Restaurants

My husband and I move A LOT. And one of the many challenges that comes with it is figuring out what restaurants I can and cannot eat at. With Eating out you are going to have cross contamination more than likely if they prepare gluten in their restaurant. Just like you will get cross contamination in your own house if gluten is also prepared there.

But with eating out you cannot be afraid of asking questions. I don't love being the needy customer, so we stick to restaurants that we are comfortable with. Luckily when we do go to new places my husband is willing to ask for me when I don't want to! :) love him for that! :)

I dunno about you but.... When I eat out with friends I hate being the one to have to choose where to eat because of my diet. And so I am going to be listing all the restaurants I can think of that are gluten free even if I didn't have the best experience there. Just so you know you have options even though the menus may be limited. Having a choice of more than a salad is always a good thing!

So some of the restaurants that are nation wide that we eat at frequently are Outback Steak House. This is our top restaurant we eat at. I usually get the same thing every time. A 6oz Outback special with a sweet potato with extra honey butter and brown sugar and a side of broccoli without seasoning. And for dessert a flour less brownie that is topped with ice cream, whip topping, chocolate sauce, and chocolate shaving. Sometimes I go to Outback just to get the flour less brownie, it is divine! Outback has a wonderful and easy to read menu. Unlike lots of restaurants that they give you the gluten free 'menu' that turns into a matching game and about 20 minutes later you finally decide what you want but don't really know what your getting because the 'menu' has the name of the item but doesn't tell you what come on it. Trust me I have done that more times than I wanna admit. The only downside is the prices aren't listed on the Outback gluten free menu.

Our second restaurant that we eat out at which is mostly for special occasions is PF Changs. This place is so good! But is pretty expensive! They have a four course meal that is gluten free. I love love love their lettuce wraps. Which I have made at home before! Recipe is yet to come!
Another place that is a lot like PF Changs without the expensive price tag is Pei Wei. I love their gluten free Sweet and Sour chicken. Get it every time! :)

A good place for pasta is Noodles and Company. I have tried their Penni Rosa dish and their Pad Thai dish. I love the Penni Rosa dish, it is spicy and so I usually can't finish the whole thing in one sitting but I love left overs! And it reheats nicely. I usually get a chicken breast to go with it. But depending on the location they will tell you it is cooked on the Same grill as breaded meats. So it's enter at your own risk kind of deal. They have locations in Logan Utah, Orem Utah, Baltimore Maryland, Columbia Maryland, St Louis Missouri, and that's all that I can think of.

Red Robin has a gluten free menu but I have only eaten there once and I wasn't super impressed that I can remember. But I think I'll need to give that one a shot again.

The Olive Garden does have gluten free pasta. I feel like the pasta isn't the best, they don't cook it right. And I have a hard time paying for something that I could make in my own kitchen and that it would turn out better. But I am just giving my opinion about it and you may think otherwise.

Carino's Italian Grill- they have a good selection oh gluten free stuff. My all time favorite item on their menu is the Potato soup!

Romano's Macaroni Grill- I have only eaten here once. I thought the gf pasta was delicious. Although I was not impressed with anything else.

On The Border- I love this place! Although the only state I lived in that it was available to me was Texas. I always got the street tacos with chicken. 3 came with the meal and it was the perfect amount of food.


Jamba Juice- all of their smoothies are gluten free except Heart Defender the daily vitamin, energy, and happy heart Boosts/super boosts are not gluten free either. Even though they are gluten free they are not certified gluten free.

In the Fort Worth/Dallas metro area some of the Subway store have a gluten free bread. I loved it! I think that it needs to spend across the nation. I ate there so much while I lived in Fort Worth. The bread was small, def not 6" long. But gotta take what you can get. They tried hard with the cross contamination thing. They started off by wiping down the whole station. They even asked what kind of dressing I wanted and so they wiped down the bottle. The one person who was going to make my whole sandwich first washed their hands and put on new gloves and they didn't touch anything but my food. When I got it toasted they didn't touch the keys on the microwave someone else did. They did a great job. Luckily I had one down the strip mall of where I worked and I went in enough that they knew who I was and what I was going to get. But at other locations they didn't always do as great with the sanitation part. They also served a brownie with it. Yum!


In Rexburg Idaho, they have an Asian food place called Fongs! I grew up going to this place. But once I was diagnosed I had to learn new items on the menu. Thankfully my best friend worked there and she was able to find answers to my questions. But if you happen to be in town I highly recommend their number 13, broccoli with chicken and fried rice.

I didn't live in Maryland very long and so I didn't get to try out many restaurants there. But in Utah they have lots of different choices.
Zupas is one of our new favorites. They serve soup, salads, and sandwiches. I don't think they have gluten free bread. But the soups are to die for. They have 3 or 4 different gluten free soup options.
Pizza Pie cafe- I love Pizza Pie Cafe for when i am wanting pizza but which is also located in Rexburg Idaho.


Sweet Tooth fairy is my favorite place! They make gluten free CUPCAKES!! Best thing ever! You get to choose between vanilla or chocolate and then you get to choose your frosting. But be careful! I just found out the last time I went that some frostings they serve do have gluten in them.



A few sandwich places I have tried out are Jason's deli and McAlister's. Every location has different types of Gluten Free Bread. Some are really good and some not too great but edible. Jason's Deli has locations in Salt Lake City Utah, Albuquerque New Mexico, Fort Worth Texas, Tyler Texas, and Baltimore Maryland.
McAlister's is not as popular as Jason's that I have noticed. But they have locations in Texarkana Texas, St Louis Missouri, and Albuquerque New Mexico. Although not all locations have gluten free bread.

Fast Food- you have to be extremely careful with fast food, lots of cross contamination there. Most places cook their fries in the same fryer/oil as the nuggets. But for how much we move and travel I have to eat fast food or go without. So it's a personal decision what you do. After all you're the one who has to live with the symptoms.

The fast food place we eat at the most is Wendy's. their chili is gluten free. I usually get the chili with shredded cheese with a plain baked potato or a side salad and I put the chili on the potato or on the salad to make a taco salad. Tats much more filling than a hamburger without the bun.

Chick Fil A- they offer chicken nuggets the are NOT breaded!

Taco Cabana- their crispy tacos and nachos are gluten free. That's all the I get from there so I don't know much about their other items.


If you are ever in doubt always ask to speak with the manager or the chef.

Also I want to point out that Domino's Pizza does offer "gluten free" pizza. But because of the whole cross contamination thing it's not really gluten free. From what I have heard is they don't clean their work space when a gluten free pizza is ordered and they use the same pans as regular pizza.

Happy eatings!!!


- Posted from Haylee's iPad