Name of Eatery: Seminole Hard Rock Cafe-Tampa
Phone: 1-866-502-7529 (ask to be transferred to the cafe)
Website:http://www.seminolehardrocktampa.com/dining/hardrockcafe
Time of day: 6pm
Day of the week: Saturday
Server:(didn’t get the name!)
Menu Reflections: No nutritional information was available on this menu, only indications if items had nuts. Nothing online to indicate fat, calories, beef made from babies, etc.
Reaction to my being Celiac:When I called (because nobody ever got back to me, even a week later, from the website form for information) the staffer who answered the phone didn’t know what it meant. However, she did ask and was told that the dressings are not gluten free. The waitress when she took my order didn’t miss a beat and said that she’d make sure the back knew I was “allergic” to wheat.
Impressions of Restaurant in general: The restaurant with the music so loud that I got uncomfortable talking to my friends and eventually just shut up. Which is annoying. However, service was fast and friendly, which is worth noting.
What I ordered: Tadaa, side salad! Yay.
Review of meal: First of all, the only reason I ordered a salad is because it was the only non-meat looking thing that I hoped would be safe. The croutons were definitely missing, but the first salad brought to me was covered in bacon. Also, I’ve double checked, there is no indication on the menu that this side salad(House Salad) contains bacon. In fact, no listing of any of the side salad contents on the online version of the menu. Knowledge is power!
I hate bacon. This is how you know I’m a serious vegetarian, right?
The waitress for her awesomeness did immediately bring me another salad. The contents were iceberg lettuce(yawn), cucumbers, carrots, one wedge of tomato, a sprinkle of what looked to be monterey jack cheese and craisins.
If only there were a different lettuce in the world besides iceberg. I find iceberg lettuce boring and tasteless.
And that my only option for dressing the salad was oil and vinegar-- which I prefer at home. I also prefer to keep my bottles at home cleaner so that when I’m drizzling vinegar atop my salad, I don’t accidentally lose control of the bottle so badly that I may have sprayed one of my dining companions. That was a bit disgusting. (I did let him know, and it seems my vinegar mis-fire did not hit him.)
Side salad isn’t a meal. So I wasn’t very full. The 4 mojitos I drank made up for it.(Hey, if I’m going to blow a calorie count for the day, there has got to be lime involved. And rum.)
Would I go back? Eh, maybe. The service was very, very good. I realized that this environment is just not designed to be healthy on any level. This Cafe is in a casino on Reservation land, so smoking is in the entire building. For another celebration on a friend’s behalf, I’d deal with it.
In addition to this, I wish to express how annoying it is to go to a company website on Monday to request information and not hear a damn thing by the next Monday. (I am still waiting and my email stated I’d be going to dinner on 2/12. I’m even checking my spam folders, as I really want to know!) Frankly, that’s just disrespectful. I had submitted the form on the Hard Rock website specifically requesting information about the salad dressings as again, only the side salad that was on the menu looked like I could eat it. When I called Friday afternoon, the person who answered the phone at the cafe didn’t know what gluten free meant. This is usually my red flag to avoid the whole thing. However, they did say that I could bring my own salad dressing when I asked if that was an option since they said that none of their salad dressings were gluten free except for oil and vinegar. Some places have been known to be bears about that. However, since the staff had no clue what I was talking about and also didn’t make any offers to create an option for me, I am disappointed. The cost of an entree here is not cheap, nor is it reasonable for a side salad to be five dollars and contain boring iceberg lettuce.
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