Dealing with restaurants -- how much do you ask questions?

[ratatosk]

The most recent poster wrote "I feel so strange unable to go out to eat, grilling people about what is really in the food." That's actually a really good thing to bring up, IMO, so I wanted to make it into its own post

Comments

[ratatosk]

That's great! I have a very low tolerance for situations where I have to go out of my way in order to eat, so it's nice to see how someone handles things when they go ahead and try it. It also made me realize that less than half the restaurants I go to have staff who are fluent English speakers, which may contribute to my overall unwillingness to trust people. Do you have any strategies for getting past language barriers?

I think I might determine whether a place was "high end fancy" based in part on their ability to deal with my allergies. I tell my friends that "places that think too highly of themselves" are trouble for me. :P

[plymouth]

Similarly, I only have an issue with one nightshade (tomatoes) and I do say "allergy" even though technically what I have is an "intolerance" not an "allergy". I don't expect most restaurant staff to know what the hell that even if. Also, my issue with tomatoes are such that if that case is "oops you left a slice of tomato on my sandwhich" I can take it off and be OK. If it is "oops, you filled my sandwhich with diced tomatoes" or "oops, you slathered my chicken breast in red sauce" I can't really remove it and they will have to remake it.