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Red Lobster

Posted: May 19th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Restaurant Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

To celebrate our mother’s doctoral graduation, my brother took everyone out to Red Lobster. I told our server that I had celiac disease and asked if they had a gluten free menu. They do not have one. I ended up talking to the manager who consulted with the chef. They told me that anything grill off the fresh catch menu with broccoli should be fine for me. I order the grilled salmon with broccoli.

Everyone was helpful and nice. I have no complaints about the service. And the food was ok. I never had the sort of pain or other strong symptoms that some with celiac have before my diagnosis. I am only now beginning to figure the various reactions and symptoms I have had as a result of celiac as they gradually clear up and go away. So I am by no means certain, but I think something I ate during the meal did contain gluten in some form after all. I’m not sure at all, but it would explain how I felt and my body reacted afterwards.

That’s one of the frustrating things about my particular experience with celiac. I don’t get badly sick like some people do. I don’t have major pain or anything else obvious. It’s not that I want to be sick or feel pain. But since the damage to my body is the same whether I know I’ve eaten gluten or not, it worries me when I’m unsure as I was after the Red Lobster meal. It could have just been my paranoia over eating at a place I had not had the chance to research that was not very celiac friendly combined with the physical effects of all the driving I had done combined with a short night of sleep.

Or maybe there was some amount of gluten in the food.

I probably won’t go to Red Lobster again. Or if I need to for a social event, I think I’ll just get coffee. 😉

7 Comments on “Red Lobster”

  1. 1 Jessika said at 12:59 am on November 5th, 2009:

    That’s what I end up doing- getting coffee when I’m not 100% positive about the food. I believe it was Chili’s that I ate at last that did not have any gluten free foods so I just got a drink and passed on the foods (I do get extremely sick) but I could understand that it would be just as frustrating to not even know if something makes you sick. I know I rely alot on that for some places that claim they are gluten free but use the same spatula to flip burgers as they flip the buns with the same spatula hence it would not be gluten free- but they don’t know.

    – Jessika : Celiac Speaks – Symptoms, Recipes, Restaurants and Daily Life

  2. 2 Scott said at 4:40 am on November 5th, 2009:

    Coffee has two advantages. I usually drink it black and it would be hard to contaminate black coffee. And I really like coffee. Probably more than is good for me. 😉

    I actually do hope that as my auto-antibody levels return to normal and I continue healing, that I’ll have stronger and more identifiable reactions if I actually do consume gluten. I don’t know that I ever want to get extremely sick in reaction, but I don’t like being unsure, especially given the point I reached with celiac before being diagnosed. However, I’m also not willing to knowingly consume gluten just to test that idea.

    Thanks!

  3. 3 Sherley Wadford said at 7:01 pm on December 5th, 2009:

    I love seafood and have always liked red lobster but the last few times I have went the food was very poor My husband does not like seafood so he usually orders steak. Today he ordered his steak welldone as always and received a medium rare then the waitress starts trying to argue with me that the steak was done right abloody steak is not welldone! when the manager came to our table he didn’t seem to have a clue how to make a bad situation better if Sherman red lobster doesn’t get amanager that gives ashit they will be loosing a lot of customers besides me!

  4. 4 Scott said at 2:41 pm on December 6th, 2009:

    Sounds like a bad experience. I discovered long ago that the quality and experience at chain restaurants can vary wildly from one location to another.

  5. 5 jill andrew said at 9:26 am on April 15th, 2010:

    hello all. i’m trying to get the answer to a simple question: Does lobster and other sea foods grilled or steamed naturally contain Gluten?
    THank you,
    Jill Andrew

  6. 6 Scott said at 6:31 pm on April 15th, 2010:

    Lobsters and other seafood do not naturally contain gluten. Any gluten a prepared dish might contain comes from additives, seasonings, sauces, or cross-contamination during preparation.

    Hope that helps!

  7. 7 Donte Kagarise said at 1:48 pm on January 30th, 2011:

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