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[hector13]

No they did. They went back and forth to the chef asking the questions, all three waiters. There were four people trying to answer her questions, during a busy period, but she wasn't having it, so screw them, right?

You seem to be unfamiliar with coeliacs, and thus the context of why she was being quite so "demanding".

From here:

Celiac Disease Symptoms
Symptoms of celiac disease include:

Spoiler: long list of symptoms (click to show/hide)

Anemia
Anxiety
Bloating or gas
Constipation
Delayed growth in children
Depression
Diarrhea
Discolored teeth
Fatigue/tiredness
Headaches or migraines
Infertility
Irritability
Itchy skin rash (dermatitis herpetiformis)
Joint pain
Liver disease
Pale mouth sores
Poor weight gain
Thin bones
Tingling/numbness

Some of those are more long-term things, so she was asking if it contained gluten so she didn't have to deal with more immediate things, like bloating, gas, and most commonly, diarrhea.

Left untreated, people with celiac disease are at-risk for serious health consequences. There is currently no cure for celiac disease and the only treatment is a strict gluten-free diet.

No treatment for it other than avoiding gluten. That's why she wanted to know what contained gluten, and was unwilling to accept "I think it does, I'm not going to check though" as a reasonable response.

She called ahead, they said they'd be able to accommodate her coeliacs. I don't know how that conversation went, but if it were me, I'd have been asking about cross contamination 'cause even a small amount of gluten containing food can cause great discomfort.

Yeah, maybe they should all know that stuff. But if none of them did, then clearly she's the first person to have brought it up, so it's still asking for stuff that's specific to her. How do you train for shit that's never come up before?

By listing on the menu gluten containing items, and informing the staff of gluten containing items, same as any other allergen. It's not rocket science :p

It does say in the menu (assuming the picture in the article is of the menu from that restaurant) that staff will go through the ingredients if they're informed of an allergy or intolerance.

The owner should have taken this as an opportunity to make some changes, rather than saying she was a princess for wanting to, at the very least, not be on the can for the rest of the night, and the absolute cheekiboi retort of referring to an incurable medical condition as "whims and demands". If the first waiter was trained to answer her very reasonable questions (all amounting to "is this safe for me to eat or will I need the 4-ply tonight?"), she wouldn't have had to bother other waiters, and the owner and chef wouldn't get "bombarded" with questions.

She even says in her little review thing that's partially screenshotted in the article, that she's never had to deal with this kind of buffoonery in "all her coeliac years".

People not wanting gluten in their food isn't a new thing. It's a stupid fad for lots, but some have legitimate medical reasons for not wanting to consume it. It's exactly the same as if someone wanted to know if a meal contained peanuts, just for less acutely lethal consequences.

[Akura]

There is one true faith on the Iberian Peninsula.

[Iduno]

Some of those are more long-term things, so she was asking if it contained gluten so she didn't have to deal with more immediate things, like bloating, gas, and most commonly, diarrhea.

And, with most allergy/intolerance-based issues, it's 4+ days of painful diarrhea and damage to to digestive system. It's not great.

[Reelya]

Sure, but she's the one who made the choice to go to a busy restaurant during peak time.

They're chefs, not doctors. They shouldn't be expected to know the specifics of her condition, and regardless of how bad it is it's unreasonable to demand immediate attention like that. If sauces are such a worry then she shouldn't get stuff that needs sauce. The best they can give her is a list of ingredients. She cannot be relying on them to know whether specific ingredients are bad for Celiac Disease, and they're not the ones who should even be making that call.

[Rolan7]

I feel like you're playing devil's advocate or something.  Food service is a rough job and I have the utmost respect for people doing it, particularly in current year, but allergy awareness is simply part of the service.  It's one thing for some of the staff to be underinformed (though it's better when menu items are properly marked as gluten free or non, a common practice).  This was inexcusably rude.

Celiacs is common enough that I know someone with it, gluten intolerance in general is a national phenomenon.  If she was to eat there, she had to know about the gluten.  If they don't want to bother explaining whether their menu items contain peanuts, gluten, or meat greases, they should go ahead and put a sign out telling various classes of people to fuck off.  See how far that sass gets them with the general public.

[hector13]

It’s not unreasonable when the menu says to ask about it if they have an intolerance, and particularly when the person they ask decides to be an ass instead of doing their job.

Furthermore, she was proactive about what she knew might cause a problem; she called ahead and asked if they could cater for her needs, they said yes. When she got there, she asked about two things, and was brushed off both times by one person so she had to ask someone else because the consequences of just winging it means huge discomfort.

The chef should know what has gluten in it, it only comes from certain grains. This is why the non-cooking staff need training so they can tell diners what allergens may be present in their food, so they don’t have to bother the cooking staff every time someone has a question. It’s restaurant/kitchen management basics, for serious.

I live in a small town in Wisconsin (~40k people) and they have gluten free options in little independent eateries. One pub even (claims to, anyway) prepares gluten-free stuff separately to avoid cross contamination!

Ninja’d but eff it :p

[Naturegirl1999]

I wonder if we can start tallying the amount of details per topic? Or make a topic where people talk about whatever, effectively a new Random Thoughts thread, except each time the topic changes, the DT(derailment tally) goes up
DT=1
Likely many many more farther back

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I have a friend with Celiacs and I was disgusted by how frivolous restaurants were with their health standards.

Red Robin claims to provide gluten-free bread and provided normal bread anyway because the server didn't give a shit. Denny's has right on its menu that they meet some kind of gluten-free service standard and the guy there in the next sentence after being told my friend needed their food isolated asked if they wanted pancakes. Just disgusting apathy. I'd like to see them be so glassy-eyed when they get a person with peanut allergy choking on the floor.

Conversely, Buffalo Wild Wings said they couldn't guarantee gluten-free with how their friers work, but were happy to clean one out and give it a try if asked. Worked out fine, no gluten reaction. It's not that goddamn hard to keep a plate isolated and not put any fucking bread on it.

[Eschar]

Random comic generator thread is dead I think so I'll just leave this here

http://explosm.net/rcg/mxcvmlmvu

[Rolan7]

Conversely, Buffalo Wild Wings said they couldn't guarantee gluten-free with how their friers work, but were happy to clean one out and give it a try if asked. Worked out fine, no gluten reaction. It's not that goddamn hard to keep a plate isolated and not put any fucking bread on it.

Damn see, this is local employees going above and beyond to accommodate a condition they aren't experts in.  Kudos to them for the offer, glad it worked out.

Whereas my Biology teacher back in the late 90's told us an amazing story about how [local premium fast food chain] forgot to leave the cheese off a friend's burger.  Friend sent it back, got back... the same burger with the cheese mostly scraped off.
I feel like that's thread relevant if a bit dark.  If it helps, the friend HAPPENED to not be lactose intolerant, but fricken hell.

[Reelya]

I feel like you're playing devil's advocate or something.  Food service is a rough job and I have the utmost respect for people doing it, particularly in current year, but allergy awareness is simply part of the service.  It's one thing for some of the staff to be underinformed (though it's better when menu items are properly marked as gluten free or non, a common practice).  This was inexcusably rude.

Sounds like they only commented that way after she left the scathing review however. It would be a different thing if they flipped her off during the service, but according to the article that's not what happened. I get that you need to try and cater to people, but in this case, they did attempt to cater to her, weren't able to do that to her satisfaction, then she was the one who made it a public thing. Where the chef was rude was in a response to a bad review. That's not the same as flipping her off during the service.

Mr Zammuto initially apologised, saying: “I shouldn’t have written it. I admit it. I made a mistake, I was angry. I was getting bombarded with questions about what sauces do we do, can she have this, can she have that? It wasn’t one waiter, it was about three in total.”

Three waiters and possibly multiple questions per waiter. There's stuff like her being iffy on the yoghurt sauce so she asked the waiter if it had gluten, he said he wasn't sure so said not to risk it, she then decided what does he know, since yoghurt sauce never has gluten in it, and had the sauce anyway. This kind of thing. Constantly asking questions about everything and ignoring the answers more often than not. Given the contextual information it does sound like the waiters became frustrated with her, but they definitely didn't start out that way. She put them in a hard place, constantly having to go and interrupt the chef with specific questions.

I can understand why the owner was angry, she sounds like a horror customer then leaves a shit review.

[delphonso]

Damn see, this is local employees going above and beyond to accommodate a condition they aren't experts in.  Kudos to them for the offer, glad it worked out.

Whereas my Biology teacher back in the late 90's told us an amazing story about how [local premium fast food chain] forgot to leave the cheese off a friend's burger.  Friend sent it back, got back... the same burger with the cheese mostly scraped off.
I feel like that's thread relevant if a bit dark.  If it helps, the friend HAPPENED to not be lactose intolerant, but fricken hell.

I waited 20 minutes for a burger, the one that arrived had an egg and bacon on top - which was exactly not what I ordered. 30 minutes later, clearly the same burger came back, cold, without the bacon and egg.

[Eschar]

The Wikidata entry for Iceland has a "life expectancy" property. I suppose it's referring to the life expectancy of the citizens, but it confused me for a second.

Also, the Wikidata entry for Jesus Christ is amusing. "Residence: Nazareth. Official Residence: Heaven* (statement disputed.)

Occupation: prophet, rabbi, carpenter, thaumaturge.

Movement: apocalypticism.

Blood type: AB."

* complete with a painting of the Ascension

[Naturegirl1999]

Google Translate Translates the Wikipedia Entry About Itself

[Dunamisdeos]

she called ahead and asked if they could cater for her needs, they said yes.

THAT'S the kicker. People who show up to a restaurant and then have a public pissy fit because the restaurant wont twist their services around to meet someone's fanciful fad-fellating preferences are subhuman pests, somewhere between slugs and wasps. But if she called ahead and then got there and then had to take shit for asking them to cater to her needs that she checked with them ahead of time, then that is in fact bullshit. You can either accommodate her, or you can't. Your staff is either trained to handle gluten allergies, or they are not.

If you don't cater to that need, then you let people know. That's why everything that can't be reliably separated from peanuts has a warning.