Eating Out: Italian in Glasgow

Sorry about the silence! Had a couple of posts up my sleeve for a while now and have decided to combine brief descriptions in to one post since they’re all Italian restaurants in Glasgow.

ASK Italian
LOCATION: Glasgow

My first visit to ASK wasn’t great. We were seated straight away and the restaurant filled up behind us. We ordered with no problem and my boyfriend got his garlic bread. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. And even waited some more. Eventually we asked where our food was and were told that the kitchen had lost the order. Fair enough, it happens. The manager said she’d get it right out. Next thing a waitress appears with a free rosemary bread. My boyfriend pointed out that I couldn’t eat it but we appreciated the attempt. Soon after our food arrived and the waitress then brought us over a GLUTEN FREE GARLIC PIZZA BREAD which pretty much made my night. They could do nothing wrong after that!

Our food was delicious and despite the initial bad experience (which we were given on the house due to the long wait and the fact that I couldn’t even eat my full meal since I had to dash off to a rehearsal five minutes after it arrived), I’ve been back twice because the staff are always lovely and do their best to make my dining experience enjoyable. And the sorbet is to die for! I’m going to try the pizza next time too!

Fratelli Sarti
LOCATION: Glasgow

Sarti’s is my all time favourite restaurant. We’ve been going there on every family birthday, anniversary, special occasion etc for years now and I was delighted when my dad phoned up and found out that they’d started doing gluten free pasta. We mentioned that I was coeliac on arrival, and I was pleased to notice that the menu stated that gluten free pasta was available. My dad had been told on the phone that they did gluten free bread but it wasn’t marked on the menu and I didn’t want to make a fuss and ask.

I ordered my usual favourite (pasta pomodoro) with the gluten free pasta and the order went off to the kitchen. It took a little longer than usual, as gluten free meals often do, but it was just as delicious as I remember it. I know pomodoro always sounds boring since it’s just a plain tomato sauce, but Sarti’s do it best! My mum asked them what they put in it one time and I know carrot and celery are both on the ingredients list! I don’t cook very well so this seems a bit random to me but it obviously works. We love it so much that we used to buy the sauce in bulk to have in the freezer! They stopped selling the sauce on its own a couple of years ago so I hadn’t been able to have it since my diagnosis until they started doing the gluten free pasta.

Sarti’s is still my favourite restaurant in Glasgow and probably always will be. My family couldn’t even find food that compared to it when we were on holiday in Italy in 2006! I’m so glad that it’s still somewhere I can go and enjoy a meal just like I used to.

Massimo
LOCATION: Glasgow

I performed in the musical ‘Anything Goes’ in November and the aftershow party was at a restaurant called Massimo. I was definitely concerned about the gluten free options as it was advertised as a buffet. However, after speaking to the organiser, I was told there would be gluten free options for the three gluten free diners in the cast – hooray! On arrival I was asked what kind of pasta I wanted. A little bemused, I said something tomato based. I’m not a fan of cheese so tomato is always the way forward. Just before the buffet opened, I was presented with a massive plate of pasta.

It was delicious and cooked to perfection – something I’ve always found that restaurants struggle with. There weren’t any other gluten free options available that I knew of but the pasta was enough. I’d never even heard of Massimo before and now it’s definitely somewhere I’d look in to going again. I would like to see what the service is like during a busy night instead of at a pre-booked buffet at midnight!

Di Maggio’s
LOCATION: Glasgow

Di Maggio’s is a very popular Italian chain in Glasgow. There are seven in the area and almost everyone has been at least once. I always enjoyed the food at Di Maggio’s and on Christmas Eve when I was out for dinner with a few friends, that was where we found ourselves. The menu only mentions gluten free pasta so I’m unaware of other options on the menu but there might be some available. I’d always choose to have pasta so I didn’t concern myself with looking for other options although other coeliacs might not have the same fondness of pasta as I have! The menu just says to ask about other allergens.

The pasta was, typically, a little undercooked but still tasted good. I probably wouldn’t choose to eat at Di Maggio’s over the other Italian restaurants in Glasgow but it’s handy for when you decide to go out at the last minute! I’ll try and ask next time about the other gluten free options on the menu and post updates here for you all.

WEBSITES

Ask Italian
Sarti’s
Massimo’s
Di’Maggio’s

Eating Out: Prezzo

LOCATION: Braehead, Glasgow

My work is right next to Prezzo, with only a waist height glass wall separating our restaurants, so quite often staff from HBC order food from Prezzo on our breaks. After watching my friend Alex munch through a pizza the other day, I decided I would see if they had any gluten free bases and get one myself.

I took quite a big risk as I was busy and Alex spoke to the waitress for me. She checked that they had gluten free bases and ordered me one. When another staff member wanted a pizza five minutes later, the waitress asked Alex if that one was gluten free too. When the pizza arrived Alex checked that it was gluten free for me and brought it over.

My first impression was how small it was compared to my boyfriend’s regular one. It’s quite a substantial size difference. However it does taste really good. I found the base to be quite light and fluffy instead of the usual dense feeling of gluten free bases. And it didn’t make me ill so they must have good cross contamination control methods.

I probably wouldn’t ever choose to eat in Prezzo but at least I know they have an option for me now – when they have them in stock anyway!!

Eating Out: SoHo on Miller Street

LOCATION: Glasgow City Centre

I’m trying to venture away from the standard chains, and look for more independent and local restaurants to eat at. I used Urbanspoon to search for gluten free friendly restaurants in Glasgow and there’s a huge choice. Since Italian food is my favourite, I decided to go for SoHo on Miller Street which was near the top of the list. Their website says that gluten free pasta is available and when I booked a table for my boyfriend and I, I made sure to put that I was a gluten free diner.

When we arrived at SoHo, the waitress took my name and then said to the manager that we were here who asked us which one of us was eating gluten free. He told me that I could have pasta, but they are still looking in to gluten free pizza bases. He also said that although he was giving us the pre-theatre menu, if I wanted something different they’d be happy to still give me the pre-theatre price which I thought was a pretty good deal since the pre-theatre is obviously more limited. The waitress was lovely and asked me one of the stereotypical gluten free questions – “can you eat potatoes?” so she obviously wasn’t too clued up on the full details of Coeliac but she was helpful and understood what I wanted.

I played it safe by ordering parma ham and melon as a starter. For my main course I had Rigatoni Picante – on the menu as “pasta tubes in pepperoni, cream and tomato sauce”. The food was lovely and my only criticism would be that the pasta was typically under cooked like in most restaurants attempting gluten free pasta. The sauce had fantastic flavour and my boyfriend even tried it and enjoyed it. The only dessert on the pre-theatre menu that I could have was the ice cream, but it was a massive bowl which made up for the lack of choice.

It was a really busy Saturday night so we felt we didn’t get as good service as you might if you went in for lunch on a weekday, but we work in hospitality so we understand how difficult it is. The waitress did come over for a chat after we’d paid which was nice. She spent about 5 minutes chatting to us when she was clearly rushed off her feet.

If you’re out and about in the Glasgow area then I definitely recommend SoHo. The atmosphere is great, the food is great, the drinks are great, and it’s all decently priced. For your non-gluten free eaters, they have a fantastic pizza range and they did look absolutely delicious. Hopefully they’ll be doing some gluten free pizza in the future!

Check out the SoHo website HERE.

Eating Out: Jamie’s Italian

LOCATION: Westfield Stratford City, London

On our mission to find somewhere for dinner in Westfield we had popped in to Jamie’s to ask if they did gluten free pasta. They did! Hooray! Although we went elsewhere that night, we did decide to eat lunch in Jamie’s Italian the following day.

After being seated, I asked the waiter what was available and he said they had gluten free fusilli pasta and I could have it with any of the sauces. But again, the fries weren’t gluten free because of the cooking method. I chose to go for my standard Italian restaurant food – bolognese!

It was supposed to be served with tagliatelle, but I got it with the gluten free fusilli. It was without a doubt the nicest bolognese I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant. I like my pasta with a lot of sauce and this was perfect. Not only was it delicious, the gluten free pasta was cooked to perfection – something I’m finding a lot of restaurants seem to have difficulty with. My mum had the free range chicken – grilled garlic & rosemary chicken with a tomato, olive, chilli & caper sauce – which I tried and was also delicious. The waiter was really helpful, running back to the kitchen to ask if the chicken was gluten free so that I could try it.

The waiter also pointed out the items on the dessert menu that I could have. I had the “Minty Lemon Granita” which according to the online menu comes with biscotti and ice cream…but I didn’t get either of those with it! It’s basically crushed ice with some mint and some limoncello. Delicious!

I’d eat at Jamie’s again. I know there’s one in Glasgow and I can’t wait to try it. The staff are really helpful and the food is great! Next time I might ask if I can have chicken with a side of pasta since I can’t have the fries.

RE Bella Italia and Gluten Free Garlic Bread

Some of you might remember that in my Bella Italia review (HERE) I mentioned that they should do some gluten free garlic pizza bread since they already have the gluten free pizza bases there. I emailed in some feedback and mentioned this and got this reply.

“Thank you for your comments.

We hold a lot of importance in our gluten free menu. We are regularly looking at ways to improve this menu, so that we are able to offer a wider range of dishes for our Ceoliac customers. Please be assured that your comments regarding having a gluten free garlic bread option will be passed onto our menu developers who regularly review customer feedback.

Kind regards,

Jodie Rendell
Customer Services
Tragus Group”

So hopefully this is something we’ll see added in the future. In fact, next time I’m in I might just ask if they can do some just for me!

Eating Out: Bella Italia

LOCATION: Braehead, Glasgow

Italian food is my favourite so being unable to eat regular pasta is a huge problem for me. I’m on the look out for any Italian restaurants where I can get gluten free food, especially ones where I don’t have to bring my own pasta! Bella Italia is one of those places.

They have a really great little gluten free menu, a lot of things on it sounded delicious and there wasn’t a burger in sight! I’ve never really eaten there much before and I was really impressed by the choice of food on the main menu too as I had a quick look at it to see what I was missing out on! Being my usual boring self I went for the bolognese and specified that I needed gluten free pasta.

It asks you to allow 20 minutes cooking time for gluten free pasta and it took about that for our meals to come so definitely allow for that extra cooking time if you’re trying to eat out in a hurry.

When we asked for the dessert menus the waitress remembered I was eating gluten free and brought me back the gluten free menu to choose my dessert. The dessert choice consists of a selection of ice cream flavours and raspberry sorbet. I had the raspberry sorbet which came with a wafer on it but I pretended not to see it and quickly passed it to my boyfriend. It says on the gf menu that it should come without a wafer but I just think my boyfriend forgot to mention that when he ordered it (I wasn’t there at the time) so I didn’t make a fuss about it. It didn’t contaminate my sorbet at all.

Overall my Bella Italia experience was great and I’ve already been back. I think I’ll try pizza next time since they even have gluten free pizza bases on the menu!!

One thing I think their menu lacks is some gluten free garlic bread! If you can do gluten free pizzas, you can do gluten free garlic pizza bread! I’m going to email in and suggest it and hopefully it’ll be added in the future.