I'd love to post about what I ate a few weeks ago when we ate here....but I don't remember.
What I do remember and want to post about is how helpful they were.
We typically walk to Trader Joe's a time or two each week, pass this place and say, "Hmmm, one day we should try it." But, since we have the gluten-free issue, we often don't try new places, settling for the few tried and true. I'm in no way minimizing what restaurant staff must do when faced with dietary restrictions (I've been that staff), but it gets psychologically devastating to have to go through the explanations, the back and forth, and then to be told that they can't serve you anything. After years of this, we stay home more and more. Sometimes you just want to enjoy a dinner you didn't cook of food cooked in a way that maybe you can't cook or with ingredients you don't have access to.
On this particular night, we strolled in about ten PM as we walked home from TJs. We decided to chance it; we'd been lucky a few weeks before at Sun Wah and were hoping we'd strike it rich again. The waitress with whom we spoke seemed to "get" what we could and couldn't have, but quickly waved us into the kitchen area to speak with the owner and chef to verify things. So far, so good. They read labels, asked us questions, verified ingredients and decided on three or four things that would be safe.
As I write this, I do remember one of the items we ordered was an okra dish that we both liked quite a bit. But, back to the ordering experience.
The last sticking point...the rice. Most Turkish restaurants make their rice with a type of semolina pasta in it - not gluten free. The owner offered to make rice for us without the pasta. (The lovely wife at Nazarlik also used to do this for us.) We happily agreed to the choices. He immediately started cooking.
We happily sipped our tea while we waited, paid when our food was ready, offered another hearty round of thank yous, then headed home with our groceries and food. A few blocks later, the food on the counter, plates being filled, we realized we had no rice. It was close to 11 PM by now. We called them and they apologized, saying they ran out after us but didn't see what direction we walked and couldn't find us. Not a problem, they said, they'd deliver it to us.
Five minutes later, the rice was at our condo. It must have been a quart's worth, enough rice for six or eight people. The only damper was that someone has made a mistake with the salt and the rice was not edible. I was able to rinse it off however as the salt mistake seemed to be an addition after cooking. I rinsed well, drained, then added a bit more oil and all was OK. We reheated the food and sat down to eat, happy we'd found a new place that was not only able to accommodate us, but that did so seemingly as if we really mattered to them.