Thursday, May 29, 2008

Bahama Breeze?

Well, allergic patrons, I'm meeting a good friend for dinner tomorrow night and she's suggested that we go to Bahama Breeze. Places like this are difficult for me because they use lots and lots of Caribbean seasoning.
I just spoke with a host on the phone, and he told me that they could make something plain for me. Actually, the conversation went like this, and now I'm extremely nervous.

Me: Hi, my girlfriend and I will be eating dinner in your restaurant tomorrow night and I was wondering if I could talk to you a moment.
Him: Sure.
Me: I have terrible allergies, and I was looking at your menu and am calling to find out how difficult it is for me to have something made plain for me when I get there.
Him: What do you mean, plain? (ACK!)
Me: I mean, were I to order a piece of grilled fish off the menu, could you grill it plain for me, with no seasoning and no oil.
Him: HOLD ON. (cue hold music)
Him: Yes, we can make you food with no seasoning.
Me: And no oil? (not to belabor the point, but "hold on" isn't the most confidence inspiring term)
Him: Yes ma'am, and no oil either, it won't be a problem.

Now, here's the thing. He said yes, he said they could accommodate me, and he placed me on hold so he could obviously go talk to someone about it, so why am I still nervous? Would you be...Stay tuned. I'll post over the weekend and let you know how it goes.
~Your Allergic Diner

2 comments:

Libby said...

I would be very nervous. After reading your post, I checked Bahama Breeze's website, www.bahamabreeze.com, and there is no reference to food allergens (even major ones) or accommodating food allergies on the menu. The link to FAQ's at the bottom has this response to how to request nutritional info: "Changes in recipes and the hand-crafted nature of our menu items mean that variations can occur from time to time, affecting the nutritional values for each menu item," followed by a self-serving "talk to your doctor" about dieting. I did eat recently at a Bahama Breeze for a work function. The food was excellent, but we had a serious miscommunication with the server on how the drinks were to be billed that ended in him tearing up and stomping off. (We weren't the least bit mean, but he got extremely frustrated when we kept requesting that he apportion the bill the way we originally asked him to.)
I might eat there again, but I wouldn't take my son with food allergies there. Good luck. Libby

allergic diner said...

Hi allergy mom, I decided you're right. Called my friend and there's been a change of location for the evening. Hope you don't mind if I add you to the blogroll. Have a great weekend,
TAD