Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill

I know… a fast food post!  Here!  But I had to. No, really.

A couple of days ago, Jon and I drove down the mountain to drop off the jeep to get fixed, and take care of some errands.  In the middle of what turned into 5 hours of running around, we both got hungry and decided to stop at a Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill for a bite to eat as there was no other really good choice that would suit us both.

Being that I have begun to be super hyper-vigilant about keeping any trace of gluten out of my diet at any cost, eating out has become challenging at best.  In a place like this, I can’t have the rice, the tortillas, even the corn tortillas as they will sometimes have gluten in them, the sauces usually are laden in MSG as most fast food is, and, as you can imagine, ordering can be a pain.  But I was starving so, in I went and began looking at the menu, which by the way is really really good! I hadn’t really ever been in a Rubio’s, so this was all new to me.

As I studied the menu, taking quite a long time, I began to ask the girl behind the counter questions.  There was a sauce that sounded good, but I wanted to know the ingredients.  She didn’t know and turned to ask the manager, who listed them for me, but he didn’t know what the white sauce base was made of.  So I told him not to worry, that I would get something else, as often times there was flour or gluten in mysterious white sauces, so I would get something else.

I managed to order something and while I was getting my drink, the manager came out and handed me the label with the listed ingredients from the sauce, which was so nice.  As I read over it, he asked me again what it was that I was allergic to, and I said it was wheat/gluten.  Handing the list back to him, I thanked him and then went out to the patio to sit with Jon.  As we ate, the manager came out again and handed me a 2 page allergen chart!   How cool is that?

The chart listed every single item on their menu and if it contained milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy or wheat.  I was so surprised to see such a list and impressed as well.  I haven’t really been to a fast food place in quite a while so even the idea of asking for something like this would have never crossed my mind, but having it handy and able to use it while looking at a menu that can potentially render me sick for a week was like a revelation! Big kudos to Rubio’s! This alone makes me want to go back.

Oh ya… and the food was delicious!