Eating out at restaurants can often be tricky (and expensive) when you’re dealing with food sensitivities. Sure, you’ll find some good go-to places and sometimes stumble upon a hidden gem, but it can be really tricky to navigate the restaurant experience. Even once you’ve found places where you feel comfortable eating, it can still be really anxiety-inducing.
Unless you’re cooking everything from scratch with tried and true ingredients at home, there’s always that chance that something could go horribly, horribly wrong. But there are a few ways that you can make this process a bit easier, both as a Celiac and someone dining with a Celiac.
Tip #1: Food allergy “business cards”
When you have more than one food sensitivity, sometimes it’s best to make “business cards” that list your intolerances or allergies. These can help you in a couple of ways.
This is one of Isabelle’s allergy cards that she uses when we go to restaurants.
First, most restaurants love it when you come prepared with these cards. It makes their job easier because they don’t have to write down your allergies and potentially make a mistake, and also because they can hand it directly to the kitchen. It reduces the likelihood that anything will get lost in translation, and it makes the process faster for both you and the restaurant workers.
Second, it helps you get taken more seriously. The unfortunate part about having dietary restrictions is that sometimes people assume that you’re just being picky. The gluten free trend might mean that there are more options at restaurants, but sometimes people will assume that you’re choosing to eat gluten free, when it’s actually a serious food sensitivity. Having cards with your allergies printed on them helps circumvent this (99.9% of the time).
Tip #2: Do some research
We can’t stress enough how important it is to do a little recon before you try a new restaurant, or if you’re trying to find somewhere to eat in an unfamiliar location. You can use a number of gluten free apps (we like “Find Me Gluten Free”), read restaurant reviews (especially those written by people with food allergies), or even check out a restaurant’s website to see how clearly they mark allergies in their menu items. Sometimes you might even want to call ahead to find out more. You’d be surprised how many places are more able to accommodate than it seems. Things can also go the other way, but more often than not we’ve found that just asking the right questions often opens up our options more than we would have expected.
Tip #3: Have reasonable expectations
Another important part of the celiac restaurant experience is knowing that it will ultimately be different from a non-celiac experience. Having any kind of food sensitivity means that you’ll have to be able to navigate menus differently from people who don’t have food sensitivities, and you’ll often realize that there are some things you can only eat if you make them yourself.
For example, it’s probably best that if you’re a celiac with a corn and soy intolerance that you just avoid the gluten free pasta or bread altogether. It’s under very rare circumstances that either of these is possible with this combo of sensitivities. The dessert menu is usually also a no-go. But if you know this and you know to look for foods that include all (or mostly) ingredients that you know you can eat, then you can work with the waiter or chef to figure out if anything needs to be removed or subbed, and what that might be. Sometimes just asking the chef or manager to give you an idea of what you can eat before you even attempt the menu can also be a good call.
It’s also important to make sure you’re asking the right questions. For example, if the waiter or waitress tells you that something is gluten free or allergy free, ask about the oil it’s cooked in or if it shares a surface or fryer with something you cannot eat. These kinds of issues come up a lot, so it’s better to be on the safe side with this one.
If you’re the one dining with a celiac or someone with food allergies or intolerances, then you also have to go in knowing that you might be waiting for your order a longer time than you would be without your celiac, and you might not be able to bring them to every restaurant you want to.
Tip #4: Don’t settle for rabbit food
While it certainly helps for a celiac to know their limitations in a restaurant environment, it doesn’t mean that they should pay for a meal that leaves them hungry. If a restaurant tells you upfront that they can only serve you something like plain lettuce (which has happened to Isabelle a number of times), then it’s okay to walk away and find somewhere else to eat. The restaurant workers usually take it well because they know they can’t feed you.
Unfortunately, sometimes when you have a lot of food sensitivities and a restaurant has to accommodate for you the food is not only small in portion and bland, but also up-charged. While in a situation where you cannot find another place to eat and you’re stuck this is sometimes the only option, it’s not something that you or your celiac should go out of your way for.
Tip #5: Make sure you’re in the right environment
One of the most important things to keep in mind when you’re dining as a celiac or with a celiac is that you shouldn’t eat somewhere where you feel like your allergies aren’t being taken seriously. Sometimes it just takes finding the right manager to talk to, but other times it takes leaving the restaurant entirely.
Generally, it’s a good idea to make sure that your waiter or waitress checks back in with you once they’ve taken your order to make sure the kitchen is aware of your allergies or intolerances. Usually when this happens we don’t tend to have any issues.
However, sometimes you don’t get that far because you run into more serious issues. We’ve encountered waiters who will negotiate every single allergy (like claiming that Isabelle needed to explicitly say she couldn’t have “cornstarch” or “corn syrup,” and not just “corn”), to even managers who hand us tablets or allergy menus that don’t cover all of Isabelle’s allergies. Often in these latter cases it’s easy enough for us to flag someone down to discuss the food sensitivities that aren’t usually included on allergy menus (like corn), but sometimes we’re not so lucky and we have to keep asking for different managers. If no one is listening, then it’s often best just to leave.
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Though the world of eating out as or with a celiac can be somewhat daunting and challenging, with the constant fear that a reaction might happen, it’s much easier to go about the process if you follow the tips we covered. Having food intolerances or allergies doesn’t mean that you can’t ever try new restaurants or travel. Rather, you might find some pleasant surprises and try foods you didn’t realize you could eat.