I actually don’t mind allergy cards like this when there’s a big list of can haves (assuming they also called ahead to make sure we could accommodate them, and they’re not picky). I can take that paper into the walk-in and throw something together for the guest pretty easily.
When there’s just a giant list of “no”, I get annoyed.
lalachef
WTF?! It’s not even laminated. Worst one I got was double-sided and in fine print. The lady also “highlighted” the important items in ms word before printing. The yellow ink was barely visible…
fearlessfryingfrog
Way too much. I’d push to decline service.
Anaphylaxis issues in a laundry list of other shit? No way. Can’t confirm 100% I couldn’t kill you somehow with some of what’s on there, and not going that far to ensure it couldn’t happen. Way to much of a liability issue for what, a couple covers? Even a full group. Fuck it.
All herbs and spices? Go home bubble boy lol, enjoy your arctic char there.
Losing those few is less than a lawsuit and not worth the headache.
fum0hachis
Lmao even folded up card shaped
TenYearHangover
I’m allergic to personal commitment does that count
Sonikku_a
“Damn that sucks, good luck tho”.
Falcon_Flow
Back in 2000 when I was an apprentice at Hotel Bristol Vienna, we had a-ha staying with us for a few days. I can’t remember who of them it was, but one of the members had a very similar list to the one OP showed here.
lepsek9
Kinda like those “what is your superhero name” facebook posts, pick one thing from each Can column based on your birthday day/month/initials and just mash em together
j97hUlaO901leIoeA79l
“I’ve got steak served on a bed of kale, and a cigarette with your name on it”
saranghaenoona
Natural selection been very lazy these days
ocubens
Boiled chicken and white rice, same as you feed a sick dog.
Glenmarththe3rd
The tear drops really add emphasis to how depressing this is
junipercanuck
I’m fascinated by the “can haves” list including dandelion greens. At least they have a relatively long list of things they can eat.
Also the random combination of foods – why is purple sweet potato and sweet potato two different entries but they’ve contained zucchini/asparagus?
My son has allergies so I usually email ahead, pick 2-3 dishes I think he’d like and ask which of them might be safe. Most places are happy with this approach, but every now and then somebody emails back “oh we can accomodate this, just tell your server when you arrive!” And I get pre-stressed that they’d rather discuss and figure this out in the middle of a busy dinner service 🫠
ResurrectedOnion
Immediate refusal of service. The risk is not worth the lack of service appreciation.
HAL9100
As someone with really significant food allergies and also enough kitchen experience to have learned a bit about food, I actually am not sure that humans can actually have adverse medical reactions to all of the things on this list. My stepmom seemingly decided she wanted to be special like me and suddenly was “diagnosed” with a list of allergies like this and it turned out to be fake. At the bare minimum I’m not aware of any allergy that would make you allergic to all vegetable oils but leave a random smattering of legumes and veg on the allow list.
I have a severe nut allergy to almost all nuts and know many others with same. None of us would _ever_ say “most nuts” or “most beans” – i learned early on that I just can’t have nuts in a restaurant because being allergic to “most” of something means you shouldn’t be chancing it that the kitchen definitely knows how to confidently identify a Brazil nut or whatever. Anaphylaxis is a terrifying ordeal and I think most of us generally live in quite a bit of fear of it. It gets taken more seriously than this in my experience. The last issue I care to point out is that I’m fairly sure that real fruit intolerances (of which I also now suffer as my liver continues to just give up) are very strongly typed. You can’t have an aversion/intolerance to some berries but not others. I’ve never heard of that. There are a bunch of like “genres” or “areas” of fruit intolerance but I’m fairly sure that all berries are grouped together in there.
This person is just a picky eater who found a way to get sympathy for being picky. Even if they do have some legitimate allergies, this can’t be real. I truly hate people like this as they burn out food service on dealing with a legitimate medical issue that we could all be dealing with better if a bunch of pick-me types hadn’t decided they wanted this to be their means of hassling those they encounter.
I’m not bitter. Sorry chefs I’ll be in the walk-in
E: addendum: I know you _can_ have massive lists of intolerances due to a few conditions. I know a few sufferers of such myself and it seems truly awful. My comment is based on the actual sorting of elements on this list as I don’t believe that it fits a template that would be found in those conditions’ symptoms either. The fact that we’re left to wonder about it, and the fact that we’ve all seemingly encountered someone with what should be an incredibly rare condition is all telling of the issue I’m trying to point out.
MaryBitchards
I would politely hand it back to them and ask them to leave.
Curious_Field7953
As someone who had a person who was severely allergic to many, many items what they did was NOT LEAVE THEIR LIFE IN THE HANDS OF STRANGERS.
NarrowPhrase5999
“We don’t want to risk your health but many thanks for considering us, wishing you a lovely evening”
mansker39
I don’t get these. One son is allergic to Peanuts, one son is allergic to cucumber and melons. We can avoid both of them with some care (and if the restaurant removes Cucumber from any salad they do, if they can’t, they don’t get salad, but oh well). On the other had, past family member changed the allergies on a daily basis, it seemed. It was NEVER the same, and we finally just told them we would not take them with us to eat, as it was too “Horrible” to manage their allergies. They changed after that, but we stood firm.
IgnitableVirus6
How does this person even get nutrients?
Sfjkigcnfdhu
Can someone just be straight up allergic to MSG?
DarkMistasd
Anaphylaxis to MSG is straight up impossible
epigeneticepigenesis
MSG is created naturally when salt and heat are combined with certain veg right? I kept looking for mushrooms on the list.
Dr3adn0ught35
I highly suspect that “MSG” is more likely tied to MSG syndrome. Cause that anaphylaxis warning is missing from cheese and there is no tomato or other MSG high foods.
Interesting_Sock9142
all herbs and spices you say?
Rauzi
MSG allergy is a new one for me. Especially as its marked with anaphylaxis risk.
Opposite-Category-92
“most nuts” This has to just be a picky eater. There’s no world where someone is *s e v e r e l y* allergic to nuts and won’t specifically say all nuts or which nuts.
Parody_of_Self
There are some contradictory things on the two lists. It probably isn’t worth trying to find out which is an allergy and which is a preference.
Fawxes42
MSG being highlighted is a huge red flag on this.
You literally can’t be allergic to MSG, but it is the sort of thing quack nutritionists and health gurus and the like claim you must avoid at all costs. Obviously you still have to take the list seriously, but there’s no way to know how much of it is actually real.
Wilsonj1966
What kind of person makes a randomly ordered list like that. Group them by type!
OhOkayFairEnough
I wouldn’t serve someone with a list like this. Not worth the risk. There’s a guarantee that they’re coming in while it’s busy, and the combination of cross-contamination risk and not being able to guarantee them a quality meal while rushed and on the spot makes this a no.
SVAuspicious
I’d like to see footnotes for an anaphylactic reaction to MSG. To my knowledge there is one identified case of a [type 1 allergy to MSG](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10926854/), no anaphylaxis.
Self diagnosed whiners make life harder for people with bona fide allergies.
Selkiekelpie
You can’t be allergic to msg without being allergic to kelp or seaweed. And how would they know that they can have moose or elk? Who just goes on a tasting tour of meats if every restaurant you go to will be given this list? They’ll likely give em a slab of beef as a safety call and call it elk, they would never know the difference and the restaurant will avoid q health scare. Heck. Can they even have salt? If msg is off the table, can they have salt?
Birdbraned
No brown rice but yes white rice….. no spices or herbs of any sort or oils except olive oil…. and allergic to eggs but not chicken?
This reads ( at best) like a super picky sensory list than an allergy card.
woodenmetalman
rosemarythymesage
If you want someone to help you based on this list, why the FUCK is it not in alphabetical order or at least some kind of categorical order???
Spurioun
“I’m allergic to bees but I insist on sitting on beehives”.
Like, if you’re *that* allergic to *that* much, you really should just accept that going to restaurants simply shouldn’t be something you do. It sucks but there’s only so much you can put your problems on other people.
vatttu
Looks like a low histamine diet
Pichupwnage
If your allergy list fills a whole standard sheet of paper in a small font you just aren’t getting served anywhere. What on earth do you expect them to do?
Ziggy-T
That’s mostly bollocks.
“I’m afraid our kitchen is not equipped to safely serve you today, g’bye”
GetOffMyLawn1729
Any idea how one can tolerate red cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli & cauliflower, but not tolerate bok choy?
Hantaboy
If I have ANY allergies with anaphylaxis level than its a given that NO premade or restaurant made food for me if even the cross contamination is possible.
Some is easier to avoid (like sea food) but some only if you made your own food.
Its sucks to have allergies and intolerance but restaurants made for the mass not for the few…
43 Comments
never heard of black pepper allergy or some basil
I actually don’t mind allergy cards like this when there’s a big list of can haves (assuming they also called ahead to make sure we could accommodate them, and they’re not picky). I can take that paper into the walk-in and throw something together for the guest pretty easily.
When there’s just a giant list of “no”, I get annoyed.
WTF?! It’s not even laminated. Worst one I got was double-sided and in fine print. The lady also “highlighted” the important items in ms word before printing. The yellow ink was barely visible…
Way too much. I’d push to decline service.
Anaphylaxis issues in a laundry list of other shit? No way. Can’t confirm 100% I couldn’t kill you somehow with some of what’s on there, and not going that far to ensure it couldn’t happen. Way to much of a liability issue for what, a couple covers? Even a full group. Fuck it.
All herbs and spices? Go home bubble boy lol, enjoy your arctic char there.
Losing those few is less than a lawsuit and not worth the headache.
Lmao even folded up card shaped
I’m allergic to personal commitment does that count
“Damn that sucks, good luck tho”.
Back in 2000 when I was an apprentice at Hotel Bristol Vienna, we had a-ha staying with us for a few days. I can’t remember who of them it was, but one of the members had a very similar list to the one OP showed here.
Kinda like those “what is your superhero name” facebook posts, pick one thing from each Can column based on your birthday day/month/initials and just mash em together
“I’ve got steak served on a bed of kale, and a cigarette with your name on it”
Natural selection been very lazy these days
Boiled chicken and white rice, same as you feed a sick dog.
The tear drops really add emphasis to how depressing this is
I’m fascinated by the “can haves” list including dandelion greens. At least they have a relatively long list of things they can eat.
Also the random combination of foods – why is purple sweet potato and sweet potato two different entries but they’ve contained zucchini/asparagus?
My son has allergies so I usually email ahead, pick 2-3 dishes I think he’d like and ask which of them might be safe. Most places are happy with this approach, but every now and then somebody emails back “oh we can accomodate this, just tell your server when you arrive!” And I get pre-stressed that they’d rather discuss and figure this out in the middle of a busy dinner service 🫠
Immediate refusal of service. The risk is not worth the lack of service appreciation.
As someone with really significant food allergies and also enough kitchen experience to have learned a bit about food, I actually am not sure that humans can actually have adverse medical reactions to all of the things on this list. My stepmom seemingly decided she wanted to be special like me and suddenly was “diagnosed” with a list of allergies like this and it turned out to be fake. At the bare minimum I’m not aware of any allergy that would make you allergic to all vegetable oils but leave a random smattering of legumes and veg on the allow list.
I have a severe nut allergy to almost all nuts and know many others with same. None of us would _ever_ say “most nuts” or “most beans” – i learned early on that I just can’t have nuts in a restaurant because being allergic to “most” of something means you shouldn’t be chancing it that the kitchen definitely knows how to confidently identify a Brazil nut or whatever. Anaphylaxis is a terrifying ordeal and I think most of us generally live in quite a bit of fear of it. It gets taken more seriously than this in my experience. The last issue I care to point out is that I’m fairly sure that real fruit intolerances (of which I also now suffer as my liver continues to just give up) are very strongly typed. You can’t have an aversion/intolerance to some berries but not others. I’ve never heard of that. There are a bunch of like “genres” or “areas” of fruit intolerance but I’m fairly sure that all berries are grouped together in there.
This person is just a picky eater who found a way to get sympathy for being picky. Even if they do have some legitimate allergies, this can’t be real. I truly hate people like this as they burn out food service on dealing with a legitimate medical issue that we could all be dealing with better if a bunch of pick-me types hadn’t decided they wanted this to be their means of hassling those they encounter.
I’m not bitter. Sorry chefs I’ll be in the walk-in
E: addendum: I know you _can_ have massive lists of intolerances due to a few conditions. I know a few sufferers of such myself and it seems truly awful. My comment is based on the actual sorting of elements on this list as I don’t believe that it fits a template that would be found in those conditions’ symptoms either. The fact that we’re left to wonder about it, and the fact that we’ve all seemingly encountered someone with what should be an incredibly rare condition is all telling of the issue I’m trying to point out.
I would politely hand it back to them and ask them to leave.
As someone who had a person who was severely allergic to many, many items what they did was NOT LEAVE THEIR LIFE IN THE HANDS OF STRANGERS.
“We don’t want to risk your health but many thanks for considering us, wishing you a lovely evening”
I don’t get these. One son is allergic to Peanuts, one son is allergic to cucumber and melons. We can avoid both of them with some care (and if the restaurant removes Cucumber from any salad they do, if they can’t, they don’t get salad, but oh well). On the other had, past family member changed the allergies on a daily basis, it seemed. It was NEVER the same, and we finally just told them we would not take them with us to eat, as it was too “Horrible” to manage their allergies. They changed after that, but we stood firm.
How does this person even get nutrients?
Can someone just be straight up allergic to MSG?
Anaphylaxis to MSG is straight up impossible
MSG is created naturally when salt and heat are combined with certain veg right? I kept looking for mushrooms on the list.
I highly suspect that “MSG” is more likely tied to MSG syndrome. Cause that anaphylaxis warning is missing from cheese and there is no tomato or other MSG high foods.
all herbs and spices you say?
MSG allergy is a new one for me. Especially as its marked with anaphylaxis risk.
“most nuts”
This has to just be a picky eater.
There’s no world where someone is *s e v e r e l y* allergic to nuts and won’t specifically say all nuts or which nuts.
There are some contradictory things on the two lists. It probably isn’t worth trying to find out which is an allergy and which is a preference.
MSG being highlighted is a huge red flag on this.
You literally can’t be allergic to MSG, but it is the sort of thing quack nutritionists and health gurus and the like claim you must avoid at all costs. Obviously you still have to take the list seriously, but there’s no way to know how much of it is actually real.
What kind of person makes a randomly ordered list like that. Group them by type!
I wouldn’t serve someone with a list like this. Not worth the risk. There’s a guarantee that they’re coming in while it’s busy, and the combination of cross-contamination risk and not being able to guarantee them a quality meal while rushed and on the spot makes this a no.
I’d like to see footnotes for an anaphylactic reaction to MSG. To my knowledge there is one identified case of a [type 1 allergy to MSG](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10926854/), no anaphylaxis.
Self diagnosed whiners make life harder for people with bona fide allergies.
You can’t be allergic to msg without being allergic to kelp or seaweed. And how would they know that they can have moose or elk? Who just goes on a tasting tour of meats if every restaurant you go to will be given this list? They’ll likely give em a slab of beef as a safety call and call it elk, they would never know the difference and the restaurant will avoid q health scare. Heck. Can they even have salt? If msg is off the table, can they have salt?
No brown rice but yes white rice….. no spices or herbs of any sort or oils except olive oil…. and allergic to eggs but not chicken?
This reads ( at best) like a super picky sensory list than an allergy card.
If you want someone to help you based on this list, why the FUCK is it not in alphabetical order or at least some kind of categorical order???
“I’m allergic to bees but I insist on sitting on beehives”.
Like, if you’re *that* allergic to *that* much, you really should just accept that going to restaurants simply shouldn’t be something you do. It sucks but there’s only so much you can put your problems on other people.
Looks like a low histamine diet
If your allergy list fills a whole standard sheet of paper in a small font you just aren’t getting served anywhere. What on earth do you expect them to do?
That’s mostly bollocks.
“I’m afraid our kitchen is not equipped to safely serve you today, g’bye”
Any idea how one can tolerate red cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli & cauliflower, but not tolerate bok choy?
If I have ANY allergies with anaphylaxis level than its a given that NO premade or restaurant made food for me if even the cross contamination is possible.
Some is easier to avoid (like sea food) but some only if you made your own food.
Its sucks to have allergies and intolerance but restaurants made for the mass not for the few…