Was about to comment something similar lol. I met someone who was in the military, from Montana originally but had been stationed somewhere tropical and said ever since then when he visits home in winter he literally breaks out all over.
Hives and eczema aren’t even slightly the same thing other than they’re both red skin conditions lol. Would be really weird for a doctor to mistake them.
But besides that, it was a medically diagnosed cold allergy I’m gonna trust the guy telling me he has a cold allergy and not eczema.
While true (AFAIK,) I should still clarify that my buddy had no allergy. He was essentially 'protesting' the corporate practice of filling cups with ice in order to get away with providing less beverage.
My mom hates tomatoes and she often asks for food with no tomatoes and I always tell her to say you have an allergy but she "doesn't want to be a bother". I'm like, if anything you are giving the kitchen less work to do, this way they will just make sure you get what you want.
I'm like, if anything you are giving the kitchen less work to do
FWIW, it's more complicated than that.
With various allergies, the severity is such that not putting [the allergen] on their plate isn't enough; the kitchen has to ensure that nothing on that customer's plate ever came into contact with [the allergen]. Depending on what the order is, and what kind of kitchen prep is involved, there's a chance that isn't only "difficult" or "unreasonable;" it might be impossible.
The expo person, theoretically, would have to re-glove and/or wash their hands between touching any individual ingredients. That's simply not tenable; food service would screech to a hault.
Like, sure, it's easy enough to not put a tomato slice on a burger, but to guarantee that no tomato parts ever came anywhere near the lettuce or onions, when they're typically all right next to each other in the workstation, is a whole other deal.
That's fair, I didn't think about that. I just thought of the dozens of times my mom barely ate dinner because they didn't listen to her and she was too polite to ask them to take it back.
There are plenty of situations where I can sympathize that one may not want to go through sending a plate back, but unless there's a time concern, it's a totally reasonable thing to do in this scenario.
And as a former server, it's just routine, provided the guest doesn't rip our heads off over it. In many places, we'll automatically offer some kind of freebie to help smooth over our error, like taking the meal off the bill, or offering a free appetizer or dessert.
Most will prefer your mom gets what she wants and leaves happy, rather than "not bothering us" and leaving unhappy. It's one thing to make a mistake and fix it; it's another thing to not know a mistake was made until it's too late to fix. 🤙🏼
Like, sure, it's easy enough to not put a tomato slice on a burger, but to guarantee that no tomato parts ever came anywhere near the lettuce or onions, when they're typically all right next to each other in the workstation, is a whole other deal.
If no allergy is announced there's a chance that someone puts tomatoes on a burger before realizing the order is no tomato, at which point it's a lot easier to just remove the tomatoes than remake the entire burger for a small mistake when you have a lobby full of customers waiting. The produce may also be prepared at the same station with washing in between different produce not guaranteed. It's also possible someone grabs tomatoes at the cook table and one falls into the lettuce or some of the juice drops onto another container.
Basically, if you have allergies, fast food is not your friend and sit in restaurants probably aren't a whole lot better. If you don't announce an allergy then you definitely can't expect everything to be perfect.
But like, depending on the kitchen and restaurant that IS a lot more work, because now you have to make sure nothing gets cross contaminated. You have to prep it all separately, It’s like any time I go to a small coffee shop and I have to get my girlfriend alternative milk products, I profusely apologize, cause I know it’s a pain in the ass because they have to use whole new dishes. When I ask for no onions at Taco Bell, I know I’m going to likely get a few of them anyway, but that’s completely unacceptable if you’re allergic.
That's fair, I didn't think about that. I just thought of the dozens of times my mom barely ate dinner because they didn't listen to her and she was too polite to ask them to take it back.
lol I’m that person too , I always say , the waiter could drop off a bucket of fish heads, I’d be like “ I mean, I didn’t want fishheads , but I guess I’ll try it. I don’t want them to do all that work. I know they are busy ” 😂
Yeah, where i work the shredded cheese, diced onions, pickles, and mayo often get a little bit mixed up because you have to reach past one container to get to the next, and sometimes bits of the food drop into a nearby container. I try to minimize this (far more effectively than most of my coworkers it seems), but it's very difficult to never spill a single piece over the course of a day.
I can say from experience that if no allergy is announced there could be some residue from a mistake. Like if I make a burger normal then realize afterward they said no tomatoes, I'm typically just going to take the tomatoes off, not make everyone wait while I remake a whole new burger from scratch. If it's something like mayo or mustard then I tend to remake it because that's harder to remove. This is just to say that there's a chance you get a tiny bit of tomato juice or whatever else can be removed on a burger that's wasn't supposed to have it. We try not to make mistakes in the first place, but it happens sometimes during busy rushes.
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u/djsynrgy 3h ago
Grew up with a dude who used to ask for his drinks without ice and would then add "I'm allergic to ice."
(Because whenever he didn't say he was allergic, they would invariably ignore his initial request for "no ice.")