Dining Out Tips: How Your Patients Can Eat Out with Dietary Restrictions
So your patients are eating out with dietary restrictions because of intolerances, diet plans, or simply because they want to take control of their health. Whether patients are eating gluten-free, limiting their calories or fat, vegan, eating clean, or even just avoiding certain foods, dining out can sometimes be a hassle especially if the friends, co-workers, or family that they’re with aren’t on the same page.
When your patients are invited to try the newest restaurant in town, they don’t want to decline, but the fear of inflammation, going over their calorie limit, or falling off the wagon and breaking their diet have them wondering what to do or at least has them immediately scouring the restaurant’s menu online to see if there are any healthy options. Or they might be loaded with guilt while secretly loading their approved snacks in their pockets so they can stick to their plan while out to lunch with their friends.
No matter what their restrictions are, dining out while sticking to certain eating habits can be daunting. However, if they learn how to do it, the questions to ask or the items to toss off the plate or exclude when ordering can start to become fairly straightforward. Gluten-free eating can be slightly more challenging due to availability, cost and safety of gluten-free foods and ingredients making the possibility of cross-contamination more likely when out, but encouraging your patients to follow these tips can make eating out with any restrictions a simple routine.
How to Dine Out and Have Fun Even with Restrictions
Fear not! Even with dietary restrictions, they won’t have to resign themselves to eating at home three times a day for the rest of their lives. While home-cooked meals are undoubtedly the best way to follow a diet without any worries, they should still be able to dine out, treat themselves, and simply relax (hurray for no dishes to clean) if they follow a few simple guidelines.
Fortunately, the increasing awareness of all kinds of dietary restrictions has prompted restaurants of all sizes to offer many different options. Del Posto, an upscale Italian restaurant in New York, is a good example. In 2013, the restaurant decided to offer a gluten-free option of every pasta dish in their menu. Plus, technology has made it possible to locate diet friendly establishments without calling every restaurant in your area.
Read on to learn how your patients can master the art of dining out with restrictions.
Finding Diet Friendly Restaurants
Your patients should find restaurants with accommodating menus in the area where they’re supposed to dine out ahead of time. These days, it’s easier to do a little homework through the following steps:
1. Look up a restaurant’s menu online.
Most restaurants’ websites display and update their menus regularly. Some may show the number of calories or ingredients for each item, and some may even have different menu sections for dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free menu items. A great example of this is the website for Ruth’s Chris Steak House, where they have a separate page specifically for specialty diets. They have the option to view a gluten friendly menu, a keto menu, a vegetarian menu, and a menu for three-course meals under 750 calories.
Another great example is a sample menu posted by Senza, a gluten-free restaurant in New York’s Greenwich Village. In Chicago, Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Sisters also caters to gluten-free diners by specifically stating the option on their website’s FAQ.
If they don’t have a restaurant in mind yet, they should consider typing in their location + their dietary restriction on Google Search.
When possible, your patients should download restaurant menus online ahead of time and share them with friends and family they’re eating with. Some restaurants may even have fact sheets available to download for their convenience. For example, Chili’s has a fact sheet with an allergen/vegetarian/vegan matrix that shows menu items with fryer or grill cross-contact, menu items with certain allergens/ingredients, menu items with wheat or gluten, and menu items that are vegan or vegetarian.
2. Use apps and consult online databases.
Especially now with today’s modern technology, there are many apps and online resources that can help your patients find restaurants offering certain menus that accommodate certain restrictions. For example, Find Me Gluten Free is an app that can can help locate restaurants offering gluten-free menus. Their rating system and reviews from fellow gluten-free folks can help them find the right gluten-free dining venue. They can simply type in a town or city, or allow the app to use their current location to search nearby restaurants. Once they’ve narrowed down their choices, they can call these restaurants from the app itself and get directions once they decide where they’re going to eat.
Another website, Clean Foodie, allows your patients to enter their location and will help them find clean eating nearby. They can select from categories to narrow down the options such as restaurants, smoothie bars, markets, and food trucks.
Other helpful apps and resources worth looking into are the following:
Give Your Patients a Complete 28-Day Plan for Gluten Free Mediterranean Style Eating Using BodySite!
3. Opt for restaurants who make their food from scratch.
Chances are, these restaurants cater to diners with specific dietary needs and restrictions because they are more meticulous about their ingredients. The relaxed atmosphere of fine dining restaurants also increases the likelihood that they can devote more time to diners with special requests.
Even Bonefish Grill, with locations in nearly 30 states, while not the fanciest place in every town, serves many gluten-free dishes and offers nutrition facts if you’re in the mood for fresh seafood.
4. Call the restaurant a day or hours ahead of your dining schedule.
Your patients can ask the maitre d’ if they serve specialty diet options. In some restaurants, they won’t have to explain your preferences in detail because they’ve dealt with dietary restricted diners in the past. Or perhaps, they’re already committed to providing patrons with several diet-friendly options.
Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza, a western-based pizza chain, is a good example. According to their FAQ page, all of their restaurant chains take gluten cross-contamination seriously. Besides using gluten-free flour, they use separate utensils and sauce containers. All of their staff members are trained in avoiding cross contamination too. They offer a gluten-free menu, allergen menu, and nutrition information.
Asking Questions at the Restaurant
Pressed for time to do your research? If your patients are already seated at the restaurant and are still unsure about their specialty diet options, here’s how they can navigate their way with ease and finesse:
5. Ask the server or chef if they’re serving specialty diet meals.
Some servers can assure diners that gluten is absent from their meal or that their meal is low in calories, but aren’t really sure exactly how because they’re not the ones preparing the food in the kitchen. For this reason, it pays to talk to the manager or chef instead.
6. Inquire about cross-contamination issues.
A common scenario coming across gluten or allergens in your patients’ meals in a restaurant stems not from the ingredients themselves, but from cross-contamination. Unless the restaurant has separate kitchens in preparing certain foods for dietary restrictions, cross contamination is more likely to occur. This is particularly true in busy restaurants where it could be a challenge to prepare special meals amidst the chaos of busy rush times.
If your patients are gluten-free or have certain allergies, they should be very clear about how kitchen surfaces, pan, and utensils need to be as clean as possible. By and large, they should not have traces of non-gluten foods or allergens in them.
7. If they’re still unsure, avoid certain cuisines.
Certain types of food, like Japanese and Italian cuisines, tend to have certain allergens and gluten in their normal ingredients, so it’s best to avoid both. Most Italian restaurants have pizza and pasta as their main dishes which tend to be high in calories, while Japanese dishes often have soy sauce in them, both of which typically do contain gluten and certain allergens by default.
Sit Back and Enjoy Your Meal!
Once they’ve done your research, it’s easier to sit back and enjoy their meal without any worries. They should keep in mind, however, that regardless of how impressive the restaurant’s specialty diet menu may appear, they’ll need to be more vigilant than someone who’s dining without food intolerance or dietary restrictions by asking the right questions.
After their meal, they should thank the staff and tip well to show their appreciation. They can think of a good tip as an investment in their future dining experience at the same restaurant. They should return to restaurants that work out for them to save the hassle of reinventing the wheel every time.
SOURCES:
1. https://www.ruthschris.com/promotions/specialty-diets/