Restaurants claiming to offer gluten-free meals....

pinkteapot

My husband has coeliac disease. Because this is a gluten intolerance, a lot of people seem to think it's not a big deal. But people with coeliac disease are not the same as those who opt to follow a wheat-free diet for example. It's a serious auto-immune disorder, where consuming food with gluten in it causes a very nasty reaction.

5 or 6 times in the last year, my husband has eaten at restaurants which said they cater for gluten-free diets but who served him food contaminated with gluten. The latest of these was last night. He starts a new job soon and the new boss invited him out for dinner to meet the team. Hubby explained that he has coeliac disease and was assured the restaurant was OK.

He told the waitress that he was coeliac and gluten-free and ordered a meal which he was told would be suitable. He had to leave after the starter as it was contaminated with gluten. :mad:

Some coeliacs are lucky and don't get outward symptoms of contamination. For those that do, it goes as follows. It starts within half an hour of eating the food. Extremely bad diarrhoea and painful stomach cramping. The sufferer will appear to have shivers but these are in fact the stomach muscles twitching rapidly, causing the whole body to shake. This lasts 24-48 hours.

Eating gluten causes an immune system response which destroys the villi in the intestines, which you need to absorb nutrients in food. Long-term, if a coeliac keeps consuming gluten, they suffer from malabsorption-induced diseases such as osteoperosis.

I have no issue whatsoever with restaurants saying they can't guarantee food is gluten-free. We just avoid these restaurants. But, as I said, several times in the last year he has eaten at restaurants that claim to cater for him only to be made sick. He had to leave a wedding reception early last year after his supposedly gluten-free meal made him ill.

Pretty much given up on eating out now, except for a few restaurants that we know are good and we go back to.

So, to all coeliacs in the Colchester area, avoid wedding meals at The Fennes Estate and don't eat at The Barn Brasserie near Marks Tey.

Not much point to this rant. I just wish restaurants took coeliac disease as seriously as they do nut allergies. As I said, I don't mind if they just say they can't cater for him. I wish they wouldn't claim to and then make him ill.

RHemmings

I follow a different specialist diet.

It's been a long time now that I've given up on trusting "regular" restaurants to provide a suitable meal, and will only eat at a restricted range of specialist restaurants.

Even if it's obvious that regular restaurants are doing their honest best, they still often get it wrong.

irishsymphony

It's a ridiculous issue.

My friend is a coeliac, and the amount of times she has eaten food at restaurants where they assure her that it's gluten-free and then ended up with vicious cramps and other setbacks all night is absolutely ridiculous. Now, she'll only eat at resturants that state on the menu "gluten free" rather than taken a waitress' wording for it. Sometimes they really don't realise the damage it can do to not tell the truth, or to take a risk and 'hope' they're correct in what they tell the patrons!

jakes-mum

YEp, 10 year old son with coeliacs disease, had the restaurant problems, had friends tell me its not a big deal. I did take him to beefeater in Cambridge a few times, and have to say they were very good, the waitress got me their big nutrition book to check and if I remember correctly the childrens menu at least had a symbol to state whether it can be made gluten free. He didnt have a bad reaction from there and they actually have desserts that are not just fruit.

Cant say this is the norm across the beefeaters but ours are very vigilant about not cross contaminating from our experiences, so now we always go there for birthdays or special meals

chewynut

What kind of meals does your husband order?

I've stuck to ham, egg and chips for the past ten years and I've always been okay as long as I ask them to check the chips.

I know it gets boring to eat the same meal in every single place but I'd rather put up with that than risk it by having something new and 'exotic' (by exotic, I mean the way they like to just randomly use wheatflour to make things crispy when non-crispy would be just as nice for me)

go_cat

Its really hard for anyone to say something is gluten free and also illegal to advertise a food as gluten free if it hasn't been made in a gluten free environment

The problem with restaurants is their kitchens will have gluten products in and these will be in the air, on surfaces/ equipment etc and can easily cause contamination

It only takes a tiny amount of gluten to make someone ill although some peoples tolerances are higher than others.

shortdog

My 5-year-old son has "probable" coeliacs disease (i.e. the endoscopy done on him at 13 months old was inconclusive, and I refuse to put him through it again), along with a whole host of allergies (nut, egg, dairy, various fruits) and a list as long as your arm of intolerances, and the only place I have ever found which has been safe for him to eat (other that McDonalds chips) is Frankie and Bennys. Our local one is fantastic, if we supply some pasta, they will make him a pasta dish with meat and veggies, they wash all the pots and pans, plates, cutlery etc by hand in clean, fresh water, before they cook for him, and nothing is too much trouble.

However, I have walked out of a few restaraunts - one of which assured me that they could make my son a burger and chips, I phoned beforehand, spoke to the manager, spoke to them again when we arrived, spoke to the chef, the waiting staff, etc, and his burger came out with cheese on it. When I pointed out that the cheese could kill him if he ate it, they took the burger away, and returned it after they'd scraped the cheese off:mad:.
We got up and walked out at that point, as I had got to the stage where I could not stay calm with them any longer.

We have just got to the stage that we very rarely eat out, it's just not worth risking my sons health (and, ultimatley, his life) on a meal out.

jess1974

My mother in law has coeliacs disease, and whenever we cook for her, we use seperate barbecue, utensils, knives, tongs etc as even using the same ones will contaminate her food and make her ill, maybe these restaurants meals are gluten free, but they are not seperating the utensils so cross contamination is happening....

KxMx

Am glad OP has gotten alot of support.

The last person to seek help over this issue (a mother concerned about labeling changes), was ripped to shreds on DT.

faithcecilia

I sympathise. I have a celery allergy and eating out is almost impossible. If I know I am going out I always phone or ideally pop in first, and I have still been given celery-containing food more times than I can remember. I agree, plases are so nut-aware that they will even say 'may contain nuts' when they know its definately okay, but they don't seem to realise that celery could kill me in minutes so its not just salads they have to watch - its stocks, sauces, etc etc.

pinkteapot

Sorry I lost track of this thread...

Hubby usually orders something like gammon and jacket or steak and jacket (he normally changes chips for jacket as a lot of catering chips have a coating to make them crispy which has flour in).

The time that prompted the rant was a nice restaurant that his new employer took him to. The suspect dish in question specifically said "gluten-free" on the menu (in writing) and he confirmed it with the waitress. It was a starter of beef carpaccio with rocket, parmesan and truffle oil.

We've also found Beefeater good - we went to one and were also given their enormous folder of allergy information!

As I said, we don't really bother eating out much any more, but in this case hubby was invited out by an employer he starts work for soon. He did say to the HR girl organising it that he was coeliac and she checked with the restaurant. He looked at the menu online and GF dishes were marked as such, so it looked like the place would be ok.

I didn't see the thread where someone got jumped on. The people who replied should try being up all night with someone suffering a coeliac's reaction to gluten. I think because it's an intolerance rather than an allergy people lump it in with airy-fairy Hollywood style diets. There's degrees of intolerance and that's what people don't understand.

Anyway, I've written a complaint letter that he can send off to any restaurant that sets him off. As I said, I have no issue if a restaurant says "we can't cater for you" but if they claim to then they should get it right.

There's a family-run hotel in the Lake District (www.lakesapplegarth.co.uk/ - though it's no kids for those on here with coeliac children) that we go to a couple of times a year and their chef does absolutely wonderful food. They're also brilliant about catering for MrTeapot - we give them a couple of his GF loaves when we get there and they do him toast for brekkie and bring it out on a separate toast rack to my toast. Same at dinner - bread comes out on a separate plate to mine. They know exactly what's in all their dishes and even make him different canapes to everyone else if that night's ones contain gluten. Nom nom nom. Always look forward to going there as we're foodies and I do miss eating out.