Essentially, what I had at The Custom House in Barnstaple was a delicious burger with chips (my first since being diagnosed), a meal that I could actually eat without being ill afterwards and a meal I enjoyed out with my friends. All in all, a very pleasant evening which certainly mustn't go unnoticed.
However, due to a slight mix-up with my food order with another lady's in our party, I ended up being given the wrong topping for my burger, the consequences of which, looking back now, could have potentially been serious for me as a Coeliac.
I really don't want to make this post sound negative because I did really enjoy my time at The Custom House. It's a lovely restaurant offering British and American cuisine "with a twist". Their specialty of course, is the burger. What's great about this place is you can pretty much tailor make your burger to suit you, depending on how you like it. The decision starts with what type of meat you want for your burger, then you pick the bun (hooray for the gluten-free bun!), followed by salad, cheese, a topping and then finally you pick a sauce. It kind of reminded me of going to Subway - lots of decisions to be made! And many, many different combo's. Apparently there are 544320 combinations? Wow!
It was refreshing to see a gluten-free bun option on the menu and the chips I was informed are gluten-free also.
So, what happened?
As always, I made sure I spoke with the waiting staff to let them know that I was Coeliac and they were very pleasant and friendly, going through the menu and explaining what I could have. They also made a point of alerting the chef to my dietary requirements to ensure there was no contamination in the kitchen.
Unfortunately when our burgers arrived it soon came to my attention that the kitchen staff had got my topping mixed up with someone else's - I had been given mushrooms and she had my bacon. Now there was no real harm in this and thankfully I hadn't taken a bite out of the burger - a simple human error which was quickly rectified by them very kindly offering to cook me some bacon to put on the side. But this then got me thinking... What would have happened if they had accidentally got the buns mixed up and I had been given a regular bun? Or I had been given a topping that had not been prepared correctly or had been cooked with other gluten-containing ingredients? What if I hadn't noticed before and had simply started tucking in? You may be able to see where I'm going with this. I do need to stress here that none of this happened and it was just the bacon and mushrooms that got mixed up.
Despite this, I did think the staff here were really clued up on gluten-free cooking and they did seem very accommodating to a Coeliac's needs. It's just a shame this little mishap came about but thankfully no harm was done and I still enjoyed my first gluten-free burger. Please please please don't let this put you off trying the Custom House, mistakes can and sometimes do happen, particularly if a restaurant is busy and there are a lot of food orders to prepare, not to mention the hundreds of different combinations of burger. Maybe just double check before your food comes out that they have got what you ordered right, that's all I'm saying.
And what about dessert?
Well, I would highly recommend their bubblegum (yes, bubblegum!) ice cream which I absolutely loved and was a great end to a fantastic meal. I'm now on the hunt for more.
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