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

Glutened On Multiple Occasions At Pf Chang's

jmreed

By jmreed
in Gluten-Free Restaurants

Recommended Posts

jmreed Rookie
jmreed
Posted

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

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

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


JustCan Explorer
JustCan
Posted

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 Enthusiast
gfgypsyqueen
Posted

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 Enthusiast
hez
Posted

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 Rookie
jmreed
Posted
  • Author
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 Rookie
jmreed
Posted
  • Author
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 Contributor
home-based-mom
Posted

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.

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

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


jmreed Rookie
jmreed
Posted
  • Author

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 Enthusiast
Darn210
Posted
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 Explorer
JustCan
Posted

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 Proficient
jerseyangel
Posted
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 Rookie
jmreed
Posted
  • Author
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 Rookie
jmreed
Posted
  • Author
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 Rookie
zansu
Posted

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 Rookie
jmreed
Posted
  • Author
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!

  • 2 weeks later...
jmreed Rookie
jmreed
Posted
  • Author

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. :D

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

Archived

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

Go to topic listing

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Celiac.com:
    Join eNewsletter
    Donate
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):
    Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):



    Celiac.com Sponsors (A17-M):



  • Recent Activity

    1. knitty kitty
      - knitty kitty replied to Charlie1946's topic in Related Issues & Disorders
      45

      Severe severe mouth pain

      @Charlie1946, Sorry I sidetracked your thread a bit. Apologies. Proton pump inhibitors, like Omeprazole, change the pH in our gastrointestinal systems which allows opportunistic microbes to move in and take over. Have you been checked for SIBO? There's a significant link between length of Omeprazole use and SIBO. I had SIBO, thrush (Candida...
    2. Lkg5
      - Lkg5 replied to Charlie1946's topic in Related Issues & Disorders
      45

      Severe severe mouth pain

      My sebaceous hyperplasia and thrush disappeared when I stopped all dairy.
    3. Lkg5
      - Lkg5 commented on Scott Adams's article in Diagnosis, Testing & Treatment
      1

      Rapid Diagnosis of Celiac Disease Using Blood-Based Infrared Spectroscopy and Deep Learning

      Wow!!! 😂
    4. Charlie1946
      - Charlie1946 replied to Charlie1946's topic in Related Issues & Disorders
      45

      Severe severe mouth pain

      @knitty kitty Thank you so much for all that information! I will be sure to check it out and ask my doctor. I am just at a loss, I am on my 2nd round of miracle mouthwash and I brush and scrape my tongue and (sorry this is gross) it's still coated in the middle
    5. Aretaeus Cappadocia
      - Aretaeus Cappadocia posted a topic in Gluten-Free Foods, Products, Shopping & Medications
      0

      Brown Rice Vinegar (organic) from Eden Foods is likely gluten free

      Traditional brown rice vinegars are made by fermenting brown rice and water with koji (Kōji 麹). The gluten risk comes from the method of preparing the koji: rice, wheat or barley may be used. Regardless of the starting grain, "koji" typically will be listed as an ingredient, and that term alone does not indicate gluten status. I called Eden Foods re...
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):

  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      133,097
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    Hana B
    Newest Member
    Hana B
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):

  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • knitty kitty
      Severe severe mouth pain

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      @Charlie1946,  Sorry I sidetracked your thread a bit.  Apologies. Proton pump inhibitors, like Omeprazole, change the pH in our gastrointestinal systems which allows opportunistic microbes to move in and take over.  Have you been checked for SIBO?  There's a significant link between length of Omeprazole use and SIBO.  I had SIBO, thrush (Candida) and lichen planus and other problems while I was on Omeprazole.  I had to stop taking it.  It was a horrible time, so I understand how painful and frustrating it is.   You change your microbiome (the bacteria and microbes living inside you) by changing what you eat.  They eat what you eat.  Change the menu and you get different customers.   I changed my diet.  I cut out dairy because I was reacting to the casein and lactose.  I cut out all processed foods and most carbohydrates. I ate meat and veggies mostly, some fruit like apples and mandarin oranges.  By cutting out all the excess carbohydrates, lactose, and empty carbs in processed gluten-free foods, the opportunistic microbes get starved out.  SIBO bacteria send chemical messages to our brains demanding more carbs, so be prepared for carb cravings, but don't let the microbiome control you!   The skin and digestive system is continuous.  The health of our outside skin reflects the health of our gastrointestinal system.  Essential B vitamins, like Thiamine B 1 and especially Niacin B 3, are needed to repair intestinal damage and keep bad bacteria in check.  Niacin helps improve not only the intestinal tract, but also the skin.  Sebaceous Hyperplasia is linked to being low in Niacin B 3.  Lichen Planus is treated with Niacinamide, a form of Niacin B 3.   Vitamins are chemical compounds that our bodies cannot make.  We must get them from our food.  If our food isn't digested well (low stomach acid from Omeprazole causes poor digestion), then vitamins aren't released well.  Plus there's a layer of SIBO bacteria absorbing our vitamins first between the food we've eaten and our inflamed and damaged villi that may have difficulty absorbing the vitamins.  So, taking vitamin supplements is a way to boost absorption of essential nutrients that will allow the body to fight off the microbes, repair and heal.   Doctors are taught in medical learning institutions funded by pharmaceutical companies.  The importance of nutrition is downplayed and called old fashioned.  Doctors are taught we have plenty to eat, so no one gets nutritional deficiency diseases anymore.  But we do, as people with Celiac disease, with impaired absorption.  Nutritional needs need to be addressed first with us.  Vitamins cannot be patented because they are natural substances.  But pharmaceutical drugs can be.  There's more money to be made selling pharmaceutical drugs than vitamins.   Makes me wonder how much illness could be prevented if people were screened for Celiac disease much earlier in life, instead of after they've been ill and medicated for years.   Talk to your doctor and dietician about supplementing essential vitamins and minerals.   Interesting Reading: The Duration of Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy and the Risk of Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12250812/#:~:text=The long-term use of,overgrowth dynamics is less clear. Lichenoid drug eruption with proton pump inhibitors https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC27275/ Nicotinamide: A Multifaceted Molecule in Skin Health and Beyond https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11857428/
    • Lkg5
      Severe severe mouth pain

      By Lkg5 · Posted

      My sebaceous hyperplasia and thrush disappeared when I stopped all dairy.
    • Charlie1946
      Severe severe mouth pain

      By Charlie1946 · Posted

      @knitty kitty Thank you so much for all that information! I will be sure to check it out and ask my doctor.  I am just at a loss, I am on my 2nd round of miracle mouthwash and I brush and scrape my tongue and (sorry this is gross) it's still coated in the middle 
    • Aretaeus Cappadocia
      Brown Rice Vinegar (organic) from Eden Foods is likely gluten free

      By Aretaeus Cappadocia · Posted

      Traditional brown rice vinegars are made by fermenting brown rice and water with koji (Kōji 麹). The gluten risk comes from the method of preparing the koji: rice, wheat or barley may be used. Regardless of the starting grain, "koji" typically will be listed as an ingredient, and that term alone does not indicate gluten status. I called Eden Foods regarding their product "Organic Brown Rice Vinegar" (product of Japan) to ask how their product is made. They gave me a clear answer that they >do< use rice and they >do not< use wheat or barley in preparing their koji. FWIW, the product itself does not contain any labeling about gluten, gluten risk, or gluten safety. Based on Eden's statement, I am going to trust that this product is gluten safe and use it.
    • Scott Adams
      heaps of hope!

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      Your post nails the practical reality of living well with a celiac diagnosis. The shift from feeling restricted to discovering a new world of cooking—whether through a supportive partner making gluten-free spanakopita and gravy, or learning to cook for yourself—is exactly how many people find their footing. It turns a medical necessity into a chance to build kitchen skills, eat more whole foods, and actually enjoy the process. Your point that the basics—knife skills, food safety, and experimenting with spices—are all you really need is solid, helpful advice. It’s a good reminder that the diagnosis, while a pain, doesn’t have to stop you from eating well or having fun with food.
×
×
  • 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.