Even though eating out may be a more convenient and easier option for someone without any dietary restrictions, having allergies makes things a bit more complicated.
When you eliminate the obvious ingredients such as for example creamed sauces for someone with a dairy allergy and check that desert doesn't have nuts for someone with nut allergy you think you're done.... think again!
A great example of some really deceitful items that can give you a reaction are things like steamed vegetables, steaks, and even things like vegetable spring roll. How could this be? Well, in many restaurants, after they steam the veggies they sprinkle them with melted butter. Similarly, butter on steak is very common during preparation. And for the spring roll case - what if it was fried in sesame oil. Now you see how seemingly benign dishes can become a hazard.
Furthermore, what is most interesting is the lack of familiarity and awareness of the severity of allergens from most restaurant staff. I do have to admit, that I'm very lucky to live in NYC and I find that the staff in NYC tend to be more informed than some other places around the country.
As an example, we had a little ski get-away and we stayed in a very nice resort near Camelback. When we were at dinner, we asked the waiter to just boil some plain pasta with tomato sauce asking them to check with the kitchen to make sure that there is no butter during the preparation of the pasta or the sauce due to our daughter's dairy allergy. We've also offered them an alternative of just plain boiled pasta and olive oil on the side in case the tomato sauce is prepared with butter. The waiter seemed to understand the situation. Minutes later they brought the pasta, with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. This is just one example....
And in case you're wondering, yes, we bring a thermos along with our daughter's meals everywhere we go and when we go on family vacations, we stay in places with a kitchen. We find that to be the most stress-free way to go.
But in case we are going out, we stick to Japanese restaurants, genuine Italian / Spanish, or seafood places. In a Japanese restaurant at least you know you're most likely good on the dairy side. Similarly in genuine Italian / Spanish places olive oil is the oil of choice, and seafood - well our daughter just loves it so you can't go wrong with say some grilled octopus or fish. Lucky for us, she's not allergic to shellfish.
I hope that one day, the wait staff and importantly the chefs will be fully trained and aware of the ingredients that go into the food that is prepared in the kitchen. There are a number of initiatives that are being worked on to improve the awareness factor, please see below:
http://www.foodallergy.org/advocacy/restaurants
Also, I found the results of the study done in 2010 that concluded that 90% of managers, wait staff and chefs expressed varying degrees of "comfort" in providing a safe meal for customers with food allergies:
http://allergicliving.com/2010/07/02/restaurants-and-allergies-study-reveals-dangers/
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