Eating out with a dairy free child

[melonribena]

My partner and I used to eat out a lot before ds was born. Nothing fancy, the local Chinese/pub/sainsburys cafe!

Now ds is almost 12 months old and is eating proper meals instead of purees and bits of finger food we would love to go out a bit as a family.

Unfortunately, his milk and egg allergy has made this challenging and I generally take him a little pack up of food.

I would love for him to eat the food out but I worry about his allergies.

Can anyone with experience of eating out with people who have milk and egg allergies recommend places or even specific items that they have ordered.

Thanks in advance

[quoteunquote]

find places like this and you will find some great food, they always have good vegan food.

google vegan restaurants, because I would never risk food anywhere else with a dairy egg allergy child.

[Miggs28]

I would take him to wagamamas, they do childrens meals there and I am lactose intolerant so avoid dairy and they always have plenty on the menu for me so i'm sure they would have something for your DS to eat.

[trixymalixy]

DS is allergic to milk, eggs, nuts, sesame snd legumesI find that chains are safest. The food is the same all over the country and usually they have an allergy book you can look at.

We have eaten without incident in wagamamas, Nandos, Frankie and Bennys and table table to name a few. Pizza express will do pizzas without the cheese on.

It's maybe not exactly fine dining, but at least it'll be safe if you are nervous about it.

[superoz]

DD is allergic to egg, dairy, nuts and fish. We have been to Nandos, Pizza Express, Carluccios, Wahaca and Jamie's Italian.
At most coffee shops we are limited to juice, crisps and fruit salad, although at the M&S cafe they sell a kids microwave bolognese meal which they have in the shop and is egg and dairy free which was a find!

We also go to independent pubs and restaurants where they can usually adapt a dish or cook up something and we keep it simple e.g. grilled chicken fillet/steak with chips/potatoes and steamed veg (no butter), or a half-sized Sunday Roast with no Yorkshire pudding. The last time we went to an Italian and their bolognese used butter, so they did a simple spaghetti with tomato sauce for her.
We still do scrutinise the food when it comes though, there have been a couple of times we found the veg on her plate had butter, or they'd put cheese on, but these have been quite easy to spot.

[freefrommum]

DS allergic to milk, wheat, eggs & nuts plus DD coeliac so eating out isn't easy but we do manage it sometimes! I like chains where the allergy info is available online so I can check the menu beforehand. We regularly eat in Table Table, Beefeater, Ask and Bella Italia. I've also heard that Nando's and TGI Fridays are good too. Just make sure you explain the situation clearly to the person serving you when you order and double check when they bring the food. Most places have an allergy info book/folder that you can have a look at too.

[vvviola]

DD2 is allergic to dairy & egg.

We eat out a lot. DH is particularly keen on brunch out at the weekend, which is particularly tricky as the breakfast/brunch foods are very dairy/egg reliant.

What tends to work for us is: small cafes where everything is made from scratch. They're more likely to be able to adapt things than bigger places. In some places the chef will come out and chat (as I'm still bf, I'm off dairy & egg too), which is great.

I don't generally find chains all that great - they tend to be less flexible I've found, unless they have something that happens to be dairy & egg free.

I've (reluctantly) stayed away from most Asian restaurants here - partly because language issues have made things difficult and partly because there have been a few instances when we've been told something is dairy & egg free only to find it's not. (Although there is one Thai restaurant nearby with brilliant staff who have never let us down yet)

At lunch time sandwich places are usually the best bet. Although we did discover that here in NZ at least a McDonalds hamburger is dairy & egg free so we eat rather more McDonalds than I am happy with