Review of Hard Rock Cafe

Really poor experience and when I raised the issue was just told they're sorry I had a bad experience, and they'll just try better next time

After we were greeted at the door and seated, I made the server aware of my allergies and they said that it wouldn’t be an issue and the manager would be over to talk me through which to which options I could have. When the manager arrived, he was friendly, attentive and reassuring that he would ensure whatever I ordered would be checked for allergens before it was prepared. After some time, and me obviously being excited at the prospect of being able to have more options that are not usually widely available for me, my partner and I decided to order two dishes to both try and share; the lamb ribs and the BBQ chicken, the manager took our order and we thought that was that. However, after a while the manager returned to inform us that unfortunately both dishes could not be made gluten free due to sauces and marinades. I appreciated that he had checked, but was disappointed as the initial expectation was that I could have anything and it would be modified. We then asked the manager for some more time to choose again. On reflection, we should have just left and found other options elsewhere, but we were both very hungry at this point and confident that we would have a great experience. For context, we had specifically come to the Hard Rock Cafe as it was a big chain, that we had both visited in past and we we were confident that it would know about allergies, how to handle the situation and take them seriously.

We then planned to order again and decided that sharing meals would make things more difficult, so settled on my partner having a chicken burger and me having a country burger that could be adjusted to be gluten free. The manager then informed me that the burger comes bunless which is fine and that the fries were not gluten free so would be replaced with vegetables. This again was disappointing as I’d gone from apparently having a choice of the whole menu, to now, having key elements of most options not being available gluten free. I didn’t want to add to the fuss that I felt I had already made, so said that was fine as we were both very hungry at this stage and wanted to just have something to eat.

After a while the food arrived, my partner's chicken burger looked really appetising, however she later told me that it was quite underwhelming unfortunately, and the only reason she did not say it at the time is because she saw the disappointment on my face when my ‘meal’ arrived. I was presented with a double stack of two small patties with some cheese and 7 pieces of broccoli (as pictured below) on a piece of lettuce. By this point I just wanted to leave so ate what little food there was and waited for my partner to finish her meal. As we received our bill, I queried if my meal would be full price (as I felt over half of it was missing), and I was informed it would be. We paid and left quickly looking for somewhere else to eat..

I raised the issues with Hard Rock after our poor experience and received a pretty underwhelming 'copy and paste' response saying they're sorry to hear that we had a poor experience and they'll try to do better...

How confident are you that this establishment takes safety precautions against cross-contact?

— Somewhat

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— No gluten-free information on the menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Not Much/None

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Poor