The Thirsty Turtle
by: Alexandra Porio
Address: 186 Columbia Turnpike, Florham Park, NJ 07932
Phone Number: (973) 845-6300
Website: http://www.thirstyturtle.com/
Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 10:30 A.M. - 9:00 P.M.
Friday & Saturday: 11:30 A.M. - 10:00 P.M.
Sunday: 12:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
Every time my family and I go out to eat, our first option is The Thirsty Turtle in Florham Park, New Jersey.
Since we first discovered this restaurant a long time ago, it was appealing to us because of its friendly atmosphere, delicious food, and most importantly its ability to always provide versatile and safe options for people with allergies.
I have Celiac Disease, which means I can’t eat any gluten (wheat, barley and rye) and have to completely avoid cross-contamination.
Every time I eat at the Thirsty Turtle, I am served with a delicious and safe gluten free meal, which is why I am so excited to write a review on this restaurant.
I met with Chef Jim Beers at The Thirsty Turtle to ask him about how the restaurant is able to handle allergies so well. I learned that at The Thirsty Turtle, foods made for customers with allergies are separated from the rest of the food in the kitchen to minimize the risk of cross-contamination. The Thirsty Turtle has a separate gluten free menu, and Chef Beers is accommodating to many different allergies as well.
French fries are fried in vegetable oil, so as long as products containing your allergen are not fried in the same fryer, french fries and other fried foods are safe for many people with allergies at The Thirsty Turtle. Also, the Thirsty Turtle has a separate gluten free fryer where french fries, tortilla chips, and buffalo wings are fried. Most restaurants do not have gluten free fryers, which is another reason why I love The Thirsty Turtle and it’s such a great restaurant for people with allergies (especially gluten/wheat).
The Thirsty Turtle also provides substitutes for certain products, which include milk substitutes and gluten free buns.
If you are going to the Thirsty Turtle for the first time, Chef Beers recommends that you call ahead and ask about specific allergies in advance, as it may be more difficult for the staff to check certain products on a crowded day.
However, if you are ever struggling to find a safe item on the menu, the Thirsty Turtle will always have simple options that are safe for you, including chicken cooked on tinfoil so that it doesn’t touch the grill and risk cross contamination.
Every time I have gone to the Thirsty Turtle, I have had a great experience and have been able to eat safely. I am always so happy to be able to have a full meal with gluten free chips and guacamole, a cheeseburger with a gluten free bun, and french fries, and I’m sure the results would be similar for anyone with an allergy.
The staff at The Thirsty Turtle is extremely accommodating and friendly and I never have to worry about my food not being safe. I highly recommend this restaurant for its delicious food and ability to accommodate so many allergens.
My Favorite Foods:
Gluten Free Menu:
Regular Menu:
Interview with Chef:
What steps do you take to accommodate people with food allergies?
Everything is separated. The biggest thing is the communication from the guests to tell us exactly what their allergy is.
Part of the problem nowadays is you have people that say they have an allergy to stuff. We jump through hoops, find out all the ingredients, everything else, and then we come back and say, “Oh, I'm sorry you can't have that because it has tomato paste in it or something.” “Oh, it's fine, I just don't like it.” You know what I mean? That causes a problem there.
The most common allergies we tend to isolate, i.e., tree nuts, peanuts, that type of deal, we just put in a gluten free fat fryer, so we can now do French fries and other things in there. Before that, we were baking them separately.
The biggest ones are the gluten-free, which we have a full menu and update it and stuff like that, so we just go out of the way to make sure that we use clean utensils and stuff like that for those menu items.
What foods on the menu are safe for people who are allergic to milk, eggs, wheat, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, and sesame seeds?
We have too large of a menu for me to go through that. For people that have extensive allergies, I have a gluten-free menu, so that is your wheat. Now, for dairy, it is a walkthrough. item by item. Meaning, what are you looking at eating? And then we check on those items.
It is always best to check on them ahead of time or not on a Friday and Saturday night. Sometimes on Friday and Saturday night, the answer is, “Sorry folks, I can't check on that right now. That's going to take me four or five minutes to check out every single ingredient. And it’s not fair to the rest of the guests in the building for me to do that.”
However, people that have these allergies to soy, sesame seeds, etc., you have to do your homework ahead of time to make sure they're safe.
Prime example, I had a family last night that the child was, we were told, allergic to sesame seeds. Martin's Potato Rolls. Even though there are no sesame seeds in the actual product that you can clearly see, it is listed as an ingredient there.
They put it on there because they want to make sure that they don't get sued or what have you because there are sesame seeds in their factory. They say “may contain or contain sesame seeds” because they just want to make sure. The guests said, “Don't worry, we're going to eat it anyway.” That's fine. That's up to them. That's their choice, you know what I mean?
We buy substitutes, like a milk substitute for this or that, but really with any allergy, you have to go item by item.
If you have a very big item, a very large and broad list of allergies, it is best to go on the safe side and go bland. And if that means we cook chicken on aluminum foil in the oven, so be it instead of on the grill.
Have you been to The Thirsty Turtle? Planning to go? Feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comment section and/or ask questions about the restaurant, and we will try our best to answer!
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