5 Tips for Flawless Gluten Free Restaurant Dining

Gluten free dining for anyone on a gluten free diet, whether due to personal preference or medical preferences (ie. allergies or Celiac) can be a pretty stressful and complicated portion of your dining experience.

Whether if it’s uneducated staff, cross contaminated kitchen nightmares, or poor gluten free selections, finding the perfect gluten free or wheat free meal is pretty difficult.

5 Tips for Flawless Gluten Free Restaurant Dining

Here are the 5 tips that will make you gluten free restaurant dining experience as flawless, stress free, and delicious as possible. By implementing some of these gluten free dining tips, you’ll be on your way to a healthy and safe gluten free dining experience. I promise!

1. Know Before You Go

The best way to truly know if a restaurant has a gluten free menu before you go is to do your research. With awesome resources available (like this website 😉 ) and even the restaurants website (including their FAQ page) you’ll be sure to know if the restaurant you really want to go to has a gluten free menu.

Plus, by knowing before you go and looking up a restaurants gluten free menu before you go allows you to plan for your meal ahead of time and not have to worry about bombarding hundreds of questions for your server.

Now you can come into any restaurant and know exactly what you want without even opening a menu.

2. Know the Cuisine Before You Eat

Did you know that certain food types and cuisines have better gluten free track records than others? What I mean is that some food types and restaurant types have a higher risk of containing gluten and glutenous foods than others. For example although rice and chicken are naturally gluten free, eating them at a Chinese restaurant may make it contain gluten due to it’s preparation and cooking with soy sauce (which contains wheat). By knowing what kind of restaurant you’re going to and what kind of food they served, it’s better to be prepared.

So if let’s say you’re going to a burger joint and you know that the restaurant doesn’t offer a gluten free bun for their burgers. Instead of ordering your cheeseburger bunless, you can bring your own gluten free hamburger roll.

The same goes for let’s say a sushi joint. Most sushi (non-roll) are gluten free however the soy sauce that they serve with it isn’t. So that’s why it’s best to always bring small packets of gluten free soy sauces with you when dining out at a sushi restaurant.

To help make like life a little easier, here are full gluten free restaurant menus and dining tips for a majority of the popular cuisines and chain restaurant types out there.

3. Talk to the Staff and the Manager

One of the best way to ensure flawless gluten free dining is to communicate directly with the restaurant manager.

By alerting them and the staff of your gluten free or wheat allergy, there’s a better chance that the staff will be able to accommodate your special dietary needs.

Plus, another great way is to always call ahead and tell the restaurant that you’ll be coming in soon and that you have a sometimes severe gluten allergy. This will allow the restaurant to prepare for your arrival, sometimes even creating a special gluten free menu just for you (done mostly at higher end restaurants).

4. Eat at Higher End Restaurants

To truly ensure that there’s a better chance that your food will be gluten free and safe to eat (especially if you’re allergic or Celiac) is to eat at higher end restaurants (or fast food restaurants with great service).

At these restaurants such as Capital Grille and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, the staff is very well educated and accommodating for special diets. Plus, there are times when the chefs may sometimes create a special gluten free menu just for you.

So basically, by sticking with higher end restaurants, you’ll get a safer, healthier, and cross contamination-free meal that happens to be delicious at the same time – a rarity at some restaurants these days.

5. Go to a 100% Gluten Free Restaurant

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you go to a restaurant and the server hands you a menu that’s filled with hundreds of gluten free options. Or what if a server comes to your table and hands you a basket of fresh baked breads and goodies, and they all happen to be gluten free? Or wouldn’t it be amazing if the entire restaurant’s kitchen is 100% gluten free? It’s sounds almost too good to be true right? WRONG.

Believe it or not, there are hundreds of restaurants across North America that are 100% gluten free meaning that their normal menu is already naturally gluten free. These restaurants cater completely to the gluten allergenic, Celiacs, and sensitive folks out there.

And guess what, I even compiled a list a lot of them categorized by state and location. Check it out below!

100% Gluten Free Restaurants Across the Nation

Bonus – Use this Website

Yes, that’s right! I’m plugging in my own website in this post again. Why? Because after running a survey to all my readers, 98% of them told me that this site has been a difference maker. Now parents can take their Celiac children to restaurants without having to worry about what they can or can’t eat. Now teens can go out with all their friend to eat and not feel like a weirdo because they can now truly find something delicious and safe to eat.

By using this website and more importantly, subscribing to my Gluten Free VIP Newsletter (100% free) you will be able to have flawless gluten free restaurant dining experiences from now on.

And that’s a promise I truly do stand by.

Now you’re a pro!

If you made it down this far and have implemented some if not all the gluten free restaurant dining tips above, I am honored to be able to call you a gluten free dining expert (or at least someone who knows a lot more about gluten free dining than 98.7% of the gluten free community).

Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out my Gluten Free Restaurant Food Survival Guide (100% free) for more information and tips.

Plus, be sure to check out my brand new print book and eBook which can only be found on Amazon.

Thanks!