When the meal arrived, I cut a piece off the corner and ate it. As I'm chewing, I notice the herbs and spices look a bit chunkier than usual... my eyes go wide and I start to freak out. I hand one of those chunky pieces over to my partner and she looks at me as if the news isn't good, so I get up and walk over to the counter to speak to the waiter and chef. Turns out the meal had pistachios in it—a nut I'm highly allergic to and can get anaphylactic reactions from.

Love this. I spent 20 years in hospitality and have had many allergy conversations with patrons. When they’d tell me they were are allergic to something, I would ask follow up questions. How allergic? Is cross contamination from a chopping board going to kill you? Do you have an Epipen on you? I need to know details to keep you alive!

If you have allergies and there’s an item on a dish that you don’t know, wouldn’t you ask what it is your look it up?

Do menus not have an allergen note in the US? In Ireland (and fairly sure all of the EU) ever menu must tell you the allergens in each dish. Even with that my friend is coeliac and she double checks everything so she’s sure of not being made sick.