Review of Red Robin

Long review ahead. It will be worth to read how gluten-UNfriendly this place is, but for those who don’t want to read, I’ll tell you this: find another place to eat or eat at home. This place does not take allergy protocol seriously and does not know what gluten free truly is. This place is completely unsafe for celiacs.

I have celiac disease and have been to this restaurant 3 times. All 3 times were not a pleasant experience. You’d think I would learn the first time, but seeing so many raves on Facebook about RRs amazing gluten free menu and how safe everyone was, I kept deciding to give it a try. The first time, a few months ago, I ask for the gluten free menu (they have tablets they bring to the table for allergy selection) and she told me to look it up on my phone. Not sure why it’s assumed I have a smart phone or the ability to look the menu up myself, but okay. I look it up and it’s not easy to access from my phone. It’s glitchy, it’s slow, and it’s all in all hard to navigate. I wished they had given me a tablet but I thought maybe this location didn’t have them. I ordered a gluten free burger off of the menu and said “so of course the gluten free bun and none of the sauces that come on the original burger, I’ll need gluten free sauces on the side”. The waitress then proceeds to ask me what else on the burger has gluten, which I find astonishing as I believe all waitresses should come equipped with that knowledge or should be able to ask the kitchen staff. I told her I don’t know, but according to this menu I believe it’s just the original bun and original sauces. So please a gluten free bun, no sauces on burger, and I asked for a special gluten free sauce on the side. I told her I have severe celiac disease so will get really sick if my burger is not prepared properly. I can’t have any gluten at all touch my burger, so I’ll need the staff to change gloves and use clean utensils. She acted confused and mad that I was asking for such allergy protocol to take place. I get my burger back and the burger has the original gluten sauce on the burger, which I told her a couple different times I could NOT have on my burger. I asked her to remake my burger because if they just replace the bun, but not the whole patty, I will get sick. It comes back out and it’s fine. The second time I went, my husband ordered it over the phone for me and we went to pick it up for carry out. He stressed over the phone that they HAVE to change gloves before handling my food and make sure nothing with gluten touches my food as I can get extremely sick and last time it wasn’t made correctly. I get it out to the car, and lo and behold, it isn’t gluten free (has the original BBQ sauce that contains gluten) again. I sent it back in with my husband and asked for a refund. The last, and it WILL be my last, time of going in and ordering food was yesterday afternoon. I asked for the gluten free menu (thinking surely they have tablets as I saw another table with a tablet) and she told me look it up on my phone. 🙄 so I did. It, again, wasn’t working the way it should. She then comes over and tells me “she can bring me a tablet over if the phone isn’t working”—something she should have offered in the beginning. I order my food and stress the important allergy protocol I need the kitchen staff to take. I get my food out and there is no purple toothpick indicative of a gluten-free burger. I pointed that out to her and the waitress says “oh I can get that for you if you want”—I said no, that not what I mean. I want to know my burger is safe. That it is COMPLETELY gluten free. She tells me yes it is. I check it over and it SEEMS okay (gluten free bun, no sauces on burger). Okay, then. I eat, and about 15 minutes into eating I start getting my celiac symptoms. By a few hours later, I was puking out of the car door by the side of the road and sick all night long.

Point of this long review: celiacs, find a different place to eat, or at least at a different location. I’ve spoken to the manager about this, and he doesn’t seem knowledgeable about gluten free procedures. This Red Robin is not celiac safe and quite frankly I wouldn’t trust any RR at this point. They don’t have a dedicated kitchen space and they do not produce gluten free burgers even when stressed as much as you can for it to be gluten free. This place may make you sick if you’re sensitive like me. Next time I go to Red Robin with family, especially to this location, I’ll stick with a pop.

Celiac friendly?

No