Restaurants Charging Extra

[JNBunnie1]

5$ to make salad gluten free is far beyond the realm of understandable. I would never go there again and tell them why.

[Lisa]

Ever notice that gluten free menus in some restaurants have no prices. But the "normal" menu does. Hummmm....

[IrishHeart]

5$ to make salad gluten free is far beyond the realm of understandable. I would never go there again and tell them why.

Yeah, Bunz, that part did not sit well with me either, but she was so happy and positive overall that I did not want to say it. :lol:

but now that YOU have, I have to concur.

5 bucks more is just wrong.

[JNBunnie1]

Ever notice that gluten free menus in some restaurants have no prices. But the "normal" menu does. Hummmm....

This makes sense from a business standpoint, regular menus are reprinted all the time, due to price change and food change. They woulnd't want to have to also reprint the gluten free menu all the time, as the options on a gluten free menu tend to stay fairly static. In the restaurants I've been in that don't have prices on the gluten-free menu, the prices have been the same as the regular menu, they hand you the regular menu to refer to.

Yeah, Bunz, that part did not sit well with me either, but she was so happy and positive overall that I did not want to say it. :lol:

but now that YOU have, I have to concur.

5 bucks more is just wrong.

Yeah, I'm just that kinda girl.

[IrishHeart]

Yeah, I'm just that kinda girl.

Honest, you mean? well, kiddo that's a good quality!

(or did you mean Yankee Noo Englandah frugal?? I like that, too! )

Honestly, I did not notice any price differences between the gluten-free menu and the "regular offerings"

in the few restaurants I have been in thus far. But my experiences are limited to just a few places.

[Chad Sines]

Here is part of the issue, I think. A lot of gluten free people are gluten free by choice, as a fad diet. We all probably know a few people who fit into that category. Heck, I have had people tell me they want to go gluten-free to lose weight. There seems to be more options each year, so who knows what the future holds.

I would never expect the 16-yo fast food worker to know anything about CC and if they talked about it, I would automatically assume they did not know what they meant. Same with the guy behind the line cooking the food. There is going to be CC in any restaurant unless their is no wheat on the premises. Knives will get shared, condiment dispensers will touch buns, dedicated vats will be shared near closing time on when cleaning one. The guy who made my bunless burger tonight did not specially clean the counter top, the pan, the spatula, and everything else that touched the meat. There is no doubt in my mind that some level of CC occurred and always will in a restaurant.

This is one reason people tell Celiacs to make their house gluten-free instead of doing gluten-free and gluten for the family. Even in these situations CC occurs.

[psawyer]

Here is part of the issue, I think. A lot of gluten free people are gluten free by choice, as a fad diet. We all probably know a few people who fit into that category. Heck, I have had people tell me they want to go gluten-free to lose weight. There seems to be more options each year, so who knows what the future holds.

I would never expect the 16-yo fast food worker to know anything about CC and if they talked about it, I would automatically assume they did not know what they meant. Same with the guy behind the line cooking the food. There is going to be CC in any restaurant unless their is no wheat on the premises. Knives will get shared, condiment dispensers will touch buns, dedicated vats will be shared near closing time on when cleaning one. The guy who made my bunless burger tonight did not specially clean the counter top, the pan, the spatula, and everything else that touched the meat. There is no doubt in my mind that some level of CC occurred and always will in a restaurant.

This is one reason people tell Celiacs to make their house gluten-free instead of doing gluten-free and gluten for the family. Even in these situations CC occurs.

What does any of that have to do with charging extra?

[Chad Sines]

My earlier post was a comment that I would pay extra if I knew the food I was getting was being given the care it needed to avoid gluten; however, in reality this is something that is most likely not happening and never going to happen in most FF and sit down restaurants. That extra price can lead one to believe that it makes the food safe to eat, but CC will always be a big unknown.

As an example, I called a local pizza place that advertised gluten-free pizza. It was more expensive because the crust was made off site like you mentioned in an earlier post. At the time I did not realize that might be part of the reason for the cost difference. It wonked me. I found out later that although the crust was gluten-free, they used the same table, tools, etc on it as they did on regular pizzas. I made the erroneous assumption that the extra charge meant different handling procedures. Common sense should have told me that in an Italian restaurant flour would be flying everywhere.

Their response was that they thought gluten-free was for people trying to lose weight. I have had several restaurant staff at different places say that when I have asked about gluten. I think many places charge extra when there is no justification because many feel gluten-free is a fad diet they can profit off of. Just this year I have seen a few so-called doctors on TV mention gluten free as a fad diet and only slightly discussing the serious nature of Celiac. I do think more restaurants are learning about Celiac and trying to see what they can do or at least where their current products fit. I was pleasantly surprised to have one restaurant that essentially said not to eat there if you had Celiac because everything had some form of wheat or gluten in it and they took no precautions to avoid it getting into all foods. I found the honesty refreshing.