The perils of eating out

As must be obvious, we now feel like old hands with our approach to eating out with allergies.  However, new pitfalls presented themselves at a birthday celebration this week.  The day before our planned meal we visited the pub in the village in which we are staying and explained our food constraints.  The chef was there and confidently nodded when we asked if he could accommodate us.  I was reassured to see a note at the foot of their menu, 'please inform us of any serious food allergies'.


On the evening itself we took our seats and gave the waitress our orders from the menu.  Then, unfortunately, the waitress returned with baskets of bread and butter, one of which she set down in front of The Allergic One.  I swiftly removed the butter and asked her to check the ingredients in the bread.  She returned in a panic informing us that the bread contained butter.  We quickly shoved the bread basket to the other end of the table.  The Allergic One had by this time already picked up a piece of bread and set it on his side plate.  He was not best pleased when I asked him to wait.  He was even less pleased when I explained he would not be able to eat it.  The waitress kindly bought us a plate of home made oatcakes but these did not cut the mustard with The Boy sadly.  I thought they were delicious, even without butter.  Perhaps I should have taken a tub of vegan margarine with me?!   

However, the evening was redeemed in the eyes of The Allergic One as his main course arrived; sausages, chips and ketchup ... again, no vegetables or nutrition present sadly.

The only non-dairy and non-egg dessert menu item was a bowl of strawberries.  The other children with whom we were eating would be tucking into a combination of chocolate cake, ice cream, meringues and cheesecake so we made a decision to return to our holiday house for our equivalent sweet treat - soy ice cream in a dairy-free and egg-free cone with sugar sprinkles ... again.  


So, the moral of the story is ... a restaurant might be able to accommodate our dietary requirements for a main course but sadly not with the bread or the desserts.  But ... I still think it's worth it and a week ago I would have been glad to be eating out as often as we have done this holiday.