do restaurants cater for people with allergies?

[Pippinthedog]

my son has a milk and egg allergy and we always struggle to eat out.Does anyone out there know of any places that can cater for a young allergic child!.

When we went to Bella Pasta for my Mum's 60th birthday, they supplied a very comprehensive ingredients list for their menu - my sister is allergic to nuts and her daughter can't have dairy. We had to give them some notice obviously and this was a few years ago but they might be worth a try.
Good luck

MIL has a very very restricted diet; she just looks at the menu, works out what ingredients they have and asks for a meal using those... Quite often we end up with the chef coming out to talk to her while she grills him about the contents of the dishes that look interesting to her. She can have milk and a little butter but no cream, eggs, other fats, meat, alcohol, nuts, spices, strawberries, pineapple, spinach ...

She does manage to find food to eat though (although not places like Pizza Hut where they don't have the raw ingredients!). Admittedly she is an adult and therefore resigned to eating what she can get - she does eat jacket potato and salad a lot! Bit harder with a child I guess.

I think one of the reasons it works for MIL is that she is totally confident - it does not appear to occur to her that a restaurant won't bend over backwards to get her a nice meal. And people seem to respond well to that attitude!

Pippinthedog,

I sympathise entirely - dd has the same allergies as your ds and I have never found anywhere to eat out in total confidence except for a vegan cafe! My dd revels in the choice of cakes!!

When she was younger I did try - asked all the right questions, did the grilling bit etc, but had one nasty experience when she only had some chips - cooked in the same oil as other stuff which had been egg and breadcrumbed so got cross-contaminated. After that I got too paronoid about cross contamination and gave up. I just got too tired of asking and couldn't have a good time and relax as I was worrying about her going into anaphylactic shock all the time!

If you are not adverse to fast food you could try McDonalds - they do produce a leaflet which list all the ingredients in it and chips are cooked on their own. I think that the fishfingers are milk and egg free but you would need to double check.

Sorry not a very helpful reply - I think you have to go with your gut instincts. When I did try, if the waitress said "oh that will be fine to eat" I wouldn't risk it, but if the chef came out to talk to you I felt a little bit more confident. However, the issue of cross contamination still figures highly for me as you cannot see what they are doing!

Good luck in your quest!

Coral

Thanks coral,its good to know i am not alone!.we always seem to have the chef coming out as well which is easy enough if we are in a restaurant that prepares food from scratch but somewhere like a brewers fare is hopeless as even though they have lists of ingredients it always says may contain...!I wish there was a vegan restaurant near us that sounds great.Are there any signs of your dd growing out of allergy?.

McDonalds, because at least they admit what is in their food and they are strict about cross contamination. My ds can eat the hamburger (but that's in NZ). They have a list of stuff that they will let you keep, but they also have a much bigger folder that lists every single ingredient and trace in all the individual components so if you are allergic to something you can find out which bit it is in and just miss that bit out. For instance we could have a chicken sandwich if they miss out the mayo, because there is no egg in the chicken crumb.

I always said I would never take my child to McDonalds - until I found out how useless other places were at catering for allergies.

I agree i have never taken hin to macdonalds as i hate it myself.But it is v good to know in case we have no other options when he is hungry. thanks.

god this is my bugbear in life!

My ds has a nut and egg allergy and we have had some pretty dire experiences.Staff being rude and unhelpful,looking at us like we're mad etc.

we ate in a pub at lunch today but ds only had chips.They couldn't guarantee anything was safe on the menu,but nobody ever does and we have come to the conclusion that you just have to ask loads of questions and don't expect much.

we did go to a pub in the middle of wiltshire called The Museum that had a notice up saying please talk to the staff re.allergies.They were really helpful and positive and the choice for ds was brilliant,although he ended up just having the chips again!!

I would love to beable to buy a good eating guide for allergic people similar to the good pub guide.
Unfortuanely I think most places will continue to cover themselves with blanket warnings on everything so they don't put themselves at risk.

Eating out as a family used to be enjoyable for us but since ds came alomg it's a tense and usually frustrating experience.
even having a coffee in M&s is impossible,every cake has a nut warning!!

sorry haven't been much help-had a good rant though

my son always ends up with jacket potato and baked beans and if there are no potatoes it is always chips,just like u say.Even beans pose a possible threat as HP beans contain milk protein!.Can u imagine how stupid i feel when i have to ask if the beans contain milk.Please will someone out there set up a vegan restaurant in essex,i will be your best customer!.

McDonalds list all the ingredients in their food so if you're travelling its one of the few places you can feel reasonably confident. We are always looked at as if we are mad. I think maybe I'll type up some postcards to hand out explaining why it matters so much.

At one pub where there was a blanket warning on the menu I made a point of explaining to the staff that they had just lost a meal for 7 people because of their allergy information.

I love the idea of a restaurant guide - maybe something to suggest to the anaphylaxis campaign. It wouldn't expect it to be able to cope with the contamination risk as staff changes could affect that.

We're school hunting at the moment and only one of the canteen managers really gave me confidence. She was so lovely I could have kissed her!

SueW that is an interesting idea - probably it could if a person with severe allergies brought a test case.

might be worth trying an italian restaurant - they tend to be quite kid friendly, and some of the dishes like spag bol or pasta arrabiata would be unlikely to use milk or eggs (which is a good starting point in terms of checking with the chef IYSWIM)

Pizza Express in Manchester was excellent when I was PG at understanding the PG food restrictions, I don't know if it was just that particular one or if the chain is good at that sort of thing, so I guess that attitude may well extend to allergies

I had a terrible time in pizza express,the waiter was foreign and although his english was not too bad he just couldnt give a toss.The pizzas and pasta were totally unsuitable and after much debate we finally managed to get a combination of things from the salad menu.He really did think i was just a difficult customer.I was horrified when he then turned to my dairy allergic son and said "never mind you can have an ice cream afterwards to make up for not having pizza"!!!.

Mts - doesn't some pasta contain egg? The stuff we buy is called egg spaghetti

MUMMYTOSTEVEN,u r right about the italian restaurant idea as my son loves pasta.Spaghetti tends not to contain egg and besides they should be able to show me the pasta packet. SUEW,love the thought on the disability act,there should be restaurants aimed at people with allergies.

spaghetti does sometimes but not as often as something like tagliatelle.I would always double check though.

I have a to eat a Gluten free diet...but don't always stick to it!! I know how much I can eat before I 'blow-up' and spend the next 2 days in the loo. But I have found most resteraunts do cater for this, and if in doubt I ask...
If they want your custom they normally try to be accomodating, but I do tell normally when booking....I don't see why they should not accomodate your ds..a lot of people have allergies to dairy products and nuts...don't they??

Why has Ben and Jerries Cookie dough flavour got gluten in it...'cos it's my favourite!

not sure generally but there is a new cafe in Cardiff called Crockertons which sells gluten free cakes and might do other stuff. Is also v good

ikea have a fab gluten-free chocolate dime tart yum yum + gf kids meal