My Calgary Dining Experience

[Daxin]

SO recently, my family and I went to Calgary to visit my folks. THis involved educationg my mother about what to cook, but they also like to go out to eat (which is fine by me)

We went to one Ricky's (the one in the south by the new IKEA) and when I tild the server about my celiac, she actually brought me the ingredient lists for all the salad dressings etc so I could make informed choices.

We also ate at the White Spot on macLeod Trail south, and the manager there was able to tell me right away which meals were safe and which were not. (Not a huge selection, but I appreciate the effort!)

Now for the educatiuonal and not so fun part. I checked the Calgary Celiac Association Chapter website for suggestions, and imagine my surprise when I discovered that The Cheesecake Cafe ( my favourite place as a kid, and where I have wanted to take DW since we were married) had a gluten-free cheese cake! So off we go. When we arrive, we were informed that the "machine" that makes the cakes is broken, and they have not had any for a month. But they would be happy to phone the North location to see if they had any. They then brought my dad the wrong meal, and they rest of the night was HORRIBLE!!

I called the north location myself, and they told me they did not have any, and it would take THREE DAYS to make one!! I discovered a third location near the airport, and they had one, and sold me the whole cake. It is quite tasty, but not worth the price or all the extra aggrivation.

If you are advertising that you have a gluten-free/Sugar free cake, with the expanding market of Celiacs and Diabetics out there, shoudl you not have one ready ALL THE TIME? Or get the machine fixed ASAP. NOt a month from now?

Sorry about the small rant there, but I basically drove 6.5 hours from where I live to visit my parents with the express purpose of taking my wife to my favourite old haunt, and could not even enjoy dessert with her (and they brought HER the wrong cake)!

[Ursa Major]

Ryan, I am glad you had a good visit and some positive experiences in Calgary. But of course, your fiasco with the cake would have put a damper on things.

I had never heard that cheese cakes are made by machine! You would think that somebody there would be able to just bake a cheesecake without it if necessary!

[CarlaB]

Sorry for your aggravation! Cheesecake Factory told me that their Godiva Cheesecake was gluten-free, however, someone else on the board posted that they used flour to dust the pan with What's the point in that???

[jerseyangel]

Sorry the cheesecake was such a pain, Ryan The things we have to go through to eat safely and at the same time have something that we love--grrr. It's like nothing is simple anymore

Anyway, I'm glad you had a nice visit with your folks!

[Daxin]

I'm not sure about the machine thing either, but I think it has something to do with the fact that it's a cold set cheesecake (no bake) and they may use the machine like a press or mold or something.

[Carriefaith]

Sorry you had a bad experience. There seems to be a lot of restaurants that accomodate the gluten-free diet in Calgary. I have only eaten at Splitt though. I like the food there.