You Don’t Know What’s In Your Food?
September 26th, 2007, 11:42 am · 6 Comments · posted by Michael Doss
When I effectively went vegan, I knew I’d have to radically reevaluate how I went out to eat. I knew also the internet would be a great help in some regards, but a hindrance for others. Example - a Google search for “Macaroni Grill Vegan” turns up a page listing some options at the restaurant. A little more digging finds that the restaurant told someone else who read this that there’s now butter in some sauces. Who to believe? I decided to go to the source, and wrote Brinker International, the restaurant’s parent company, with this:
I have recently started a strict meat, egg, and dairy-free diet, but I enjoy your restaurant, and would like to be able to continue to eat there. I’m interested in knowing what items on your menu are available meat, egg and dairy free as ordered (if any), which can easily be made to order to fit my specific diet needs, and which otherwise acceptable appearing items (such as breads, pastas and sauces) might include these ingredients.
As I’m sure you know, there is a lot of conflicting information online, so I appreciate your help in this matter. I look forward to dining at your restaurant soon.
Thank you,
Michael Doss
Customer service has always been great to me at Macaroni Grill and Maggiano’s (same parent company), so I was looking forward to clarification. Instead, I got this note this morning:
Dear Mr. Doss,
Thank you for your email and for your interest in Macaroni Grill and Maggiano’s. We always enjoy hearing from our valued guests.
We are sorry, but we are unable to provide the nutritional information you requested. However, you can request that menu items are altered to fit into your diet. Our chefs can custom-prepare a meal for you using any of our ingredients we have available. We suggest you speak with your server or a manager about menu ideas that may best meet your needs. They will be happy to make a recommendation.
We again thank you for your interest in Macaroni Grill and Maggiano’s.
A generic response, and one that tell me either my message wasn’t read (or understood), or that the restaurant doesn’t know what’s in their food. I’m not asking for something “healthier” or requesting anything special - I just want to know what’s in their food. You’ll notice I was careful not to use the word “vegan” - I was asking for my family with allergies to eggs and dairy as much as I was asking for myself. All I want to do is go out to eat with my meat eating and lacto-ovo vegetarian friends. Is that too much to ask?
September 27th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Why don’t you just go to the restaurant, order something, and have the waiter pick it apart for you. Ask if they can custom make something for you - pasta, tomatoes, vegetables, and spices.
I think that you’re just going to have to accept the fact that being a vegan will make it difficult to near impossible to dine at regular restaurants. Vegetarian can be difficult, but most places are pretty conscious of it. But vegan? Forget it. You tell a restaurant that you can’t have anything with meat, meat products, dairy, or eggs in it, and they’ll tell you “Well what the f*** CAN you eat then?”
In the mean time, I will enjoy some wonderful Penne Rustica, with a nice butter-cream sauce, chicken, and bacon. There may be some eggs in there too, who knows.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I don’t think it’s too much to expect a restaurant to KNOW what’s in their food - that’s all I’m asking for. If every menu item has things I don’t eat, that’s fine - I won’t go there. But when I ask what items I can eat or which items can be easily modified, I’d like more than a stock response basically saying ‘we don’t know what we serve’.
The reason I don’t just go to the restaurant is because waiters rarely know what’s in the food, and they tell you what you want to hear. I’m surprised with all the people who have allergies that they aren’t sued more often for this.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Also, enjoy your pig torture.
September 28th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Actually, legally they are supposed to provide a list of ingredients for their meals upon request at the restaurant. It may be that there are variations (due to different chefs, etc) from restaurant to restaurant in a chain, so a generic list of ingredients may in fact not be available. This is what I would do: Go there, and ask for the list of ingredients in the items you are interested in. If they can’t provide that then you can file a complaint (this is CA law, I turned in a Starbucks the other day that refused to provide an ingredient list for their plain wrapped sandwiches) with the Orange County Health Department — you can even file it online and it does get results. I had a whole flurry of emails etc from mine plus in the end a free sandwich (duly labelled).
September 28th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
And by “list of ingredients,” that’s supposed to be a printed list of ingredients, not something spouted off by the waiter.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Thanks BEG! That’s the kind of info I want. I know chains have test kitchens and usually have standards for recipes - otherwise food would be radically different at every location. I wrote them back saying that I’d love to order with the waiter, but I still need to know which items I can have. And don’t get me started on waiters lying to you because they’re unaware of something - that’s the subject of a whole other post.