Does anyone else find dining out and travelling with allergies exhausting?

[Hails600]

Half the time the staff seem unsure on what ingredients are in the food and I usually end up just ordering the same plain thing every time because I'm tired of the back-and-forth. I’m curious how everyone else handles the "info gap" when you're away from home (trying to translate in another language) or trying somewhere new. Do you just take the risk, or have you found a way to see what's safe without the back-and-forth?

Yes, exhausting. I’m diabetic and coeliac - it’s been estimated that diabetics make an extra 180 decisions each day compared to non diabetics. Add that to the decision making around what/where I can safely eat when outside the home, restricting the choice of eating places (if they don’t have clear allergen info) and dishes - I do safely and happily eat meat and dairy and as a diabetic, both usually a safe choice, but in restaurants I often get offered the vegan thing, full of UPFs and fake stuff.

and I feel bad about restricting the choice of restaurant for my dining companions too, recently went to Chinatown in London and instead of looking at menus to see what we fancied, I was glued to the Find Me GF app to see where I could eat.

and don’t get me started on the stuff I have to carry - safe snacks, diabetic equipment etc
Edited to add- when abroad, I carry a printed/phone copy of a card detailing the allergy and what I have to avoid, in local language as coeliac is often not understood, especially the need to avoid barley rye and oats as well as wheat

Yes.

The menu scanning. The checking menus and allergen list in advance (usually well hidden on the webite). The messaging ahead. The questioning of waiting staff to check that the menu really means what it says. The emails to head office to ask why they have an allergen key on the menu but don't mark any of the dishes, or have codes on all the dishes but no key. Watching them make the drinks. Carefully tasting and analysing what arrives.

Exhausting.

In my case it's milk allergy, so if I find a fully vegan restaurant I can relax. Otherwise I'm not sure there's a solution.