avoid it" that we have a mod that says "Ignore allergy note" that I add to each dish that I know contains that allergen. It's so stupid.
This is why im very specific about onions. Im intolerant to raw/cooked onions. But CAN have onion powder. So thats what i tell the server when they come by so i dont look like the customer above.
I completely agree with that. If they tell you they are allergic and then you serve it to them (even if they backtrack), you can be sued and potentially found liable. As for the customer, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Once had a lady order a burger with “NO tomatoes because I am super allergic!! They can’t even touch my burger!” I made sure to flag her order and went back to tell the line cooks in person too. Came back and she’s chowing down on the chips and salsa 🙄
CUSTO- No onions! Severely allergic! Me- What do you want for your side? Custo- Ohhh, onion rings. Eye rolllllll
You should take it seriously and you handled it appropriately. Personally I'll take all the garlic you've got in the restaurant and more!
Just ate a giant plate of Shitake Mushroom Garlic Noodles. Pretty sure I am immune to vampires for the rest of my life!
I have a weird food allergy (melons), and I can always see servers look at me questioningly, like I’m making it up, and people like this are why. If there’s even the smallest chance that my food has touched something I’m allergic to, I’m not going to eat it because I don’t want to spend the evening in the hospital after using an epipen. Good on you for doing this. People like this make it harder for people like me to order food safely. I hope she’s learned her lesson.
A lot of people aren’t informed about difference between allergies and intolerance, which are two different things, one can kill you other usually glues you to a toilet. Now a days all restaurants are taking allergies extremely seriously in a sense that there are completely separate set of utensils just for making food without cross contamination. Also in last couple of places ive worked there is a separate track list of full details for each guest served with allergies(time,date,table no., seat no, guest name, server name, chef name and manager/executive chef sign off on dish served, even just server will run food for that table to reduce cross contamination chance). Its always a mandatory first question about allergies and intolerance.
I just wish customers would be honest. Save all that trouble. Had a lady with an 'MSG Allergy", which is just code for racist and ignorant. I wouldn't give her ketchup and made sure no caesar dressing went on her caesar salad. Customer service Barbie it.
I have a friend with an actual MSG allergy. He would appreciate that you know not to give him ketchup and Caesar salad dressing. :)
Foods with naturally occurring MSG: Carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, grapes, anchovies, squid, clams, oysters, red meat, chicken, cured ham, egg yolk, cheese, potato chips, peas, walnuts, molasses, sugarcane, beets, mushrooms, seaweed, green tea, corn, marmite, vegimite, oysters sauce, kimchi, miso, soy sauce... MSG is also naturally produced in the human body, and it's an essential neurotransmitter in the brain. Are you sure your friend is really allergic to MSG?
Ugh. This is so annoying and frustrating for people that DO have legitimate allergies, because they're often not taken seriously about it in the future.
We had someone with a tomato allergy once that got mad cause we had to take longer preparing their food cause they needed all separate utensils. 😂 like, do you want to be safe or not?
This should be the standard reaction
People like this lady are the reason that people like me with legit allergies don’t get taken seriously
I always ask if the item they don't want is an allergy or preference and explain it because I need to think about cross contamination. I've not had an angry guest, and usually, it's a preference.
There are truly people with severe food allergies out there. My 13 year old has celiac disease and it is so limiting for him and us in so many ways. Thank you for taking these allergies seriously, in spite of the assholes.
I have a sensitivity to peppercorn and fresh ground pepper. I get immediate severe acid reflux. I tell waitstaff I have a sensitivity, not an allergy. I found that phrasing very helpful. They know they don't have to worry about cross contamination, but to leave pepper off my food. FYI downing a few straight sugar packets usually calms the acid.
People like them make *my* life so much harder too, I have an anaphylactic allergy to seafood and the amount of people who falsely claim an allergy put people like me at risk of not being taken seriously and getting sick or dying as a result
For like 6 months, I was on a smoothie kick. Almost every place uses banana in their smoothies. I. Hate. Bananas. Like with a passion. But every time I'd ask to sub it for strawberries and I'd clarify that it was not an allergy, just a preference so they didn't feel the need to do any extra steps. But damn, bananas are disgusting.
Fuck yes! I've never encountered a fellow banana hater. Seriously, with a fiery passion. The smell, the taste, the texture. Strangely enough, I'm not fully disgusted by the smell of banana bread. Are there any other fruits you find nasty?
I love banana bread actually! Especially if it has chocolate chips and cream cheese. Lol. As for other fruits, I mainly eat berries.
Hi! No banana in any form- natural or flavored for me. Texture, smell and taste - ick!!! Aldo on my list avocados (texture) and eggs. Don’t care how they are cooked - nope, nope, nope. Also no soufflés or quiches - am one of those people who ends up with several sides for breakfast at a restaurant. 🤷🏻♀️
This is an unnecessary round about way of her asking you to go light on the garlic and trying to ensure you comply. Meanwhile if she just said that you’d have asked the kitchen to do so
Just say "without garlic please". And if the restaurant can't accommodate, suck it up or order something else. I had a roommate who has digestive distress whenever she ate any garlic and onions. So if she inhaled the aroma of it cooking, she was fine. The rest of us mainline that stuff, we love it so much. My roommate, an adult, did not make it anyone else's problem. She was always careful at restaurants and never threw a fit about not being able to eat something due to that. I have a sensitivity to certain foods and just, you know, don't order stuff with those foods in it.
Many, many years ago I used to joke about being allergic to carroway (I absolutely fucking hate it). I don't anymore. Cringe. I've grown up since.
To be fair, many years ago you had to tell the kitchen you were allergic to get them to actually remove something from the dish.
That is the key, just be honest with your server. If you don't like something, that's fucking fine. But if you claim you're allergic to something and backtrack it, or on some fad diet that you can't eat any carbs or gluten or whatever, then order what is suggested. Backtracking just hurts people with actual allergies. And if you tell us your diet and you go completely off of it, just makes you look like an idiot.
Idiot. She got what she deserved. Maybe next time she'll do the logic thing and just say she doesn't like garlic.
This is why I have a list on me of safe options for certain allergies.
I don’t think I could be friendly with someone who pulled this type of stunt.
Why lie about this period? I get not wanting certain things but just ask for something without that thing. Like I don’t like onions on my burgers but I’m not going to say I’m allergic, damn
I do catering with a regular 10 choice menu. I remember one lady saying she couldn’t have anything on our menu because she was gluten free(we have gf options on the menu) and then demanded plain pasta as a substitute. Like if you have the palate of a 10 yr old just say so damn
I don’t like onions. I will literally puke when I bite into a bit of raw onion. I still won’t tell servers that I’m allergic, because I’m not.
I have minor food allergies that just make my mouth itch and sadly I've learned to NOT tell the server about them because they pull this. And I get it, yall don't want to be liable. But I'll just ask for things like "nuts on the side" and then don't eat them. Sometimes though, if someone says they're allergic but can actually have it in certain formats, they're not lying.
I am allergic to tomatoes. But, I can eat some BBQ sauces and hunts canned spaghetti sauce in moderation. I think it’s because the super processed method to make it kills whatever in tomatoes triggers my system. I also have sensitivity to some other stuff, but can eat in moderation. It gets frustrating at times because I may order the “gluten free” dish to lower gluten, but be fine having a little of x item that also has gluten. (Gluten seems to be triggering intestinal issues for me, but I am not Celiac, AFAIK. Still trying to figure out if it’s dairy or gluten causing the issue.)
I’m happy you take allergies seriously! I have a gluten intolerance that I thought was Celiac at first. So I used to treat gluten like an allergen, then learned that cross contamination doesn’t really bother me. There’s a family diner in my town and the food is amazing, but I always felt like crap after eating there. I couldn’t figure it out! Over a year later a new waitress mentioned the fries are flour coated! 😑I’m only having tater tots now and I don’t get sick…
Traditional tater tots and store-bought frozen tater tots are typically not gluten-free. Standard tater tot recipes include wheat-based ingredients in the coating to achieve a crispy texture and flour in the potato mixture to bind the tots. As far as I know, only Ore-Ida brand tater tots are gluten-free!
I'm severely allergic to Lavender but love London fogs. I'm always very grateful if the baristas are truthful about their blends of tea upfront. Thank you for taking allergies seriously!!
Thank you for being this kind of server. Sincerely, Someone with Celiac Disease, who will likely be hospitalized or sick in bed for weeks if she gets exposed to gluten, and is always scared the server/kitchen won't take it seriously
This shit is so annoying. I agree.
🙌
I despise fakers who pull this crap!!! It makes your job that much harder!!!
I have a very distinct memory from my childhood of my dad throwing a fit in a restaurant and sending back a steak with a pineapple slice then demanding a fresh one made because he was “deathly allergic” and they initially just removed it. imagine my confusion and annoyance when a few weeks ago (at least 20 years later) he mentions eating pineapple lately and really enjoying it… so basically yeah I’m totally on your side
I think it’s really important to take allergies seriously but also remember that sometimes people have intolerances or digestive problems that are not anaphylaxis, but will absolutely ruin their night. Sometimes (non-anaphylactic) people can decide to risk it, or that it’s worth it, like a lactose-intolerant person deciding they really want ice cream. A lot of the trickiest food allergies, like gluten, dairy, nightshades, and alliums, tend to fall in this category, and it’s really unfortunate because your choice is between having a night of discomfort (like, eating a tiny bit of garlic and having gas/shits for a few hours), eating the single thing on the menu that doesn’t have garlic which you didn’t want in the first place, or not going out at all. And meanwhile service people will say, if you can’t eat garlic eat at home. I know it’s frustrating to serve people who shift goal posts on what they can eat but imo it’s also important to remember from their perspective they might be shifting the goal posts from “eat great meal without shitting myself” to “eat thing I really want and just shit myself a little”.
Just to clarify with the gluten, if someone has celiac, it’s much more than just digestive problems as internal damage is occurring that puts them at risk of potentially life threatening complications. Non celiac gluten sensitivity is more like what you’re describing and less of those people say it’s an allergy compared to celiac, but if they’re sensitive enough they still might. Just wanted to clarify :) Edit to add: I see you said “tend” so that’s my bad, but leaving this up just in case it’s helpful to someone!
Couldn't agree more. It makes it incredibly difficult for people with clinical food allergies to be taken seriously if people claim an allergy when they have an intolerance or even food preference. Pisses me off.
I somewhat understand her…. I hate onions now since I had Covid, even one can contaminate a whole dish. But no one respects this unless I tell them I’m “allergic”. That’s the only thing most people seem to comprehend Otherwise, on more than one occasion, onions have found their way into my food. I want them treated like peanuts or human hairs — 0. However, that runs the risk of what happened with this lady… :\ But, I understand your side too
Is she a vampire? That would explain her garlic "allergy"
So, to play devils advocate, I have a friend who is allergic to garlic and onions, but only in their natural form, not as garlic/onion powder or flavoring. She is the furthest thing from picky or a drama queen, so I believe this is a true allergy. Of course she's also not stupid, so would tell a server exactly what she was allergic to and (going back to not a drama queen) would happily take the options offered...
I was a line cook at a Mexican place, and a guy came in and said he was allergic to cilantro! A server came back and asked if there was anything that didn't have cilantro. Nope! It's a Mexican restaurant! There's cilantro in every dish! Turns out he's just one of those people that tastes soap when they eat cilantro. He had the chicken taco plate. (The chicken was marinated in cilantro!)
This is malicious compliance done right. Allergies should always be taken this seriously. Good on you OP.
I have a bunch of intolerances that can make me feel shitty- as well as celiac disease. I believe it is fair for me to voice that fact, and up to me to make the call as to whether or not I want to go with a certain dish based on how much of something is in it
a few nights ago i had some customer say they absolutely couldn't have dairy but then decided to get garlic butter with their steak and said "aw a little bit should be right"
Sometimes it’s easier to say “I have an allergy but cross contamination is okay” than to say “I have a sensitivity that will aggravate my eczema and give me a rash but I can tolerate a little bit so cross contamination is okay, but I really try to avoid it if I can, and we’ve been out all day and I’m starving, and I know the wait is 30 minutes, but it’s my fastest option, and you’re not my doctor, so don’t try to tell me what I can and can’t eat because I know my body better than you.”