Friday, August 13, 2010

Chili's

It’s hard to be gluten free and to have a normal social life. Most social situations are centered around food, let’s get ice cream after class, let’s get lunch to catch up, let’s all go to dinner, ect. I hate having to always say no, and provide other options. So, I finally decided to try eating out again, so I went to Chili’s, who has a gluten free menu. When I get there, I ask my server for the gluten free menu, and the manager on duty personally delivers it to me, so he is obviously aware of my allergy. I order the guiltless grill sirloin with vegetables. So, I eat it, and it’s delicious (and only $12.99). I’m feeling pretty good about everything, until about 10 minutes after I am done eating...
My stomach started hurting so badly, so I called the manager over. He was like “well, its gluten free” and I was like I just wanted to tell you because there is probably some cross contamination, and then IMMEDIATELY he said “oh, it’s probably because we cook our garlic toast on the same area we make our steaks”
…are you freaking kidding me Chili’s?
He took my meal off the tab, which is nice and all, but I am not satisfied! What is the point of having a gluten free menu if they are not even taking precautions to make sure the food comes out of the kitchen gluten free?! It seems to me that they are knowingly serving gluten free foods to guests who need to eat gluten free, and they just don’t seem to care at all.
Do not eat at Chili’s. Save yourself. It’s literally 24 hours later and my stomach STILL hurts.