After a busy summer season, we finally have our next Gluten-Free Santa Barbara meet-up scheduled for Wednesday, October 30th. We will be at Shoreline Park at 5:00 PM with some tasty treats made by local, gluten free businesses! For more information on this and future events, please visit our Facebook Page. You can RSVP on the Facebook event page or by emailing me at glutenfreeinsb@gmail.com. See you there!
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The Lark
29 Sep
I have to admit. I went to The Lark about a month ago and had a pretty poor experience. My waitress did not know much about what gluten-free meant and I definitely did not dine with confidence. However, my Celiac comrade told me about her experience which had been much different. This past week, we both went back and it was like night and day. I had a different waitress who clearly knew what she was talking about. First off, I like any restaurant that serves popcorn instead of the usual bread. The popcorn had mint, ginger, cilantro, lime salt, lime zest, chile de Arbol and olive oil. We easily polished off a few bowls of this. We then shared their new Autumn Kale Salad. This had pepitas, roasted apples, pomegranates and pecorino. It was plenty to share as a first course. For our second course, we shared the Half Roasted Mary’s Chicken.
This comes as a half or a whole chicken. The half was enough for both of us. It was served with a brown butter polenta, spinach, charred figs, shallots and chicken jus. For dessert, we shared the Milk Chocolate Pot de Creme.
I was not a huge fan of the smoked almond brittle that was on top of it. It was one of the reasons the dessert initially sounded appealing, but I found the smokiness way too overwhelming. The chocolate portion was very good though. Overall, my experience this time around was much better. I just hope that it wasn’t a fluke and that all of the servers and kitchen staff are being properly trained on what is and isn’t gluten-free and what cross contamination is. If I had one complaint about the evening, it was that they should have a less expensive sparkling water option. Paying $8 for a bottle of sparkling water seems crazy when a lot of restaurants are now offering it complimentary. And why was I drinking sparking water when they have some tasty sounding libations? I am excited to announce that come March, there will be a new addition to the glutenfreeinsb family!
Manuelina Ristorante
27 Sep
Okay… one more Italy post until we get back to some Santa Barbara goodness. One of my favorite meals on our summer vacation was at Manuelina. Here, they serve their famous cheese focaccia. Imagine my surprise when our waiter informed me that they make a gluten-free version! This was ridiculously cheesy and amazing. I then had their homemade gluten-free gnocchi with a pesto sauce.
This was also pretty unbelievable. Some of the others at the table had ordered pasta with a walnut sauce that they were raving about. For some reason, I thought it may be a good idea to order another order of the gnocchi with the walnut sauce.
There must have been five pounds of butter in this sauce. As a huge fan of butter, I found it quite tasty. I couldn’t manage finishing the dish, but it was definitely worth ordering!
Trattoria La Lanterna
5 Sep
Steps from the water in Riomaggiore, one of the towns of Cinque Terre, is a restaurant called Trattoria La Lanterna. Our guide for the day had called ahead so that they would be aware of our dietary needs. When we sat down, my brother and I received some gluten-free bread.
I had a view of the prep area from where I was sitting, so I could see that the bread had come from a fully sealed package. The dishes here are served family style, so we both got the gluten-free pasta with olive oil, garlic and chilis.
This dish was very light as far as pastas go. I may have preferred some more of the chilis as there wasn’t too much heat to it. The extra bread we had was very good dipped in the leftover oil and garlic.
Chuflay Restaurant at Splendido Mare
4 Sep
Chuflay Restaurant at Splendido Mare is located in the heart of the harbor of Portofino. We ate on their outside terrace which gave us the perfect vantage point for people watching. After placing our order, my brother and I received a gluten-free bread basket. It certainly didn’t hurt that the bread was served warm! I started with the Minestrone di Verdure alla Genovese, al Basilico. This Genoese vegetable soup was very good but it was also extremely filling as it was packed with beans and veggies. For my main dish, I had the area’s specialty, the (gluten-free) pasta with the traditional Genoese pesto.
Out of all of the pastas I had in Italy with pesto, this one was my favorite. This was probably due to the fact that I could taste the plethora of cheese in the pesto!
Ristorante San Marco 1957
3 Sep
After our time in Iceland, we headed to Italy to warm up. One of the days, we chartered a boat for a half day to explore the coastline. We stopped in a little area called Sestri Levante where we ate at Ristorante San Marco 1957. After showing the waiter the gluten-free travel card, I ended up getting their four cheese GF pasta. This was very heavy. The noodles were such a good consistency though… something I found a lot of in Italy. I also had a mixed salad.
Italy is a pretty amazing country for celiacs. This was the first of many spots that were fully aware of what “senza glutine” meant. I ended up having a carb fest the whole time there!
Gló Restaurant
31 Aug
After a long morning of hiking to and from Thrihnukagigur Volcano (and descending into it), we were quite hungry when we got back to Reykjavik. Walking distance from our hotel was Gló Restaurant, a healthy restaurant that focuses on using organic ingredients. I started with the coconut curry soup. It was ridiculously delicious. They were very knowledgeable about gluten-free ingredients, giving me a GF cracker rather than the bread that usually accompanies the soup.
After the soup, I enjoyed their raw Italian pasta.
The noodles were made of julienned zucchini and the “meatballs” were made of chickpeas. Everything I had was very tasty.
Grillmarkaðurinn
29 Aug
My favorite dinner spot in Iceland was Grillmarkaðurinn. The inside of the restaurant was super cool, feeling like it could have been in New York. I found the waiter to be very understanding of the gluten-free diet. I started with the Green Salad which had a lot more to it than I was expecting of a side salad. For my main dish, I had the vegetarian Peanut Steak.
Made entirely from nuts, beans and vegetables, this was very generous in size. My favorite part of the meal, however, was the Grilled Corn with Icelandic Butter.
Perfectly charred, this corn was unbelievable. Even though I was full, I considered getting a second order of it since it was that good.
Gullfoss Kaffi
28 Aug
One of the numerous gorgeous spots in Iceland that we visited was the Gullfoss (or Golden) Waterfall. Before we descended a few flight of stairs to the waterfall, we ate at the little cafe adjacent to it. Per our guide’s recommendation, I had the traditional Icelandic Meat Soup after confirming that it was gluten-free.
This had big chunks of lamb, cabbage, onions and carrots. It was the perfect thing to warm my body up as we had just finished frolicking on a glacier.
Nauthóll
27 Aug
One of my favorite lunches while in Iceland was at Nauthóll. Located five minutes from downtown Reykjavik, they were very accommodating once we showed them the GF travel card. I started with the carrot, coconut milk and ginger soup. In the soup, there was greek yogurt, roasted pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries. It was an interesting mix of ingredients, but it was delicious nonetheless. After the soup, I had the Sweet Potato and Red Beet Salad.
This salad was so good. It had spiced red beets, melon, grilled sweet potatoes, goat cheese, caramelized nuts and chicken. I couldn’t manage to finish it since it was huge, but I was thinking about this meal days later. If you have any gluten eaters with you, make sure they order the grilled garlic bread as it got rave reviews.
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