Review of Universal Studios Hollywood

Tl,dr: Don’t trust their claims about accommodating allergies. Bring your own food.

My 11-year-old daughter, who has celiac, was given the wrong order at Krusty Burger. We didn’t realize it until she’d eaten half of her meal — which had a gluten bun.

So, she was full-on glutened. And an hour later, she had the mortifying experience (especially for an 11-year-old) of throwing up on the Universal Studios tram ride. We got to pull the emergency stop and everything. Fun.



We were careful. We stressed _Celiac! No gluten!_ when we ordered, confirmed the receipt said “no gluten,” and checked the slip that came with the order. But they put the right slip on the tray with the wrong burger and that was it.

Universal Studios is making an attempt at accommodating allergies, at least in their marketing. We got their brochure and a cheerful spiel from guest relations when we entered the park. But obviously the system isn’t reliable.

And in fact, the head (?) of food services we spoke with mentioned that just the day before, a kid with an egg allergy was given an “egg-free” doughnut that, you guessed it, had egg in it. The rep had just come from a meeting about it, matter of fact.

The food services rep was also quick to emphasize that he’d identified the people responsible for my daughter’s wrong order, but my wife and I stressed that we’re not out to get a line cook fired. The problem is systemic. He disagreed and said the system was good, it’s just people weren’t following it. (I think we may have a philosophical difference on what “system” means — i.e., a system that people don’t follow is not much of a system).

Anyway, we talked to many people in guest relations. They were all apologetic. And eventually, they comped the meal and gave us free return tickets, yadda, yadda.

But that’s not much help, since my daughter is too sick to go back, and the rest of our visit to L.A. will be spent in our Airbnb while she recovers. She’s also a Harry Potter (and Simpsons) fanatic who has been looking forward to this for years, but she’ll head back east without having seen much of the park.

I also don’t think the people at Universal understood our main point — unless they have a system that works like clockwork, they can’t advertise that they accommodate allergies and health conditions. Because they don’t. And I understand why — accommodating so many issues at so many restaurants at that volume can’t be easy. But better off for everyone that Universal is honest about what it's capable of — that way, at least we can protect our kids.

P.S. If your kid is Harry Potter fan, be warned that all of the candy they sell in the fabled Honeydukes “shares equipment with and is produced a facility containing peanuts, tree nuts, milk, egg, wheat, and soy.” Bummer.

Celiac friendly?

No