Sila Restaurant & Takeaway- Has been rebranded to Verdura. Check us out — Restaurant in South Island

Dear Sila, and anyone with a gluten allergy/intolerance: I have coeliac disease. After seeing your meat on chips listed as gluten free on your Uber Eats site, I then rang your establishment to double check that they were indeed gluten (and dairy) free. Now, your customer service that night was great, and the food was delicious, and I appreciate that it can be difficult to keep track of what is and is not "gluten free"...

But you are a food establishment serving a product to customers and purporting it as gluten free. After a few days of stomach discomfort, I thought to check whether your chips are cooked in the same deep fryer as gluten-containing ingredients: they are. This is not a "cooked in the same kitchen" issue, which I understand, this is a "cooked right next to gluten" issue - those two things are VERY different.

Let me make it clear: that means that they are NOT gluten free, despite you claiming as such.

Your customers should not have to dig deep just to ensure that your food will not make them sick. As someone with a food allergy, experiences like this make it that much harder for me to trust anyone with my food.

Please change your labelling. Please ensure that your free from whatever food /really is/ free from whatever you are claiming it is, and if it isn't, please ensure your staff are aware of that. I wish you the best of luck. Your staff are lovely and I am sure that, with the correct education and website updates, you can improve. (And please note that, while I did already speak to a staff member about this problem, I believe that your customers have a right to know. A right I should have had.)

And to your customers and potential customers: you have been warned. Double check what you get. Other reviews that mention allergy-free options may only have seen these on the menu and not experienced what "gluten free" (or otherwise) means in...

I think the manager/owner of Verdura (Sila) struggles to understand that he lives in NZ, not the Middle East. We ordered a platter for five at $180 (can't remember the name of it), although the meat on a bed of rice was tasty and well cooked, it was quite ludicrously overpriced. There were only four of us and it was only just sufficient, with a small very simple two person salad, and no sauces and dips you would expect from Turkish. After taking our order, we had to get up and ask for a drinks menu. Then after waiting about ten minutes we had to again get up and give the drinks order and then they forgot one of the drinks. We then waited, and waited ... and waited. One hour later we got the meal. One plate of meat on rice and a small VERY simple salad. Being a typical NZ'er we don't like to complain but when paying the owner (?) manager gave no apology telling us that the menu was for middle eastern clients who like all meat and very little salad. He seems to have forgotten that approx 1.5 percent of NZ population is of Middle Eastern origin and I expect that is less in Dunedin. He needs to seriously understand NZ restaurant culture if he is to stay in business. We...

Yesterday I was denied service due to food allergies at Sila. It wasn’t that they didn’t have anything I could eat, it came down to them not wanting to take the hygiene precautions to keep me safe, or the liability if something happened.

In attendance with a big group of ~50 other guests, I went to talk to them at the start and was told to sit back down, when they came to take my order they then said they’ll come back to me as I was a ‘special case’, then later telling me I could not eat here.

Upon questioning them, no they will not cater for allergies nor those with Coeliac. Severe food allergies and Coeliac are considered to be a ‘disability’ and as such, not accomodating people with them is considered a form of discrimination. I have been sure to spread the word about this within the allergy community.

I have been to plenty of other restaurants in Dunedin with less options available given my allergies, but was still able to safely eat due to the care given by staff. Sila was not willing to make these accomodations for me. This also raises an issue of food hygiene if they can’t produce foods that are not contaminated by other foods. Very...