12:40, lunch break, Tampa. A young woman stands outside Tampa Pasta House and asks the assistant on her phone: "Do they have gluten-free pasta?" The answer comes in a second. She takes a table by the window and orders without asking the server, because she already has an answer. Curtis, our AI, is the voice that answers a guest who asks that. We checked what an assistant would say, and where it would read it.
Tampa Pasta House is our sample restaurant. Its page, its catalog and its Telegram channel are ours.
In part 5, an assistant repeated our price, and the word we wrote next to it. This time the word is "yes."
📬 What we actually tested
On October 25, from 10:48 to 10:52 a.m. Tampa time, we asked Gemini 3.8 Flash six guest questions. Do they have gluten-free pasta. I have celiac disease, can I eat there. The first question again, with "Where did you read that? Give me the link." The first question in Spanish. What gluten-free dishes can I order. And one about a wheat allergy. The model had no browser and no search: we handed it the pages ourselves.
Three rounds. First, the question only. Second, the question plus two "search results": an excerpt of our demo page as it reads now, and our October 16 channel post about the kitchen. Third, the same two results, with one line of the page swapped back to the text it carried until October 21.
Question only: "yes" in 0 of 6. Our page as it is now: "yes" in 0 of 6. The same results with the old line: "yes" in 6 of 6, and our page named as the source every time.
With nothing to read, it never said yes. In 4 of 6 answers it said it couldn't find a restaurant by that name and pointed to other places in Tampa. We don't repeat their names here.
With our page as it is now, it was honest: "does not explicitly confirm whether they offer dedicated gluten-free pasta," and tell your server before you order. It named its source in 6 of 6.
With the old line, it was sure. "Yes, Tampa Pasta House does offer gluten-free pasta." Asked what to order: "you can order gluten-free pasta (from Result 1)." Asked for the link: the address of our own demo page. In Spanish: "Sí, Tampa Pasta House cuenta con pasta sin gluten."
It passed on our kitchen warning there too, "cross-contact is possible," from our post. But the first word the guest heard was "yes."
🧩 Then we checked ourselves
The old line is ours. Our demo page shows a sample Messenger reply, marked "Written by an AI employee." Asked "Do you have gluten-free options?", it used to say: "We do have gluten-free pasta — and because our kitchen handles wheat…" The catalog has 100 menu items, and the word "gluten" isn't in any of them; 10 of them say "ask about allergens." Nothing backed that line. We wrote it ourselves, when we put the example together. On October 21 we replaced it with: "Our kitchen handles wheat, so tell your server about any allergies and we will take care of you." The live page we read on October 25 carries the new line.
The second and third rounds differ by that one line. One line decided the answer.
The only thing worse than wrong hours is a confident "yes" your menu never gave.
🛠 How to repeat without code
- Write down the questions guests ask for health reasons: gluten-free, nuts, dairy, vegan.
- In a new chat, ask an assistant: "Does <your business> in <your city> have <the thing>?" Then ask in the next message: "Where did you read that? Give me the link."
- Paste the text of your own page and your latest post on the subject into the chat, and ask the same thing again.
- Find the line it quoted. If it says more than your menu does, rewrite it, and ask again.
- Ask the same question in your guests' second language.
🧾 The bill and the limits
18 answers, 5.6 to 17.1 seconds each. One model, six questions, one run, two languages. We handed the model the pages ourselves; a real search might find others. Our script sent the first try of the old-line round with the new page by mistake, so we ran that round again and counted the second try. We didn't measure ChatGPT, the Gemini app, Perplexity, a Google profile or delivery apps. The restaurant is our sample, not a real business. This isn't medical advice: for what works for your health, ask the restaurant itself before you order.
✅ Before you trust an assistant with your guests' health questions
- ☐ Write down the five "health questions" people ask you.
- ☐ Answer each in one line where people will find it: menu, website, Google profile.
- ☐ Write "no" and "ask us before you order" when that's the truth. An empty space is worse than a no.
- ☐ Never write "safe for celiacs" or "allergen-free." Say what your kitchen handles instead.
- ☐ Check the sample replies on your own site: do they promise anything that isn't on the menu?
- ☐ Ask the same question in your guests' second language.
Want to know what AI already says about your business? Check: smashone.us/check/
Which of your guests' questions have you never answered anywhere? What will AI say about it?
