Eating Out: TGI Friday’s x2

LOCATION: Westfield Stratford City, London

You all know that I didn’t have the best TGI’s experience the last time I blogged about them. I was given onion rings when I’d asked for rice, received no apology and I’m 99% sure they just gave me it all back on the same plate.

We decided to give it another try when we were in London last month. The waiter was really helpful and even said that his uncle has coeliac so he understood the importance of the diet. I asked if I could order two items from the kids menu since it’s got much better choice and it’s a lot cheaper! So I ordered chicken tenders and a hotdog with no bun, both with chips and corn on the cob, and continued enjoying my cocktail (let’s not lie, the best reason to go to TGI’s is for the cocktail menu.)

A different waitress brought the food over, and laughed when she put my food down in front of me. I didn’t think that was very professional, she clearly thought it was funny that I was 21 and eating off the kids menu. After she left, I looked down and realised that my chicken tenders – which was advertised on the gluten free menu as “chargrilled chicken breast” – was in breadcrumbs. When the waiter came to check on us I pointed this out. He apologised and went back to the kitchen, reappearing less than a minute later with the correct item. We think that the waitress just picked up the wrong plate since the waiter was able to bring the right one back so quickly.

Everything was going well, I’d eaten my chicken and my hotdog, and was almost finished the chips that were on the same plate as the hotdog, when I picked up a chip and noticed a big lump of breadcrumbs underneath the chips. Major danger signs started flashing. When the waiter came to get our plates, we made it clear that we weren’t complaining, but that I was probably going to be ill from the food and that the chefs needed to be more careful in future. If you’re advertising that your food is gluten free, then you need to take all the precautions to make sure it is.

The waiter was really apologetic, and went to speak to the kitchen about it. He took my food off the bill but we’re still unlikely to ever eat at TGI’s again. Twice I have been given the wrong item on my plate and then contaminated due to carelessness. I’m not willing to risk it any more. Maybe their staff just needs better training on gluten free dining but until things change I won’t be back.

Eating Out: Handmade Burger Company

Ok so I’m slightly biased on this one since I work here, but we really do have a great gluten free menu. In fact, we cater for all food allergies but we’re talking about gluten free here!

All of our beef burgers except from the American Cheese and the Jerk can be ordered bunless and gluten free by special request. The menu says that the Jerk burger is gluten free but I just happened to see the ingredients earlier and it contains soy sauce and has an allergy warning so don’t order it even if the menu says so! I’ve let head office know so hopefully this will be fixed soon! If you let a member of the waiting staff know that you’ll be ordering a gluten free beef burger then we can let the kitchen know in advance before you order. We have a huge variety of beef burgers (12 excluding the American Cheese and Jerk) and because all of our burgers are hand pressed in the restaurant we can prepare the burger specifically to your gluten free (or any other food allergy) needs.

Our chicken is gluten free when ordered without a bun as it’s a chargrilled breast rather than a burger in breadcrumbs. Only two of the toppings available with the chicken aren’t gluten free (Japanese Sukiyaki and Hoisin) but that still leaves you with 10 delicious chicken burgers that you can choose from.

Our four lamb burgers are also available bunless and gluten free by special request but I’d definitely recommend checking with the waiting staff before ordering that the kitchen will be able to prepare a gluten free lamb burger as I know we sometimes have limited amounts of lamb.

Unfortunately, none of our vegetarian burgers or our chicken skewers (with the exception of plain) are available gluten free but you can have either our house salad or our fabulous Super Salad (two of your five a day!!!)

Our sides (with the obvious exception of onion rings) are gluten free, including our new seasoned chips which I think is fantastic since the Peri Peri chips at Nandos aren’t gluten free but ours are!

We differ from normal restaurants in that our variety of burgers is massive, even if you do have a food allergy. If you don’t really want a beef burger, or we can’t make one gluten free up for you, then you can transfer the toppings from a beef burger on to a chicken. And we won’t just slap it all on the plate since it’s bunless, I personally think the bunless burgers look really nice on the plate and look a lot more appetising than the burger WITH the bun!

The quality of our food is excellent and you can read all about it on the website HERE.

You can view the allergy menu HERE.

And if anyone is interested, I have a bunless small chicken classic with extra bacon but just lettuce (I don’t like tomatoes or onions!) every time I’m at work and it’s delicious! If you’ve got a Handmade Burger Co near you and you haven’t been yet then I definitely recommend checking it out and let me know how you get on! And if you ever come in to the Braehead, Glasgow store then give me a shout.

Eating Out: TGI Fridays

DATE: 5th of July (two days after diagnosis)
LOCATION: Braehead, Glasgow

My local TGI’s is a staple place for the family to get some good food and we knew they had a gluten free menu so we decided it would be the first place we’d try after my diagnosis. I asked for the menu on arrival and was pleased that they had a separate menu instead of just pointing out stuff on the main menu that had a G next to it. It just makes life easier! I’ll admit I wasn’t too thrilled by the options on the menu, at least half of the menu being burgers or chicken which is what I eat at work three or four times a week but I think that’s how I’m going to find most menus so I got on with it and ordered a steak with chips and some of the cajun spiced rice. You can view the TGI’s gluten free menu HERE. We checked with the waitress that everything was gluten free and off she went.

After a very long wait our food arrived and I had onion rings on my plate which I know aren’t gluten free. I pointed this out to the waitress who said she’d just misheard me. My mum requested a fresh steak and chips to avoid cross contamination, but within 5 minutes my plate reappeared and I’m convinced they just got a fresh plate and swapped everything over since I was ill afterwards. The manager brought this second plate but just apologised and maintained that the waitress had misheard.

I work in a restaurant and if someone ordered something gluten free and then asked for onion rings I would definitely point out that onion rings weren’t gluten free to avoid something like this happening. I at least thought the manager should have offered a free dessert or something.

All in all it wasn’t the best of gluten free experiences but I’m hoping it won’t happen again. I’m not too keen on going back since the choices weren’t great but my friends seem to think TGI’s is the greatest thing since sliced bread so I’m assuming I’ll be back fairly soon.

If you’ve had a good gluten free experience with TGI’s then please share it so I know that not all hope is lost!