Noodles And Company No Longer As Gluten-free Friendly As Before.

[Jaserine]

Hi All.

Recently I sent an email to Noodles and Company about the southern Fort Collins location. My complaint with this location was the fact that the last 2 managers I asked about this were either too busy or didn't care enough to help me. Which is sad because I have eaten at other locations in Colorado and Nebraska without issues up until a year ago.

Below is the response that I received. It states that the Pad Thai, beef, shrimp and cucumber tomato salad are the only currently safe choices on their menu. Even the Pad Thai seems wrong since I thought it had regular soy sauce in it.

I will miss eating at this place.

-Jas

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Dear ,

Thank you for your email and for being such a loyal guest. I am very sorry to hear about your recent experiences at our Ft. Collins restaurant.

At Noodles & Company, we are concerned with the dietary needs of our guests and are happy to assist you in a selection. Currently, the only items that do not contain wheat/gluten are the Pad Thai, beef, shrimp and cucumber tomato salad. The noodles, sauces and preparation methods all contribute to the gluten content of our food and substituting rice noodles will not make a dish gluten-free. Although the ingredients themselves in the marinara sauce with rice noodles do not knowingly contain gluten, we would still recommend the Pad Thai.

As mentioned in our allergen statement, we do have the Big Eight (milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat) in our restaurant and we can't guarantee no cross contact. If your allergy is severe or life-threatening, we urge you to consider this carefully before dining with us.

Please inform a manager of your allergies every time you dine with us so the staff can take special precautions to help avoid cross-contact and provide you with the most updated allergen information.

We hope this information is helpful and we will follow up with our Ft. Collins team. If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Sincerely,

[Sweetfudge]

that's totally weak! i used to eat at N&C all the time (was close to my former workplace). well the idiots need to take off their menu the "we would be happy to help accomodate your allergy needs" statement

talk about moving backwards.....

[buffettbride]

What a bummer you got a bad response. I've contacted Noodles several times with praise about the location where we usually dine (Arvada, CO). We've gotten to know the manager and he takes good care of us, even when it is busy. Of the dozens of times we've eaten at Noodles since my daughter was diagnosed last April, she has only had a reaction once, and it wasn't from our "home" location. The manager has even said there are many combinations of gluten-free options using rice noodles but for whatever reason the company only lists Pad Thai as the only gluten-free "meal" available.

Pad Thai doesn't use soy sauce, it has it's own spicy sauce. My daughter almost always gets the rice noodles with butter and parmesan with braised beef and broccoli, but she has tried the Pad Thai before.

I think restaurants are at a distinct disadvantage and I don't really blame them for not guaranteeing the gluten free (or allergen free) status of their foods. Kitchens are busy. Cross contact happens. People make mistakes. I think it is not realistic to expect most restaurants to be able to guarantee every time that even the gluten-free foods (like rice noodles, vegetables, etc) are not also a risk.

On one hand, it's great when a restaurant offers allergen-friendly options, but to me, eating out is always a calculated risk. (Oddly, our favorite and "safest" places to eat out are loaded with gluten otherwise!)

Responses like that from a company are frustrating, but I do somewhat see their point.