Guy Fieri’s Branson Kitchen + Bar (With Food Allergies)

On a family trip to Branson, Missouri in March of 2025, we spent a lovely morning at the Branson Landing. The Landing is an outdoor mall with many shopping and dining options. We had anticipated returning to our rental home for lunch, but I had packed my son a shelf-stable meal of a tuna pouch, mayo, and crackers just in case we stayed later. After checking out the safe offerings at Mellow Mushroom (see my review), my kiddo decided he would prefer to eat the sack lunch I packed him and join us at a new restaurant. My entire family has loved watching Guy Fieri’s shows on Food Network for YEARS, so I knew a trip to Guy’s Branson Kitchen and Bar would be well received by everyone, regardless of if they could serve my son. I had his own safe food with me, after all.

Prior to this day, I had never once just shown up at a restaurant to see if they could serve my kiddo. Literally…NEVER. This was HUGE for me in feeling confident in managing my kiddo’s allergies, as well as knowing when to walk away. This has been a skill that has been a LONG time coming, but also made much harder due to the nature of mustard allergies. They are just plain hard in the US due to lack of labeling laws for mustard. My confidence was bolstered, though, by knowing that I had a backup meal with us. 

Upon arrival, I asked who I could speak to about allergies at the hostess stand. I was informed that the hostess was not allowed to talk about allergies, but the head chef would have to come speak with me. I LOVE a well informed staff! I had a lovely talk with the head chef and went over our complex allergy list (unbaked milk, peanut, sesame, mustard, and chestnuts). I discussed with him the foods my kiddo typically likes to eat out and he then went to check on a few things in the kitchen. 

The head chef was on point. He knew his menu and understood allergies, the risk of shared fryers, and cross contact. He made me feel VERY comfortable! At Guy’s Kitchen and Bar, they make their food to order and almost everything was made from scratch. It was a fantastic experience from an allergy-awareness standpoint. At the same time, just because a restaurant and chef is allergy-aware, does not mean that they can make my kiddo a meal he loves, either. The desserts all had a potential for cross contact concerns with peanut/treen nuts as those items were not made in house. Sesame flour was an ingredient in the hamburger buns, and mustard was used in their french fry seasoning. This was a HUGE disappointment for my kiddo, as just being able to eat French fries would have made him happy. Ultimately, between sesame and mustard, my kiddo’s allergy list was once again very challenging, even for even such a well trained chef and allergy-aware restaurant. Peanuts, tree nuts, and milk allergies seemed like they would be much easier to accommodate and they had an EXTENSIVE gluten-free menu. 

We determined that grilled chicken and white rice with mandarine oranges was the best choice (and possibly the only choice) of food my son could have. My kiddo LOVES white rice, so this was not all bad. Also, we were assured that I could still go ahead and serve him the food I brought too, as this was an exceptional case. The chef’s response was lovely. He said, “I would NEVER want a child to be hungry in our restaurant!” I greatly appreciated their understanding. This truly is the sign of an allergy-aware restaurant.

When my kiddo’s food arrived, it was on a separate serving tray and served first. The head chef had made it himself from start to finish. It was truly the tastiest grilled chicken and rice, seasoned with only salt and pepper, I had ever had. (Yes, we visually inspected it, and tasted it first to confirm it was safe) The only downside was, I didn’t bring any of my kiddos’ favorite condiments along: ketchup and Tofutti, as I planned on him eating his sack lunch. The restaurant did not use Heinz ketchup and with the “spices” label, it wasn’t a risk we could take. Ultimately, my kiddo picked at his food and ate his tuna along with a No Whey chocolate bar. Later, he polished off all of the delicious chicken and rice when we had both ketchup and Tofutti at the rental house. He really did love it, but a kiddo’s got to have his favorite dips.

Despite the limited offerings for my son, we all loved going to Guy’s Kitchen and Bar. For those of us without food allergies, the food was delicious. The ambiance was really fun and my kids loved watching many of Guy’s shows on the TVs. They all wanted photos with Guy’s cardboard cutout and liked seeing the zip line outside the window, too. The highlight of my kiddo’s experience was the free $5 game card he got with his kids meal to the arcade, which made his day! It felt like a lovely trade-off, as he got something special, even though it wasn’t in the form of food. My other kids were thrilled for him and went off to look at Bass Pro Shop with their grandparents, while he went to the arcade. 

If I had to give Guy’s Kitchen and Bar an “allergy-friendliness” rating, I would give them at 9/10. For people in a more typical allergy-situation with two or even 3 allergies (especially peanuts/tree nuts or wheat), I would see this as a great option. They had a whole menu for gluten-free offerings, which is fantastic. The chef was very informed and I felt very reassured of their capabilities in serving my kiddo safely. This is also the noticeable difference seen in going to higher end restaurants that make food to order. They tend to have much better knowledge of their ingredients and good food allergy training in general. This is not always the case, but it often helps. At the same time, if you have specifically sesame and mustard allergies or multiple allergies like we do, I would suggest calling ahead because there is a possibility your choices will be limited as well. This is the nature of food allergies. Specific allergies can sometimes be used widely in menu items, making navigating certain restaurants harder than others. That was the case for my kiddo at Guy’s Kitchen and Bar. We had an AMAZING experience though and were glad so we went!

See our other Branson related blog posts here: