Roy's on State

What is this place like.,.. haven't seen much about it on this site!!! It has been on Check Please.. but don't remember much about it !!

Team Brown

team brown wrote:What is this place like.,.. haven't seen much about it on this site!!! It has been on Check Please.. but don't remember much about it !!

Team Brown

Been there twice - quick take - very good seafood, hawaiian-themed, expensive; part of a national chain.

I've been to the Chicago location once. It's fun, but expensive enough that I wouldn't bother with it at this point* unless you are absolutely sure you will not be getting to the original locations in Hawaii any time soon. The flagship Roy's outside of Honolulu, and the one in Waikoloa on the Big Island, are really good and they have the full range of Island fish to work with. The chain that's spreading across the US (in partnership with Outback, I think) doesn't have as many of the signature dishes available. Also, the service at the Chicago one is perfectly good, but in Hawaii it is invariably stellar.

I don't think Roy's deserves the pooh-poohing it gets from some. The Pacific fusion type of cuisine Roy's represents has started to seem a bit tiresome but that's not Roy Yamaguchi's fault; his restaurant was original and appropriate to the area.

*Whether or not *you* would bother with it you can judge better by dropping by the place and looking at a menu. I think he still has a website at roysrestaurants.com.

i admit that the it is a bit expensive but note that diners can take advantage of a $30 price fixe for a 3 course meal....valid on any night.

Do a quick search on the NYTimes website for Bill Grimes' review of Roy's in the Marriot WFC from a few years ago. It was one of his first reviews - he was obviously out to establish his reputation - and he absolutely eviscerates poor Roy. I believe the final rating was Poor - well below the 4* system, and also the more pedestrian "good" and "mediocre." A great read. I went shortly thereafter to see the train wreck first-hand, and thought the food, although clownish, was pretty tasty.

Alas, I have never been to the Chicago version of the chain, so can't comment specifically. I have, however, walked by about 2-4 times for the last 2 years and must say they do very good business. Maybe it's time for a tasting, partnership with Outback notwithstanding (prolly just for supply distribution purposes, non?)

The Outback partnership is pretty extensive, and the non-HI spots are more Outback than Roy. I've been to the original "chain" Roy's in Tampa, which sits near the airport by several other prototype Outback ventures. Somewhat like LYE, the Outback product varies from concept to concept. Unlike LYE, they tend to pick up other's ideas for expansion (like Roy's). Roy's are certainly at the top end. (Along with Bonefish Grill, which I very much like -- fresh Gulf fish simply grilled over hardwoods. It works, but I'm not sure how it will travel beyond Tampa.)

I think the Roy's in Chicago is fine, though I've been only once. I must say that the decor and physical plant is much more impressive than the relatively modest HI originals. I did think the food was better in HI, to be expected since it was Roy cooking on his home turf. The NYT review was brutal, and I was convinced that the Roy's there must have started out pretty bad.

The Roy's decor is in keeping with what I've seen generally from chains that hit NYC and Chicago -- they try to rise to the competition by having more opulent digs in the big cities. Thus, our Cheesecake Factory is palatial compared to most. So too with Roy's. That doesn't make the food better, though.

Like a.f. oneill, I can only speak for the downtown location in Manhattan. Frankly, I found the food to be simple but really good on my couple of visits there. The flavors lean toward sweet. But they match nicely with the fish and pork dishes on the menu.

The three course lunch for $20 is a pretty good deal in that part of the world, too.

I've been only to the Roy's in Pebble Beach, twice for lunch. The food is generally good, but can be a inconsistent. The time we went with a slightly larger group (7 or 8 ), a few were disappointed with their choices, others raved. Frankly, given the scenery, it was easy to be forgiving. Don't know if I'd feel the same way about the Chicago version, but I wouldn't rule out giving it a try. I do agree that the lunch special is the way to go, given the generous prices.

Team Brown,

I been to Roy's in Boca Raton, which closed a year or two ago, and Roy's in Newport Beach, never the Chicago Roy's.

I am not a fan of Roy's. My two meals at the Boca Roy's were underwhelming, at upscale prices and my experience at the Newport Roy's was annoying.

Annoying as in it's my opinion that they put more effort into writing the menu (Purple-fin Ahi from the jagged coast of Milarkiki...) then preparing the actual meal.

Service was atrocious, chipper, but inattentive and uninformed, more on the line of Epcot then a, supposedly, upscale restaurant and the waiter interacted with us as if we were wearing snow mittens clipped to our sleeves.

Maybe I should go try the Chicago Roy's at $75 per person, minimum. Not.

Enjoy,
Gary

a.f.oneill wrote:Do a quick search on the NYTimes website for Bill Grimes' review of Roy's in the Marriot WFC from a few years ago. It was one of his first reviews - he was obviously out to establish his reputation - and he absolutely eviscerates poor Roy. I believe the final rating was Poor - well below the 4* system, and also the more pedestrian "good" and "mediocre." A great read. I went shortly thereafter to see the train wreck first-hand, and thought the food, although clownish, was pretty tasty.

Thanks for mentioning that review! I had missed it. Surprisingly to me, it came up in its entirety when I searched grimes+roy's. I thought only book, movie and music reviews remained in the free archives.

It really is true about the sweetness of that cuisine. I find the amount of sweet food and food with fruit on it that you get in restaurants very irritating. One of my suburban bistros is good enough that I go once in a while, but the number menu items with fruit in them is just bizarre, and I see that a lot.

G Wiv wrote:...and the waiter interacted with us as if we were wearing snow mittens clipped to our sleeves...

Hey, don't make fun of people like me!

A

G Wiv wrote:(Purple-fin Ahi from the jagged coast of Milarkiki...)

Ha!!! Milarkiki!!! Is that the same point of origin of the fish at all the trendoid sushi bars?

vegmojo

we have guests in town and we are all going to roy's tomorrow night for dinner. we're taking the baby (8 months) so we're going very early. roy's is one of the few nicer restaurants that i don't feel bad bringing a baby to, since they have a kid's menu and encourage 'younger diners'.

i used to work there, and the chef, tom hope, is a friend of mine. i'll report back and let you guys know how our meal was.

reporting back from our dinner at roy's.

we arrived on time and, despite the fact that we'd made a reservation, informing them that we'd be five plus a highchair, they didn't have the table ready and seemed surprised that we needed a highchair. and this was after they'd even confirmed the reservation this afternoon.

so it took about 10 minutes to go from the front door to our table about 15 feet away. in an empty restaurant. with three hostesses.

but, despite this somewhat annoying start, everything that followed was excellent. i stopped by the kitchen and said hi to the chef and some of the other cooks who i worked with, showed off my 8 month old son a bit, and then sat down.

while we were looking at the menu and having drinks, we were given three small appetizers by the chef. these were the blackened ahi tuna appetizer, a portobello mushroom and goat cheese ravioli, and the always-great lobster dim sum with white truffle emulsion.

i was drinking roy's label oregon pinot noir. usually, i find it kind of cheesy when restaurants have their own labels placed on wine bottles, but when working there, i tasted most of the roy's label wines and found them to be very good quality, very good values, and wines that paired very well with the asian-fusiony flavors of this food.

the appetizers were all tasty and it was nice to impress our guests by getting such special treatment.

my wife and i almost always order the same things when we go to roy's and tonight was no exception. we both ordered the mongolian glazed ribs for an appetizer and the ahi tuna entree rare, pu-pu style.

i have trouble ordering anything else, because these two dishes are so amazingly good. the ribs are so incredbly smokey. they smoke them for two cycles of six hours each. they are falling off the bone tender, very meaty st. louis ribs, and glazed with a sweet and spicy mongolian bbq sauce. i'd rather eat these ribs than some i've had at better bbq places in the city. seriously. they are that good.

and, roy's is all about the high-end service, so they, of course, furnish you with an ochiburi (hot hand towel) after you're done with your ribs, so you can clean your fingers.

our family members had appetizers of pumpkin soup with a pancetta-wrapped prawn which was poured tableside into a ridiculously huge bowl. i tasted the soup and it was sweet, tasting of roasted pumpkin and autumn spices, and very warm and comforting. also very rich and creamy. we also sampled a squash ravioli that came with brown butter and a maple syrup cream. tasty, but a bit sweet for my taste. my wife commented that it tasted like dessert. another appetizer was deep-fried lobster wontons, which were, i thought, pretty dry and the filling was a bit hard and seemed overcooked.

for entrees, my wife and i almost always order the ahi tuna entree. they use perfect #1 ahi there, and they blow through 30-40 pounds a day, so it's always fresh. they only use the pure loin for the entrees and apps, utlizing the chain and trimmings for the poke (tartare-like appetizer) so you always get a piece of tuna that is pure red, sinew-free, and meltingly tender. this was no exception. they serve this entree simply, with alternating dollops of beurre blanc and chinese hot mustard sauces on the plate, and it's this combo that i think makes this dish so amazingly good. the butter sauce really plays off the heat and pungency of the chinese mustard sauce, which works much like wasabi heat, and the two sauces both work in harmony with the rich meaty nearly-raw tuna. we ask for it pu-pu style, which just means sliced, so that the well-trained cooks slice the tuna against the grain, resulting in perfect, impossibly tender pieces.

our companions had a pecan-crusted sole dish, which came with a risotto with vegetables, the roy's classic misoyaki butterfish, which is black cod or sable that's marinated in brown sugar and brown miso and then cooked slowly so that the marinade caramelizes. the fish becomes meltingly tender and rich tasting. this is another of my favorites. the other entree was a fish called walu, which i hadn't heard of. similar to swordfish in meatiness, but milder and whiter. this fish was very tasty and fresh and was served with what appeared to be a soba-noodle stir-fry kind of thing.

for dessert, we had the chocolate souffle, which is the obligatory liquid-center chocolate cake, but this is really one of the best versions of this that i've had. they use valrhona chocolate and serve it simply with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. we also had a banana bread pudding that was served with a walnut ice cream and a caramel sauce.

i also indulged in an after-dinner drink that i very much enjoyed called 'the nutty monk' which was espresso, steamed milk, bailey's and frangelico. very rich and heady.

so that was our experience at roy's, a place that i find to have some of the consistently best seafood in town. the chef, tom hope, has a great touch with sauces and is coming up on more than 10 years experience working in roy's kitchens. he knows his way around this exotic fusion of asian ingredients, hawaiian fish, and french sauces and techniques.

highly recommened!

Thanks for the very detailed review.

thanks for everyone's review. I am checking this place out for my birthday in a few weeks since I've been having hawaii withdrawals since my last visit about a year ago. hopefully the dinner will not disappoint!

I hope you enjoy your birthday dinner there...I grew up in Hawaii, and while I've never been to the original Roy's, I've been to the Chicago location and my husband and I had a really good time. Definitely the best item is the miso butterfish, which is the best miso butterfish I've ever had. It's so succulent and the flavors are very well-balanced. We also enjoyed that molten chocolate cake and the lilikoi creme brulee, which was really nice and tart. It's making my mouth water!

I think that the fish in misoyaki butterfish is sablefish (aka Atlantic black cod), which, as Jay K points out, looks nothing like actual butterfish. When ordering misoyaki, miso, or nitsuke butterfish, you will always get sablefish--"butterfish" is probably a generically descriptive term (taste/texture). As such, this isn't exactly like the dover sole fib, or anything like that.

In Hawaii, "butterfish" is one of the few local favorites that you probably won't ever see fresh. This isn't really a problem considering how well the stuff takes to freezing, and it means you don't have to fly to Hawaii to enjoy the dish as it was intended--an overpriced slab of frozen fish It sure is tasty, though!

Last April, a large group of us went to Roy's. Except for me, everyone had celiac disease - meaning that they can't eat the protein gluten (in wheat, barley and rye). The hostess spent weeks working with them to create a fabulous meal - salad, appetizer, entree, dessert. Most of it included items already on the menu that were inherently gluten-free and a couple of items tweaked to make them GF. To make a long story short, they made a mistake and put the blue cheese on our salads instead of goat cheese - some blue cheese is started on bread - making it a no-no for celiacs. Everyone, but one, had eaten said salad before this was determined. The diners assumed it was supposed to be there and was safe to eat; the hostess knew it was supposed to be goat cheese, but doesn't like either cheese so wasn't sure. But, she checked as she thought she saw the veininess of blue. There were several very unhappy people at our table, but Roy's did a great job. They researched the cheese and found out that it was one of the few companies that makes a gluten-free blue cheese. And, even though none of us were harmed (except by the hour of torture, thinking they'd all get sick), they gave us each a certificate to come back.

Fast forward: tonight

We decided to finally use our Roy's certificates. We liked the food when we went, but it never seemed to work out to go. Since we decided to see an 8 PM movie at the AMC, tonight seemed a good night to use the certificates at an early dinner.

We called ahead and made an early reservation, though it was probably not needed. DH informed them that he would need to speak to a manager or chef, as he was needed a gluten free meal. No problem.

We arrived at 6 PM with one other couple in front of us, and an empty dining room. The greeter informed us that the hostess would be back in a moment, seat the other couple, then us. A table of four came in. A table of seven came in. Another couple came in. Still no hostess. I didn't time it, but we waited at minimum of five minutes to be seated, when there was literally an empty restaurant.

The server was informed of the need for gluten-free food and the desire to see the chef or the manager. Not a problem, she said, she could take care of it. Well, since we'd been there before and they purportedly have a comfort level handling meals for special diets, we went with it. DH pulled out his trusty wallet card that explains the bare basics of what he can't have, gave it to her, along with his preferred order - a trio that included butterfish on black rice, salmon on a veggie sushi roll, and tuna on jasmine rice. Each was accompanied by a sauce.

She came back and said that there would be several subsitutions as most of the sauces and the black rice had inappropriate ingredients (soy sauce, most probably). Even the baby bok choy would be steamed instead of cooked the way it normally was. DH said fine, as long as the chef would please try to find (or quickly make) a sauce to go with the fish, even if it wasn't what normally did, so the dishes would not be bland.

I ordered the same meal, but without restrictions. The presentation was very nice. All of it looked lovely and I wished I'd had my camera, as I thought immediately of my responsibilities as a new LTH member. I ate a bite of the salmon first. It was very nice - soft but not flabby, cooked perfectly. I moved the salmon to look at my sushi roll underneath. Odd, I thought, what was that coating on the outside of the roll? Hmmm, looked strangely like. . . .gluten of some sort. I asked DH to look at his. Yep. Same thing.

We caught the server's attention and asked her what is was. Oh, Japanese panko breading, she said. Was that a problem? Uh, yes!!!!! The first thing on the wallet card is that he can't have WHEAT. What would bread crumbs come from? You guessed it! Wheat bread! I am always amazed at what people think bread is if not wheat, but that is another post entirely.

So second time at Roy's, both times a mistake. Now, we're lucky. Even if he had eaten it, it isn't like an allergy. He wouldn't have had to pull out an epi pen and head to the emergency room. But, he would have felt badly a day or so later, and most importantly, without going into detail about how celiac works, at minimum this would have caused physical damage to his gut that takes 8 weeks to heal.

The food was very good, as it was last time. The butterfish was excellent. DH does not like most white-fleshed fish, preferring stronger fish like mackeral, salmon, tuna, etc. He loved this - he ate it first because it appeared safe and the salmon clearly was not. His first bite caused him to make some surprised verbalization followed by, "It just melted in my mouth!" All of the food, from presentation to preparation to flavor melding, was very good.

They ended up comping his meal, so we only needed to use one of our two certificates for a zero sum bill. I'm not sure how quickly we will go back to use this last certificate, however. Then again, maybe we should go and hope for another mistake that is caught before he eats it and we'll end up, after using the certificate, with another completely free dinner (sans tip and beverage).

The restaurant seemed like they did actually try to accomodate you guys on many different levels numerous times - to be sure - your dietary request is not rare but it is unusual. And also, you seem to take advantage of this so called allergy...

Waiting 5 minutes for a table in Chicago, especailly when they are trying to locate a manager/Chef to ask questions about a specific requirement is also not unusual. I think the restaurant handled everything fairly to exceptionally well. The gift certificates were also a nice touch, even considereing the minisucule cheese mistake - and you thought so, by coming back.

I don't recall saying that they didn't try to accomodate us, but could have misunderstood what you were saying. I agree that they did. However, trying and failing is not necessarily enough sometimes. I'm not sure that is the case here, but in some cases it is.

I am perplexed by your saying we are trying to take advantage of this "so-called allergy." Please elaborate how you feel we have done that.

My writing must not have been clear. They were not waiting to locate anyone to talk to us prior to seating us. The hostess just simply was not there. Period. She wasn't seating anyone. This was not a busy period. We didn't ask for the chef or manager until seated, when the server said we didn't need to do so, as she could take care of it.

I agree that they did not need to provide the gift certificates for the first mistake. None of us were unhappy once we found out the cheese was safe. In fact, everyone was relieved and happy they went to such lengths for us. I should have said that in the original post if it was not clear. The cheese problem was not miniscule, in my mind, however. The specially created menu clearly said it would be goat cheese. It was not. Now, there were no horrid consequences, but what if the menu said almonds and you got peanuts and you were allergic to them? Would it be miniscule? What if the menu said the dish didn't have sugar, but it did and you were diabetic? Nope, you wouldn't die, but ti clearly wouldn't be good for you.

The bottom line, to me, is that there was a communication error on two occasions. On both occasions the servers and/or party coordinator asked the kitchen to do something that they did not do. We expect that people in kitchens, especially when paying well for it, will provide us with what they said they would. When you have some special request that involves your health, you are asking a lot from a kitchen. If they do not feel they can accomodate that, they shouldn't offer. We have attempted to eat at many places that do not. Their choice and I respect them for being honest enough to say they can't. But, Roy's went out of their way to solicit our business and to encourage us by saying implicitly and explicitly that they would meet out needs.

ViewsAskew, your post causes a genuine curiosity in me about how often you're able to go out to restaurants and be completely accommodated. It must be very difficult for you to find places that will do this to the level your condition requires. I'm trying to imagine a place working harder than Roy's did to come through for you. I understand that they didn't succeed 100%, and I also understand that this is not a trivial matter if you have celiac disease, but given the lengths they did go to, it's hard for me to imagine many restaurants working harder or succeeding better. Are you able to go out to restaurants often, and if so, did you find Roy's near the top of your list in terms of accommodation, near the bottom, or somewhere in between?

I agree with the OP's point. Don't say you can do something and then don't do it. Just say you can't do it. It's not like a restaurant needs to grub for every person's business, and people completely understand that a special diet can be hard to accommodate.

But if it is just one ingredient, something that you can probably find out if it's in a dish, that shouldn't be too hard to do. So they can pick another dish, or just leave off the sauce, or take potatoes instead of pasta.

And frankly, saying "I have celiac disease" is probably too hard for the average busy wait person to deal with. Everyone can understand "wheat allergy" and whether it's a problem that will cause you to have a terrible reaction today or tomorrow really doesn't matter. Both an allergy and celiac are inappropriate immune responses.

Read up on celiac. It's NOT a fun thing, it's NOT an option, it's NOT a whim. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/celiac ... DSECTION=1

Yes, there are people out there who don't like something and say they are allergic. That's wrong, and makes it harder for those people who truly do become ill from ingesting something.

(disclaimer - I am allergic to mushrooms, so I also have something at stake whenever I ask wait staff to check ingredients)

Riddlemay, I'd say Roy's came out at the top in terms of saying they will work at it, in the middle in terms of trying, and in the lower middle to bottom in terms of meeting.

Now, let me preface this with the statement that the more you pay, the better luck you have when it comes to allergies and accommodations. However, El Presidente hasn't screwed us yet. That said, we do order the same dish every time, and each time we verify that nothing has changed. However, we don't go there so frequently that they remember us.

So, when we went to onesixty blue for our his birthday, all it took was a phone call ahead of time. The wonderful staff created a menu for DH - exactly like ours, except with what he could have. They were able to serve him almost everything on the menu, because they make it fresh and not much can't be changed at the time of ordering.

And, when we go to something a little less expensive that prepares ahead of time or uses pre-packaged ingredients, it gets a little trickier. Chains are almost completely out.

As a general rule, here's what happens when we go out. Before we even go out, we choose restaurants and cuisines that are likely to have items we can eat. For example, we choose Thai or Vietnamese over Japanese because there are more rice noodles and rice products. We don't go to pasta places or where the food is fried. We choose Indian frequently or sushi.

First, we often call ahead and ask how they want us to handle this. They usually say to just come in, or not to bother. Sometimes they request we come at a specific time, and we do. We also assess how well they speak English at this time and sometimes ask if anyone would be able to understand us well enough to understand it. Language barrier is the worst to overcome.

Then, we get there and he explains to EVERY person he comes in contact that he has a condition and will need to speak to a manager or chef to determine what he can safely eat. This is where he goes back and forth over whether to use the word allergy or not. It's not an allergy, but that makes people pay more attention. On the other hand, this may terrify them so they won't serve us anything except lettuce with vinegar on top and a glass of water.

When the server arrives, he reiterates this. This is where you don't know what will happen. Some servers tell you that they can take care of it. Others immediately get the manager or chef or owner. Usually, he pushes it if the server says he/she can take care of it, because as leek said, this isn't a joke. It is serious. And, as leek said, it is complicated, so we have concerns that most servers will not completely understand. In Roy's case the server said she could handle it. On our prior visit they told us they serve celiacs EVERY week as they have some regulars who are celiac, when we called they said to talk to the server and it would be OK, we'd been there before and they seemed to 'get" it, so we had to assume they knew what to do.

DH then gives the appropriate person his fact card - it explains the basics of CD and what he cannot have. We actually have cards written in several languages (you can order them), but since we can't read them, we're not sure if they are specific enough. The one in English is one that we created and laminated. He gives additional information as needed, asks specific questions about the dish, offers to read labels, chooses dishes that are likely to work OK (he doesn't choose battered dishes, ones with pasta, etc.), and asks the chef/manager/owner what is likely to work or be a problem. This is the time where we usually tell if they "get" it or not. When they don't, we usually leave (when on vacation, this can get tricky - we usually research restaurants before going anywhere).

When restaurants say they can accommodate us, and go through the effort to do so, we don't usually have problems. I just asked DH and he said, maybe 1 in 20 makes a mistake. As I sit here, I can only remember a few - the ones at Roy's, a breakfast mishap with toast on top of the omelette (the server thought maybe I'd want it, so she gave it to him anyway), a problem at our regular Chinese place, some sushi that had tempura flakes in it.

Many restaurants do have procedures in place - for example, we've never had a problem at any of the Lettuce restaurants. They really "get" all allergies and have a process in place. Maggianos (not our favorite place, but. . .) actually carries gluten free pasta. We deliberately went to the one on Clark (or around there somewhere) when we heard this. A chef came out, discussed what he liked, and made up a dish not even on the menu that used GF pasta (and it was better than anything I've ever had on their menu). This isn't all that surprising as celiac disease affects 1 in 150 people in the US, at one point up to 10% of the US was doing Atkins, and there are other people with wheat allergy or intolerance.

So, for Roy's to make a mistake twice on two visits when they have told us that they can and do accommodate celiacs on a regular basis, is definitely an anomaly. It's also an anomaly in terms of price. I can't think of one occasion where he's gotten obvious gluten in a place that averages $20 or higher per entrée. Usually at that level, it's not an issue at all.

I'd just like to know how many places WOULDN'T screw up such specific and extensive restrictions. 1-20??? That seems a bit low if you ask me. If you're at the point of taking out a card listing everything that is a no-go and have to speak to the chef specifically, I'd think you're looking at a 50/50 shot as to whether there is a mistake or not.

As for Roy's, I happen to love the place and have had some very good meals there. I know there are some that don't like "chains" but if you throw out this bias and just judge Roy's on their food, I think they stack up with some of the better spots in town.

I'm happy to say that is not our experience, nor the experience of hundreds of other with celiac disease. RD, You asked how many wouldn't screw up - well, we eat out two to five times a month. In the last six years, not once have any of the Lettuce chains screwed up. Once, in about four years, has PS Bankok goofed. Tre Kronor? Never. Nookies? Never. Any restaurant with an average entree price of over $20? Never. The list goes on. Since he actually gets sick when he eats gluten, I can safely say we'd know if they screwed up, so it doesn't cover an obvious mistake such as breading on the outside of the sushi roll.

You also mentioned "such specific and extensive". Well, specific is good, isn't it? It's pretty easy if you are not a chain for the kitchen staff to know what they put in their food. All they have to do - and this is what the best ones do - is say, "Oh, you wanted the tuna. It has salt, peppercorns, and is seared in X oil. We serve a wasabi sauce with it, but we don't make it here. I'd suggest you have it without the sauce."

We do our job as well. We choose restaurants that are likely to work within these parameters. We choose food that is likely to work for us. Nothing breaded. Nothing that says anything about teriyaki (soy sauce has wheat). A steak or grilled fish instead of something in a sauce or gravy. Etc. Maybe this is why our success rate is high. It would be stupid to go to, say, a crepe place and expect a good experience. So, if we do a good job on our end, this isn't rocket science, it's about accurately listing the ingredients in their food and stating honestly if they can (and are willing) to handle the sitation. Again, as stated by myself and another person, if it's hard or you can't do it, just say so. And, if you say you can, do the best you can to ensure it's OK. Which is where Roy's seems to have fallen down. Their damage control was as excellent as their food. But the mistakes were ones that were pretty easily avoidable with better commincation - with us and between their staff.