We enjoyed a trip to the rather excellent new cafe, Coffee and…? on Abbeydale Road last weekend. I started to hear great things about the gluten free waffles here on the Sheffield Gluten Free Facebook Group, and I am a big fan of waffles, so this was prioritised.
As with lots of our trips out these days, this started with a dog walk (the cafe is dog friendly as well – bonus) in Ecclesall Woods and then popped through Millhouses park to avoid spending too much time on the main road.
I’d already emailed the owner in advance to check out the gluten free credentials. They have a separate waffle maker for gluten free waffles, which is essential. They did, of course, warn about flour and bread being present in the kitchen, but they do take reasonable precautions to minimise cross contamination risk – clean bowls & utensils etc. (As my own kitchen isn’t even fully gluten free, I’m usually happy to give places a go if they sound like they know what they’re doing.)
We arrived about 12.30 and the place was packed, but we didn’t have to wait too long for a table and we were soon enjoying teas and coffees.
Also on the menu were some classic breakfasts (gf options available), salads and interesting brunches like Turkish eggs and mushroom Florentine, but I was here for the waffles, so let’s focus on those.
There are three savoury and three sweet options. For the savoury, a choice of smoked salmon (avo, poached eggs, hollondaise etc), chicken (avo, pickled pink onions, poached eggs, sweet chilli) and mushroom (creamy garlic sauce, spinach, poached eggs). I went for the chicken one but I’m not a massive fan of poached eggs, so I had halloumi instead from the extras.
I’m sure you’ll agree, this was a rather fine waffle: a really decent portion and generously loaded.
But what you can’t tell from the photo was how good the actual waffle was. I have a waffle maker which I use regularly so I know how heavy a gluten free waffle can be. But the texture of this was very light and airy. I very rarely say this, but you would not know this was gluten free. The owner said the first few attempts at a gluten free waffle had been terrible, but they persevered to improve the recipe, and they have completely nailed it.
There are three sweet options, which were pistachio and raspberry, nutella and banana, and berries and cream with meringue. My son had the banana one (not the gluten free version) and I was going to upload a picture, but I only took a video of it, so I guess I’ll just have to go back.
I was way too full for any kind of dessert but we decided to treat ourselves to a little something from the cake counter to take home. There were a few gluten free options including Lamington cake and chocolate and banana bread (stored in the display above all the gluten containing ones). I bought the last piece of GF egg custard, which I enjoyed very much later on with a nice cup of tea.
Coffee and…? is a small cafe that doesn’t take bookings so either get there early or be prepared to wait a little while – the waffles are worth it.
We recently went out to have a send off for a family friend who’s off to study and play rugby in the States.
We decided to try Gillson’s Brasserie on Ecclesall Road, which has replaced Patoo Thai.
I was intrigued when I found out about this new brasserie because it’s owned by the same people who have Gill’s & Co wine bar further down the road, where we had a lovely meal (not to mention a few too many glasses of wine) and they were great with the coeliac precautions.
They also own a cocktail bar called The Gilmont so they are developing a bit of a monopoly on Eccy Road.
Whilst the menu had gluten free items marked on already, my very thoughtful friend had phoned ahead to check they could cater for me.
For my starter, I ordered the crispy fried ham hock terrine with minted pea puree and pickled radish. As you can see, it was incredibly vibrant, with two chunky croquettes and the contrasting puree and pickle. I loved it – a fantastic starter. Accompanied by a rather wonderful dry rose wine, which we shared.
Other options were a crab and prawn cocktail, or a sun-dried tomato, basil and butterbean pate – which unfortunately wasn’t available.
Most people went for Sunday lunch for mains – they had belly pork, beef sirloin, supreme of chicken or a nut roast. These were generous portions with giant Yorkshire puddings that obviously don’t come with the GF version, but apparently their stuffing is gluten free, so it’s only the Yorkie that’s missing for coeliacs, which makes it a pretty good option. I can see that’s potentially an inflammatory statement here in Yorkshire, but we have to take what we can get, don’t we?
I opted for the lighter sea bass with samphire, peas, mussels and a white wine sauce, and I shared some tenderstem broccoli with my friend. Lots of greens! A generous portion of fish too, cooked to perfection, I’d say, with a wonderfully crispy skin. No complaints on this either.
I like to squeeze in a dessert for the purpose of the blog – very selfless of me, I know. There was only one GF on offer and it was a mango and coconut creme brulee, so I had that and it was very nice. You never get quite the same texture with vegan ingredients so it wasn’t quite as silky as a dairy based one, but it had the flavour and the caramelised sugar crunch nailed.
Price-wise, it wasn’t bad at all for the quality of the food. The roasts ranged from £19-£25. My sea bass was a little pricier at £28 but the portion justified it. Caesar salad was the cheapest GF main option at £19 or you could push the boat out on fillet steak for £39.
The potato selection is also strong here, with fries, mash, truffled Dauphinoise (yes please) and buttery news all GF.
All in all, it was an excellent meal worthy of our celebration.
After over a decade of grappling with an increasingly cumbersome linear listing of restaurants, I’ve finally gone and built a map to show all the gluten free places in Sheffield!
If you tried to click on that, sorry – it’s just a screenshot. The real thing is on its own new page and you can navigate to it from the menu at the top right.
I’d love to hear what you think about it so please drop me a comment on here or a message on the socials.
I’ve added loads more places, so there are now over 100 on there, with a few still to go on. Lots of them don’t have reviews, but I figured it was better to have a more comprehensive map than only places I’ve written about.
If you know of anywhere I’ve missed, please let me know – it’s super quick to add new places now.
After wrangling about how to organise the markers, I’ve chosen to split out the ones that are either 100% gluten free or accredited to Coeliac UK. So if you want somewhere really safe, those places are nice and easy to find – just look for the green markers.
You might notice the site has had a general overhaul, as I’ve bitten the bullet and moved to a more modern theme on WordPress. Because it’s a minimalist design, the navigation is a bit hidden on small screens – you just need to select the two lines on the top right to see it.
In a couple of months, I will retire the original listing page, as keeping both pages updated will be quite a lot of work, and regular visitors will probably know I haven’t been completely on top of the listing over the last couple of years. However, now it’s up to date, I’m planning to do an annual check of everywhere on the map to make sure it stays that way.
If you’ve made it to this point, here’s a link to the map – enjoy and please let me know what you think!
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Groke is a very rare gem for coeliac dining – a brunch cafe that specialises in gluten free. I normally avoid brunch out completely, as there are so few places I’ve found I can enjoy it – partly because of the cross contamination risk from a hundred bread products, and partly because it’s one of those meals where you generally end up with something inferior. But not here…
In owner Tom’s words, “Groke has a brunch menu where coeliacs aren’t an afterthought.” A recently diagnosed coeliac himself, safe gluten free dining has been a priority since the beginning.
The opportunity for a visit came up a couple of weekends ago, when the weather was lovely and both of my teenagers were away. We decided to take the dog for a walk up the Five Weirs Walk and enjoy a quiet brunch out.
The cafe’s menu is relatively subtle with its references to gluten free (understandably not wanting to put gluten eaters off), saying all dishes can be gluten free – but all they do is switch the bread out, as all the other ingredients are already GF. I’m told by Tom that the kitchen is mostly gluten free, with a special area for bread with gluten in. As we know, it’s usually the other way round.
Inside the cafe, the gluten free credentials are a little bolder, with this fabulous selection of home bakes, all of which are gluten free.
The weather was lovely, as it’s been for weeks now, so we sat outside on the terrace overlooking the river and ordered a coffee whilst we perused the menu. There are all day breakfasts, brunch dishes, burgers and toasties, which can be served with beer, wine, cider and cocktails as well as coffee – nice.
The all day breakfasts are as you’d expect – a meat, veggie and vegan option. Brunch dishes include eggs Florentine, ham hock Benedict, Turkish eggs, hummous toast and bircher muesli. I made a slightly shameful order of huevos rancheros but with the titular eggs substituted for bacon and asparagus. Perhaps another reason I don’t eat brunch out is that I’m not a fan of poached and fried eggs – I can do a scramble as long as it’s got some other flavour with it – but I am a fan of refried beans, smoked tomatoes, coriander, sour cream and chilli oil on sourdough, and these were wonderfully accompanied by my bacon and asparagus. It was all rather divine – once I’d got over the slight embarrassment of ordering it. Perhaps I should come up with a name for it.
We were full after our brunches and a couple of coffees, so off we went for our walk. On the way back, we called in for a takeaway bake to have in the garden at home. We bought a caramel slice (aka millionaire’s shortbread) and a piece of apricot and pistachio flapjack and had half each.
I’m looking forward to going back here – brunch out seemed particularly decadent for me, and I could definitely get used to it. Or maybe we could go a bit later in the day and try a burger. The halloumi and red pepper stack with slaw, pickles and smoky baharat sauce sounds wonderful. Veggies and vegans are very well catered for here, as Tom is also vegetarian.
And in case you’re wondering how to pronounce Groke, as I was, it’s phonic and rhymes with broke (rather than broker, which I thought it might be, expecting it to be a Scandinavian word). It’s a word I’d never come across before, an old Scots word meaning to stare at someone’s plate hoping they will share their food. I won’t be sharing any of mine, so you’ll have to order your own!
Groke 1a Kelham Square,Kelham Island, Sheffield S3 8RY
It’s been 11 years since we last went to Silversmiths on Arundel Street in what’s known as Sheffields “Cultural Industries Quarter”. Back in 2015, it was brilliant for gluten free, but it subsequently went through a series of ownership changes and different chefs and for a while lost its gluten free offering altogether.
The most recent revamp retains their focus on locally sourced ingredients and refined cooking but the menu is more gastro-pub / a-la-carte than fine dining and small plates. Happily, it now has a great selection of gluten free dishes on the menu again, so it was time to give it another visit.
The summer menu was fairly limited, but I don’t mean that in a bad way at all as sometimes long menus can be a bit overwhelming. This one contained five starters, six mains and six desserts to choose from and just over half of those were marked gluten free, as well as most of the sides (including the beef fat chips). Price-wise, it was quite reasonable, with £7-12 for the starters and £20-25 for mains.
For a starter, I ordered Korean beef jerky, which came with a pickled slaw and fried shallots. I was absolutely delighted when the waiter came out to say our food would take a little longer than normal so they could be extra careful on the cross contamination. That’s exactly the kind of reassurance I like. And we didn’t even have to wait that long really.
The flavour of the beef was brilliant, with a warming blend of spices that contrasted well with the pickles, although I will say it was maybe a touch too dried; it certainly wasn’t easy to stab – but I still enjoyed it. If ordering again, I’d probably opt for the curried scallop or the braised fennel with goat’s cheese, which I’d struggled to choose between.
My main course was red mullet, which was cooked beautifully and served with lemon herb potatoes, samphire and a pineapple and red onion salsa. The dish tated excellent, with the fish cooked perfectly, lovely, salty samphire, and the tangy salsa was absolutely delightful. The only problem was that the fish was a bit on the small side – in the picture, those potatoes were not massive.
My husband chose the steak, which was also gluten free, and a much more generous portion as you can see in the photo. That came served pink with carrots, mushrooms, potato cubes (not the technical term!) and a Bearnaise sauce.
I wasn’t planning to say anything about the dinky fish, but my friend took it upon herself to mention it to the staff and they did acknowledge it was a bit on the small side. To make up for this later, they said my dessert would be on the house, which was a nice touch, and much appreciated.
Here is said dessert – a very rare thing indeed, a gluten free lemon meringue pie, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a very decent slice, with freshly blow-torched soft meringue on the top. It went down very nicely with my Bakewell tart cocktail to round off the meal and a lovely night out.
So a very different experience to last time, but I would recommend it. Great-tasting food, plenty of gluten free options and what felt like a very reasonable price.
Food shopping is definitely a challenge when you’re newly diagnosed. Gluten’s everywhere you look, in all of your favourite products, and it might feel like you’ll be restricted to shopping from the ‘free from’ aisle for ever…
I can’t lie, it is a bit of a frustrating experience when you realise you have to totally change how or where you shop, but it’s really manageable, once you get into the swing of it. Here are a few tips to get started.
We can categorise supermarkets into a few sections:
1. Unprepared food
This is the easiest bit. You can eat pretty much anything that has either no packaging or an ingredients list of one item – the fresh fruit and veg, and uncooked meat and fish sections are your friends – you can have the vast majority of products in those aisles.
2. The ‘free from’ aisle
Most British supermarkets have a free from aisle to make it easier to find things like gluten free pasta, bread, cereals, biscuits and cakes. All the supermarkets stock slightly varied product lines and even brands, so it’s worth exploring several shops and find out what’s where. There are loads of goodies to try.
One thing to bear in mind is while most of the free from items are gluten free, it also covers nut free, dairy free and other allergies, so don’t assume absolutely everything is GF. For example, something could be wheat free but not gluten free. Products in the free from aisle usually say if they’re gluten free on the front, so it’s easy to spot.
Free from ranges will be considerably more expensive than their regular counterparts – take a deep breath. Things like bread, biscuits and cakes can be two to three times more expensive, but some of the bigger supermarkets are starting to stock quite reasonably priced GF pasta and cereals.
Budget supermarkets don’t always have free from sections but you usually find one in your local shops like Co-ops, Sainsburys Local and Tesco Express.
Here are some of my go to free from items:
Flour – I use Doves Farm plain, self raising, and oat flour. For cornflour I tend to use Brown & Polson
Bread – M&S oaty loaf for sandwiches, Warburtons wraps, Warburtons tiger loaf, Genius spicy fruit loaf, Schar paninis
Crackers – I usually have some Nairns seeded / wholegrain GF crackers, but I love M&S’s Made Without cheese crackers, which are so thin, crispy and salty.
Cereals – Nestle GoFree rice pops and corn flakes. Freee Cinnamon Hoops and Maple Sunrise (for a bit more flavour, but also more sugar)
Pasta – all supermarkets have decent GF pasta but my favourite is Garofalo fusili (spirals). For macaroni, I use Orgran
Biscuits – Schar have loads of choice e.g. custard creams, bourbons
Snacks – Schar also do great breadsticks & snacks like pretzels and taralli, which are like round breadsticks
Snack bars – we usually have some Trek flapjacks and Nature Valley peanut and chocolate cereal bars in for packed lunches
3. Accidentally GF
You can eat some of the regular prepared foods that come in in tins, jars and packets, but this is where you need to put the effort in. You’ll find loads when you get your eye in, but they might not shout about being gluten free, so this means you’ll need to get good at reading the ingredients lists. There are a few simple rules to follow:
In the UK, allergens need to be highlighted in some way on the ingredients list e.g. bold font (we’re looking out for wheat, barley, rye and oats). So firstly, check for that. Secondly, look a little lower down for any ‘may contain’ statements e.g. ‘may contain gluten’ or ‘not suitable for coeliacs’. As coeliacs, we shouldn’t be eating food that could be cross contaminated. The reason for ‘may contain’, could be something like it’s made on the same production line as a wheat-containing product. Best to avoid.
In summary, if wheat, barley, rye, oats, or gluten are not mentioned on the packet and there is no ‘may contain’ statement, it’s safe to eat.
For an extra level of confidence, or it may be quicker for you, you can use Coeliac UK’s food checker. This is an app that’s free to download if you’re a member of Coeliac UK, and it has a barcode scanner and product search, so you can check items quickly.
Here are a few examples of accidentally GF foods that you might not expect to be able to eat: some flavours of Ben & Jerry / Haagen Daaz ice creams (e.g. Phish Food, Karamel Sutra), some Magnum ice creams, most jarred pesto, lots of own brand supermarket sausages, M&S / Sainsburys prawn crackers, Tyrells & Seabrook crisps, McCain oven chips, popcorn, cooking stock e.g Kallo and Knorr, Heinz beans and tomato ketchup, microwave rice. And best of all (in our opinion), Cadbury Mini Eggs & Creme Eggs are both accidentally gluten free.
On the subject of chocolate, there are obviously a lot of bars you can’t have, and some brands will have a few bars that you can amongst many that you can’t. It’s a bit of a confusing landscape and there are far too many for me to list here, but you’ll get used to which you can have after a bit of research. When it comes to Christmas and Easter, keep your eyes peeled online, as brilliant bloggers like Becky Excell will often create a comprehensive list of what is gluten free in all the supermarkets. You definitely don’t need to be restricted to the free from offerings at Christmas and Easter.
4. Gluten containing
Obviously, there are a lot of foods that do contain gluten – you might as well avoid the bakery aisle and the biscuit aisle – but that still leaves us with plenty of options.
A few brands I can think of where we need to avoid all their products are:
Walkers
Kelloggs
Hotel Chocolat
Terry’s chocolate
Soreen
Tonys Chocolonely
5. Drinks
When it comes to alcohol, beers and other fermented drinks are the main things to avoid, although there are now plenty of GF beers on the market – there are usually some in the free from aisle. But wine, port, cider, spirits and liqueurs are all gluten free. Distilling removes gluten so even drinks like whisky (which is made from barley) are gluten free. It’s worth checking the ingredients of pre-mixed cocktails or seltzers to make sure they are safe.
Most soft drinks and carbonated drinks are gluten free. The main thing to avoid there is squash that contains barley.
Basic tea bags and coffee (instant, beans, ground) tend to be gluten free. It’s worth checking the ingredients list for flavoured teas and coffees or syrups just in case of gluten containing ingredients or cross contamination.
Unless you’re loaded, you’ll probably do most of your eating at home, so getting to grips with buying food, what to cook, and eliminating cross contamination are essential. But getting started with the gluten free diet can feel daunting and baffling, as once you start to look for it, gluten seems to be literally everywhere and in most meals – Cereal at breakfast? Sandwich for lunch? Pasta for tea?
There are plenty of brilliant gluten free cook books and online resources available (my go-to GF authors would be Becky Excell, Phil Vickery, Deliciously Ella). But other than baking, most recipes for meals are adaptable – so there’s no need to throw your recipe books out. You’ll often find a few ingredient switches will make a recipe safe for the gluten free diet.
Some switches are obvious e.g. swap normal pasta for GF pasta, rice noodles instead of wheat noodles, use GF flour to thicken a sauce, and remember you’ll need to use GF oats)
However, some ingredients are a bit sneaky and you have to know if they contain gluten. A few examples are:
Soy sauce – you can buy gluten free ‘tamari’ soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce – use Sheffield’s Henderson’s Relish!
Couscous – it’s basically tiny pasta but you can buy a similar corn gluten free version, or use quinoa
Stock powder – make sure the brand you’re using is gluten free. I tend to use Kallo for meat stock and vegetable bouillon for veg stock.
Miso – white miso is gluten free, so use that
If you get adventurous and want to try Chinese cooking, use sherry instead of Shaoxing wine
Some ingredients are a bit confusing, such as malt vinegar and barley malt extract – the latter can be found in many breakfast cereals. Some people think they are ok for a gluten free diet because they have such a small amount of gluten in (due to the fermentation process) that they are under the critical safe level for gluten of 20 parts per million. But the advice has changed recently, so Coeliac UK is your definitive, up-to-date guide for these. And any other ingredients questions you have.
Another challenging ingredient can be dried pulses. These sometimes say they aren’t suitable for coeliacs, most likely due to cross contamination during the manufacturing process. My personal approach here is that I am happy to buy them and rinse and pick over them thoroughly to remove anything that shouldn’t be there.
When it comes to baking, it’s worth seeking out some reliable recipes that you can come back to. The cookery authors mentioned above might be a good start. Naturally flour-less cakes and sweet treats are great, but some things can’t be made without flour (pancakes, scones). Here are a few really easy recipes I like and make frequently:
Chocolate cake – Delia Smith’s squidgy chocolate cake – This gets made for most birthdays in my house. I don’t tend to make Delia’s chocolate filling, as I find it sets too hard and is very rich. I usually cheat and use some pre-made frosting, with whipped cream
Cheese scones – Becky Excell’s recipe is excellent. I made them this weekend and accidentally put an egg into the mix with the milk (instead of saving it to be egg wash on top) and they turned into lovely little cheesy rolls instead – bonus!
Banana pancakes – my own recipe – delicious with bacon and maple syrup for a weekend breakfast
Flapjacks – BBC Good Food – these are plain but you can add fruit, dip in chocolate etc
Breakfast waffles – these Cookie and Kate waffles are so much better than shop bought GF ones. I use my waffle maker a lot! Probably worth a post in itself!
And what about your kitchen? Once you start looking, it’s probably full of gluten – do you need to get rid of all ingredients with gluten in? It would be easier to eliminate the possibility of cross contamination and certainly worth doing if you live on your own – but with a family, it’s definitely more expensive for the whole household to live gluten free. It’s fine to have a mixed kitchen as long as everyone is prepared to follow a few important rules to avoid problems. In our house it’s things like using spoons for jam and a designated butter knife to prevent crumbs from migrating by double dipping knives – and that’s much nicer anyway! Or you could have your own designated GF butter and a separate one for everyone else.
When I was the only coeliac in the house and everyone else was eating gluten, I made sure I thoroughly cleaned the prep space before making gluten free food, and I’d use the grill to make toast instead of using the toaster (on a piece of foil, if in a rush). However, now there are two of us, we have much less gluten in the house and it’s the gluten eaters who have their own prep space and the toaster is only used for gluten free bread. (The old one is in a cupboard, so it can come out if needed.) Most of our food is totally gluten free, so the main thing in the house with gluten in is breakfast cereal, which is easy to manage.
If you do have a mixed kitchen, you might need some rules on things like use of utensils while cooking – for example if you’re cooking gluten-containing and gluten free pasta at the same time, it’s important to have separate utensils for each and not mix them up. This can take a while to get the hang of, but you’ll work out a system that suits you.
Another tip is that regular dish soap and water is fine for cleaning utensils, crockery and cookware that have come into contact with gluten. When washing up, I do tend to wash anything that’s come into contact with gluten last though (e.g. beer glasses), and give everything an extra good rinse.
There’s a lot to get to grips with! I’ll save food shopping for next time.
I have recently been asked for recommendations for someone newly diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, so I’ve been putting a few thoughts together, which I’m going to cover in a short series of posts.
Firstly, changing your diet is a massive shock and getting used to it can have ups and downs, and at times be really upsetting or stressful. In the beginning it’s just about coping. Here are a few things that have helped me adjust over time and see the positives:
Try to think about all the things you can eat. That’s all meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, rice, dairy, nuts, pulses, herbs and spices. In their natural state they are all gluten free and can be combined in unlimited wonderful ways.
I found it helped once I could accept that some of my favourite foods are in the past and focused on finding new favourites, whether that’s go-to meals or sweet treats. There’s plenty to discover.
If you enjoy cooking, you can make pretty much anything gluten free, including things you’re missing out on like Chinese takeaway food or Yorkshire puddings. Don’t throw all your recipe books out – other than baking, many recipes can be adapted easily.
Once I got my head round what I can and can’t have in the supermarket, I tend to do my food shopping online, as it avoids me walking past all the food I can’t have.
As a mum and (for a while) the only Coeliac in the house, I found it weirdly helpful that I couldn’t eat all the sweets and treats the kids wanted – it forced me to stop scoffing everything in sight!
My food shopping morals had to be compromised a bit. Too much restriction is depressing and the price of gluten free food can be high, so it’s good to shop around – different shops have a different selection of free from products.
You will have to talk about gluten a LOT and think about it a lot – every single mealtime with little let-up. This can be overwhelming to begin with, but you get used to it and you’ll build up a set of stock phrases you can just rattle out.
My perception is that Coeliac disease isn’t as bad as an allergy, because there’s no risk of immediate death if you (or someone else) get it wrong. That’s not to say there are no consequences, but mine, at least, are relatively short-lived, if somewhat unpleasant and inconvenient. (I know it’s different for everyone though.)
This must be one of very few diseases where the treatment is changing what you eat, rather than medicine, injections or surgery. I was amazed when all the symptoms I had put up with for years disappeared because I stopped eating gluten.
You will get glutened at some point – it’s a learning process and once you get the hang of it, occurrences become rare.
Unless you have symptomless Coeliac Disease, you’re embarking on a food journey that will make you feel so much better and your body will begin healing itself. Good luck!
I’d love to hear other points of view about coming to terms with this big lifestyle change in the comments.
In the next few posts, I’m going to write about my experiences of food shopping and cooking at home, brands I’ve found I like, tips for eating out, eating with friends and family, and I’ll point to some of the really helpful resources out there on the internet. There is a brilliant online community of people on the same journey.
In the immortal words of Guns N Roses, welcome to the jungle. 🙂
Akentannos is a lovely Sardinian restaurant on Sharrow Vale Road. Since I last went, they have expanded into the adjacent building and, more importantly, have gone 100% gluten free – so when we were arranging a Christmas get together with some dear friends, we decided to go back.
A fully gluten free restaurant really is a massive treat for a coeliac. You get to choose anything on the menu and don’t have to ask tonnes of questions about the food and how it’s cooked, or worry about cross contamination. It really takes the stress out of eating out. It also shows the breadth of food that can be made gluten free – the pictures below speak for themselves.
For starter, I had wild boar ham served with truffle honey, walnuts and pecorino cheese (top left), which was delicious. My husband had a (massive!) platter of cured meats and cheeses, and one of the boys had wild mushrooms, fennel sausage and mozzarella on crusty bread (top right). Our friends had a fish sharing platter, which included tuna, cod and salmon carpaccio, octopus salad and a pecorino and bottargo (fish roe) cream.
Unusually, I chose a pasta for main course and it didn’t disappoint (bottom right in the set of 6). The pasta were traditional Sardinian tiny shells served with a rich lamb ragu and pecorino cheese (Malloreddus con Sugo di Agnello). I chose it because I’m fairly certain I had this ragu in a risotto ball from Nue recently, and it really made me want the full dish! (I enjoyed it so much, I was inspired to try making my own ragu-containing risotto balls over Christmas, but that’s another post…)
Between us, we also had a seafood parpadelle (top right), fillet of beef slices with rocket and pecorino (bottom middle), pork shank with roast potatoes (bottom left), belly pork (top middle), fish stew (top left) and shell on king prawns (very bottom).
All the food was amazing, although a little rich for the teenagers in some cases. Given the cost (£16-23 for the pasta dishes and meat/fish main courses ranging from £19-32), I’d probably recommend this as a grown up treat more than a family dinner, but that all depends on your tastes.
***Update Jan 2025 – no longer fully GF but they do have options on the menu***
For my son’s fifteenth birthday we recently went to The Angel in Holmesfield. We haven’t been since it has changed ownership and become completely gluten free. We had some of our wider family with us as well and out of eight of us, three are coeliac, including the birthday boy, so definitely worth the drive out and not having to worry how much choice we’d have on the menu.
For my starter, I had onion bhajis – you can see from the picture they were quite spectacular and they tasted great – quite a rare treat. My younger son had the halloumi bites, husband had pork belly bites and my older boy had the arancini balls, which were a generous size with a perfectly crispy outside.
For mains, I fancied trying something a bit different so I had a lentil dosa, which consists of layers of lentil and sweet potato pancake with potato and spinach, pickled carrot salad and a drizzle of cashew cream. I ordered it with crispy chicken strips, which were great and indeed very crispy and crunchy, but there was quite enough on the plate without them. The birthday boy ordered a surf and turf of steak and prawns with chips and mushrooms, which went down very well – it was a huge portion and we couldn’t believe he polished it off. Other meals round the table were lamb shank, steak pie and chowder. All big portions and very much enjoyed.
We couldn’t resist the dessert. I was really quite full so I went for a mini-dessert, which was chocolate icecream served with a shot of Baileys – very nice. But between us, we also had a chocolate pudding and a sticky toffee pudding (nice custard pouring action shot!) and the birthday boy got a selection of desserts on a big plate. I have no idea how he fitted them in after the massive main course! I did try a scoop of the chocolate pudding and it was really lovely and soft.
All in all, we had a lovely time. It was, of course, delightful knowing we could eat absolutely anything on the menu, and being able to share a taste of what other people were eating was a bonus. Great food, nice setting, lovely evening.
