Nut Allergy abroad- Binimar Apartments, Cala'n Forcat, Menorca

Going abroad with a nut allergy is always worrying. The language barrier is a major obstacle but also going into an unknown culture. For example, many European countries automatically bring a bowl of nuts to your table if you order drinks at a bar. I am therefore often anxious to try new places where I may be inadvertently placed in dangerous situations. Whilst someone without an allergy might think that this is easily dealt with by asking the waiter to remove the nuts, it is often hard to communicate this without appearing rude. The biggest issue however is that the bar man serving your drinks has probably also touched the nuts and this therefore creates a high risk of cross-contamination.

This year, I decided to try an all-inclusive holiday for the first time. This was a little worrying as I would be relying on the hotel for all my meals. I emailed the hotel we had booked (The Binimar in Menorca) a couple of weeks before the holiday and explained about my allergy. The hotel emailed back and suggested that I contacted the restaurant manager on arrival. This wasn't too reassuring but I knew I'd have to speak to the restaurant manager in any event so I left it at that.

We arrived at the hotel at lunchtime. Our room was ready so we headed there to dump our bags. Because the hotel offers self-catering, everyone gets an apartment equipped with a kitchen/living room, bathroom and separate bathroom. We were really pleased with the spacious apartment and the cleanliness of both the apartment and the rest of the resort. The air conditioning was also welcome after the journey to the hotel.

After dumping our bags in the room we headed to the restaurant. There was someone manning the counter on arrival asking for confirmation of room numbers. I therefore told him I had a nut allergy (and showed him the spanish translation we had checked on the internet before going away). His english wasn't too good but he told me it was "no problem" and asked me to wait while he went to speak to one of the chefs. A couple of minutes later he re-emerged with a chef. The restaurant was buffet-style so the chef and restaurant manager walked me along the buffet and pointed to each meal stating "yes" or "no". The manager explained in broken but understandable english that all fried products were made in the same frying oil and therefore as they were unsure about some of the selections (e.g. breaded chicken) they said I shouldn't eat chips or any other fried products either. This was very disappointing for my husband who was keen to eat the chips. The manager did however offer to cook us a separate plate of chips. This was a really nice touch and we gratefully accepted.

During the course of our stay, this procedure was repeated for every meal. The restaurant manager and other staff recognised us when we came in the restaurant and therefore we didn't have to remind them each time. As soon as they saw us they went to get the chef. Whilst there were some days where we had more options than others, there was always something we could eat. There were also occasions where they offered to cook us things separately and, if we asked for chips, we would always be provided with a separate plate. In this respect, our experience was therefore good. There were however a couple of negatives/room for improvement. For me, I found it embarrassing having to walk through the buffet options with the chef for every meal (especially in a busy restaurant) and the better thing for me would be if the food was labelled with allergens. There were labels identifying what the food was and allergen information could easily be added. That being said, I do appreciate that the chef took the time each meal to go through options and they certainly took a cautious approach when considering what I could eat. I had no problems at all with the food in the main restaurant.

I did, on a couple of occasions, sample the food in the snack bar which was a similar set up to the restaurant with buffet options available. We similarly informed the staff member of my allergy by using the translation. She said seemed a bit unsure and went to ask one of the chefs. She then proceeded to walk us through the buffet but appeared extremely unsure. She seemed to be assessing whether a meal was likely to have nuts in based on what it looked like. She advised me on 2 occasions that I could eat meals that, in the main restaurant, I was informed that we couldn't. I therefore had very little confidence in what she was telling me. I therefore opted for a safe option of a ham and cheese toastie and resolved that I would use the main restaurant for all my meals from then on.

Overall my experience at the Binimar was relatively good from a nut allergy perspective however there is room for improvement. I would therefore rate it 3.5 out of 5.