I hate restaurants...(right now)

[Clabby]

I'm on day 12 today, and last night ate out for the first time.  I was a real PITA about the menu and I was worried from the start that the waiter didn't seem super knowledgeable about the way food was prepared, and was seemingly unwilling to ask.  Even my husband (who is most definitely NOT doing Whole30) was annoyed and was like "can you ask??".  Anyway, I ordered a brick oven roasted chicken dish which was supposed to come with potatoes.  It was even free range organic!  I made sure the kitchen didn't use soybean oil (and assumed they used canola or some other marginally better cooking oil).  Anyway, I got an insalada mista, which was just greens, OO and balsamic.  Delicious.  I confirmed with the server that it was indeed JUST OO and vinegar.  Then my chicken came.  Absolutely great, but was served with a side of escarole, cooked with capers and pine nuts.  It was so good, and I just ASSUMED (never assume), that it was ok since I had told the server I couldn't have dairy (i.e. no butter).  Well, I scarfed down the escarole, and was brought back to my grandmother's kitchen where she used to prepare that very dish regularly.  When I was finished with the veggie side, the waiter came back and said "I meant to tell you, I'm not really sure what that has in it."  Crap crap crap.  I didn't bother having him ask because he was already annoyed with my questions and the restaurant was super busy.

So my fear is that it had butter.  It didn't taste buttery, but who knows.  Also, it may have had sugar or possibly red wine vinegar.

 

So, experts.  Have I sabotaged myself?  Do I need to restart??    This is why I've stayed away from restaurants thus far.

[missmary]

If you want to know: ask! They make that dish every night. The cooks in the kitchen know what they put in it. I would have sent the waiter back to the kitchen to ask right away (honestly he should have known to do this), but you can call and find out.

[CarolinaVol]

I was also really nervous about eating out when I did my first whole30. Asking waiters can be tough because they often don't know a lot and they can get annoyed and then it holds up everyone ordering and you feel self-conscious, etc. etc. I totally get it! It can be awful!

What I did instead was, when I was going out to dinner, I would call the restaurant ahead of time. I tried to call around 2 or 3 because I knew that was likely more of a down time for the staff. Usually it's a hostess who picks up the phone (and they tend to be less knowledgeable than even the waiters), and I would say, "Hi, I am coming into your restaurant for dinner tonight and I have some dietary restrictions. Could I perhaps ask you, a manager, or someone in the kitchen some questions about how you prepare your food?" Then they'll connect you to the right person. I always have the online menu pulled up on my computer and I ask a BUNCH of questions. I always like to make sure I have a couple of options if possible so I can choose according to my mood once I'm at the restaurant. This way you can ask question after question to people who really know what's going in the food and also know what their kitchen can or cannot do to accommodate you. Everyone I talked to was really nice and accommodating. Some would even offer suggestions for how they could change menu items, etc.

 

I had so much success with this that one afternoon I sat around and just called up a bunch of my "go to" restaurants around town and asked questions about their menu so that I would be prepared in the event of a spontaneous meal out!

 

Good luck!