Search results matching tag 'gluten free menus'

Fabulous Outback Steakhouse !!! (only in Roswell, GA)

Glad to be Gluten Free — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:39:00 GMT

When I ate gluten, I never chose to eat at Outback Steakhouse, or any other chain for that matter. There were times I was forced to eat at chains...when traveling or with in-laws maybe. So after my Celiac diagnosis, I was surprised to find out that Outback was one of the first chain restaurants that offered a gluten free menu nationwide. There was one near us (in the next burb over) so we got a few take-out orders from that location. The meals were gluten free but nothing special. And so I decided that just because I had Celiac, I would not be limited to dining at chains. That was over two years ago.

Then in July 2008, one of my dinner club members posted something about the Outback in Roswell, GA offering some exciting gluten free menu choices including fried coconut shrimp made with a cornstarch batter and cooked in clean oil. I thought that was nice for people who like Outback but I wasn't moved to make the 28 mile trek to patronize a chain. Then I heard from more members who had simply wonderful experiences there and said we had to take our dinner club there. OK already. I committed to go over there but I had doubts that I would be as impressed as others had been. I'm a pretty hard customer to begin with, and they already had a strike against them. Outback is after all, a chain restaurant.

We arrived around 6 pm on a Sunday night. The place wasn't hopping yet which is the way I like it. They need to have time to prepare my food correctly so we never go out during the dinner 'rush'. Quickly after we were seated, we were greeted by Julie, a visiting manager from Ohio who has Celiac. She is the person who got the 'new gluten free items' ball rolling so to speak. She explained how all this came to be - just a comment made to Tom (managing partner) that she really missed coconut shrimp. It was her favorite Outback meal until her diagnosis of Celiac three years earlier. And so Tom made Julie some coconut shrimp in a cornstarch better in a clean pan. She loved it! But Tom wanted to make this dish taste like the gluten version and so he tried several variations (using gluten free flour) until he finally got it down pat. So that's what I got on my first visit back in over two years - coconut shrimp and mac-n-cheese and chicken tenders. Well the husband got the fingers just so I could taste them. They were very good - the shrimp however was most excellent! The mac-n-cheese rivaled that of S'MAC in NYC. Oh and I had a Bard's Tale beer to go with my meal - I was in gluten free Heaven!

Before our meal was over we got to meet Tom, the creator of all these gluten free delights, who happens to have a culinary degree. He went over the specifics of his new gluten free fryer (not an old fryer converted) and how there is a splash guard/cover that prevents oil from the gluten fryer from contaminating the gluten free oil. He's overly concerned about cross contamination, as everyone making gluten free food should be, but often aren't. It was so refreshing to find someone truly dedicated to making us interesting and tasty meals - and at a chain restaurant to boot!

And remember, this all started with one person - Julie - asking for what she wanted. Gluten free coconut shrimp. And she got it. And now anyone who can get to the Roswell, GA Outback can have these fabulous dishes as well. I went back recently for dinner with a gluten free friend and some glutenoids. We all shared the gluten free bloomin' onion and could not get over how great it was, better than the gluten version. That's Julie below with the first ever gluten free bloomin' onion!

I think Outback might be considering bringing these offerings to other locations, where there is a large gluten free population at least. It might take a couple of years as there is a LOT involved in making these dishes truly safe for us. Still, a couple of years ago I never thought I'd order coconut shrimp, chicken fingers or mac-n-cheese out in a restaurant ever again. One person can make a difference, but together we make a big difference. Why not do your part to change the gluten free world? Remember, it never hurts to ask for what you want in life. You never know when you might actually get it.

UPDATE: The Roswell Outback has now tweaked their gluten free batter to be even better than before. That gifted owner Tom is always improving on everything he does. They recently started serving gluten free buns that are light and fluffy. Yes. I said the words 'light and fluffy' when speaking of gluten free hamburger buns. This Outback also has Green's Belgium gluten free beer in addition to the U.S. brewed Bard's Tale. To say this restaurant aims to please is quite the understatement. What they want to do - and are very successful at doing - is rock the gluten free consumer off their seats! Thanks Julie and Tom for everything you do every day to make our lives tastier than we could imagine it ever being. You truly rock our gluten free world!!!

Beleza - an 'almost' Gluten Free restaurant in Atlanta!

Glad to be Gluten Free — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:55:00 GMT

Beleza opened quite a while ago in downtown Atlanta. Their concept was unique to say the least. They didn't have an oven or use processed sugar and had only one item that contained gluten. You would think I would have been their first customer but my husband is not really into Tapas and that's what this place offers. They offer the best quality ingredients of any such place around to be sure, but still they offer just Tapas - or small plates. Either term fits and hence my problem with the husband. I even read a Trip Advisor review that said 'the only problem with this place is that men won't like it'. Great.

Finally last weekend, over a year after they opened, I made it to Beleza. They are on their second Chef but they are still not using sugar or an oven and the only gluten dish is a side of farro which is an ancient form of wheat. We made it a girls night out (if one can call a 6 pm dinner on a Saturday night that) and headed down from the burbs for a gourmet gluten free meal. Two in our party were even glutenoids so props to them for agreeing to join our gluten free adventure!

On arrival I realized that employees outnumbered the customers but I get the feeling that Beleza doesn't even pretend to get cranking until after 9 pm. The menu has more drinks listed than food selections. I ordered a cocktail I thought I'd enjoy and loved it. It tasted like tequila to me but was supposed to be infused rum...whatever. For only $8 it's the best deal on a cocktail I've had downtown in a while. Not everyone in our party liked their drink choices but they were able to swap drinks with each other and live with them.

Since the glutenoids in our party didn't care about having farro, we were all able to share everything we ordered with each other. We had the lobster salad, shrimp and scallop Ceviche and the dip appetizer to start. Two of the three dips were good enough make me feel like not sharing but I was nice and of course shared with the other ladies. The term onion dip seems boring but this one was far from it. The cheese dip was killer as well. The one thing I tried only one bite of and thought it didn't live up to everything else was the black eyed pea dip. Two of us agreed on this but the other two loved it. One criticism of this appetizer was that we had to ask for extra Cassava chips and celery sticks to scoop the dips with. Clearly a place like this knows we are going to share with each other and the table next to us got a lot more 'dippers' than we did for the same dish.

For my entree I had the Lobster Salad (shown below the dip plate) as did another in our party. Others tried a fish of the day (above top) and the cooked shrimp (in the bowl). Both loved their selections, though the fish special actually needed salt. To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever had such fresh tasting ingredients at any restaurant in Atlanta. One would think the lobster traps were pulled out of the water a few feet from the place. The fruit that is part of this dish seemed as if someone pulled it off a tree or off a stalk that day.

When you are gluten free, you're used to leaving without dessert when dining out. Personally, I can take only so much creme brulee or chocolate mousse and I don't care for ice cream. I could have left without dessert at Beleza and been totally satisfied. But a dinner club member told me about the chocolate tart there - she is gluten free, dairy free, soy free and even more things free. She can almost never have dessert when dining out. When she described this decadent treat to me I knew I could not pass it up. The chocolate tart is a small slice of chocolate something with pink rock salt on top. It really doesn't look remarkable at all, though the flower adorning the plate made for a nice presentation. But the taste was not to be believed. I don't think I can accurately describe it because I've never had anything remotely like it. The pink rock salt took it over the top for me - a 'salt-aholic' who shockingly did not add any salt to my dishes at Beleza.

The carmelized banana and coconut milk chocolate sorbet was nothing special according to the ladies that ordered it but I actually took some of my dessert home and savored it for four days. The only way I can explain how I was able to do this is that when something is that amazing, you don't truly need that much of it to be satisfied. And that is what the owner of Beleza is trying to accomplish with this resaurant. In an interview I read shortly after the restaurant opened he said something to the effect of 'people think they need to feel uncomfortably full when they leave a restaurant and that is very bad for their health'. He has a point and that is why many nutitionists suggest we eat six small meals a day instead of three larger ones. I did leave Beleza feeling full but not in an uncomfortable way.

The decor at Beleza might remind you of LA, as will the slight attitude of the staff. But I find the latter is true at some places here that offer mediocre food at best. At least Beleza has earned their attitude. Now I just have to figure out how to get my husband down there with me. Once you try Beleza you'll have to go back if you really appreciate the 'best of the best' ingredients prepared in most unexpected ways. When I asked the server how they made the chocolate tart without an oven she said it was magic - and that's exactly what it tasted like to me!

BELEZA

905 Juniper Street / Atlanta, GA 30309

678-904-4582

Park 75 at the Four Seasons Hotel hosts GLUTEN FREE week!

Glad to be Gluten Free — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:51:00 GMT

Back in April, Park 75 at the Four Seasons Hotel hosted a 'Gluten Free Dinner Week'. Their Executive Chef Robert Gertenecker, got involved with the gluten free community last October, when he participated in the Gluten Free Cooking Spree hosted by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. After that event, he added gluten free lobster chili and cornbread to his lunch menu. With two days notice, you can also enjoy Afternoon Tea there, complete with gluten free scones, sandwiches and desserts! Naturally when the Park 75 manager told me about Chef's gluten free week, I was overly excited. They came up with a gluten free dinner menu with choices for the starter, entree and dessert. For only $45, it was quite the bargain for this caliber restaurant.

I got an early preview of the menu and though it looked great, I really miss ordering crab cakes out. And so I did what I urge everyone to do, all the time. I asked for what I wanted - gluten free crab cakes. As always, Chef Robert did not disappoint and gladly added Blue Crab Cakes to his gluten free dinner menu.

Our original plan was to have a romantic evening out but it turned out a gluten free friend was having a birthday that week. So we ended up with a small group of friends to enjoy this great evening together. We were seated at a prime location in the restaurant at a round table, and within a minute a bread basket appeared on the table. I recognized the gluten free cornbread muffins but there was something else in there. Oops...they must have put gluten rolls in the basket, rendering everything in it unsafe for us. No actually, they had made gluten free rolls just for us. They were fairly good, but could not compete with the cornbread...it's some of the best cornbread I've ever had, regardless of ingredients.

To keep things simple and worry free, the entire table ordered from the gluten free menu. My husband started with the gluten free mushroom ravioli with truffle cream sauce and I had Chef's signature white bean lobster chili. The crab cakes were actually offered in the appetizer section on the special menu, but Chef made an exception for us and gave us two cakes as an entree choice. They were some of the best I've ever had and certainly the best gluten free version I've tasted. This is probably because it was comprised mostly of crab...some of the best tasting I'd had in a long while.

All crab cakes should be this decadent....I could have eaten them continuously until morning. But we still had our dessert course coming.

For dessert, my husband ordered the creme brulee and I had the berry parfait with a gluten free cookie. I wasn't crazy about the cookie part but the rest of my dessert was fabulous. The creme brulee was excellent and presented beautifully, with a caramelized sugar spray on top!

Just as we thought our night would soon end, the server and manager appeared with a special birthday dessert for my friend...what?! Though I had asked for something special for her (at her husband's secret request), when they brought her dessert out with ours, I assumed they hadn't come up with anything special. Since the dessert offered is not available at present, I can't tell or show you what exactly it was. But trust me when I say it was out of this world delicious and they should be offering it all the time - at least to the gluten free set! It was so unbelievable that as I stuffed a few bites down (very full from dinner), I kept thinking this could not possibly be gluten free - but it was. Pastry Chef Christopher Jennings really outdid himself this time. I can't wait to see what he'll come up with next!

Special thanks to Chef Robert, Managers Augustin and Mike, and the entire staff at Park 75, for making that night so wonderful for all of us. And an extra special thank you goes to Pastry Chef Christopher, especially from the birthday girl! None of us will ever forget the special treatment we received at the Atlanta Four Seasons Hotel! And seriously Chef Robert, you really should consider packaging the lobster chili and selling it retail....

Park 75 / Four Seasons Hotel

75 Fourteenth Street

Atlanta, GA 30309

404-881-9898

Sugo = Gluten Free Heaven!

Glad to be Gluten Free — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:27:00 GMT

We took the Atlanta Gluten Free Dinner Club to Sugo in Duluth recently and it

was even better than I could have imagined. Truthfully, I'd been a little nervous that all our rsvp's would not show up since 49 'yes' RSVP's is highly unusual for our group on a week night. But my fears were alleviated by 7:05 pm, when we had over 40 members in our private room at Sugo. We had a few stragglers who were caught in traffic - some driving well over 20 miles to the restaurant - but by 7:30 we had 47 people (only 2 no-shows) there to experience an absolutely amazing event!

Earlier in the day, Fred (son of Fred Sr.) from Sugo called me to reconfirm the head count and to inform me that they had prepared a special tapas dish for us. It was their signature Moussaka, made with gluten free breadcrumbs just for us! Needless to say, I ordered this dish to start my meal and it was obvious why it's won awards in the tapas category at some food competitions. It is out of this world delicious - even when prepared gluten free! But I'm getting ahead of myself...let me back up a bit.

As usual, I arrived early for our event and found the private dining room at Sugo wonderfully decorated with candles on the tables and white decorative lights around the space. It was really quite charming and lovely in almost a surrealistic way. To say the owners and staff at Sugo treat our group (and all their patrons) like royalty is an understatement. It's one of the few places in the Atlanta area that makes you feel like family whether you dine there every week or twice a year. When you dine out in family run establishments in Italy, they treat you like family and you get that same feeling at Sugo. When everyone in our group was seated, Fred Sr. (also known as Mr. "C") gave a short speech on the origins of the dishes so lovingly prepared for us that night. Besides some fabulous descriptions of the evening's offerings, he shared the story of his family - how a Greek married an Italian, and how they also married Green and Italian cuisines to create spectacular exclusive dishes. You can even watch a video of Mr. "C" explaining all this on their website.

Some of the gluten free dishes offered besides lasagna were : Pasta and Meatballs (the size of your fist for real), the Three Tenors (divinely prepared lamb, pork tenderloin and homemade sausage), Pesce del Giorno (a lovely fish entree)...oh and a fabulous duck dish - Anatra di Sugo - which one member proclaimed to be one of the best dishes he'd ever had! There were several other entrees offered and well as scrumptious salads which were drizzled with the best balsamic vinegar and an olive oil made from olives never touch the ground! To top off the meal, many of us could not resist the Bomba dessert. This is a vanilla and chocolate gelato ball with a cherry and hazelnut center, which is coated with a dark chocolate shell...it's one of Sugo's most popular desserts and it's naturally gluten free - no modifications needed. Simply put, Bomba is the bomb! Forgive me - I realize I'm a little too old for that phrase, but I could not resist...lol!

In the end, our dinner at Sugo was our best attended event ever. In large part this was due to us being offered gluten free lasagna, but over half the attendees ordered something besides lasanga. As one of our new members put it (and I'm paraphrasing here) - "I will be at tonight's dinner even if I have to push my car up a hill in pouring rain". I'm happy to report that he made it and as far as I know there was no car pushing involved...lol! But even if he'd really had to do that, he would have been rewarded supremely for his efforts. It was a gluten free experience we won't soon forget, and we'll keep pressing until those are more common than infrequent events in our lives. If you're living gluten free and are within driving distance of Atlanta, you need to do yourself a huge favor and treat yourself to dinner at Sugo! You can view their extensive gluten free menu here. And if you go be sure and tell Fred (either one) that I sent you!

Sugo Restaurant & Tapas

www.sugorestaurant.com

The Shoppes at St. Ives
10305 Medlock Bridge Road
Duluth, GA 30097

770.817.8000