There are restaurants that get it…and restaurants that don’t. Food allergies are everywhere these days. More and more people are being affected with an intolerance to food items, and at various ages and stages in their lives. Any restaurant worth its salt should have a working knowledge of the most common food allergies and have items that can compensate or be easily substituted for those patrons that may have an issue with the food on the menu.
While in St. Louis, Missouri, on a recent trip, my roommate’s family decided to do dinner at a local restaurant known as Eagles Point Diner, located in Grafton, Illinois. I love to eat out (obviously), but let’s face it…being a vegetarian with a gluten intolerance isn’t always the easiest thing to work around. Double that level of difficulty when the restaurant you go to is one of those “good ol’ home cooking” kind of joints.
I had attempted a little research into the diner prior to going to eat there. There wasn’t much to be found. No Website for the actual restaurant. All I could find were a mix of reviews on Trip Adviser and Yelp. A couple were favorable, but I also stumbled across a few that were written by people who have or were there with someone with some sort of food allergy. There was a strong leaning on how the staff was unable to really help them and the owner/chef was less than responsive to the issue. This didn’t make me feel very confident about the evening’s meal. But trying to find another place to eat with an iPhone on a limited battery is no easy task. So, in the end, after a few alternative suggestions…we ended up going to Eagles Point regardless.
Upon entering and seeing the specials on the board, I could tell this was going to be an interesting…and difficult…dining experience. We were seated at a table and given the menu to look over. Most items were pasta, or fried…which a gluten sensitivity negates immediately. Other dishes were all meat…which doesn’t work for a vegetarian. I was more than a little flustered. When the waitress arrived at the table, we informed her that I was a vegetarian and told her of my food allergy to which we were asked…”What is gluten?” Alright, it’s a pretty common allergy these days, but I explained it and she said that she would go check with the chef to see what they can do for me. What she came back with shocked me. She inquired if I liked tomatoes. I do. She said the chef said he could stuff tomatoes with a bit of cheese and breadcrumbs…
And the gluten alarms go off. Breadcrumbs…not a good option. I explain this again and just wave the waitress off, saying that I’ll just find something. So, my roommate and I begin to look over the menu for safe options for me to have. I was so aggravated at this point and really not feeling confident about eating here but…what can you do? Everyone else was set to order and waiting on me. So, after a little consulting, we came up with an option.
Salad. And double potatoes. Yeah…I wasn’t happy about it either.
Our starters arrived. The entire table did salads, and I emphasized, as did my roommate…no croutons or cheese on mine. They got that right. They didn’t have a vinaigrette dressing, so I got the oil and vinegar to put over my salad. It was…a typical house salad. The vegetables were fresh, but I was disappointed in their choices of salad dressings. I don’t mind oil and vinegar, but a balsamic vinaigrette does wonders for flavor! So, the house salad was…good, but nothing amazing. And I’ve had some pretty amazing salads in my lifetime.
Our entrees arrived. And the first thing that struck me was the size (or lack thereof) of them. My roommate got the fried shrimp plate with a baked potato. She received five pieces of shrimp. The bowl of cocktail sauce was larger than her food portion. I was shocked. And this was a $14 meal she got. Not the best value there.
My double potatoes were a baked potato and the sweet potato fries. The baked potato was rather small and a bit overdone, I think. It didn’t just crumble apart when I sliced into it. I had to fight a bit with the skin and ended up leaving most of that (despite it being one of my favorite parts of a baked potato!). So, I moved on to one of my favorite things in the world…the sweet potato fries.
First of all, country-style cooking must mean they make sweet potato fries up to mimic a sweet potato casserole. Mine were coated in cinnamon. Which is okay…but I like to dip mine in ketchup. So…I had to brush off the sweet topping and make them a bit more to my liking. They were a bit soft, not having that crisp bite on the outside that I like in good sweet potato fries. At least they were edible. I wasn’t a fan of the cinnamon seasoning, so did my best to brush that off and mask it with ketchup. So the food…was okay. Nothing really made any of us go, “WOW!” It was your basic sub-par, overpriced food…
No dessert for any of us that night. We paid and left.
Needless to say, while the staff did make an attempt to accommodate my diet, they were clueless when it came to preparing a “safe” meal for someone with a food sensitivity/allergy. I was disappointed with the chef not having a good back-up for someone who can’t have meat, or anything fried, or pasta…as well as his own lack of knowledge of what someone who can’t have gluten can and cannot have. I wasn’t blown away by the food selection on the menu…so if you are a vegetarian…this may not be a good choice for you either. And the value of the portion size you receive is definitely not there.
In the end, the time with my roommate’s mom and aunts was worth it…but a different venue would have been preferred. If home-cooking meat and potatoes are your thing, then this is your place. But if you are a vegetarian and would like something other than a small house salad…or if you have food allergies…I recommend shopping around for a different dining option. Eagles Point Diner is definitely a quaint, home-cooking kind of place, but the value and the risk for some isn’t worth the trip.
The Celiathlete 