Specialty Restaurants Food Allergies

[slyster]

We usually communicate with the head or assistant waiter who takes my wife's order the day before dining in the MDR.  However, how do we communicate with specialty restaurants?  We usually just visit 1 specialty restaurant, and we work around it, but since we are going to three restaurants this time, it would be good to know how to handle it.  

 

Her restrictions are low sodium, no gravy, certain ingredients.  The MDR is great handling her requests by taking her order the day before.  We just don't know how it works with specialty restaurants.  It also has me thinking if we miss meals in the MDR, we will need to let the assistant headwaiter know too.  

[Weluv2cruise2gether]

I just tell them day 1 upon boarding about my certain nut allergy and it seems to follow me to all the restaurants, so they must mark it in the system. 

[gerif]

I think it would be easier to deal with in a specialty restaurant since food is made to order rather than mass produced like in the MDR. 

[AmberRNH]

My husband is on a low-sodium diet. Chops has done an excellent job making the modifications to his food...mostly unseasoned grilled steak or fish, plain steamed or sautéed veggies, salad w/dressing on the side. Our most recent cruise was a few weeks ago, with the new menus in the main dining room. We had both emailed ahead of time and spoken with the head waiter (or whoever it is) when boarding. We had my time dining. The waiter most days in MDR did a great job. One MDR waiter had a hard time understanding the restrictions (low sodium is a little different to explain for various reasons), but it still worked just fine. Which specialty restaurants do you plan to eat at?

 

[Ret MP]

Good communication is always the best way of dealing with such things and I wouldn't wait until you get seated to inform the wait staff.  Go on day one or at least the day before and discuss it with the host(ess).  Or better said, like you said how you handled it at the MDR on past cruises.  Then when you get to the venue, before your/her meal is ordered, ask if they got the message.