Cheeseburger Island Style - Wailea, Maui

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In Brief: A hamburger joint that met our GF needs without a hitch. They handled our special requests easily, the wait staff was well educated in the ways of the kitchen and the meal came off perfectly, and GF!

When my wife and I think of going to a burger joint we don't plan on her usually eating with me, the risks of cross contamination are too great. Cheeseburger Island Style was the exception to that rule. My wife decided that she wanted to try a getting a burger without a bun. So we started the meal off with the cileac diet explanation and dietary explanation card. Our waitress immediately understood the diet, and was quick to put us at ease. She explained how the grill was set up; how only burgers were cooked in one section of the grill, how the buns never touched the grill, how the meat with marinade was cooked on a separate part of the gill, etc., etc. It was clear after a few minutes with her that she knew her stuff.

To be safe she checked with the kitchen to make sure that the meal could include the toppings; things like lettuce, tomato, pickle, etc. without risk of cross contamination. She came back to tell us that the toppings would be safe and explained the compartmental style of the kitchen.

I was very impressed with this restaurant. The place was 'crazy busy' yet the wait staff handled our request with style and didn't make us feel like they were too busy to deal with a special diet.

Our experience here proves the point made in earlier blog posts; an educated wait staff and a professional kitchen can make any restaurant a great GF experience. We had no problem getting a GF meal at Cheeseburger Island Style, I hope you have the same experience.

Five Palms Beach Grill, Kihei, Maui

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In Brief: The Five Palms gave us a GF meal but it took a lot of work to pull it off. The wait staff made an effort to help us but if we hadn't stuck to our guns the meal may have not been a success. The bottom line is we had a GF meal but plan on putting in some time with the staff to make it so.



The sunset view from the Five Palms the night we visited was awesome. However that was the only part of our meal that came easily. Our waitress was pleasant and accommodating but clearly had in her mind that cileac was 'a food allergy', like the allergy her niece has to dust; translation: "yeah you'll sneeze some but you'll live through it". To her credit she took the GF card and disappeared into the kitchen to talk with the chef. She returned to tell us that anything but the bread and pasta would be safe for us to order and asked the telling question: "can you eat rice and mashed potatoes?". We explained that plain white or brown rice would be fine and inquired about the mashed potatoes; did they have a broth in them? She replied that she didn't think so but she'd check. Upon her return we were told that the mashed potatoes would be safe.



To play it safe my wife decided to order the Mahi-mahi, cooked with butter in a pan, and asked for white rice. This was similar to a meal on the menu except that Mahi-mahi came sauteed in a pan in a sauce and included mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. The waitress said that leaving off the sauce and skipping the mashed potatoes would be no problem. She returned to tell us that she had taken some time to explain the change to the chef and he replied with; "do you want to cook this meal?"



The meal arrived and one look told us that something had been lost in translation... the Mahi-mahi was covered with sauce, placed on top of mashed potatoes with roasted vegetables on the side; the garnish look suspiciously like deep fried tortilla strips. We asked the waitress what were the tortilla like items on the menu; she said "I don't know, is there a problem?" we replied that they looked like tortilla strips her reply: "I don't think they are; taste them and tell me what's in them..." my reply was "tasting them won't tell me what's in them..." can we have this meal like we ordered it? Mahi-mahi, cooked plain in a pan with white rice and no roasted vegetables? She agreed and took the meal away. She returned later to tell us that the deep fried garnish was made from potato... at this point we thanked her for the information and decided to skip asking her if it was a clean fryer or explain (again) cross contamination.



After a bit a new meal arrived complete with pan cooked Mahi-mahi, yellow rice pilaf and roasted vegetables. We decided at this point not to press our luck and ask again for plain white rice and no roasted vegetables and just eat the fish with a smile on our face. ;-)



This experience was a case-book example of how an experienced wait staff and cooperative chef/kitchen can make a huge difference towards a relaxing GF dining experience. Had our waitress listened to our explanation of cileac (no it's not like an allergy to dust...), had she been better informed as to garnish and sauce ingredients prior to our ordering and explained the kitchen's process for making both and lastly, since either of the above were to be, had the kitchen actually prepared what we ordered the first time around this would have easily been a relaxing experience.



It isn't too much to ask for an experienced and knowledgeable wait staff. If you've read through the blog you can tell that these types of individuals can go a long way to making your meal GF safe and relaxing. While the Five Palms Beach Grill did pull off a GF meal they really made us work for it.