Onions Onions Onions

If you are a restaurateur, how often do you get members of the general public asking you to change an item that is on the menu to something else? Can I have extra beans please or, could you swap the sweet corn for peas instead and I’ll have jacket potato instead of chips etc. I would imagine it happens quite a bit.

So that’s the fussy eaters taken care of but what about someone who has a genuine allergy? If my wife has anything that contains onion then she could be sent off to hospital. The pain becomes almost unbearable as the stomach swells and hardens, you cannot sit, you cannot lie down and the nausea is overwhelming.  As a punter in a restaurant, pub, café or even a takeaway it can be quite frustrating when trying to find something on the menu which is not likely to trigger another episode and the weekly trawl around the supermarket is made even more boring when reading contents labels of nearly every product on the shelf.

The idea behind today’s blog is to ask a simple question. Whenever we eat out anywhere in the UK (ranging from Manchester to London) and request no onion on the plate due to allergy, our meal arrives sometimes laden with the stuff. Nearly every time we have to send the food back to get changed and on some occasions we've had to have it replaced more than once. Yet our experience so far in several European countries as well as America, Canada, Mexico and even in the Arctic Circle, we've never had a single issue.

Why can’t the UK get it right?

Complaints to the management sometimes work and sometimes doesn't. On occasion we may get a discount or even a refund which is nice but that’s not the point. If you want to take the time in getting dressed up, go out, spend your hard earned cash and have an enjoyable evening then you should get the service you are paying for. Right?

My personal opinion is that the UK is lazy. Either the message doesn't get through from the waiting staff to chef because they can’t be bothered or chef just slaps up on the plate his set dish and buggers the consequences because he’s onto his next ticket. It’s true that care and attention to detail takes time and sometimes if you are up against it in a busy restaurant then things may get overlooked and slip through the net. But in various venues of different standards up and down the country at different times of day and night, our experience on the whole is sadly a negative one. Surely we cannot be on our own here with this kind of experience, Has the same happened to you?

So if anyone who reads this little rant works in the hospitality industry and wants to get in touch then feel free as I would love to hear things from your side of the story.

Wingwalker.