Playbook, restaurant
The one restaurant question that must end in a phone call
Every other question in this trade has a bad outcome measured in a wasted journey or an argument at the till. This one has a bad outcome measured in an ambulance. An assistant can describe published ingredient information and it should, because that is genuinely useful. What it must never do, at any caution level, with any quality of menu labelling behind it, is tell a named person that a dish is safe for them.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for allergens and ingredients holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Providing accurate allergen information about food actually served is a legal duty on food businesses in most markets, and an assistant answering in the restaurant's name is the restaurant answering.
- The true answer changes between services, because this week's supplier, tonight's substitution and the surface the dish was prepared on are what decide it, and none of those are in any document.
- Menu labelling describes a recipe as written, while the guest is asking about a plate, and the gap between those two things is exactly where cross contamination lives.
- So the correct configuration here is not a better answer, it is a refusal with a phone number inside it and a second prompt to mention it again on arrival.
How it arrives
- does the pad thai have peanuts in it
- is the risotto gluten free
- my son is allergic to dairy what can he eat
- can you do the burger without the sesame bun
- is there celery in the soup
- do you use a separate fryer for the chips
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The current menus with your dietary marks exactly as printed | Index the live menu page rather than a file uploaded at launch, because specials change daily and a stale menu is worse than no menu here. The marks let the assistant describe the range of options, which is a real answer to what can my vegan friend eat. |
|---|---|
| A written statement of what your labelling does not cover | One short paragraph saying that the kitchen handles all fourteen common allergens in one space, that fryers and preparation surfaces are shared where they are, and that labelling describes recipes rather than individual plates. This is the sentence the assistant needs in order to refuse well instead of refusing blankly. |
| The number to call and who picks it up | Whether an allergy call goes to the front of house phone, to a manager, or to the kitchen directly, and the hours that number is answered. A refusal that names a route is a helpful answer. A refusal that names nothing is a dead end. |
| Your on the night procedure, written down | That the guest is asked to declare the allergy when booking, again to the server, and that a manager or chef confirms each dish at the table. Publishing the process reassures the anxious guest without the assistant certifying anything, which is the only comfort it is allowed to give. |
The reply
The menu lists the risotto without any gluten containing ingredients in the recipe as we publish it, and it carries our vegetarian mark. I cannot tell you it is safe for coeliac disease, because that depends on what is being prepared alongside it during service and on the ingredients delivered that week. Please call us on the number at the top of this page before you book so the kitchen can go through it with you, and tell your server again when you arrive.
Three moves in order. It gives the guest the published fact, which is genuinely what a well labelled menu is for. It refuses the certification in one sentence that says why, so the refusal reads as care rather than obstruction. Then it routes to a voice, twice, because the restaurant's own procedure asks for the declaration at booking and again at the table.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any message naming an allergy, an intolerance, a reaction, or a single ingredient in the context of somebody about to eat it, including the softened versions such as would this be alright for someone who cannot have dairy.
I am not able to confirm whether any dish is free from an allergen, because that depends on what is in the kitchen on the night. Please call us on the number at the top of this page and the team will go through the menu with you, and let your server know again when you arrive. If you would rather we called you, leave your name, email and a short message and a manager will come back to you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- That a dish is safe, fine, suitable or free from anything for a person with an allergy.
- That an ingredient can be left out tonight, because the kitchen and not a document decides that.
- That a fryer, a grill, a board or a preparation surface is not shared.
- That the menu marks cover cross contamination, when they describe a recipe and not a plate.
Questions
- Our menu is fully allergen labelled. Can it not just read that out?
- It can, and it should say what the labelling shows. The line it must not cross is turning that into a yes for a specific person. Labelling is a statement about the recipe you wrote down, and the guest is asking about the plate carried out during a busy service, which is a different question with a different answer.
- What caution level should a restaurant use for this?
- Cautious. On a weak match the question never reaches the model at all and the guest gets the fallback you wrote, word for word. For allergens that outcome is better than a well phrased near miss, because the near miss is the one that gets believed.
- Does refusing this annoy people?
- It does the opposite when the refusal names a route. Guests with allergies are used to being fobbed off, and a reply that says plainly why it cannot answer, then gives a number that a person picks up, reads as a kitchen that takes it seriously. The unhelpful version is the one that answers vaguely and leaves them to find out at the table.
Keep reading
- Everything for a restaurantHours, last orders, deposits and dietary options are safe ground. Confirming a dish is free of an allergen never is.
- Handling allergens and ingredients in generalThe hardest safety line in support. State published information, never confirm a dish is safe. The right setting is a refusal and a number.
- Why last orders matters more than the opening timeThe door being open and the kitchen serving are two different times, and most restaurant sites publish only one of them.
- Set menus, minimum spends and the table of twelveParty thresholds, set menus, minimum spends and pre-order deadlines answer well. The date itself needs whoever holds the diary.
- The per head charge nobody read before they bookedA card held against a table and a charge per empty seat only hold up if the guest was told first. That telling is the work.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.