This evening we went to a Chinese restaurant with my husbands family for his grandma’s 83rd birthday (happy birthday Sitti!). There was 21 of us. Now Chinese is always tricky for me in the carb department, but I’ve learned to ask for all white meat, non-breaded chicken as my chicken. My FAVORITE dish is General Tso’s Chicken. Probably not the greatest, but when you get it not breaded, you don’t eat as much of the sauce, etc. So while not the best, every once in awhile it’s not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
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It was my turn to order and I said the following:
“I would like the sweet and sour chicken, but I would like the all white meat, non-breaded chicken please”.
The server looked at me as if I had 2 heads and said “Oh we can’t do that”. I was stunned. Why couldn’t he? Our normal go to Chinese place does this for me…charges me an additional $1 or $2. I could not understand why they couldn’t take the chicken they use in their Kung Pao chicken and put it in the sweet and sour stuff. I explained to the server that I am diabetic and I need to keep an eye on my carbs per meal and that I really shouldn’t have the breading. His exact words to me was “you’ll had to pick something else to eat”.
If I wanted something else to eat…if I LIKED something else on the menu, I would have ordered that. Charge me a $1 or $2. Hell…charge me $5 extra (which is ridiculous, but whatever)…I don’t care. But for Pete’s sake be accommodating. I mean it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that our table is going to have a large tab. There was 21 of us. Our bill was close to $400. $400 dollars and they couldn’t be accommodating with ONE meal. And if that wasn’t bad enough, my mother inlaw told them that the dish she ordered she wanted to be made mild. The ASKED her what strength of hotness she wanted. She said as mild as you can and the waiters response “well we’ll see if we can do it. We make it one way and sometimes it’s not mild”. THEN WHY ASK????
Well my husband was floored. He went up to the manager and told him that I was diabetic, that I was just requesting non-breaded chicken…it wasn’t like I was asking for something extreme. Heck, we expect to be charged extra for that request, but to be told they can’t do that is ridiculous. It’s not like I asked them to peel all the breading off their chicken before serving me. They HAVE chicken like that for other dishes already. And to be told that you may or may not be able to have your food mild, is ridiculous too. If it were up to me, we would have left right then and there.
So after talking to the manager, I did get my sweet n sour chicken the way I requested. I ate a portion of it and brought home the rest. I probably have enough for 2 more meals. Did I go over my carbs for that particular meal? Probably, by a few. But I basically left ALL of my carbs for that meal to just the chicken dish. I did not eat the steamed dumplings or the crab ragoon or the egg rolls. But any rate, if you are diabetic and love Chinese food, see if you can order it the way I did. You are eating WAY less of the sauce because it doesn’t stick to the food like it does with the breading.
But isn’t that infuriating? It also pisses me off to go into a restaurant and request a nutritional sheet for their menu items and be told, “oh we don’t do that”. What the hell do you have to hide? I mean seriously.
What do you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts on all of this. Do you think restaurants should be accommodating with providing non-breaded options in place of the breaded item (and charging extra for that accommodation)? What are your thoughts on a nutritional menu?
I'm glad they finally agreed to give you your meal as requested. That's so ridiculous though. I've had the same issue in restaurants. I can't have any wheat, so breading is out for me too. I haven't had too many issues, but occasionally get a server who looks at me like I'm nuts.
I could understand if you asked for some sort of meat they didn't even have, but that sounds absolutely ridiculous. I'm glad they finally accommodated you.
I'm glad they made it the way you wanted it but probably spit in it while it was in the back. Since i'm doing WW I hate it when restaurants don't give nutritional info also.
I'm glad you were able to get your meal the way you wanted it, but you should not have had such a stressful time getting it that way. That was just ridiculous. My daughter has a life-threatening tree nut allergy, so I don't know that we could ever eat at a Chinese restaurant, but I still have to be careful where we do eat. If I needed some type of modification for her and they denied me, I would just leave. Simple as that. I know you didn't have that option since you were with a big crowd, though.
Honestly Chinese restaurants are NEVER accommodating… I find this I'm also diabetic, and I've also got a major shellfish allergy, so I've just given up on going and making my own at home. They often refuse to use a different grill, different oil or pans to cook my food so it doesn't come in contact with shellfish..