Restaurant swapped pancake for lettuce

[Polarbearflavour]

Light-hearted

Ordered Chinese take-out from the local restaurant. Yummy food and gluten free options.

I asked for the crispy duck pancakes to come with the gluten free option thinking it would be gluten free pancakes...nope it’s lettuce!

Nice, fresh lettuce but not pancakes!

My chinese friend prepared a lovely meal for our friendship group including crispy duck. 2 of us are gluten free and she used lettuce instead of pancakes for us all. It was delicious. I never expect gluten free options to be exactly the same as the non gf tbh. Its a nice surprise when they are!

That actually sounds pretty good, and probably better than a highly processed gf version! I often order the lettuce bun at Five Guys and think it makes a much better burger.

For crispy duck pancakes, DH and I use those rice pancakes you make Vietnamese spring rolls with.

Lettuce wraps are quite a common starter where I live (not uk).

Usually have some kind of Asian flavoured meat in them, pretty good actually.

Lettuce gives me the rage, especially iceberg lettuce. I'm still angry about a Pizza Express pizza I had ten years ago with a pile of iceberg lettuce in the middle, WTF .

They give lettuce wraps all the time to my veggie relatives when we have Chinese. They have to specifically ask for the proper ones. I don’t think YABU but now I’m craving duck pancakes so YABVVVU for that!

My ds is allergic to sesame seeds. 5 guys offered him a lettuce wrap instead. He was happy as he good eat it like a normal burger, rather than the option of no bun and in a a takeaway box with a knife and fork.

Must've come as a shock OP

Next time, swap their payment for brussels sprouts

Ha! That's funny!

My local chinese does crispy lamb with plum sauce, which is always served with lettuce leaves to wrap it in. It's yummy!

Lettuce wraps are a thing though- I once had an amazing dish in Hong Kong of minced pigeon in sauce wrapped in lettuce, which reminded me of crispy duck in taste!
It may not have been the swop you expected, but was probably nicer than a processed gluten free pancake would have been.

I'd say approx. 50% of places which advertise as having gluten free options just remove half the items to make it gluten free. So the fact that you got a substitution is fairly good, i have very low expectations when it comes to gluten free dining.

Still annoyed about the place we sat down to which advertised as doing gluten free breakfasts when they meant they'd serve you an English breakfast with toast, hash browns and sausages removed, i.e. eggs and bacon

I'm on the fence about this one.

If you hadn't been told that the GF alternative was lettuce, and you wanted/needed something more substantial, then YWNBU to be disappointed. However, I think lettuce wraps in themselves sound rather nice. I've never had them, but I've made Chinese leaf wraps, which must be quite similar, and those went down very well with everybody.

Chalk it down to experience and maybe get a bit more food over all next time, to compensate for the lettuce not being so filling.

I don’t think they did anything wrong. It was gluten free and it is a standard thing in Chinese restaurants too. I love lettuce wraps.

I prefer the lettuce wraps. They should probably have mentioned it though!

Lettuce wraps are the best thing about a Chinese takeaway

Woah, this is an eye opener. I never even considered lettuce with crispy duck but I bloody want some now. It sounds lush. -Wanders off to check out takeaway menus-

We do lettuce wraps quite often for dinner with mince in them and plum sauce etc. We call them Chinese tacos.

Wagamamas do nice lettuce duck wraps.

I'll have to check the menus of places local to me again, I've avoided chinese completely for a decade as assumed everything would have soy sauce in it.

Ours does (or did its sadly closed recently ) Lettuce wraps with spicy pork mince, water chestnuts and spring onion.. with a chilli dipping sauce .. Divine!!

I really want pancakes now!!

Can you buy/make your own GF pancakes next time? I'm keto so I do a similar thing like getting an Indian takeaway but supplementing it with home made onion bhajis and cauliflower rice (made well ahead and reheated from frozen so I still have a night off from cooking!)

I’m going out right now to give my ducks some chopped lettuce. The little darlings love it.

Lettuce wraps are definitely a thing. Delicious.