Glutened On Multiple Occasions At Pf Chang's

[jmreed]

Hi... I just joined the forum, but I'm not new to it. I've been here the last 9 months searching for foods my newly diagnosed Celiac Wife.

While I can eat gluten, I have better internet (and cooking) skills than my wife, so this forum has been an invaluable resource for me. I want to thank everyone who has posted helpful information.

My other reason for the post is to warn everyone about the possibility of getting glutened at PF Chang's. They do have a gluten free menu, but the gluten free food is only a modification of gluten full food. That means the gluten free food is difficult for servers to identify it in a rush. My wife has been given gluten filled food there on two different nights. Both times the server assured her it was gluten free before she ate it.

Below is the letter I wrote to PF Chang

[JustCan]

So sorry to hear your wife had a bad experience at PF Changs. At the PF Changs we go to we were told that the gluten-free food will always come out on plates that say "PF Changs" around the rim whereas the regular food comes out on plain white plates. It always seems like someone different brings out the gluten free food and they always say "Gluten Free Singapore Street Noodles" or whatever it is as they set it down. They also have a gluten-free soy sauce but only certain people on staff are allowed to get that from what we've been told. I may just have a good location that takes extra precautions but the different type of plates seems to be a big help. Hope your wife is feeling better!

[gfgypsyqueen]

So sorry to hear your wife is having those problems at PF changs! I love that place. I have had similar "break downs in the process" at other gluten-free menu restaurants. I just had this happen about a month ago and I am still recovering!!! I hate to give up on a restaurant since we have so few good ones to choose from. But in the end, writing corp is the best! I guess we all now know to include a copy of our receipts with these letters. Let us know the outcome.

[hez]

I am so sorry your wife got sick. Everytime we eat out we take a risk. We as individual's have to weigh the risk. For me I am very sensitive so the risk is very high. I am careful when I eat out and really do not eat out very often. I am also very careful at home since I am the only one with celiac! I tend to not complain to restaurants when I do eat out. I feel like (in my instances) they did all they could to insure a safe meal and I am grateful for the gluten-free menu.

Hez

[jmreed]

I am so sorry your wife got sick. Everytime we eat out we take a risk. We as individual's have to weigh the risk. For me I am very sensitive so the risk is very high. I am careful when I eat out and really do not eat out very often. I am also very careful at home since I am the only one with celiac! I tend to not complain to restaurants when I do eat out. I feel like (in my instances) they did all they could to insure a safe meal and I am grateful for the gluten-free menu.

Hez

I agree... I worry that my complaining will make it less likely more restaurants will take the innitiative to have gluten free menues. Restaurants who offer a gluten free menue increase their chances of complaints due to cross contamination issues.

On the other hand, I think when a restaurant offers a gluten free menue, the expectation that they will serve you food without gluten is much higher.

These weren't issues of cross contamination. They gave her the wrong food. It looked like the gluten free dish. But it isn't.

Thanks for the kind words!!!

[jmreed]

So sorry to hear your wife had a bad experience at PF Changs. At the PF Changs we go to we were told that the gluten-free food will always come out on plates that say "PF Changs" around the rim whereas the regular food comes out on plain white plates. It always seems like someone different brings out the gluten free food and they always say "Gluten Free Singapore Street Noodles" or whatever it is as they set it down. They also have a gluten-free soy sauce but only certain people on staff are allowed to get that from what we've been told. I may just have a good location that takes extra precautions but the different type of plates seems to be a big help. Hope your wife is feeling better!

I wish they had a similar system in Sacramento... It doesn't appear that they do. The only differences I have discovered are the gluten free sauce is a little lighter in color and less spicy.

Where is your location? I will suggest that they use plates to mark the food everywhere.

Thanks for the good wishes!

Jake

[home-based-mom]

To those who prefer not to complain after being glutened, there are non-confrontational ways to let the management know what happened, and Jacob did this very well. This needs to be done for three reasons:

1) Someone's health and safety was compromised

2) If you don't tell the manager that something went wrong, they will assume that everything was OK, and the problem will never get fixed because it won't be addressed.

3) Somebody else will get sick.

[jmreed]

Why is it that so many of the messages on this forum are pinned? The pinned posts automatically post before any other mesages.

Since so many of the posts are pinned, the new ones are impossible to find. Who has the right to make posts pinned? It seems to me that there are a glut of pinned messages making them all unimportant. In every other forum i've been on there are at maximum 5 pinned posts (those that are deemed important). I have been trying to find the newest posts and gave up after searching through over 1000 pinned posts.

Just an observation...

[Darn210]

Why is it that so many of the messages on this forum are pinned? The pinned posts automatically post before any other mesages.

Since so many of the posts are pinned, the new ones are impossible to find. Who has the right to make posts pinned? It seems to me that there are a glut of pinned messages making them all unimportant. In every other forum i've been on there are at maximum 5 pinned posts (those that are deemed important). I have been trying to find the newest posts and gave up after searching through over 1000 pinned posts.

Just an observation...

Jim, "pinning" doesn't mean the same here as in other forums. When a topic is pinned, it means that it has been reviewed by a moderator for appropriate content and that it is located in the correct subforum. No topic will stay at the top. It will always be ranked by which topic was posted/replied to last. If you want to see which topics have had posts made to them since the last time you visited the forum, click on "View New Posts" located next to "My Controls".

[JustCan]

The PF Changs location that uses different plates for gluten-free food is in Warrington, Pennsylvania (outside of Philadelphia). It might be worth suggesting that as a standard to their corporate office as you mentioned. Of course, I'm someone who avoids eating out other than PF Changs and a gluten-free pizza place nearby. Hopefully my PF Changs continues to do a good job!

[jerseyangel]

The PF Changs location that uses different plates for gluten-free food is in Warrington, Pennsylvania (outside of Philadelphia). It might be worth suggesting that as a standard to their corporate office as you mentioned. Of course, I'm someone who avoids eating out other than PF Changs and a gluten-free pizza place nearby. Hopefully my PF Changs continues to do a good job!

Hi,

Is this the Changs in the same complex as Wegman's in Warrington?

We moved to PA last fall and am still finding my way around

[jmreed]

Jim, "pinning" doesn't mean the same here as in other forums. When a topic is pinned, it means that it has been reviewed by a moderator for appropriate content and that it is located in the correct subforum. No topic will stay at the top. It will always be ranked by which topic was posted/replied to last. If you want to see which topics have had posts made to them since the last time you visited the forum, click on "View New Posts" located next to "My Controls".

Oh... Ok...

Thanks for the help! knowing that will make the forum more easy for me to navigate.

[jmreed]

The PF Changs location that uses different plates for gluten-free food is in Warrington, Pennsylvania (outside of Philadelphia). It might be worth suggesting that as a standard to their corporate office as you mentioned. Of course, I'm someone who avoids eating out other than PF Changs and a gluten-free pizza place nearby. Hopefully my PF Changs continues to do a good job!

Thanks! I will pass on this suggestion to PF Chang's Corporate!

[zansu]

My PFChangs has also gone to the "old" plates with PFChangs name on them as the gluten-free plates. I still special order mine as well -- without scallions since I don't like them and it flags the dinner as mine not someone else's ginger or lemon chicken. Someone on here orders the lettuce wraps with the rice noodles on the side for the same reason.

[jmreed]

My PFChangs has also gone to the "old" plates with PFChangs name on them as the gluten-free plates. I still special order mine as well -- without scallions since I don't like them and it flags the dinner as mine not someone else's ginger or lemon chicken. Someone on here orders the lettuce wraps with the rice noodles on the side for the same reason.

Good ideas... If they won't mark the food for us in Sacramento, special ordering could really help. I'll pass that on to my wife. I love PF Changs and she doesn't want to go there any more.

Thanks!

[jmreed]

Here is an update. I am glad to see that PF Chang's took the issue seriously and has made the procedural modifications necessary to minimize these occurances. My wife and I will return there very soon.

On 2008-03-29 Jacob Reed wrote:

FYI - Since I have not received any updated response, I am now posting the above on glutenfreeforum.com.

It is important that people with celiac