Review of Brent's Deli Northridge

Not safe for celiacs. I went to the Brent's in Westlake, and I would not recommend eating here. Before eating here, I called Brent's to find out how they are about gluten cross-contamination in their kitchens. I was told over the phone that they have a gluten free menu, and was assured that they are very conscious of cross contamination and go to lengths to avoid it. I was happy to hear this, but when we actually ate here they served me food with gluten several times. I ordered a half sandwich and soup. Chicken soup was on the gluten free menu, and I asked the waitress if that was their chicken noodle because I didn't see another soup, and she told me it was. I ordered it but asked if she could double check that it was gluten free. She came with the soup but never asked. So I asked her if she could please tell me what was in the soup. She then went back and asked the chef who told her it was definitely gluten free. I had never seen gluten free noodles that look like this before, so just to double check I asked her if the chef told her what the ingredients are. She told me he didn't know but was sure it was gluten free. She offered to go get the bag and look at the ingredients for me, which I asked her to please do. She came back with a picture on her phone of the ingredients... The first of which was durum wheat flour. NOT gluten free. I sent the soup back and got a salad. Then she had asked me if I wanted my bread toasted on my sandwich and I asked if it was toasted in the same place they toast other bread. She said yes, so I said I would not like it toasted and that it was very important that it was kept separate from all wheat ingredients because I am very sensitive and didn't want to get sick. They brought me my sandwich toasted. She apologized about this and after having the sandwich remade, she told me she spoke to the manager who had told her that the chicken soup without the noodles is gluten free, but the chefs did not know this. Seems a pretty big oversight to me... Especially since I had to ask 3 times to figure this out. I wonder how many other people got sick here because of their carelessness. After mistakes involving such a serious allergy were made I would have expected either the chef or manager to come over and apologize, or reassure me in some way that the food I did receive was actually safe, or perhaps a discount on the bill. None of these things happened. Stay away from this place if you are a celiac. They don't know what is in their own food and don't take allergies seriously despite their claims.

Celiac friendly?

No