Warning - horrendous experience at Dishoom re: peanut & tree nut allergy
Dishoom was a (admittedly touristy) favorite of mine. Until I visited with a friend with a severe peanut & tree nut allergy last week.
TL;DR - Dishoom couldn't provide ANY information about what 'may contain peanuts/tree nuts' meant to help him assess the risk, and went from telling us "he can only eat naan and rice because we cannot risk his life" to telling us "there's no need for you to leave, he will be just fine with anything on the menu here." Our friend said it was the most confusing handling of his allergy at any restaurant he's been to in almost 20 years.
Full rendition:
I was at Dishoom a few weeks prior, so I asked a manager about their ability to accommodate a severe peanut & tree nut allergy. He asked if cross contamination was OK. I said no. He said "no worries, we have people with peanut & tree nut allergies here all the time and we take it really seriously!"
That is pretty similar to what we hear at most restaurants, if not more positive than usual.
Then we go to Dishoom... they asked when we started our ~30min wait if anyone had allergies. We noted his. They said no problem.
We pretty quickly were moved from a line outside to an area near the bar and got our first red flag—they wouldn't make him the 'Dishoom Spicy Margarita' because of a risk of cross contamination. My friend asked if they used nut products in any other drinks, if they prepped nuts on the line, etc. to try to get more information about the risk. They were not able to confirm or deny any information at all. He then asked if they could make the drink in a clean shaker and they denied.
At this point, we assumed that we were just having trouble communicating in a loud bar, and there must be some nuts or nut-based drinks pretty prevalent behind the bar.
But then we got seated, and the server showed us the menu that was safe for him to eat from, filtering out 'may contain' items due to his severe allergy. The items remaining were literally just Naan, Roti, and rice. We pointed out that it was only bread and rice, to which she said "of course, we cannot risk his LIFE, so he can only eat bread and rice" and proceeded to give the rest of her menu spiel.
Side note... this limited menu would be completely fine, if it had been mentioned when I asked a manager a few weeks prior, and when we got into the queue and said he had a severe allergy. The fact we were just being told, after sitting down, was completely ludicrous.
We tried to ask more questions when she came back, but she was really quick to cut us off and return to their talking points: they cannot guarantee any other menu items are safe because they don't know if the ingredient supplier or prep kitchens have cross contamination.
He tried to ask questions about if the suppliers and prep kitchens just have nuts in the facility or if they are definitely prepared on the same line without cleaning in-between, if he could see the allergen list on ingredients, if we could speak to a chef. They wouldn't answer any of it, and just said the same talking points that they cannot guarantee anything is safe.
We then said we were going to leave, and she acted shocked. She said she doesn't think that's necessary, sees no reason for us to leave, and felt strongly that he would be just fine with any menu item there.
She offered to bring a manager over before we left. The manager had the exact same talking points and said they have people with allergies get up and leave all the time.
At this point, the damage was done—particularly after extreme flip/flop in the server's words and demeanor regarding how safe it was for him to eat there.