When In Doubt, Ask!

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted! So much has been going on that I haven't had a lot of time to work on things, but I really want to write about this before I forget (which has happened a lot).  This happened about a week ago so it's still pretty fresh on my mind. I wanted to compare two glutenfree experiences from two different restaurants. 

The first restaurant was Macaroni Grill. We love it there and love their food. The first time we ate there Marshal had the Penne Rustica dish (gfree of course), which he loves. He ordered it again when we went for the second time last week. When his food came, he noticed that it looked like a lot more pasta was in the bowl than last time. When he tasted it, he thought it tasted a little different. When our waiter came to check on us, Marshal asked if the dish was gluten-free, just to be sure. Turns out it wasn't gluten-free. The waiter never heard him order the gfree penne pasta. The restaurant is always playing loud music and we were right by the front door, so it's no wonder the waiter couldn't hear.  He felt really bad and brought the right (glutenfree) dish out. It's a good thing Marshal's allergy to gluten isn't that severe, or we probably would have made a trip to the ER, since he ate so much of the first dish. 

The next day I went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for a bachelorette party. Didn't know until I got there, but they have a gluten-free menu! I was pretty pumped and couldn't wait to try something! They use Heartland glutenfree pasta. I chose marinara sauce and baked chicken to go with the pasta. My waiter said the chicken was baked in rice flour. They brought out a whole breast and I just cut it up and mixed it in with my pasta. The chicken and pasta tasted great. I also had a salad with gluten-free vinaigrette dressing. My waiter was very knowledgeable about gluten. When I ordered the salad, she made sure I knew it wouldn't come with crutons and then she listed the gluten-free salad dressings options for me. I was impressed that she knew so much about it! Awesome experience!

The food at both restaurants is great and the service is good too, I  just learned a very important lesson at Macaroni Grill. When in doubt, ask! 

Marshal thought something was off about the pasta. I told him it was probably ok but it wasn't. :( 

I felt horrible when we found out the dish wasn't gluten-free. We should have asked about it when Marshal first thought something was wrong. This won't stop us from going there in the future but we definitely will double, maybe triple check, to make sure we get what we ordered!! 

Moral of the story is: If you or a loved one order something gluten-free at a restaurant, make sure the waiter hears you say gluten-free. It seems like a simple thing, but it makes all the difference in the world. And if you aren't sure if they heard you correctly, ASK THEM!!