Review of One World Cafe

****NOT CELIAC SAFE****

Updated again June 2023: Members of the celiac community continue to get glutened at One World, it's an ongoing problem and the reviews here do not reflect it.

Updated December 2021: I'm updating my review from a few years ago because members of the celiac community continue to get glutened at One World. We have a celiac support group where we share our experiences and it's still happening.

Original Review:

Sadly, One World has gone down hill significantly. For years, it was one of my favorites, but I'm sad to say that I think I'm done going there.



The second to last time I was there, I ordered the eggplant lasagna, which is entirely gluten free except for the side of bread that comes with it. I explained to the server that I have a medical need to eat gluten free and that I needed the gluten free bread. My eggplant lasagna came out with the regular bread right on top; I only knew because I'd had that dish before and knew what the gluten free bread looked like. I could have easily eaten the bread not knowing that it was regular bread. The person who brought me my dish just grabbed the bread off the top of my food and expected that I'd still eat it; she seemed put out when I explained that I'd need a new one made. I had a new one made and thankfully did not get sick.



Then, the last time I went was with a group for my birthday (8 people total), including my brother in law who also has celiac disease. One World has loaded fries as an appetizer, and they also have baked fries that are gluten free, so I've ordered the appetizer but with baked fries instead of fried fries many times without a problem. The loaded fries normally come with a cheese sauce that does not taste very good, so I always ask for shredded cheese instead. Every time I've done this, the server has agreed that the liquid cheese is gross (I think it tastes like vomit to be honest), so I'm not sure why they still serve it, but I digress. I explained to the server that it was very important that we get the baked fries and she said she noted it and put an allergen alert on the order as well.



We got the appetizer and I took one bite of a fry that was about an inch long and knew right away that it was too greasy to have been baked. Unfortunately, my brother in law also took a bite at the same time so I couldn't spare him from getting sick. We immediately told our server, and she kept insisting that the kitchen said that the fries were baked and didn't really seem concerned. But the fries were dripping in grease, and eventually she admitted that she'd worked there for a long time and had never seen baked fries look greasy like ours. Eventually it came out that perhaps the kitchen considered our fries to be "baked" because they'd melted the cheese on them in the oven, but that was only AFTER they'd been fried.



As the incident was unfolding, the closest a manager (or who I think was the manager, anyway) came to talking to me was by standing about 20 feet away from our table and pointing at me while talking to the server. He never came to talk to us and we got a half-hearted apology from the server. We also didn't even get the fries comped from our bill.

We eventually did get a correct order of baked loaded fries, and they were not greasy at all; that was when the server acknowledged that there is no way the first order was baked.

I've had incidents occur at restaurants before, but this was by far the weakest response I've ever seen. When other restaurants were profusely apologetic, explained actions they would take to ensure it didn't happen again, comped the contaminated food, and even gave gift certificates, I've always given those restaurants another chance. 100% of the time I've had issues at other restaurants, the manager has come to talk to me and has been profusely apologetic; that did not happen at One World after either of the last two incidents I had there, which leads me to believe that they don't really care.



I'm sad that things have gone down hill there, at least for we gluten free folks. This was the sickest I've ever gotten from gluten cross contamination; I'm a stay-at-home-mom and my husband had to take off two days from work to care for our children because I was unable to do so. I was sick for a full week.



Sorry for the wall of text, I put in paragraphs but it isn't showing them.

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

— Not at all

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Not Much

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

— Poor