Review of Metro Diner

Do NOT go here if you are celiac! I don't care what they tell you about their gluten-free bread and their gluten-free menu. It is NOT safe! They cross-contaminate EVERYTHING, and the chefs do NOT know what they are doing. I have a friend who works there, and the chefs are not trained in allergy prep. Many of them are also out back smoking weed on their breaks. I went in 3 times, and they always contaminated me. I ordered a simple breakfast with hash browns. I spoke with the manager when I ordered and stressed to her the need to prepare my food in a separate skillet and NOT on the communal grill. She assured me that everything would be fine. While eating my hash browns, I bit into something chewy and sweet. I spit it out, and it was a cooked chunk of pancake batter. They had cooked my food on the same grill as everyone else's food, and they hadn't cleaned it at all. I caller the manager over, and she was EXTREMELY rude to me and all but accused me of lying. She said "That's impossible. I don't know how that could happen." I asked if my food was cooked on the griddle, and she lied and said it was done in a separate skillet. My server later verified out of the manager's earshot that is WAS in fact done on the same grill as everyone else's food and NOT in a separate clean skillet. The manager was so prideful and determined to not admit the mistake that, instead of apologizing and trying to rectify the situation, she flat-out LIED to me and said that it was impossible that anything happened. I showed her the pancake batter on my plate and said "do you think I brought this in with me?" She scoffed at me and walked away. No apologies, no offer to remake the meal, no discount, NOTHING.

I can't speak for other locations in the chain, but the Metro Diner in Venice, FL is completely and utterly incompetent when it comes to safe food preparation. They serve gluten-free buns and bread, but then cross-contaminate everything. Even their fryers are not isolated. They don't do potato products in a dedicated fryer, yet they list french fries on the gluten-free menu. They do chicken strips in the same fryer as fries, even though they have multiple fryers and COULD do it safely.

These people are rude, accusatory, inconsiderate, incompetent, and haughty. They absolutely refuse to admit when they are wrong. All of this happened to me when the place had been open less than 6 months.

If you are merely gluten sensitive, be VERY careful, because you WILL get cross-contamination. If you are Celiac, do not set foot in this place under any circumstances. They made me very ill, and I will NEVER return to this location or this company!

Celiac friendly?

No