Make Yourself a Familiar Figure.

As a gluten free diner, frequent visits to the same restaurant can have two impacts. First, working with you regularly reinforces for the staff the specific needs of your diet. Second, regular visits increase your value as a customer. And, the more valuable you are as a customer, the greater the incentive is for the restaurant to invest in providing a variety of delicious gluten-free options.

When I lived in Philadelphia, I used to visit My Thai on South St. once a week. The first time I visited, the owner invested the time to help make me a special gluten free meal. The food was good and the meal didn’t make me sick, so I went back the next week. And the week after. And the week after that. After about a month, I had established myself as a regular. At that point, during one visit the owner started asking me a bunch of very detailed questions about the gluten free diet. The next time I visited, he had a very pleasant surprise for me - he had gone through his menu and checked every single dish on it for gluten, and it turned out that there were only two dishes in the whole restaurant he couldn’t modify to be gluten free. It felt so good that he would put the effort in for me, that I’d still be eating there every week if I hadn’t moved to Virginia.

Make it Easy.

Don’t just tell a waiter what you can’t eat. Instead, be proactive. You know more about the gluten-free diet than he does, so don’t make him guess the menu options that might be right for you. Scout the menu for choices that are likely to be gluten-free and present them to the waiter as starting points for further investigation. Let the waiter use his limited time to interface with the kitchen and to confirm that your choice is a safe one.

Double Check.

This one’s an obvious one. When your meal is served, always confirm with the server that it was prepared gluten-free. Good restaurants will typically do this for you as a matter of course. But, when they fail, be proactive and ask — before eating. This simple step can potentially save you a catastrophe down the line.

Don’t be Afraid to Say “Allergy.”

We all know Celiac Disease isn’t an allergy, and it should never be our goal to spread misinformation. But, I’ve heard of incidents where the gluten free diet has been treated by some restaurants as a version of Atikins, or a voluntary, fad diet. These customers didn’t get the attention they need…and deserve.

I’ve also learned over the years that the word “allergy” means business in the restaurant world. Many restaurants have special procedures designed to handle food allergies. By calling attention to your special needs as an “allergy,” you signal to the staff to follow these special procedures, increasing the chances that you’ll get a safe meal.

For the archive of all tips published to date, visit our Gluten Free Dining Tips section.

Don’t Say “Gluten”…at First.

Some words are simple, and only have one meaning. Unfortunately, gluten isn’t one of them. It can mean different things to different people.

For us, “gluten” is the protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. But, for chefs, “gluten” is a much more expansive term, and can also include plant proteins found in many cereal grains, including some that are safe for the gluten free diet. Common terms like “glutenous rice” just add a further layer of confusion. Without context, a chef may interpret instructions for a “gluten free” meal to be free of flour, rice, corn, and other starches.

That’s why I recommend spelling out “no wheat, rye, barley (and oats in a restaurant setting)”, and avoiding the word “gluten” the first time you visit a new restaurant. It reduces the chances that a chef will be overly restrictive and unnecessarily limit the options he can present you.

Good strategy or bad? What do you think?

For the archive of all tips published to date, visit our Gluten Free Dining Tips section.

Talk to the Right Person.

Your instructions and explanation are only as good as the eyes or ears taking them in. Have you ever had a waiter who was too rushed to pay attention to your instructions, or just didn’t seem to “get it”? One of the easiest ways to get sick in a restaurant is to tell the wrong person about your special needs diet.

In that case, the best prepared, most carefully delivered instructions will not help you! Make sure your instructions are heard by someone who has the power, ability, and motivation to help you. That can be the manager, the maitre d’, or even the owner. We’ll cover ways to identify that person and build a quick bond with them in a future tip.
For the archive of all tips published to date, visit our Gluten Free Dining Tips section.

Since we launched the blog in February, I’ve received a bunch of requests to write on the subject of how to get a gluten free meal in a restaurant, something that’s very near and dear to my heart. Being eager to please, I’m going to kick off a series of 25 tips to help you get the most out of restaurant dining on the gluten free diet, starting now.

It’s my belief that everything you need to know about gluten free restaurant dining falls neatly into two buckets: (1) sharing information in a clear, efficient manner, and (2) developing rewarding short and long-term relationships with restaurant staff. Almost everything you will do in a restaurant to improve your dining experience will fall into one of these two buckets (go ahead, try to think of something that doesn’t fit in the buckets — I double dare you). The tips I share with you in the coming weeks will be designed to get you on the path to building these skills.

As we dig into the tips, my hope is that we’ll have something for everyone, from the newly diagnosed to the seasoned support group leader. Some of these tips may be familiar, some will be new twists on old favorites, and some will likely be brand new. I hope you’ll join the conversation and post comments to weigh in with your thoughts and share your experiences.

We’ll be adding a new tip every few days, starting Friday, so stay tuned.

These tips are cribbed from the introduction to The Essential Gluten Free Restaurant, 3rd Edition, published by Triumph Dining. For the archive of all tips published to date, visit our Gluten Free Dining Tips section.

We’re pleased to announce that the 3rd Edition of The Essential Gluten-Free Restaurant Guide is back from the printer and now available. The 3rd edition is 100 pages longer than the 2nd, and features an additional 800 restaurant listings.

We’re especially thrilled to report that gluten free restaurant dining is truly becoming mainstream. More and more restaurants are becoming aware of Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance and are welcoming gluten-free diners into their establishments with open arms. Over 900 hundred restaurants and bakeries across the country now incorporate gluten-free menus and offer gluten-free specialty items, like bread, beer and pasta. Let’s work together to ensure that this trend of increasing Celiac Disease awareness continues to grow and that even more dining establishments begin welcoming us with open arms in the future!