My wife and I tend to eat lunch out fairly often so over the last four weeks that I've been on a gluten-free diet we've had the chance to try several restaurants, some of them local to the central Texas area and some nationwide chains. So I thought I'd let you know my view of the situation with them, GF-wise. I'm naming names here so I'll preface all this by saying that everything in this article is my own personal opinion and, especially in the case of chain restaurants, is based on our experience at the location where we ate. Other locations of the same chain might be different.
The first place we tried to eat gluten-free was the Monument Cafe in Georgetown, Texas. This local restaurant has a real healthy food focus, growing many of their own herbs and veggies in plots that surround the restaurant. Their landscaping runs to native and other xeriscape plants and they seem to be tuned into all the minimum footprint, healthy diet stuff. So we expected them to be all up on GF diets. Just shows to go ya how things aren't always what you would expect them to be. When we told the hostess that we needed a GF menu, she said that our waiter could tell us everything we needed to know. That was an overstatement. In truth, the restaurant seemed to have no dedicated GF support and we were not given a GF menu. The waiter wasn't ignorant of GF diets but neither was he tremendously knowledgeable of the restaurant's GF choices. He sort of pointed out GF foods on the menu and had to go to the kitchen to answer some questions we had. This made it a bit awkward to choose what we wanted for lunch because we felt that we had to guess what would be GF and what wouldn't. So I ended up ordering a salad with a dressing that I felt fairly sure had no gluten in it. I wasn't really in a salad mood so I was kind of disappointed. Even though the restaurant has at least one dish, a dessert, that is labeled gluten-free, I'd rate the Monument Cafe as one-and-a-half thumbs down for GF support.
Our next attempt at a GF lunch was at Tarka Indian Kitchen, a sort of Indian fast food chain. They had great GF support. I don't think they have a dedicated GF prep area but they do have a separate GF menu with a lot of choices since most of their food is inherently gluten-free. So, even though this is one of those places where you have to order at a counter (and hold up other diners in the process) we were able to quickly make choices from the GF menu. The food was tasty and reasonably priced. I'd rate Tarka as one-and-a-half thumbs up for GF support. The only thing that would have made it better was if they had a separate GF prep area.
The next place we tried was by far the best and set the bar for any other restaurant where we might choose to eat a gluten-free lunch. It was the Java Dive Organic Cafe in Lakeway, Texas. The owner of this restaurant has a gluten intolerance problem so he is very knowledgeable about GF food prep. The restaurant has a separate GF prep area and all of the food is gluten-free unless otherwise noted. There is an extensive menu and the food is tasty and reasonably priced, although not inexpensive. The only knock I have on this restaurant is that if you don't know in advance that all of the food is gluten-free unless otherwise noted, you might easily overlook the daily specials, as we did, and miss some interesting GF food. Otherwise it is the ideal place for a person on a GF diet to eat. Two thumbs up and a plate of homemade GF cookies to the Java Dive Organic Cafe.
One of our favorite lunch chains is the Tropical Smoothie Cafe. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that, although there is no separate GF prep area and no GF menu, most of the Tropical Smoothie Cafe's menu items are gluten-free. The tortillas used for the wraps contain gluten and there is no GF bread choice, but the restaurant is happy to turn any wrap into a GF salad and the people that work there are very knowledgeable about which dressings are gluten-free. Nearly all of the smoothies are gluten-free as well. So my wife and I were really delighted to find that we could eat good, tasty GF meals at one of our favorite eateries, especially since it is one of the few restaurants with GF food for which we have BOGO coupons. One-and-a-half thumbs up and a GF smoothie to the Tropical Smoothie Cafe.
There is a local restaurant in north Austin, Texas called Terra Burger which is a great place to get a GF burger. To the best of my knowledge they don't have a separate GF prep area but most of their ingredients are gluten-free and they even have GF buns for the burgers. This seems to me like a good place for kids to eat gluten-free too because even their chicken nuggets are made with a non-gluten flour coating. One-and-a-half thumbs up and an order of GF fries to Terra Burger.
Another fast food restaurant which is a good place to eat GF meals is Chipotle. Their burrito bowl, which is essentially the innards of a burrito without the tortilla, is gluten-free. There is no separate GF prep area or menu, but the manager told us that, if you request a GF burrito bowl, the staff will change their gloves, which have been used to fill wheat-based tortillas, so that there is no cross-contamination. One-and-a-half thumbs up and bowl of GF black beans.
Another chain that we tried is Firebowl Cafe. We didn't really try the food there, even though they have a GF menu (but not a GF prep area). Here's why: The Firebowl Cafe is one of those places where you pick up a menu as soon as you step in the door and then, in very short order, you have to order your meal at the cashier's station. We went there at prime lunch time after checking the web site to ensure that they did indeed have a GF menu. We didn't make a choice from the menu on the web site because we have learned that the web sites of restaurants aren't always up to date and there are sometimes differences between the web site menu and the one in the store. So we stepped up to the menu racks at the local Firebowl only to discover that there was no GF menu in the racks. We tried to get the cashier's attention to let her know that we needed a GF menu but she studiously ignored us until we were right in front of her. We explained that we weren't ready to order yet because we needed the GF menu. She projected a real attitude while she rooted around behind the counter looking for one. After she thrust the menu at us we had to step out of line while we looked it over. The GF menu was a bit confusing and there wasn't anything on it that looked all that good to us, but we were going to order something anyway. However, while we were looking at the GF menu, about eight people got in line ahead of us. So we would have had to wait behind them before we could order. Given this and the cashier's unfriendly attitude, we said “the hell with this” and had lunch at the Chiptole next door. All of this could have been avoided if there had been a GF menu in the rack at the Firebowl. Two thumbs down and a bowl of soggy udon to the Firebowl Cafe.
Well, all this talk of food is making me hungry so I'm going to post this thing. More restaurant reviews in a future post.
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