San Francisco restaurant closes and leaves angry note: "we don't give a f*** about gluten-free"

[MineralMan]

184. My favorite Chinese restaurant in St. Paul that is nearby

is a hole-in-the-wall place. The only person in there who speaks English is the woman at the counter. Orders are written (or shouted) in Mandarin. There are two cooks in the clearly visible kitchen. The kitchen has three monstrous woks sunken into open flames and a steamer. The food is excellent, but I would not even dream of ordering any alterations from their menu. That's especially true if I had a food-related condition.

In the first place, given the chaos in that kitchen, I'd consider it highly unlikely that my special order would be prepared correctly. In the second place, I have no idea whether they have gluten-free soy sauce in there, and I know for an absolute certainty that there is MSG in everything they make. It's on their menu. Several of their menu offerings include peanuts or cashews, and they don't thoroughly scour out their woks between dishes. They use one for brown sauce dishes, another for oil-only cooking, and the third gets used for miscellaneous dishes. The third one is the only one that is rinsed and wiped between dishes.

Finally, this place is almost 100% take-out. There are two tables, and I've never seen anyone eating at them. I call orders in and go there to pick them up, since delivery times are slow. So, I order, and then go there, since they seem to be able to have a take-out order ready within about 15 minutes, always. I watch the kitchen while I wait. It's entertaining. I doubt that anyone ever gets any special order prepared according to the order. The kitchen is utter chaos all the time. You'd be ordering at your own risk, I'd think.