Thursday, January 3, 2013

Gluten Free at the Mandarin

And so my quest for all things gluten free led me to contact the Mandarin buffet restaurant head office in order to determine their perspective on the foods they offer at their buffet restaurants in Canada. I received a very friendly and helpful response which I will share with you below:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding our gluten free items. It is very difficult for me to answer your question as we do not have a detailed ingredient list available for our buffet items. There are many items that may contain gluten.
It may be helpful to let you know that we use canola oil when preparing most of our dishes. We also use corn starch in many of our soups and stir fries. Chicken base is also used in most of our hot buffet dishes and stir fries, and as far as I know, it is not gluten free. Our Garden Salad is prepared without dressing (You must select your own dressing for the salad), and our grilled items are marinated before they are cooked. Our Soy Sauce is not gluten free. Also, to my knowledge, our plain Steamed Rice and Peel and Eat Shrimp should not contain gluten.
We do have an à-la-carte menu available as an alternative to the buffet. Simply ask your hostess or server for our menu upon being seated. Our chefs may be willing to prepare a dish without chicken base or other ingredients containing gluten at your request. However, please be advised that it is almost impossible to say that any dish is gluten-free because there is a high risk of cross-contamination in our restaurants.
I hope that this information will help you, if you choose to dine at Mandarin. Thank you for contacting us with your question.
Sincerely,

Mandarin Restaurant Franchise Corporation
8 Clipper Court, Brampton ON L6W 4T9
T 905-451-4100
F 905-456-3411
E info@mandarinrestaurant.com

5 comments:

  1. It is to bad that they dont research this to determine
    if any items may be gluten free and label as so in restaurant and menu, as well as other allergy food ingredients. I find it much easier to scan for item___free
    labels.

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  2. I know! My family goes there every Christmas Eve and I've been diagnosed Celiac the last 3 yrs and it's hard. Last time one of the servers was nice enough to get me steamed veggies. :) I only had the steamed rice, the roast and the veggies.

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  3. Do you think the jello dessert is safe from gluten there?

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  4. Is there any reason why the crab legs would be unsafe for someone with celiac disease?

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    Replies
    1. One would need to be cautious if they have celiac disease and intending to eat at a buffet such as the Mandarin. There is a lot of potentional for cross contamination since they offer so many different kinds of foods and many of them do contain wheat products. Even if the crab legs themselves do not contain wheat, they may have come into contact with other foods that contain wheat. Wishing you health and success in your day today.

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