Monday, December 9

Eating Out with Food Allergies: Our Experience at Bertucci's

I'm excited that I have a new great review to add to my restaurant review page. We went to Bertucci's this weekend with our good friends who also have toddler and pre-schooler.  Four kids at a restaurants makes for a crazy lunchtime, but we had a positive experience in general and thankfully a great food allergy friendly experience.

So what can you order at Bertucci's that's dairy-free, egg-free, peanut-free, tree-nut free and sesame-free?

Here's the tasty array of food that Little Guy, Little Gal and I shared between the 3 of us (with a little leftover). Little Guy is now eating wheat (more on that in another post), so this is not gluten-free pizza or pasta.  BUT Bertucci's does offer gluten free options which is great for those who need it.

food allergy restaurants

We enjoyed this cheese-free pizza, pasta and sauce, and grilled chicken and broccoli. From our table I could conveniently see the chef cooking this pizza on a special pizza pan. All the other pizzas in the stone oven were cooked right on the oven bottom. It definitely made me feel better to see our pizza on its own pan.

Food?
Bertucci's has great pasta and pizza options for everyone. As you see in the photo above, there was also a nice variety of allergy-friendly foods. It's not everyday that I can order a dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free and sesame-free pizza for Little Guy at a restaurant.

Allergy-friendly?
Bertucci's does offer gluten-free menus. I heard through the grapevine that this location was allergy-friendly. When I called the day before to speak with the manager, she told me she has a shellfish allergy so she is especially strict about the kitchen.  However, I do wish the manager would have come over immediately to speak with us at the table as I've experienced at other restaurants. I used my trusty chefs card as usual which always helps.

Atmosphere?
It's a great family friendly place. Especially at 11:30am when we arrived! Lots of other kids were there too.

So what's the most ridiculous part about all this?

I ordered all of this for Little Guy, and he hardly ate any of it.  

His appetite as a 3.5 year old has REALLY slowed down. His little 1 year old sister eats MORE than he does. I guess Little Gal is just at a growth spurt period right now as a 15 mo old!

See her little hand in there all ready to eat this pizza?  She was ravenous, just as she is at about every meal. At least she loves a variety of healthy food that we can all enjoy together!

food allergy restaurants

Ever tried Bertucci's for an allergy-friendly meal? What are your favorite food-allergy friendly restaurants?

6 comments:

carrie @chockababy said...

We go there with family every few months but I ALWAYS bring my daughter her own meal. The first time I asked the waiter about something and the manager came over saying they could make no promises about safe foods. I wasn't going to trust him if he didn't trust his own staff! I will call again but I wish we had more places to go that would make me feel comfortable to order her food from. Thanks for sharing!

Kathryn @ Mamacado said...

Carrie - I guess it definitely varies by location. This is a good example of how important it is to speak with the manager of each restaurant!

Diane said...

Great post Kathryn! I recognize the little hand and the red sparkle top!

Kathryn @ Mamacado said...

Thanks Diane! Yes, she looked cute in her outfit!

Mikhaela from Safe & Scrumptious blog said...

Sounds like you have almost the exact same allergy set as us (although we don't avoid peanuts and we DO avoid mustard). Do you feel the restaurant seemed to GET sesame allergy and sesame cross-contamination issues? Do they mix the dough on the same equipment as any sesame-laden breadsticks, for example? I'm glad you had a safe experience.

Kathryn @ Mamacado said...

Hi Mikhaela! Good questions. I didn't specifically ask about sesame and the dough mixing equipment. However, our chef card specifically mentions cross contact issues and how separate utensils and preparation equipment should be used. I did like how the pizza was cooked on a separate pan in the brick oven, but asking questions about the dough mixing equipment is a great idea too.

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