Jump to content

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Olive Garden

sweetie101282

By sweetie101282
in Gluten-Free Restaurants

Recommended Posts

sweetie101282 Apprentice
sweetie101282
Posted

Hi everyone

My grandma is absolutely insistent on taking me to the new Olive Garden in our area and I was wondering what (if anything) you all order when you go. Are any of the soups gluten-free? I know I obviously cant do the pasta and breadsticks, but I've never been there so I don't know if they offer anything else I could try. Thanks for your help!

Amy

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


tarnalberry Community Regular
tarnalberry
Posted

I suppose you could ask them about the salad, making sure to take care that they don't let croutons near it. I don't know about the sauces, and your best bet with a place that isn't generally known to provide options for celiacs is to call the local one, so they'll be familiar with the issue before you go in.

debmidge Rising Star
debmidge
Posted

Olive Garden, in my opinion, is the fast food of Italian Restaurants. With that said, I can't imagine them being careful enough in the kitchen not to cross contaminate. Remember, their mainstays are pastas, breads and sauces. Perhaps you can visit them BEFORE going out to eat there and discuss celiac with a manager (not server) and review the menu choices before you really do eat there.

KayJay Enthusiast
KayJay
Posted

I think that the salad dressing is ok to eat. I have eaten there a few times but that is the ONLY thing that does not have pasta or bread in it. I love the olive garden so it has been hard not to eat there anymore. My grandmother buys the salad dressing and I have looked at the label and it all looks ok. But check to make sure.

sweetie101282 Apprentice
sweetie101282
Posted
  • Author

B) Thanks everyone for your responses. I am actually VERY suspicious about eating there already, but that thanks for your words of caution. I only asked because I specifically remember reading someone's posting about "eating at Olive Garden all the time" but I'm not sure who the member was. If anyone knows who I'm talking about, let me know.

Thanks again

Dwight Senne Rookie
Dwight Senne
Posted

I never seen the post you mentioned, but I do remember reading one that said their local Olive Garden was very unwilling to work with them. As someone else posted, Olive Garden's mainstays are riddled with gluten. Why would you even take the chance? I would suggest that you be MORE insistent than your grandma and inform her that there is a very good chance you could get sick from cross contamination and that you don't want to eat there.

lovegrov Collaborator
lovegrov
Posted

If it were me I'd tell grandma that would absolutely LOVE to go out to eat with her but it needs to be somewhere other than Olive Garden. It's true that some people have found cooperative managers at OG, but others have had terrible experiences. And OG's national policy is essentially "go eat somewhere else."

If I remember, the people who have eaten there had salad and plain baked chicken. I believe all or most of their sauces either have gluten or the manager doesn't know what's in them because they're all pre-made and shipped in.

richard

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


FreyaUSA Contributor
FreyaUSA
Posted

I actually went to one with a very helpful manager. With her help, I ordered some kind of sauted chicken with a wine based sauce that didn't contain gluten. The seasonings they use for their sauted chicken do contain gluten, so she had him make mine in a seperate frying pan without the seasoning. The big bowl of salad arrived sans croutons and was delicious. Then...the manager returns to say another waiter took my special order and so they were rushing to prepare it again, which meant everyone else was eating while I wasn't (fairly typical these days.) Anyway, it arrived and tasted great and I was halfway through it before I realized it was coated in something (since she said they were leaving off the coating...ah well.) I was so sick that night. Anyway, it just was too much bother to go through ever again. I assume it was the coating that got me, but who knows?

Erin Newbie
Erin
Posted

I recently went to an Olive Garden w/ a Ladies group & spoke with the chef - there were only 2 items I thought might be ok, but after speaking with the chef, I found out they DO have flour in them. One was a shish-kabob dish & I can't remember the other. But ALL of their sauces have flour in them. The side order that comes with the shish-kabob is a side of potatoes, which seems like it'd be o.k., but the chef told me even they are dusted in flour. Since it is a chain restaurant, there's not much the chef can do to change the recipes. I'm not sure about the salad dressing.

Boojca Apprentice
Boojca
Posted

Someone on the Delphi forum just posted (last night??) that they went to their local Olive Garden and they actually now have a gluten-free menu. It's a chain, so it must be "coming out" at some point.

hmmm....

Bridget

lovegrov Collaborator
lovegrov
Posted

I saw the same delhpi post but if you go back and read it it says that this particular manager worked with a nutritionist to come up with hiw own menu, not a national one.

richard

  • 1 month later...
webgyrl Newbie
webgyrl
Posted

OG is extremely NOT helpful. I called their 800 customer service number and was told the following.. (in so many words)...

"if you have allergies of any kind, we cannot guarantee or make any effort to ensure that you will not be contaminated or poisoned. OG is not the restauarnt for you. Sorry."

So, that's that! I wouldn't eat ANYTHING at a place that has no regard for those suffering from allergies and the like. Of course, that's their perogative, but they could be nicer about it ;)

  • 4 weeks later...
cdford Contributor
cdford
Posted

DON'T!!!!!

My parents were in town in August and insisted on taking us to Olive Garden. It took seven and a half weeks and two hospital stays to get the symptoms under control. The waiter, chef, and manager were very nice and appeared very helpful but I knew within minutes there was a problem.

Donna

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      131,964
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    Cbear
    Newest Member
    Cbear
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):


  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Scott Adams
      Does anyone here also have Afib

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      If black seed oil is working for his Afib, stick to it, but if not, I can say that ablation therapy is no big deal--my mother was out of the procedure in about 1 hour and went home that evening, and had zero negative effects from the treatment. PS - I would recommend that your husband get an Apple watch to monitor his Afib--there is an app and it will take readings 24/7 and give reports on how much of the time he's in it. Actual data like this should be what should guide his treatment.
    • Jacki Espo
      Covid caused reoccurrence of DH without eating gluten

      By Jacki Espo · Posted

      This happened to me as well. What’s weirder is that within a couple hours of taking paxlovid it subsided. I thought maybe I got glutened but after reading your post not so sure. 
    • Mari
      New Celiac Mama in My 30s

      By Mari · Posted

      Hi Tiffany. Thank you for writing your dituation and  circumstancesin such detail and so well writte, too. I particularly noticed what you wrote about brain for and feeling like your brain is swelling and I know from my own experiences that's how it feel and your brain really does swell and you get migraines.    Way back when I was in my 20s I read a book by 2 MD allergist and they described their patient who came in complaining that her brain, inside her cranium, was swelling  and it happened when she smelled a certain chemical she used in her home. She kept coming back and insisting her brain actually swelled in her head. The Drs couldn't explain this problem so they, with her permission, performed an operation where they made a small opening through her cranium, exposed her to the chemical then watched as she brain did swell into the opening. The DRs were amazed but then were able to advise her to avoid chemicals that made her brain swell. I remember that because I occasionally had brain fog then but it was not a serious problem. I also realized that I was becoming more sensitive to chemicals I used in my work in medical laboratories. By my mid forties the brain fog and chemicals forced me to leave my  profession and move to a rural area with little pollution. I did not have migraines. I was told a little later that I had a more porous blood brain barrier than other people. Chemicals in the air would go up into my sinused and leak through the blood brain barrier into my brain. We have 2 arteries  in our neck that carry blood with the nutrients and oxygen into the brain. To remove the fluids and used blood from the brain there are only capillaries and no large veins to carry it away so all those fluids ooze out much more slowly than they came in and since the small capillaries can't take care of extra fluid it results in swelling in the face, especially around the eyes. My blood flow into my brain is different from most other people as I have an arterial ischema, adefectiveartery on one side.   I have to go forward about 20 or more years when I learned that I had glaucoma, an eye problem that causes blindness and more years until I learned I had celiac disease.  The eye Dr described my glaucoma as a very slow loss of vision that I wouldn't  notice until had noticeable loss of sight.  I could have my eye pressure checked regularly or it would be best to have the cataracts removed from both eyes. I kept putting off the surgery then just overnight lost most of the vision in my left eye. I thought at the I had been exposed to some chemical and found out a little later the person who livedbehind me was using some chemicals to build kayaks in a shed behind my house. I did not realize the signifance  of this until I started having appointments with a Dr. in a new building. New buildings give me brain fog, loss of balance and other problems I know about this time I experienced visual disturbances very similar to those experienced by people with migraines. I looked further online and read that people with glaucoma can suffer rapid loss of sight if they have silent migraines (no headache). The remedy for migraines is to identify and avoid the triggers. I already know most of my triggers - aromatic chemicals, some cleaning materials, gasoline and exhaust and mold toxins. I am very careful about using cleaning agents using mostly borax and baking powder. Anything that has any fragrance or smell I avoid. There is one brand of dishwashing detergent that I can use and several brands of  scouring powder. I hope you find some of this helpful and useful. I have not seen any evidence that Celiac Disease is involved with migraines or glaucoma. Please come back if you have questions or if what I wrote doesn't make senseto you. We sometimes haveto learn by experience and finding out why we have some problems. Take care.       The report did not mention migraines. 
    • Mari
      My only proof

      By Mari · Posted

      Hi Jmartes71 That is so much like my story! You probably know where Laytonville is and that's where I was living just before my 60th birthday when the new Dr. suggested I could have Celiacs. I didn't go on a gluten challange diet before having the Celiac panel blood test drawn. The results came back as equivical as one antibody level was very high but another, tissue transaminasewas normal. Itdid show I was  allergic to cows milk and I think hot peppers. I immediately went gluten free but did not go in for an endoscopy. I found an online lab online that would do the test to show if I had a main celiac gene (enterolab.com). The report came back that I had inherited a main celiac gene, DQ8, from one parent and a D!6 from the other parent. That combination is knows to sym[tons of celiac worse than just inheriting one main celiac gene. With my version of celiac disease I was mostly constipated but after going gluten-free I would have diarrhea the few times I was glutened either by cross contamination or eating some food containing gluten. I have stayed gluten-free for almost 20 years now and knew within a few days that it was right for me although my recovery has been slow.   When I go to see a  medical provide and tell them I have celiacs they don't believe me. The same when I tell them that I carry a main celiac gene, the DQ8. It is only when I tell them that I get diarrhea after eating gluten that they realize that I might have celiac disease. Then they will order th Vitamin B12 and D3 that I need to monitor as my B12 levels can go down very fast if I'm not taking enough of it. Medical providers haven't been much help in my recovery. They are not well trained in this problem. I really hope this helps ypu. Take care.      
    • knitty kitty
      Does anyone here also have Afib

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      Fascinating.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.