eating out

[whitewabbit2001]

Need more help, when to pub last night and was looking at menu, i used my brain and asked manager for allergy info folder that they have. " it was being updated"
didnt believe him he rang headoffice and they refused to serve me any food cos he couldnt garrantee there was no dairy in the products, so i had a plate of chips????? :(

anyone eat at places like frankie and benny and big chain pubs? my mates enjoy eating out and i really dont want to be having to starve or sit at home

[whitewabbit2001]

ive been busy bunny and contacted,
sainsbury,
tesco,
waitrose,
frankie and benny's,
brewster fayre,
nando's
and tried to get in contact with weatherspoons

[Fozzybear]

Wetherspoons do actually have allergy info on their site (I posted a link a while ago - you should be able to do a search to find it) and have the info in their kitchens too.

[cnc]

I had a meal in Frankie and Bennys, it resulted in them bringing out the packaging and things for me to check, but personally I'm happier doing that- can't remember what I ate there though!!

[whitewabbit2001]

cheers, i want the spag bol and meat balls?
what u reckon?

[goose]

I hate eating out, im so fussy as it is with food let alone asking for whats in each meal i fancy.
it would help if they advertised whats in each dish on there menu's
save alot of time and energy.

[paranoidangel]

I've been in a Wetherspoons before and they had a list of what was vegetarian, what was vegan, what was lactose free and what was gluten free.

[whitewabbit2001]

they didnt last night :( all they would let me have was chips

[Fozzybear]

Go to http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/food/ and click on the Food Facts-Nutritional Information strip, or just go here if it works:

http://www.rfbrookes.co.uk/Web/FoodFacts/FoodFacts.nsf/StartPage?OpenForm

You can then search the menu by allergy. The Wetherspoons pub I've been in had the same lists in the kitchen - I'd email Wetherspoons and explain the problem as the staff should have all the allergy information to hand. You 'should' be ok with the lists on their site though as that is the same information that the pub would have. It's a pain though and a big reason why I've only eaten out two or three times since going milk-free.

[matt]

easiest way is to pop in or phone when they are quiet and speak to the manager. if you try when they are busy then chances are you'll get the nothing anser as they are too busy to really check, better that answer than have them make a mistake!

[cnc]

easiest way is to pop in or phone when they are quiet and speak to the manager.
The last time I went out, I asked the staff when I booked what would be suitable, and then when I phoned to confirm numbers I reminded them of my intolerances and then when the waitress came to take my order, as soon as I mentioned the dairy, you could tell she had been alerted about it already. Things nearly went smoothly until my pizza had been accidentally contaminated with cheese and so was sent back to be made by itself :) Was quite impressed with the waitress.
The point of all of this is that it you really do need to go in and speak to someone first, that way you're less likely to go hungry!! (The pizza was delicious by the way!!)

[pinkfairy]

Unfortunatly even speaking to somebody in the restarant doesn't help. I went for a christmas meal on monday. The menu they gave us had no dairy free options. So I spoke to the restarant and explained I didn't mind what I had to eat as long as it was dairy free. They phoned back after speaking to the chief and asked if I would like fish. OK. So I was really looking forward to eating in a good restarant and eating a nice meal. Without being ill. This was not the case. I felt ill within twenty mins and had a really bad stomach followed by the shakes, palpartaions and generally not feeling well. I thought and trusted a good restarant would have a decent chief who knew his food. Obviously not. My suspisions were confirmed when I was offered pecan pie or fresh fruit salad. Some how I doubt the pastry was made with pure. I am now dreading my next meal out next week. Althought it is in a different place.

Jane:angry:

[matt]

don't get mad get even. witten letter of complaint....

[Pam]

I ate out at a greek restaurant last night (work do) and managed to stay dairy free (I think). I had keftedes (meatballs in tomato sauce) followed by beef stiffado (beef cooked in red wine). Fortunately I don't have a bad reaction if I have a lapse so it isn't too critical if a little milk slips in. The greek dancing was good too.

[Nic]

I don't know whether its living in London, but I don't have that much trouble with eating out. I find if I talk to the waiter before everyone else thinks about ordering (while they're sorting out drinks) he can go to the kitchen, check with the chef, and come back with a couple of non-dairy options by the time everyone else is ready to order.

It worked for me yesterday at a Greek restaurant - I got the waiter to double check that the feta wasn't made with any cow's milk and that the lemon sauce was just mayonnaise and lemon and nothing else, and it was all fine. To be fair, I don't react to trace amounts, so perhaps I do occasionally get a tiny bit and don't notice. But I am really sensitive to the taste of dairy (after over 10 years not eating it) so I would notice if there was more than a trace.

I also have developed a more direct approach - along the lines of 'I have an allergy to cows milk, it makes me ill, is [whatever dish] safe for me to eat?' rather than my previous 'I'm very sorry to be difficult but I can't eat dairy products, what would be OK for me from the menu?'. Which seems to work a lot better.

But I do think London is a) more used to faddy diets / allergies and b) has more ethnic restaurants that don't use much dairy anyway.

Nic

[cnc]

Nic, I agree with you I haven't had a problem in Leeds either, maybe again due to its size so is more used to these things, and Cambridge is close enough to London for awareness to allergies to have spread to the area :)

[pinkfairy]

don't get mad get even. witten letter of complaint....

Yes Matt I will write a letter. This was suppose to be a really good restaurant. Obviously not a really good chief.

Next week I am going for our netball club dinner. My friend used to work in the restaurant, so she went in yesterday and sorted out my meal. She even went in his cupboards and looked at the ingrediants lists on the packets. So at least I can relax and enjoy my meal on wed.

Its nice to have a friend who takes you seriously. Many people seem to think its some sort of fad diet. Not that I need to be on a diet.

Jane

[matt]

easiest to play the allergic card as they don't want someone going into anaphalactic shock in the resturant!! and they'll be more vigilant than if it's "just an intolerance"
could just be some idiot using the same spoon as they mixed a butter sauce with.

mind you after watching the likes of the f word i don't want to eat out.

how many times do they taste with the spoon then carry on mixing using same spoon?:o

[cnc]

The only problem with playing the allergic card is that some restaurants refuse to serve you food for fear of being sued.

[matt]

yeah i know but the ones that do will be damn carefull with your food.!!!

[Copper]

Eating out tomorrow. I organise a little do with select friends and we always go to the same pub in the back of beyond. I hope that they can feed me as they have been warned twice!

[whitewabbit2001]

hey peeps great news
went to frankie and benny's saturday at 2pm on a date !!!
i rang before hand to ask about allergy info on the food so when i turned up i didnt look a freak for asking,
i has penne pasta and meatballs and all was good, date went well, even got a kiss!


Today went for sunday cavery and it was fab the chef came out and seen me and i had special veg cooked without butter on and they did me a difffernet gravy
things are looking so bad now
first day back at work tomorrow so will let u know how things go

[matt]

see if you ask you sometimes get.

there are plenty of people who take pride in supplying food that people can eat safely. send a letter to bosses to thank him.

too many people forget to say thanks

[whitewabbit2001]

good idea, thanks!

[Lan]

Hi all,

I went out for my Christmas meal tonight and the food was great. I had the following (it was 6 courses and I had 4):

Melon
Large glass of apple juice (substitute of soup)
Main dinner (urkey, beef, stuffing and veg)
Fruit salad (Yoghurt that I took)

It was served promptly and really enjoyed it. Will be sending a letter to the catering company to thank them.

Lan.

[Lan]

Hi all,

I went out for my Christmas meal tonight and the food was great. I had the following (it was 6 courses and I had 4):

Melon
Large glass of apple juice (substitute of soup)
Main dinner (Turkey, beef, stuffing and veg)
Fruit salad (Yoghurt that I took)

It was served promptly and really enjoyed it. Will be sending a letter to the catering company to thank them.

Lan.

[matt]

so good she said it twice!!!!

another drink anyone:lol2:

[Copper]

When I went out to my do organised by me the pub phoned on the day to ask about the dairy intolerance. They had been waiting for me to call back which I had done and confirmed numbers but they didn't ask about my problem. They asked if plain chicken or fish would be ok so I opted for the plain chicken. It was a very nice meal and I went to bed with a very heavy stomach :)

A lecturer at work has given me a present - some chocolates that I can't eat. We have coffee together when he is in and he knows about my intolerance. :(

[paranoidangel]

I wish my work do had such good food. I told them quite a few weeks in advance about what I couldn't eat and I'm not convinced at all they took much notice. We had it in a working mens club with outside caterers doing the cooking, so not much choice about what we got to eat.

The starter was either prawns and salad or egg mayonnaise and salad. They brought me out prawns at first, when I said they came back with the eggs, which looks quite nice, even though I don't like mayonnaise. Eventually they managed to rustle me up some salad, but it seemed like they were really taken aback by it all and had trouble finding anything.

The main course was steak, chips, peas, mushrooms and tomato. The steak was really dry and there wasn't enough food, but apart from that I didn't have any complaints.

Dessert was Christmas pudding. I had to ask them to go and check whether I could eat it, and tell them what it was I couldn't eat. They didn't seem sure at all about what was in it, so instead I got a plate of strawberries, which I was so excited about (I can only eat one strawberry before they get a bit much).

And then I got ill anyway, so there was obviously something they'd used at one point that they shouldn't have. So needless to say I wasn't impressed.

[matt]

well atleast the lecturer got you something even if they didn't think for more than 2 seconds!!! i'll bet they have never really noticed the lack of milk. chances are they think you just don't loke the taste not that you can't.

pa well a working mans club in wallingford!!!:o surely not. the chances are the peas or something had butter on them r something. or the same utensils used to dish up the different foods. as if they would be that lazy!

you better now i hope.

[tiny_clanger]

tescos refuse to tell me what is in their products. I've been told that "it's not company policy" to release details of the contents of their loose bakery products. How did you get Tescos to give allergy information? Their head office told me that all they could do was send out general leaflets on food allergy/intolerance, and advise me not to eat loose bakery products

[cnc]

tescos refuse to tell me what is in their products. I've been told that "it's not company policy" to release details of the contents of their loose bakery products.

I asked at the bakery in Tescos about their bread and was assisted in pouring through the pages of the bakery items to find out the ingredients in the product. Was very simple and the baker was very helpful.... I don't know what to suggest as I just asked and got given the information!!

[matt]

trouble with loose bakery products is that they are easily cross contaminated in the bakery. so they are hedgeing their bets by saying avoid.

other things can be done on dairy free production lines.

bakery stuff is delivered part baked and habded to the trained monkeys to put in the ovens. do you want to risk how you feel to the hands of some of those idiots?:o

[Pam]

I was told at Morrisons that they won't give out ingredients lists for the shop baked stuff as the risk of cross contamination is too high. They are just taking the easy way out to save themselves should anyone start a legal case against them.