Good day All
Just a little background to my dilemma - my family and I are travelling from Toronto, ON to Orlando, FL in May 2005. So to prepare for our trip I emailed a few favourably noted restaurants that where mentioned here as being acomodating to PA & TNA.
If I may, here are two responses, the first from Olive Garden and the second from Applebee's.
1. Dear Antonio:
Thank you for your inquiry.
We are unable to provide the information you requested regarding nuts
or peanut oil as an ingredient at Olive Garden. Identifying allergens is
a complex process for restaurants as there may be miniscule amounts of
ingredients our vendors may not list. As you know, peanuts have been
hidden in pie crusts, gravies, chili, spaghetti, soups, and cheesecakes.
While none of our recipes include nuts or peanuts, we cannot say with
complete accuracy that there are no nuts or possible cross introduction
of nuts in our restaurants stemming from our vendors. Our current
nutritional database does not include information to the level of detail
you require for your safety. Our menu is very complex and our vendor
sources are extensive, making it very difficult to recommend any items with
the confidence that we all need. We trust that you will appreciate our
position.
If Guest Relations can be of further assistance, please write us again
through olivegarden.com ([url]http://www.olivegarden.com/feedback.asp[/url] ) or call us
at 1-800-331-2729. We look forward to a future opportunity to serve
you in our restaurants.
With Hospitaliano,
2. Dear Antonio,
Thanks for your recent request for a list of ingredients of the menu
items available at Applebee's.
We are sorry, but due to the complexity of our menu and the frequency
in which we change our menus, we do not provide nutritional breakdowns
specifically identifying the ingredients of our menu items. We
recommend talking with the general or kitchen manager at your neighborhood
Applebee's to see what they can do for you.
The health and safety of our guests is simply too important to us to
risk sharing inaccurate or outdated nutritional information.
We hope you understand our approach to your request. We could never
forgive ourselves if we were the cause of someone's illness.
Sincerely,
(I left out the names of the individuals who responded.)
I guess my question to the good posters would be - Am I too paranoid for not wanting to go to these two places? Or - Should I take a deep breath and attempt a visit and inquire with the individual restaurant management?
It scares me to think that if the HQ doesnt know what they are serving, whats makes them think their local restaurants have any more control or knowlegde into the ingredients in the food products arriving at their establishment.
As always please feel free to shed a bit of light.
