#is the waiter supposed to guess you have a citrus allergy in the situation?

[tedkaczynskiofficial]

The waiter doesn't know it's a restricted food if you don't tell them. Someone who just doesn't like cheese on their pizza probably isn't going to care about a small amount of cheese in the sauce, nor do they need the same cross contamination prevention procedures as someone with a dairy allergy. That's not them deciding to be your doctor, that's them doing what you asked them and not putting cheese on your pizza as a topping. Likewise, they don't know if cheese specifically is the issue, or it's some component of dairy (lactose, whey, etc). Something that doesn't technically have milk or cheese in it could still be contaminated with whey, and the waiter wouldn't know to check for that unless you told them.

When I waited tables, I used to get people asking for ribs without barbecue sauce on them all the time. Would you assume that's for an allergy? Which allergy would you guess? Most of the time it was preference (our barbecue sauce sucked, lmao), but sometimes it was for gluten. Which meant they couldn't have the ribs because they were dry rubbed with gluten-containing seasoning. Or anything else in the restaurant because we made bread from scratch in the same kitchen everything else was cooked in. If something could send you to the hospital, you shouldn't rely on guessing which dishes/ingredients have your allergen in them or the waiter guessing what the issue is.

Hey real quick PSA: If you have food allergies TELL RESTAURANTS. I know it’s inconvenient and sometimes people are shitty but for real, please, tell waitstaff it’s allergy specific, don’t just order it without the allergy ingredient.

This was brought up in my mind again since my step-MIL would get furious if someone presented her with a food she couldn’t eat with her Crohn’s but she’d never told them in the first place what she couldn’t have or how severe her reactions were.

When I worked at the pizza place a ton of people would order pizzas without cheese for a variety of reasons, but only occasionally would they say it was because of an allergy.

This one day a white lady came in and ordered three pizzas with no cheese. I have no explanation for why I followed up, especially because she was extremely moody and snippy. But I asked, “Is this because of an allergy?”

“Yes,” she snapped.

“If it’s for an allergy you should know we do use a small amount of cheese in the red sauce as well. Is the allergy severe?”

“What? Yes, he’ll literally die, his throat closes up and stuff.”

I stared at her. Someone she was serving pizza to would die on contact with cheese? And she didn’t even bother to tell us that?!!?? Why in gods name was she even in a pizza place???

“Don’t you have anything without cheese?” She demanded.

I ended up doing a garlic rubbed crust with toppings.

I had to scrub down all the counters and surfaces and grab fresh bins for all the toppings to try to avoid any cross contamination and the extra time made her roll her eyes in exasperation. Like I’m sorry safety protocols are inconvenient but I hope this person you’re trying to murder leaves your life.

But anyway. Please be safe. Disclose your allergies.