As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, I went to The Mandarin recently and was pleasantly surprised at how much I could eat there. Originally I was very worried – The Mandarin? I’m a gonner.
But as it turns out, when I mentioned my allergy to the Maitre’D, he went to the kitchen, brought out a chef, and the Maitre’D translated what the chef was saying to me. He went through the whole buffet, and explained what was in each dish and if it had gluten or soy sauce (at Chinese restaurants I specifically ask for no soy sauce since it almost always contains gluten).
A surprising amount of dishes were gluten free that I never would have tried (made with corn starch for example), including some sort of lemon chicken dish that had pan fried chicken in it. I even double checked and it was cooked with corn starch. I couldn’t believe it.
Now with that said, cross contamination at a buffet is especially high (both in the kitchen and in the actual buffet), so you have to be careful. It is risky.
In the same breath I should mention that I went to Kings Buffet in Cambridge shortly after my good experience at the Mandarin. They were surprisingly accomodating as well, though definitely not as good as The Mandarin. I didn’t end up with as much Chinese food from the buffet, but they made me 4 plates of different dishes that I barely put a hole in. They tasted ok, but you could tell they were being very careful and there were no sauces. That’s at least reassuring.
I still used the buffet for fruit and dessert though. Can’t say no to jello!
Anyone else had experiences at other Asian food restaurants in the area? Please feel free to leave a comment.
I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear about this site. I was just told, yesterday, that I can’t have wheat. I’m okay with gluten apparently but not wheat – in any form. Weird.
Once I finished shopping *sigh*. I sat down with my new cookbook and wondered how I was going to find the time to make everything that I need to. I have done some other research now and have discovered some premade things that get a fairly good review. It’s going to take some time to get used to the texture difference though.
The advantage, however, is that my husband and I own a quick service smoothie restaurant & bisto in downtown Galt and since I do the majority of the baking we are now in the process of adding a number of gluten/egg/lactose free items to our menu. Suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. I know that we have to be careful with cross-contamination. Any restaurant should be aware of that! But some ideas about what to serve would be helpful. I have yet to find a rice wrap that will stand up to our sandwich fillers, so I started baking bread. Ideas?
Thank you for posting all of these reviews. I am happy to find that I might actually be able to enjoy an evening out with my husband.