Tag Archives: santa barbara

El Taco Tequila Taqueria

7 Jun

We decided to try El Taco Tequila Taqueria tonight as we explored some stores in downtown Santa Barbara. Any restaurant that has the words “taco” and “tequila” in its name is alright by me. We shared the Poblano Relleno, a cheese stuffed poblano chili with tomato sauce served on fresh corn tortillas. These ingredients always seem to go well together. We also shared an order of the guacamole.

This was pretty straightforward. I then ordered three tacos. The first was the Camaron a la Diabla.

This was described as “spicy grilled shrimp, cabbage, crema Mexicana and cotija cheese”. I didn’t think there was anything spicy about it, but I still enjoyed it. I then had the Bistec Tampiqueño.

This was grilled rosemary garlic skirt steak with poblano chili and melted cheese. I thought this was better than the shrimp taco. My favorite item that I ordered was the Pechuga de Pollo.

The grilled chicken in this taco was really tender. The onions, poblano chili and melted cheese just enhanced the meat. Do note that if you are gluten-intolerant, you can’t have the chips. They are corn chips but they are fried in contaminated oil.

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Bouchon

27 May

This was one of those epic weekends full of fun things like the Downtown Art and Wine Tour, i madonnari and some stand-up paddle boarding at Butterfly Beach. What better weekend to have a great meal at Bouchon? I started with the special soup for the day which was a white corn puree with sweet piquillo pepper and herb garni. For my main dish, I had the grilled wagyu flat iron steak.

Since I couldn’t have the bleu cheese potato croquette, they substituted fingerling potatoes. It seemed that the staff there was well aware of what I could have and what I had to avoid.

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Perfect Pasta

22 May

We went to Via Maestra 42 the other night and I ordered the very enjoyable gluten-free pasta you see pictured above. The name of the dish has escaped me, but I can tell you the following: If you find yourself there, order the pasta with the pancetta and tomatoes. There is a subtle heat to the dish that made for a perfect meal and even more perfect leftovers.

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Pacific Crepes

16 May

Don’t get too excited…. gluten-free crepes are not accessible for us yet in Santa Barbara. However, if you want to make someone in your life very happy, go to Pacific Crepes. They can have one of the very delicious looking crepes on the menu, and you can have one of their tasty salads or their French onion soup without the bread. I ordered the Celtic salad which comes with artichoke hearts, tomato, goat cheese, potatoes and prosciutto. Make sure you are very clear that you can not have bread as they typically put it on the side of the salad.

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More GF Sandwich Options in SB

14 May

While looking at the menu at Fresco today, I noticed something new and exciting! They now offer gluten-free bread for their sandwiches! After asking some questions about it, I found out that they make it in house. The guy behind the counter then shared the ingredients with me.

I couldn’t resist trying it, so I ordered the Turkey Club Triple Decker with a side caesar salad (no croutons).

The consistency was kind of between sandwich bread and a roll. It held up really well and I could see this being a great bread for other sandwiches as well as burgers. It is obvious that one of the reasons that Fresco has been so successful for the past 25 years is due to their efforts to accommodate the needs of their customers.

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Guru Goodness

14 May

This delicious looking pizza was thanks to Pizza Guru on Saturday night. We ordered the Guru Special with no chicken and no hemp seeds. It had pizza sauce, spinach, roasted garlic, onions, mozzarella and fresh cilantro. The medium sized gluten-free pizza is the perfect size for two people to share.

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Boathouse

9 May

Whenever I have people visiting me from another area, I always make sure to bring them to Boathouse. There is just something about eating fresh food with unparalleled views of the ocean and Hendry’s Beach. Today was one of those days where my husband and I looked at each other and acknowledged how lucky we are to live in such a perfect place. For lunch, I had the lobster tacos which are served on corn tortillas.

Out of confusion about tossing the salad in an uncontaminated bowl, the kitchen left the dressing off of my salad which was fine by me. Better safe than sorry. After dressing my own salad, I happily consumed my meal while basking in the sunshine.

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Pizza By The Slice!

9 May

Is that a beautiful sign or what? Behold, the first restaurant in Santa Barbara to offer gluten-free pizza by the slice. Adama, which already had a gluten-free menu, now has gluten-free pizza and a bakery that is almost entirely GF. Last night, we shared an order of the Fritto Misto to start. It was just as good as the last time we had it. We also got a slice of the GF pizza just to try it.

The bread was good, but there was only a tiny bit that served as an outer crust. That edge was nice and crunchy, but this was definitely a fork and knife pizza as it was softer under all of the tasty toppings. I then ordered the special… falafel with their GF ciabatta bread.

I am not sure if I have ever had falafel but it was really good. The outside was nice and crispy. The bread was really good now that I could taste it a bit better. It was served with a GF tabbouleh that was made from millet. Then came the fun part… dessert. All of the desserts in the case were gluten-free other than the oatmeal raisin cookies (the oats they use are not GF-certified). We went with the apple pie served with soy vanilla ice cream and a peanut butter cookie.

They warmed up the pie which was a nice touch. There is just something about warm apple pie that makes everything right in the world. The peanut butter cookie had a good taste but the consistency was a bit off.

It is just really exciting for a local restaurant to continue pushing themselves to give us GF peeps more and more options when dining out!

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Cinco de Mayo

5 May

Happy Cinco de Mayo! To celebrate, a friend and I went to Cielito for some tequila and appetizers. The first thing we ordered was the Taco de Calabacitas. These had roasted poblano succotash, salsa verde, queso fresco, crema and cilantro. They were served on fresh corn tortillas. We also ordered the Panela en Salsa Verde.

This seared mozzarella-like cheese was topped with salsa verde, onion, cilantro and queso cotija. It was served with a stack of warmed corn tortillas. An order of guacamole complimented both dishes perfectly. Everything we had was quite tasty.

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A GF-Labeled Menu Makes for a Happy Celiac

5 May

It is always so relaxing to eat at Sojourner Cafe since gluten-free items are clearly marked on the menu. The other night, we started with the Tortilla Flats. I then had an item on the specials menu. It was tofu with a sweet red chile sauce.

This was good but I struggled to finish it. However, I did manage to find room for one of their GF chocolate chip cookies.

The consistency was a little off, but the taste of this was good.

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