Gluten Free Menus You Can Enjoy

I've been going to the big organic and natural foods Food Expo in Anaheim for the past few years. One thing I have noticed is that many companies are trying to produce gluten free products for an ever growing number of customers with allergies to wheat. Honestly, most of the products don't taste very good. I recently discovered (thank you David) that many restaurants are offering a separate gluten free menu, or at the very least, offering some regular favorites in a gluten free form.

A good website to check all the chains offering gluten free items is This site lists all the chain restaurants that offer gluten free. Another good website is.

The following is a list of restaurants in our area that offer gluten free alternatives: Boston Market, Chilis, Flemings, On the Border, Outback Steakhouse, Flemings, P.F. Chang, Claim Jumper and Olive Garden. This is by no means a complete list, but you get the idea that there are a lot more options than you thought. I love P.F. Changs, and they have many gluten free items including their famous lettuce wraps, egg drop soup, Singapore Street noodles (shrimp, chicken and rice noodles in a gluten free sauce), moo goo gai pan, and mongolian beef. This is just smattering of the many options from which to choose.

Olive Garden, amazingly, has many gluten free items to choose from . A Caesar salad without croutons, many pasta dishes can be made with gluten free penne pasta and fish and steak dishes with vegetables. No the bread sticks are not gluten free.

Take a look at Boston Market . Their website will tell you exactly which items contain gluten and which don't. Then it's easy to figure out what to eat.

On the Border has an awesome website. It tells you what to order, depending on your food allergy. They list all the items you can eat with peanut allergy, milk allergy, egg allergy and so on.

Finally, Garcia's a local Mexican restaurant in Carlsbad and Encinitas (I reviewed it a few months ago) offers gluten free tortillas. It's great to see so many restaurants getting on the healthy food bandwagon. It's nice to know that even with food allergies you don't have to settle for broiled chicken and steamed veggies anymore. If you know of other restaurants offering gluten free menus in our area, please post them after this blog and help our friends that love to eat out but just haven't found restaurants that cater to them.