*Please note that whilst some chains of takeaways and restaurants do have a company-wide policy regarding how to handle allergens it has been brought to my attention that different locations can differ, whilst one location of a particular chain may be great with handling allergies a different location of the same chain may be somewhat clueless. I will be talking about the particular location/s of the chain I have visited and how I have found them. The particular food allergies that I suffer with are anaphylaxis to: peanuts, all tree nuts, crustaceans and molluscs.*
My forth review will be that of an Edinburgh, Scotland, based restaurant called 'Zucca Restaurant'. This was my first time visiting the restaurant however after my experience it will definitely not be the last visit to them. I highly recommend them to anyone visiting the Edinburgh area as they were truly fantastic.
My mum's friend is one of the chefs at Zucca restaurant and they were doing a mother's day discounted deal for any students of the United Kingdom Taekwon-Do Council so we decided upon visiting Zucca Restaurant for mother's day. My mum contacted her friend ahead of time and let him know about my severe allergies and he was fantastic saying that they were very used to dealing with people who have allergies and he seemed very clued up about it all. It was noted against our booking regarding my allergies which did wonders for making me feel very reassured and like my allergies were being taken seriously.
On entering the restaurant we were seated at our table and given the menu. We let the waiter know about my allergies and also informed him that the chef knew about my allergies. On looking at the menu there were a few things that contained nuts however on speaking with the chef, who was my mum's friend, later on he explained that they try to limit cross contamination as much as they possibly can by having separate areas to prepare food for different allergens and different utensils to ensure the safest possible environment for anyone with allergies, this certainly made me feel very reassured that I was being taken very seriously and that the kitchen staff knew what they were doing.
I decided on the bruschetta and a margarita pizza as well as a side of chips, I also decided to have a strawberry daiquiri cocktail.
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| Strawberry Daiquiri Cocktail |
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| Bruschetta |
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| Margarita Pizza |
The food and cocktail tasted absolutely lovely and there were no issues after it. On speaking with my mum's friend, the chef, after the meal I learned that he was very clued up on allergies and anaphylaxis and knew the importance of ensuring food is free from specific allergens and also knew a lot about cross contamination and may contains. This definitely reassured me and made me feel very much at ease. My parents and I both had a lovely time and definitely will be going back.
