Where I am told I am a bother

[Kimmik]

I actually did inform him of why I asked. Small mom and pop place.. I have talked to the owner.. I am meeting up with him after the holidays... *snort* The manager claims I was trying to scam them as MSG is table salt.

So I will see what the owner says after Monday. He was actually really nice on the phone. I am use to getting grief about what I can eat... Shopping takes forever and I know places like Denny's is right out.. because the detest looking stuff up. So I try to go to mom and pop places since they typically have more from scratch stuff. Well the use to.. I even had one hole in the wall place bring me into the kitchen to check a label... hehe that was fun..

I even have to be careful what drinks I order. Some soda has benzoates and some dont

And since some of them may cause me to have severe reactions... i now have to carry a stupid eppi pen.. blech I just hope my daughter takes after her father.

[Mr. Anubite]

Ready for the Gem... The manager snidely told me that he would take it off but I was not welcomed back, and people like me shouldn't eat out. I am very careful of what I order as I know that there is certain things that are bound to have the forbidden stuff and if the waiter had been honest the first time I would have just had eggs and hash browns.. meh

OH MY GOD. That makes me so angry! I can't believe he'd just say something like that!

My mother has MS and I'm always afraid that someone is going to give her a hard time when we ask for special accomidations.

Isn't banning you because of your allergies illegal?

Sorry if this post has spelling errors. Its because I'm so mad I can't see straight.

[Erin]

I have food allergies too.

Went to a restaurant once, and noticed that they had a lot of seafood dishes. So I told the waitress that I'm allergic to seafood and asked if they could please not prepare my food in an area where they prepare the seafood. She said ok and supposedly told the cook.

Found something on the menu I thought I could eat. Some chicken soup and a beef dish.

They brought out the soup, family style, and served it up at the table. Just after I ate a couple of spoonfuls, I noticed this round thing floating in the soup with the chicken. Looked like a piece of sushi to me (rolled in seaweed with rice)...then I realized the base for the soup tasted strangely like miso soup.

The menu said "chicken soup", nowhere in the menu did it say that there would be sushi floating in it or that it's base was miso soup.

I took some benadryl to head off the hives (I've not had a serious reaction to seafood yet, just get bad hives...someday tho I expect the reactions to get worse)

The beef dish came out next...I started to eat it, but then decided I wanted to know what the white stuff drizzled on my plate and on the meat was. Waitress had to go inside to ask the cook. She came back and said it was something made out of roe. (fish ovaries)

I still dont know what part of "I'm allergic to seafood" the waitress did not understand. I doubt she even bothered to tell the cook.

The owner came over after a bit and when I told her that I'm allergic to seafood, she said (in barely understandable English...I think she was Korean or Japanese) that they couldnt accommodate me on special orders. (be nice if they'd told me that before I actually took a bite of the seafood laden food)

If I had the more serious allergy, I might thought about calling the cops and having them charged with attempted murder, since they were told about my allergy and ignored me and then didnt warn me they were putting seafood in my food.

I think I ended up giving all my food to my parents, and went out and sat in the car while feeling the hives popping up. The owner told us we'd have to pay for what we ordered.

I may have had Burger King for dinner that night.

[Magpie]

Restaurants, for liability reasons, tend to be very scared to serve anyone with allergies. My FIL asked if he could see the original container for the chocolate sauce yesterday when he was getting ice cream, so he could check the ingredients. The lady who was serving him came back with the can, and with this gem: apparently the health inspector had been there and told her to just say that she recommended he not eat it. Because, of course, if there's cross-contamination and she says "this is safe" it might not be.

Which makes sense, except for two cases: people who are allergic to certain preservatives, and if they had to worry about cross contamination would never eat anything, and people who are only mildly allergic. (This is why I get upset when people admit to the wait staff that I have an allergy).

[Treasure]

I am allergic to avocado (and bananas, possibly kiwi - but not latex, which those are the flags for)
so when i eat mexican foods, i specifically order nothing with guac. and tell them no thank you, as i am allergic....

One night i went through the late-night taco drive through; placed an order with a young lady for a 7-layer burrito, no guac. - then a guy's voice starts reading it back (just cut her off) 7 layer extra guac. NO, no, no, NO guac i'm allergic! get my order, check it (in the poor lighting) and it looks ok... get to the bf's, open it up to double check, and lo! there is guac, under the fold of the tortilla - I was so mad i was shaking, made the bf go with me... and walked in - and the manager was at the counter; he finished taking the order of the people @ the counter, then asked me if there's a problem - i explained, everything back to him, and that it was a good thing i double checked... including the fact that I don't know if somebody thought they were being cute or what... but I didn't say no guac b/c i don't like it, but b/c if I eat it i react with potentially deadly side-effects, my tongue and throat swell, i'm not taking risks w/ my life (and don't appreciate his employee attempting to either *not said*)

The manager remade my burrito, no guac, and made a 2nd one, didn't charge

I didn't go in and cause a scene, i was very calm *perhaps too calm* and the manger made it right, which is all i was looking for, I just hope that the jackass who thought it cute to take risks with my life got spoken to and had it explained to him just how inappropriate that is.


And that is more how the manger of the OP's story should've handled it... "oh i'm so sorry... we'll be more than happy to fix this- would you like to send this back, and get something else...?"

[PepperElf]

The manager claims I was trying to scam them as MSG is table salt.

in that case the manager is stupid too.

Monosodium Glutamate is C5H8NNaO4
Table salt is NaCl

[Dreamstalker]

Unless all the manager heard was "sodium" and went "heyy, sodium is salt, they're trying to scam me!"

Either way, that guy was a dick. I understand the server's confusion, but there's no excuse for the manager's behavior.

Erin, that is weird ('chicken' soup made with seafood and beef topped with roe--never heard of either of those dishes). That place is fishing for a lawsuit when someone has a severe allergy attack.

[Erin]

Erin, that is weird ('chicken' soup made with seafood and beef topped with roe--never heard of either of those dishes). That place is fishing for a lawsuit when someone has a severe allergy attack.

I've written several reviews of that particular restaurant. Somehow they keep disappearing from the internet. I think it's time to copy/paste my review to a few sites again.

I've found their menu on the internet, and it still has no mention of any of the seafood in those dishes, but the picture of the soup has the sushi thing floating in it.

They're just lucky that so far I only get hives from seafood/shellfish. But I'm sure if I get enough exposure to an allergen, that eventually someday it'll be so bad that I'll have an anaphylaxic (sp?) reaction. Hopefully my family will file a wrongful death suit to ruin whoever the moron is that kills me with the seafood allergy after I've informed them I have it. especially if they completely ignore me like that restaurant did.

[Kogarashi]

Erin, could you tell what was in the sushi in the soup? And does seaweed count as seafood for your allergy? ::curious:: The miso soup base itself isn't necessarily seafood, since miso paste is a bean paste and it's usually made with seaweed stock rather than fish stock (though anything's possible at the restaurant, it may not have been miso soup but seafood-based instead, and cross-contamination can still happen). The roe sauce on the beef, though? Major fail.

[Rebel1012]

Im with the smack him with a salmon crowd.....but dont forget to freeze it first

[Dreamstalker]

I've seen miso paste with the fish stock pre-added; neither mom nor I are allergic to seafood but we just like the taste of the 'pure' miso paste.

It all depends on where it's bought from and the brand. Still, bad restaurant for not disclosing stuff on the menu (it's reasonable to not expect fish in something that says chicken/beef).

The roe sauce on the beef, though? Major fail.

Agreed; that sounds nasty.

[tollbaby]

I'm allergic to bell peppers, mangoes and cashew nuts *sigh* Hell of a combination and usually manages to rule out at least half of any given restaurant's menu. (especially the bell peppers).

My mom conveniently tends to forget the bell pepper thing (even though my father is also allergic to them) and consistently orders them on pizza. *sigh* Now I've made it a rule that there is no pizza allowed on Sunday nights, and if she insists, I order it!

[LadyAndreca]

Interesting, I never knew that avocado and latex allergies were linked. I'm allergic to latex and have never been able to eat avocado--I can't say I'm allergic because I've never managed to get any into my body to have a reaction TO. I have such a strong reflex to spit it out when it hits my tongue that I HAVE to do it.

It makes ordering sushi interesting, since about 90% of sushi seems to have avocado in it, and all the local places seem to be staffed by people who don't understand enough English to understand "Can that be made without avocado?" (Especially since I don't like cream cheese either, so a Philly Roll is out.) The best I've found so far is a "Yankee Roll", which is salmon, tuna, whitefish, and eel rolled up in rice and seaweed...then deep fried tempura style! *drools*

[Treasure]

I found out by accident that I am allergic to avocado - was sharing a community bowel of "kirby queo" , a specialty dish of melted cheese etc w/ guac. in the middle, I was dipping my chips into the cheese only, and one of the other girls was slowly mixing the guac into the rest of the cheese - i had a bit of a delayed reaction, it wasn't until after we'd finished our meals and paid, that i started having a reaction... luckily i was able to rinse my mouth with a bottle of water that i had in the car, but i got the tingles in my tongue and i don't risk it...

[AccountingDrone]

Erin, could you tell what was in the sushi in the soup? And does seaweed count as seafood for your allergy? ::curious:: The miso soup base itself isn't necessarily seafood, since miso paste is a bean paste and it's usually made with seaweed stock rather than fish stock (though anything's possible at the restaurant, it may not have been miso soup but seafood-based instead, and cross-contamination can still happen). The roe sauce on the beef, though? Major fail.

Actually pretty much the default japanese soup is based on dashi - bonitofish flake and seaweed broth. Miso shiru is miso and other ingredients added to the hon-dashi. For a round eyes I actually make quite good hon dashi =)