Busch Gardens And Allergies

We were blessed with tickets to Busch Gardens this week. I was so excited and researched the food options. I have two girls ages 6 and 3. We are all on a gluten free diet. This makes for a complicated day of tryin to figure out what to eat. I found out that you cant bring food into the park. (Later on after the face I found out that you can in fact bring some) Nevertheless you dont want to be carrying a lot in the park anyway. I cant walk long distances so we rented a wheelchair which is challenging in and of itself. I do have to say busch Gardens does a great job of trying to accomadate people with disabilites. I would love to go back and know what I know now. On their map a restaurant called Grograns Grill is labeled Allergen Friendly. So I thought Great! Not so much! Grogans grill has pork loin, pork, and more pork with a side of cabbage...not so much for those of us that pork doesnt agree with us, or anything for my kids. the manager was very nice and even made our plates up, but then told me their is a restaurant on the opposite side of the park with gluten free pizza! AH! Why was that not listed on the map? I was also irritated because I had called the day before to speak with someone more about the allergy free options only to get a generic answer of speak to each manager before ordering. Really?! She gave me an email to email, and no one emailed me back. I emailed corporate and received an email two days later, a little too late...

My name is Joshua Rainville. I am the Group Supervisor for Ireland Culinary and represent the allergen resource team for Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The safety of your family’s dining is very important to us. Our supervisors and managers have been educated and trained in allergen management in association with The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) to ensure your safety. Although none of them are experts, they can help. They have an ingredient book that will be very informative to you.

The supervisors and managers at each of our restaurants have been trained to answer allergen related questions concerning their individual menus and ingredients as well as the items in the snack locations nearby. In addition we have designated meal facilities where the supervision has been trained to answer questions for our entire park, in order to better assist you in planning out your day. At Busch Gardens the designated meal facility is Grogan’s Grill and at Water Country USA it is Hot Spots Café.

Most of our restaurants carry foods that are easily modified to meet many if not all of the 8 major allergens. I urge you to ask for a supervisor when you arrive at a restaurant. You should also be informed that none of our meal facilities are free from cross contact. In order to ensure your meal is safe, please discuss the preparation with a supervisor. Based on your specific concern about gluten I would recommend Grogan’s Grill or Trapper’s Smokehouse as they both offer many gluten free menu options. For children I highly recommend Das Festhaus as they offer gluten free pizza. We also urge you to visit our meal facilities during non peak times so that you can be efficiently served.

Depending on the severity of your allergies, I would also urge you to speak with our dining room supervisors to assure that your table has been properly sanitized, to avoid potential contact. Your safety is our number one concern. If you feel that you would be best served by bringing your own food, please notify guest relations of your allergen concerns on your arrival so that you may be permitted to bring outside food in. You may bring a cooler, but it must be collapsible and able to be carried.

We look forward to your visit to SeaWorld Parks. Please let me know if I can further assist you.

Regards,

Joshua Rainville



It was awesome that he emailed me back but I was disappointed that it wasn't BEFORE we went to the park!

Macaroni grill new menu

Macaroni Grill has a gluten free menu!! http://www.macaronigrill.com/docs/nutritional/allergen-menu.pdf Even includes gluten free pasta. If you sign up for their emails and you will get $5 off coupon :) http://www.macaronigrill.com/our-story I havent tried it yet but look forward to dining one day on their yummy delicious italian food!!

Cheeseburger in Paradise gone wrong

We dont get out much. With 2 kids, allergies, and one income a date comes far and few between. I saw that Cheeseburger in Paradise had advertised a gluten free bun to go with their burgers. I was super uper excited because I have been CRAVING a nice fat juicy burger! I like to eat, which is probably why I havent lost weight since going gluten free. Anyway, we were seated promptly and greeted with a smiling waitress. She seemed nice and returned shortly with our waters. We put in our orders and then the waiting...waiting...and more waiting. About 35 minutes later our burgers arrived with what I would compare to charcoal bun. My gluten free bun was so burnt it was hard and made everything else have that burnt to a crisp taste. I was so appalled that a chef would send out a bun that burnt. I was soooooo hungry I didnt say anything to the waitress for fear of having to wait any longer and have a hole in my stomach. So I sucked up paying an extra dollar for the gluten free bun took it off and ate the burger. I am very sad that no one mentioned the fact that my bun was sitting on my plate, burnt to a crisp and even the waitress when returning said nothing. We keft without incident but I will not spend my money there again.

a thing or two

I have been craving a burger! So we got ground beef, mixed together an onion, a green pepper and a mixture of seasoning. They turned out scrumptious! The Schar rolls were soft but not very flavorful and a little dry, however I was very happy to endulge and have a burger.
I would eat them again.

Something I will not be eating again is the Bob's redmill raisin bread! It was the worst gf food I have tasted thus far. It was hard, tasty horrible. Really and truley will not try that again. Udis gluten free raisin bread is awesome. It was cheaper for the Bobs redmill so I thought Id try to make it but I am very dissapointed I had to throw it away. :(

Reviews

I was in Florida, I had to make a last minute trip to see my mom who wasnt doing very well on a ventilator. To my despair I realized I needed to eat something and I realized once my stomach growled and my hands shook at the airport that I had in fact nothing to eat and the hamburgers from burger king were not going to be ok. I ended up eating salad, which also doesnt agree with me most times but usually not till the next day ;) Then when I got off the plane and visited my mother I realized I needed to go to the store. First destination was Walmart. I was feeling sad before I even went, and since Walmart really isnt my favorite place to go I hoped really really hard that they were going to offer some gluten free options. They did in fact have the one spagetti that my store at home has but not much else. The next day I realized I was starving so I decided to try Winn Dixie. I remembered they were pretty well priced the last time I was here. TO my despair they had nothing gluten free. I thought I was blind so I asked the manager and he replied, " Well we will be getting some bread next week but we dont currently have anything, sorry." Well def sorry for me!! I ended up eating a lot of potato chips. Very healthy...So at last I couldnt stand it a few days later I ventured to Publix, at last an organic and gluten free section! I found some gluten free muffins. It wasnt a real english muffin, a little hard freezer burnt but if you coat A LOT of cream cheese on it you can get it down. So thats what I did! Oh and cupped with a good cup of coffee got me well through lunch time. Where most of my lunch consisted of sitting at the hospital with a diet coke and the occasional cafeteria salad which wasnt half bad.

I recently got home and was thrilled when I went to Farm fresh and saw Schar bread and rolls!! Udis has gotten hard and holey and I havent been very impressed most recently with my almost $6 loaf bread. The Schar bread looks like regular bread and was softer, but to my surprise really has no taste. I made an egg salad sandwich with it today and I was sadly dissapointed with the taste even with adding too much salt! I am hoping the rolls will be good with a burger because I miss having a good burger!

Hives

Riley still continues to break out in hives while being on a gluten free diet. I think I may have found a link though. Corn seems to trigger them although she also gets them directly after eating chocolate. We are wondering if shes allergic to dairy or something else we dont know. Time will only tell.

Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had an awesome thanksgiving! We did, however someone gave me some suposively gluten free stuffing that was in one way or another not good for me at all. I had a very bad reaction and was very sick yesterday and still feeling like poo today. I did however make an awesome gluten free pumpkin cheesecake that is loaded with fat and calories but Oh my sooooo good!! I dont even like cheesecake but Ive honestly eatten half the cheesecake by myself! I will post it later I got the recipe from another blog so I must make sure to post that as well. I also attempted a pumpkin pie but the crust turned out very soggy which is my fault because I added extra butter thinking it looked too dry. Again, playing with these recipes will be fun.
I was finally able to try glutinos gluten free pretzels and crackers and they are awesome!! Wish they werent so expensive but they are really good. I need to branch out and find some good recipes that are cheap, not time consuming and taste good...see my problem? Its nearly impossible to find all three with gluten free meals. Another day is another time to experiment though. Here we gooooo