Restaurant Responses!

I've had some emails from a few of the restaurants I emails about gluten free items on their menus. The most exciting is Loch Fyne, the fish restaurant. Here is the response:

Please see list of dishes with gluten on our menu.

Starters
Salt and pepper squid
Fish soup
Peppered mackerel pate; but you can have it without the oatcakes
Islay beef salad; but you can have it without the croutons
Potted shrimp; but you can have it without the bread
Grilled oysters with garlic breadcrumbs; but you can have them without the breadcrumbs

Main courses
Bradan rost with horseradish sauce; but you can have it without the sauce
Home made fish stew
Crab cakes
Smoked fish pie
Linguine with sun-dried tomatoes

If there is anything else I can help you with please get in touch.
Regards
Jamie Sutherland
Loch Fyne Restaurants

Which leaves quite a lot of choice, although most of my favourites are on that list so I'll need to find some new options!

I also emailed Ask and Pizza Express not expecting much, but mainly to appease The Fiance, who seems to think these are the only two places to eat where we live. They were very helpful, but as you can imagine not much on their menus are gluten-free. The emails were as follows:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

We have considered offering wheat and gluten free pasta and pizzas but have previously found that the demand of our customers is insufficient to guarantee the freshness of the product. However we also wish to welcome everybody into our Restaurants to enjoy our food, service and atmosphere and not to exclude anyone through food intolerances or allergies. Therefore, we are happy to use wheat and gluten free pasta and pizzas provided by the customer to create our dishes with. It is recommended that the Duty Manager be advised either before or immediately on arrival in the Restaurant as we would not wish to cause unnecessary delay to any meals.
I am pleased to confirm that the pasta sauces and salad dressings listed below are gluten free:
Pomodoro sauce
Cream sauce
Creamy parmesan sauce (Carbonara)
Pesto sauce
Saffron sauce
Lime & dill dressing
Italian dressing
Honey & mustard dressing
Orange & tarragon dressing
Pesto dressing
Caesar dressing
Unfortunately our marsala sauce, bolognese sauce and desserts do contain gluten. However all of our ice creams are gluten free.
I hope this is of assistance to you and that we may welcome you to our Restaurants soon.

Sarah Evans Ask Restaurants Ltd Tel: 01727 735800 Fax: 01727 843806
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Thank you for contacting us regarding gluten free menu items. Unfortunately our pizza dough contains gluten as do all of our pastas. However, our salads such as Nicoise and Nostrana without dough sticks and house dressing would be suitable as well as chicken Caesar salad without croutons but with Caesar dressing (made from different ingredients to that of the house dressing) All of our restaurants will be happy to adapt these dishes for you on request. Hope that this is helpful

Katrina Lister

Quality & Safety PizzaExpress Telephone: 01895 263 152 Fax: 0845 389 9447 Email:

As The Musician pointed out, however, I would have to stress the importance of avoiding cross-contamination in these restaurants and their kitchens are full of pizza dough, flour and pasta. Be very careful.

Anyway, hopefully more of these to follow as more restaurants get back to me.