Peanut Free Friendly Resturants

[Anonymous]

My 7 year old niece is coming to town and she is highly allergic to peanuts. Any recommendation on a family friend place I can take to in the area? Since the selection will be small, I am willing to drive a good distance for a good place.

We have many instances where we told the manager of the peanut allergy and they did not use "clean" utensils in prepping her food--resulting in a trip to the ER. I don't want her to fear visiting me.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I would start with the Great American Restaurants in the area such as Coastal Flat, Sweetwater Tavern, etc. They are excellent with allergies. Austin Grill is also good with allergies. Zaytinya and Jaleo are good downtown. Red Robin is another good chain. Clyde's and Old Ebbitt Grill are good. Z Pizza is supposed to be good.

[Anonymous]

Apparently PF Chang's is good about peanut allergies (there is one in Rockville and one will open in Friendship Hts in Oct).

[Anonymous]

DS has a peanut allergy and we eat at Nando's, California Tortilla and Matchbox Pizza downtown (pizza only). Clyde's is also allergy friendly but we haven't been there yet.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Went to Nando's yesterday and checked the sauces. They are manufactured in a plant that processes peanuts so we got plain grilled chicken instead. And, after reading on Clyde's website about how allergy friendly they were, we checked out the menu. They use peanuts in quite a few dishes so we have now crossed them off our list.

[Anonymous]

Clyde's is certainly not allergy-friendly! We've had terrible experience there.

[Anonymous]

Just wondering how a Chinese restaurant can be good with peanut allergies? Just about everything is cooked with peanut oil, so even if a particular dish is make without it, the pots and pans most certainly have peanut oil residue.

[Anonymous]

peanut oil is not considered problematic for peanut-allergy sufferers because the oil is refined and has no trace of the peanut protein, which is the main trigger for those allergic to peanut.

[Anonymous]

If PF Changs is the chinese restaurant in question by a previous poster, keep in mind it's a very Americanized chinese restaurant. In other words, it's a chain, doesn't have the language barriers and likely follows a stricter guideline than your typical local chinese restaurant. And they don't cook with peanut oil. They are actually one of the best we've found that goes to great lengths for those with a peanut allergy. They cook in completely separate woks with separate utensils, and they'll cook the entire party's dinner entrees via the same method in case of sharing.

To the pp who mentions the oil being ok...in theory, you're correct. However, that's assuming the peanut oil is completely pure and not all are. As our allergist told us, there's no way to know which ones are pure and which ones are not made as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clyde's is certainly not allergy-friendly! We've had terrible experience there.

Can I ask you what allergies you were dealing with? DH wants to take DD there and she is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. I've looked at the menu and they seem to use a lot of nuts. Not sure how they can keep them separate in the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had more recent experiences with allergy friendly restaurants? In particular, for the person who had a bad experience at Clyde's -- could you elaborate a bit?

[Anonymous]

Many pizza places such as Mama Lucia, Matchbox, UNO and Z Pizza, Qdoba and Chipotle, Red Robin, McDonald's and Zaytinya. PF Chang's is great with gluten allergies and I've heard its good for peanut allergies too. Panera and Legal Seafood are also supposed to be good bets.

[Anonymous]

You could also try Fuel Pizza. They are completely peanut free. We spoke to the manager when they opened and he said it was a conscious decision to make all the food peanut free because of the large number of peanut allergic people. DS is 4 and has a serious PA and we've eaten there twice.

Matchbox is good but they deep fry in peanut oil, so the fries and other items are out. Pizzas are ok though. Ella's Pizza and District of Pi are ok too.

We did not have a good experience with Legal Seafoods as the kitchen manager got the allergy meals mixed up and we ended up with someone else's meal.

We've also had great experiences at Zaytinya, Jaleo, and District Chop House. I think that Zaytinya and Jaleo don't have any peanuts on the menu, although you cannot eat the bread at Jaleo due to possible contamination issues.

[Anonymous]

Avoid Five Guys. Just sayin.

[Anonymous]

We've had good experiences at Clydes near Verizon Center and Clydes Tower Oak lodge. DD age 6 has a Peanut allergy and DS age 10 does not- we eat out at lots of restaurants so to the PP asking for experiences, what kind of food do you like and where do you live?