Visitn Washington DC in April (m)

It all depends on where in DC you are going. Here is a link to a restaurants in DC, VA, and MD and by location. If you don't mind driving a half hour or so into the suburbs of DC you will find Ruby Tuesdays, TGIFriday's, etc.

[url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/cityguide/dc-restaurant-guide.html"]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/cityguide/dc-restaurant-guide.html[/url]

My husband is taking our PA/TNA son to DC for April vacation, too. So if anyone has any recommendations for allergy-aware restaurants (we're looking for hotel recommendations, too!), I'd love to hear them, as well.

Thanks,
Debbie

If you are willing to travel a little ways (no more than a half hour) outside of DC, you will find the normal assortment of restaurants. Growing up just outside of DC, I have found that Ruby Tuesdays is great! Anytime I ask what the food is cooked in, they are always very receptive and great at checking with the cooking staff and the manager. I posted above of a restaurant guide through the Washington Post. There are links to different areas in DC and in the DC Metro area. Hope this helps.

Thank you for the link! I will be staying down town in the capitol near the white house.
Therese

Thanks for the link. I already found one place that we Cannot go.... 5 guys burgers an fries... On their web site it states that they have open Buckets of Peanuts in the shell that you can scoop and buy.... Just an FYI.

Therese

Yeah...forgot to mention that. Red Robin is a great place to go as well as TGIFridays. Qdoba's is a mexican fast food type restaurant that uses no peanuts directly, the brownies are a may contain with peanuts and tree nuts. There is a pesto sauce, but at the Qdoba's I went to by my school and there was no pesto sauce. Here is the link. [url="http://www.qdoba.com/Allergens.aspx"]http://www.qdoba.com/Allergens.aspx[/url]

I would avoid TGIFridays - I ate there without my son and there was peanut butter (I checked after I had ordered and taken a few bites and noticed "nutty taste") in their veggie chili - staff did not know about it, manager did not know about it, and chef did not seem to know about it until I asked them to check and they had to pull "bin" to look at chili ingredient label. I crossed them off my personal list of places to take PA and TNA son.

Carrabba's (Columbia, suburb of DC) is great with food allergies and good for kids. Red Robin also very good. Three Brothers (pizza chain) in Columbia does not have peanut items on menu and has been fine for us.

Hmmm...the TGIFridays where I live has been great about it. Granted, I always get the chicken fingers. I would stay away from Applebee's personally. I had the nachos and went into an anaphylactic reaction. I had asked the manager about foods to stay away from and the nachos were "safe" according to him. On the first few bites they tasted nutty. Then the reaction started. Logan's Roadhouse is a no-go as well, has open peanuts as free appetizer.

We are visiting DC in June. I would love to hear a list of the restaurants you ate at that were safe.

Thanks,
Cody (mom to Sydney: PA and EA)

Our family is traveling to DC in a few weeks with our nut allergic son. We will be visiting Smithsonian museums for a couple of days and would love to hear about any good or bad experiences / restaurants.

mom2sydney--how was your visit?

Thank you

Bump

Overall, I think it went very well...for a 2 year old! We did stay in a suite which allowed us to cook most of our own meals. However, we did eat at McDonald's (inside one of the Smithsonians), Qdoba's (recommendation from another mom), and Outback Steakhouse. I did hear that Tortilla Coast may also be safe. It's pretty close to the Capital. We didn't have any problems, so I was thankful! Hope this helps!
Oh, and I forgot to mention Papa John's!
Cody
Mom to Sydney PA and EA

Thanks.

I wanted to share the following e-mail I received from Smithsonian dining for those interested.

Since you are dealing with severe allergies we would strongly advise you to bring food for your child.
Though the public is generally not permitted to bring outside food into museum dining facilities, the Smithsonian gladly accommodates visitors