Red Lobster

Martha · Post by **Martha** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:59 pm

Has anyone eaten safely at Red Lobster? My DIL has chosen that place for her birthday dinner on Tuesday.

I called the manager, and he says they have an allergen menu that has a chart of all the allergens and all the menu items, like Panera has. I found it on line, and it looks like the only entrees without G, D, and S are blackened catfish and blackened walleye. Even their baked potatoes have soy.

cjbndtsn · Post by **cjbndtsn** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 9:08 pm

Hi Martha,
I'm not a big Red Lobster fan but I have another friend who is Gluten Free(for medical reasons) and she patronizes Red Lobster all the time for Gluten Free foods but she doesn't have to watch for soy. I think she generally gets salmon and salad (with no croutons). It's been advertised here strongly for Gluten Free menu. Good Luck with your dinner.

DebE13 · Post by **DebE13** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:31 am

I ate at a red lobster a few weeks ago and the staff was so attentive. The chef actually came out of the kitchen because I ordered the red potatoes that were listed on the GF menu. They come prepackaged and there was something, I think soy, that was in there that I couldn't have. I was using the restroom at the time and the waitress and chef tracked me down so I could make an alternative choice. I was impressed. I ended up having broiled cod with nothing on it with a baked potato. I brought my own olive oil. The baked potatoes are bathed in butter while cooking so that couldn't be changed. I didn't have much to choose from so I decided I would try it since I wasn't going to eat the skin. The portions were small so I left hungry but my husband was so happy we could eat together while on an out of town shopping trip- I didn't want to ruin the day by being pouty about my meal (I do that enough at home)

Overall it was okay but your options are very limited if you have more than just gluten issues. There is soy in everything. I'm sure there was cross contamination of some sort but it didn't ruin the trip. I decided for that meal it wasn't going to be about enjoying the food but spending time with my husband, which isn't always an easy thing for me to control. Depending on my mood sometimes I just can't handle being left out of a delicious meal. But I keep trying.

Hope everything goes well for you.

MaggieRedwings · Post by **MaggieRedwings** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 6:02 am

Have eaten there a couple of times and always with a bad reaction even after getting good attention from the waiters/chef. Not sure they really understand GF.

Maggie

Martha · Post by **Martha** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 9:02 pm

Well. I chickened out. The entree items that were listed on the allergen menu are regional specialty lunch items, so I decided to take my own dinner. I took a salad with lettuce, spinach, avocado, tomato, jicama, chicken, green olives, black olives, and kalamata olives. I can tolerate all of those things, and I put just a tiny bit of olive oil and apple cider vinegar on it.

They were very nice about it, and brought me an empty plate for the food that I had brought. I did order tea, so they didn't completely lose money on me. And I was with a group of 14 people, so they had a pretty good order from us all.

carolm · Post by **carolm** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 9:13 pm

Still Martha, that says something that they were okay with you bringing your own meal. Not every place would be that gracious. I may get bolder about taking foods to restaurants.

thanks
Carol

Martha · Post by **Martha** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:08 am

Carol,

Last Saturday my cousin was in town, and I met him for breakfast at Denny's. I called ahead, and they have no gluten free items on their menu, so I brought my entire breakfast, just ordering coffee and juice.

Denny's also was very gracious, bringing me a plate to eat my food on.

At both restaurants, I explained that I had food allergies (I feel like 'allergies' communicates better than 'intolerances' or 'sensitivities' that this is actually a medical condition), and the waitresses were very nice.

Martha

Zizzle · Post by **Zizzle** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:35 pm

I'm not surprised at all that they would allow you to bring your own food if you have "allergies" or even celiac. The last thing they want is someone developing an allergy attack from their "safe" menu items. It's much easier from a liability and reputation perspective to not have to worry about you. I'm going to start bringing my food on a regular basis when I'm in a group. All they can do is feel sorry for us.

DebE13 · Post by **DebE13** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:40 pm

I explain it the same way. Most don't understand the difference and aren't interested in the details. I don't like talking about it much either. I don't want the extra attention.

mzh · Post by **mzh** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 8:01 am

Wow, it never occurred to me to bring food to a restaurant. I'm so glad they think it's fine; great idea! Well, they're still feeding one or more people at the table and they're still making money so why not, come to think of it.