Steeliac

Category: Family

  • How to be a Coeliac – eating out

    How to be a Coeliac – eating out

    Once you’ve got the hang of eating at home, it can take time to build up confidence to eat away from home. You’ve learned all about how important it is to check the ingredients of everything and to avoid cross contamination. But how can you be sure other people would be as careful as you? How can you even begin to trust anybody else to cook for you? Where do you start?

    In this post, I’ll talk about what I’ve discovered about eating out in cafes and restaurants, and also eating at friends’ and family members’ homes.

    Eating out in restaurants and cafes:

    • The good news is, Coeliac UK have an accreditation scheme that a variety of restaurants have signed up to. Accredited restaurants work with Coeliac UK to make sure they are meeting strict gluten free standards including training staff how to take orders, cook and serve gluten free food safely. I just did a search for accredited restaurants in Sheffield and it returned 26 results. Don’t get over excited as lots of these are chains with multiple venues: Browns and Pho in the city centre, eleven branches of Dominos, seven Pizza Huts, four Pizza Expresses and two Miller and Carters. Not all of their food is gluten free (although at Pho, it’s the vast majority) but they will all have a good selection.
    • Very occasionally you’ll come across a fully GF restaurant or cafe. These tend to pop up where the owner/chef or a close relative is coeliac. There have been a couple of these in Sheffield that have come and gone, and only place I know of in Sheffield at the moment is the Sardinian restaurant Akentannos on Sharrow Vale Road. The owners also run a gluten free delicatessen on the same road called Nue (the arancini are amazing!). There’s also Darnton Coffee House in Barnsley, which isn’t a million miles away (but I’ve still not been). Obviously, you can totally relax in these places, as there is zero risk of cross contamination.
    • There are quite a few cafes and restaurants that have a separate gluten free menu or have dishes that are gluten free marked on the menu. Some places do gluten free really well, e.g. at Wagamama, they only allow managers to take orders from gluten free customers and your food will be cooked by the head chef. Even so, they still have a disclaimer on their website saying they can’t guarantee 100% gluten free because of other ingredients present. So this is where you have to use your judgement. Personally, I’m satisfied that in this case they are taking adequate precautions (I also have gluten present in my own kitchen) and I’ve never had a problem eating there.
    • But what if you’re not sure? Before you book, have a good look at menus online so you can get an idea of the menu options. When you arrive, it’s worth asking some questions to check how well they understand gluten free food. You can ask things like whether they have a separate preparation space for gluten free food? Or can they wipe down an area and use clean cooking utensils. An important question to ask for any fried food like chips is whether they have a dedicated fryer for chips or do they just bung them in with all the breaded items? Don’t make assumptions when it comes to chips – I’ve definitely been in places where they didn’t understand this.
    • In cafes and restaurants where they have cakes on display, this often gives you an idea of how good they are at managing allergens. If they have all the gluten free items at the top of the display or in a separate cloche, and they have dedicated tongs to pick them up, that’s a good sign. If the gluten free cakes are sitting right next to regular cakes, I’d exercise extreme caution. It’s definitely worth asking if the gluten free items were prepared and stored separately and if they have any that haven’t been put out on the counter.
    Lovely, gluten free mini Victoria sponges and mini carrot cakes protected by glass cloches
    Gluten free chocolatey goodies under a protective cloche

    Food on the go:

    • Food from street markets is very rarely ok for gluten free, in my experience, so food on the go tends to be more expensive because you can’t generally just grab a burger or sausage roll. You’re more likely to need to find a cafe or a supermarket where they have pre-packed sandwiches (M&S is usally reliable for a sandwich or wrap). Baked potato places are probably a good bet.
    • Some of the supermarkets and coffee chains have pre-packed gluten free options, but these have decreased unfortunately, as the focus has shifted onto vegan food.
    • In coffee shops, if you have a hot drink with steamed milk, ask them to wipe down the milk steamer because they tend to use the same one to heat oat milk, which generally contains gluten, so there is a cross contamination risk. Chain coffee shops usually have some pre-packaged cakes or flapjacks on the counter but you’re less likely to find savoury food, although I quite like the little egg bites in Starbucks for something a bit different.
    • Takeaways can be tricky, although as we’ve seen from the Coeliac UK accreditation, there are quite a few pizza options. Gluten free Chinese options are fairly rare, although people do recommend Simply Chinese in Dronfield, if you’re over that way. Fish & chip shops sometimes serve GF, often on the day they change the oil in their fryers. Occasionally, you’ll find a chippy that has a dedicated fryer like Neptune’s on Ecclesall Road that calls itself a gluten free specialist. Again, it’s about researching in advance.
    • Indian restaurants and takeaways generally have a few options, as they tend to use gram flour (from chickpeas) rather than wheat flour. You still need to ask some questions about cross contamination though, as all the breads and chapatis will contain gluten so they will probably still need to take extra care with preparing GF food. Poppadoms can be ok, but they generally need to be cooked in fresh oil so you do need to check.
    • Some reliable resources for looking for places to eat are: Coeliac UK, local gluten free groups on Facebook, local gluten free bloggers. I don’t tend to find TripAdvisor that useful, as people tend to over use the keywords. You do need to check the dates on any reviews or recommendations though, as so many places change hands.
    • For a more thorough search, I usually use Google maps to look for any cafes, pubs or restaurants then click through to their websites to look for menus – anywhere that has an online menu with a reasonable number GF items marked on makes it onto the shortlist.

    Here are a few tips from a more personal point of view:

    • I’ve found sometimes I just have to manage my expectations, especially if I’m not in charge of deciding where to eat (e.g. you’re out with work). Generally, you’ll be able to find something, it might just be a bit more plain that you’d like and there might be a choice of only a couple of things. The ubiquitous chocolate brownie is your friend…
    • Brunch and Sunday roasts out are disappointing in my opinion. Brunches tend to be a gluten fest and with Sunday roasts, you miss out on the best bits like stuffing, Yorkies and cauliflower cheese. We tend to eat lunch or evening meals out instead.
    • It’s not that easy to be spontaneous – you generally need to put in some research when eating out, and especially if you’re away from home.
    • Eating out does become less stressful, but you never get far away from having to talk about gluten. Get used to talking about it – a lot.
    Gluten free brownies over the years - 1 of 3, with a white chocolate drizzle, a scoop of ice cream, and a strawberry
    Gluten free brownies over the years - 2 of 3, with a caramel drizzle, pieces of cinder toffee and a scoop of vanilla ice cream
    Gluten free brownies over the years - 3 of 3 - naked, as it comes, on a a paper bag

    Friends & family

    • It’s important to make sure close family who you’ll be eating with understand about cross contamination, especially if you have a mixed kitchen or if you are eating at someone else’s house. It might take a while for people to get used to having different utensils for gluten free food and keeping crumbs out of the butter and jam. You’ll probably need to keep a close eye to begin with.
    • I found some of my friends really rose to the challenge and made a lot of effort to accommodate me with food, keeping the odd gluten free snack in, checking ingredients and being careful about contamination. However, a few people were just worried about making me ill and didn’t feel comfortable inviting me round for food anymore – social invites definitely tailed off a bit. Don’t be offended if this happens.
    • If you are eating at a buffet (e.g. a work function or a wedding), I recommend shamelessly getting to the front of the queue so you can serve yourself before people contaminate the gluten free options by waving bread rolls around and mixing up serving tongs.
    • One thing I’ve found useful is reusable toaster bags – you can pop a slice of GF bread in and use your friend’s toaster that isn’t gluten free. These are very useful for self catering holidays as well.
    • I often find if I’ve been to someone’s house, I end up leaving with a goodie bag of open packets of GF food, especially bread, biscuits or crackers, which I always find quite sweet. I’m unsure if it’s because I’ll get the benefit of it or they just don’t want to eat it – probably both!

    I hope this series of articles is useful for people who are new to the Coeliac game. If you’ve found this one first, here are links to my other recent articles:
    How to be a Coeliac – getting started
    How to be a Coeliac – eating at home
    How to be a Coeliac – food shopping

    Would love to hear any other top tips – please feel free to add into the comments

  • Delhi in Minutes

    Delhi in Minutes

    We took the kids and grandparents to try out the new Indian restaurant in Dore village that replaced Alma’s. Deli in Minutes was opened in summer by a couple who started a takeaway business during the Covid pandemic.

    It was great to see gluten free items clearly marked on the menu, and there were plenty of options, even for the starters.

    We ordered a selection to share, including onion bhaji, which was a real treat and came with a mint yoghurt dip. We also had Amritsari fish with Indian tartare sauce, tandoori prawns with garlic and tomato chutney, chicken tikka with mint yoghurt, and an Indian take on KFC, Kerala fried chicken. They were all presented very cleanly and were quite mildly spiced. And it was good to try something a bit different as well as some of the classics. I would have tolerated a bit of salad as an accompaniment and to use up some more of the sauces, but I imagine Indian restaurants must constantly be throwing away garnishes that don’t get eaten!

    The main courses were equally as good. Again, we ordered a selection to share so we all got to try plenty of different dishes. I’m a big fan of vegetarian curries and especially paneer cheese, so we had paneer Makhani, chana masala and the classic dal tadka. And for the meat lovers, the classic, crowd pleasing chicken korma alongside a Kerala fish curry and a coconut prawn curry.

    Prices are quite a range, with starters from £7 to £13.50 and mains from £9 to £18, so you can eat quite cheaply here, especially if you enjoy the veggie dishes.

    We couldn’t be sure if the poppadoms were gluten free, so we ended up avoiding those and had more starters instead, which was fine. I sometimes take a pack of GF poppadoms along to an Indian, and nobody ever seems to mind.

    34-36 High St, Dore, Sheffield, S17 3GU

  • Afternoon tea at The Rhubarb Shed

    Afternoon tea at The Rhubarb Shed

    I’ve been after an excuse to have afternoon tea at The Rhubarb Shed for ages – I’ve seen lots of recommendations on the Sheffield Gluten Free Facebook page. We’ve tried to book and not been able to get a table in the past, as it’s a popular place.

    Teapot saying 'drink me'
    Two tier stand containing an afternoon tea of sandwiches, pastries, scones and cakes
    a tray of sandwiches, pies and salad

    But we did manage to get a booking for my birthday a few weeks ago, and went with the family, and we had a brilliant time.

    The platters arrived not long after we’d poured our tea into the dainty cups – an eclectic collection of old fashioned tea cups, one of which my grandma used to have a set of. I opted for Earl Grey – I don’t generally buy it for home, so it’s a nice treat out and about.

    The two layer stand in the photo was a serving of gluten free afternoon tea for three people (3 coeliacs in the family!) and there was plenty of food to go round. They also do a dairy free and a vegan version as well as the regular afternoon tea. (They also have a regular gluten free menu which looks amazing – things like Oven baked goat’s cheese crositini, smoked fish hash and the fabulously-named Onion bhaji naan-wich!)

    The first course included your traditional finger shaped sandwiches – ham, chicken, cheese and egg mayo. We also each had a piece of sausage roll, pork pie and a cheddar and red onion marmalade tart, accompanied with a little pot of piccalilli, which was a great addition.

    Next we had a fruity scone with clotted cream and jam. A little on the crumbly side, but that didn’t matter.

    I have a decent appetite but even I was struggling a bit by the time it came to the sweets. We each had a small trifle in a jam jar and five squares of tray bake – ranging from tiffin and brownie to lemon cake and an almond type with fruit in. I managed the small trifle and one of the cakes, but we had to get a box to take the rest home. This afternoon tea was a proper Yorkshire portion!

    A lovely afternoon out! And reasonably priced at £25 per person (£22 for the non GF). I’ll definitely be going back to try out the rest of the gluten free menu.

    The Rhubarb Shed Cafe
    389 Manor Lane, Sheffield S2 1UL

  • The Angel – 100% gluten free

    The Angel – 100% gluten free

    ***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.

    two large arancini balls, a swoosh of dip and some green salad
    a plate with some belly pork and crackling
    a dish containing halloumi bites
    a plate with two mahoosive onion bhajis and a big bowl of mango chutney

    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.

    A lamb shank on potatoes and gravy
    a bowl of chowder and some bread on a board
    a big plate with a pie, thick chips, mushy peas and gravy
    a lentil dosa with crispy chicken strips
    Huge plate of steak, prawns, fries, mushrooms and some green stuff that didn't get eaten

    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.

    chocolate pudding with custard
    a big plate with happy birthday written in chocolate and five mini desserts on it
    a glass containing chocolate ice cream with a shot of Baileys poured on top
    A plate with a piece of sticky toffee pudding, surrounded by toffee sauce and with custard being poured on

    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.

    The Angel
    Main Road Holmesfield, S18 7WT

  • The Dore

    The Dore

    We’ve been to The Dore very soon after it opened in summer, and I’m only just getting round to writing about it. It’s taken so long that we’ve already been back, so I’ve got two meals to tell you about. This place is the new incarnation of what was, for 36 years, the Dore Grill. The owners are the same people behind The Bank House restaurant and cocktail bar in Hathersage, which also looks worth a try.

    The first time we went in the evening, there were just two of us and we sat inside. The restaurant has had quite a makeover so it’s got a glam-looking interior, with fun decor, playful art and fabrics, and a cherry blossom tree in the conservatory.

    The menu is Italian inspired and has gluten free and gluten free options marked on, which made it nice and easy. I started with a bavette steak, which was pretty generous – a chargrilled steak, cooked pink, with a tomato salsa and rocket leaves. A good Yorkshire portion and I really enjoyed it. Other options were soup, king prawns and burrata.

    For mains, I decided to try the Porchetta. This was rolled pork with garlic, sage and rosemary, a truffle and parmesan mash and some tenderstem broccoli. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the starter as there was quite a bit of fat in the roll – there was still plenty of meat though. To be fair to them, it probably wasn’t the best choice for me as I sometimes don’t enjoy belly pork. The actual meat was lovely though, and the mash was very flavoursome. Just a bit of extra “food admin” to get to the meat.

    Other main course options included Tuscan chicken, a GF version of their steak burger and pizzas, as well as salads. And their potato and sweet potato fries are also gluten free, which is a bonus!

    I had an apple and cherry crumble for pud; they also offer a creme brulee. Crumble is a fairly unusual GF offering in a restaurant, so I checked it really was gluten free! This came with both ice cream and creme Anglaise, which made it quite indulgent. The crumble was great, but it did have a slightly charred flavour as if it had been blow torched instead of oven baked.

    We went back recently with some family on a lovely, sunny day and sat outside under their big glass canopy for lunch. This time I decided to combine a couple of their starters to make my own salad. I forgot to take pictures of them separately, so here they are together – a burrata with sun blush tomatoes and balsamic vinegar dressing sitting on top of a pomegranate & rocket salad. It was a lovely, if unorthodox, combination.

    My mum, who’s also coeliac, had a goat cheese salad, which came with gem lettuce, raddichio, semi dried tomatoes and orange segments, with a generous topping of truffle. And the teenager had a carne pizza with ham and pepperoni. I have to say, the home made base was magnificent, although the topping was a little sparse – the regular version comes with meatballs as well and I don’t think they had been substituted with a bit more ham.

    Overall, plenty to choose from with light options and full meals – plus a good cocktail menu if that’s your thing. Starters range in price from £6.50 – £11. Mains £15.50 – £24, although their most expensive steaks are a fair bit more. Weirdly, none of their kids’ main courses are marked as GF option but two of them are pizza and burger, so I think they could probably be made GF.

    The gluten free experience was fairly sound and the staff were quite clued up, although I did point out they have marked a cous cous dish on the menu as gluten free, and that’s still showing at the moment. Just shows you can’t ever let your guard down…

    The Dore, Church Lane, Dore Sheffield S17 3GS

  • Mowgli

    Mowgli

    Indian street food chain Mowgli has been on the list to go to for quite a while, having had some good recommendations from friends. (If you’ve ever been past, you’ll know it as the place with swings in the window.)

    We managed to get there in half term as one of our staycation treats and the boys insisted on the swing seat tables, of course. Although we were there for an early tea and it was fairly quiet, the abundance of fairy lights and trees created a great atmosphere. Full marks for the styling – even the water bottles have their trademark monkeys on.

    Close up of water bottle with three monkeys on
    Two cocktails - lychee rose martini and chilli mango margarita

    We started with a cocktail while we perused the menu – mine was a Lychee rose martini, his a Chilli mango margarita. Definitely getting into the holiday vibe!

    Top marks, as always, for a clear gluten free menu with plenty of choice (well… “gluten friendly” with the usual disclaimers, but the staff were pretty clued up). We ordered a variety of sharing dishes – from top left in the pictures below: Sticky chicken, Maa’s lamb chops and turmeric chips, Tea steeped chickpeas and House keema (lamb), and on the second row, Treacle tamarind fries, then House Keralan chicken curry, Mowgli paneer and Mother butter chicken in the middle pic.

    Sticky chicken on a metal plate
    lamb chops with turmeric chips
    Tea steeped chickpeas and lamb keema
    Treacle tamarind fries covered with red onion and chillis
    Four dishes of Indian food: rice, Keralan chicen curry, paneer and mother butter chicken
    An assortment of Indian curry with rice on a metal plate

    That sounds like stacks! But they aren’t massive portions so two dishes per person was probably about right, with some rice. Everything came served in stacked tiffin boxes that were unpacked at the table, and we ate from hammered steel plates, so it all looked great.

    The boys’ absolute favourites hands down were the two sweetest dishes – the sticky chicken and the treacle tamarind chips. They got polished off very quickly. My favourite was probably the fragrant house Keralan chicken curry and I loved the turmeric chips that came with the lamb. I also really enjoyed the paneer and the chickpeas – I love Indian vegetarian food. Each dish had a totally different flavour and colour and I’d happily have any of them again. (The main course dishes ranged in price from £5 to £9.95.)

    We didn’t really need any pudding after all of that! But we had spotted that the gluten free menu contained a very rare offering indeed – a home made gluten free ice cream cone! Whaaat?! So there was no way we were leaving without trying that, and I’m assured it was brilliant, although I wasn’t offered any…

    I have a soft spot for mango lassi so I had that instead of a pudding, and it rounded off the meal nicely.

    Overall, we had a briliant experience at Mowgli and will definitely be back as there’s so much more to try! Next time, I’ll be leaving room for an ice cream cone, but we might just sit at a regular table.

    Mowgli
    631 Ecclesall Road, Sheffield S11 8PT

  • Nue delicatessen

    Nue delicatessen

    We’ve been very excited about the opening of this fully gluten free deli in Sheffield by the owners of Akentannos. Last weekend we had the chance to check it out, and bought a few bits for a picnic in Endcliffe Park whilst we were on a family walk.

    It was such a lovely feeling to walk in there knowing we could eat everything we could see, and not worrying about cross contamination. The counters were crammed with cooked meats and cheeses, pizzas, arancini balls, as well as various sweet treats – doughnuts, biscuits, croissants and three cakes in a separate display unit.

    Delicatessen counter containing meats, and cheeses
    Delicatessen counter containing arancini, pizzas and salads, all gluten free
    glass cloche containing gluten free sandwiches

    There are a few tables to eat in, but it was quite busy (excellent!) and we were on our walk, so we decided to take away. We ordered a couple of nduja arancini balls, and a mix of deli items in a takeout tray (aubergine, mushrooms, pork balls and courgettes). We had to try a jam doughnut and Steelymcsteel picked an empire biscuit as a second sweet treat.

    Gluten free arancini ball on a paper bag
    deli 'salad' containing pork balls, broccoli and roasted vegetables
    half a gluten free arancini ball
    A gluten free doughnut on a paper bag
    A gluten free jam doughnut broken in halves on a paper bag
    hands holding a gluten free empire biscuit

    I can’t say it was cheap, but I will say it was reasonable value, considering what I know of the cost of gluten free ingredients and challenges in cooking them. We loved the arancini – they were a really generous size and had a crunchy coating, with just the right level of nduja spice. The deli ‘salad’ was brilliant with delicately fragrant pork balls, marinaded vegetables and apparently the mushrooms were the best ever – very flavoursome. No complaints about the doughnut, which had a great texture and lots of tangy jam. The biscuit was an excellent shortbread, with plenty of icing.

    We really enjoyed these treats and are looking forward to our next visit. I hope it stays this busy!

    Nue, 276 Sharrow Vale Road, Sheffield S11 8ZH

  • Mavi Ruya

    Mavi Ruya

    For years, there was a little-used supermarket on Abbeydale Road in Nether Edge. Having changed hands at least once, it was eventually closed for good. We were incredibly surprised to hear it was being converted into a Turkish restaurant and couldn’t see at all how it would work.

    How wrong we were! Mavi Ruya is buzzing! We tried to book for a family meal one Saturday evening, but we couldn’t get a table, so we had to opt for Sunday tea time instead. When we arrived, they were turning away some speculative would-be diners. They are clearly doing something right.

    Once you step inside, you’d have no idea you were standing in an ex supermarket. They have gone to town on the design, with authentic-looking floor tiles, geometric wall surfaces and eye catching light fittings. The first things that greets you are a huge counter displaying all their meat on massive skewers and a wonderful chargrill spicy aroma.

    Once seated upstairs, we were given menus that appeared to have gluten free dishes marked on but it looked like they had only got as far as the mezze dishes. There were plentiful GF options here, with hummous, baba ganoush, halloumi and mushroom, prawns, Turkish sausage and others. However, the charcoal grill main courses didn’t seem to have any GFs. When we asked our waitress, we were told that although most of the meat elements are gluten free, many are served with bread and / or rice containing vermicelli. However, they do have a separate chip fryer, so any of the main courses can be served with chips instead, or baby potatoes. Phew! (Another significant component of the menu is Turkish pizzas, which are definitely not gluten free, but there remained plenty to choose from.)

    A dish very quickly arrived containing some very pillowy-looking bread in between two dips. Obviously that wasn’t gluten free at all, but we were immediately offered an alternative of the dips with cucumber sticks instead. To be honest, my initial reaction was disappointment about the lack of a gluten free bread for dipping, but in reality, we were better off with cucumber given the gigantic meals we were about to devour!

    We ordered a selection of mezze to share for starters, thinking they would be fairly tiny plates, but they were really quite big portions. You can’t really tell from the photo above, as I’ve only loaded up a one-person sized amount. But in all honesty, a couple more mezzes between us and we wouldn’t have really needed main courses.

    So we ate the starters reasonably slowly (the service was pretty fast) and they were all lovely. The halloumi was really soft and perfectly crisp on the outside, and the baba ganoush was deliciously light. We all enjoyed the garlic-y Turkish sausage. I’m not a big fan of mushrooms, but I’m told they were excellent as well.

    Then we had to prepare ourselves for our massive main courses. I had ordered Ali Nazik, from the specials, which is lamb shish served with baba ganoush* and a tomato sauce (with chips intead of rice) and SteelyMcSteel had the regular lamb shish, which came with a mountain of salad and chips (instead of rice and bread).

    * I’m starting to sound obsessed with baba ganoush, but in my defence, the menu described the ingredients of baba ganoush separately, “Chargrilled aubergines, garlic, tahini, yoghurt and lamb shish” so I was expecting lamb and chargrilled aubergine.

    I’d have been less over-faced with the shish and the salad, without the chips! However, it tasted brilliant and I did manage to polish off most of it.

    Needless to say, we didn’t have a dessert, but I don’t think there were many options there other than ice cream.

    Mavi Ruya
    593 Abbeydale Road Sheffield S7 1TA

  • The Florentine

    The Florentine

    Hot on the heels of our trip to Wagamama, my mother in law treated us to a meal out at the Florentine pub in Fulwood. It was a rather delayed re-booking from a Christmas that didn’t quite go to plan. But we were very happy to be the recipients of it.

    The Florentine is part of a pub chain that has a NGCI menu (no gluten containing ingredients), which is mostly steaks with a few other mains on offer. Unfortunately, the GF offering misses off the pizzas and most of the other mains, so it’s pitched at the pricier end of the menu. (The steaks range from £18 – £32 but the pizzas are £9 – £12.) On the plus side, they do have a dedicated chip fryer, so the chips are safe from cross contamination.

    We liked the quirky decor, such as the metal rhino above the fire place, lots of fun lighting and wallpaper made from classic Penguin books.

    I didn’t fancy mussels, salad or curry, so I opted for a sirloin steak, but forgot to take a picture – whoops! You can probably picture it though. The chips came in a little metal bucket and my peppercorn sauce in a ramekin. It was perfectly lovely.

    Thankfully, I did at least remember to photograph the puddings. There were 3 choices – the classic chocolate brownie, a chocolate and coconut praline torte and a summer fruit pavlova. I was in a chocolate brownie mood and was sold on it by the additional of caramel ice cream and honeycomb. (Lockdown has given me a serious sweet tooth!)

    The pavlova was giant, and was not fully defeated despite a valiant effort by my mother in law.

    All in all, it was a very nice meal in a fun setting with lovely staff, despite being run off their feet.

    The Florentine
    Tapton Park Road, Sheffield S10 3FG

  • Wagamama’s new menu

    Wagamama’s new menu

    August marked our first meal out in Sheffield in quite a while. We’ve hardly been into the city, but as a gift we had been booked on a CluedUp mystery game, where you have to solve a mystery by interrogating virtual suspects in various geolocations around Sheffield. It was a fun way to spend some time, although we were all glued to our screens for most of it!

    During the game, we dropped into Wagamama in Leopold Square for a late lunch, as I had seen they’ve expanded their gluten free menu (choose the ‘non gluten’ section on their menu page.

    Whilst not the most extensive gluten free offering, Wagamama do put some effort into allergens, with a separate menu for gluten free (and one for vegan) and all allergen orders taken by a manager. So it’s quite a reassuring place to eat.

    We shared some salted edamame, and SteelyMcSteel and I shared some prawn kushiyaki as a starter (or side dish, as they come from the kitchen in any order).

    For mains, I had a ‘Shiok’ chicken, which is chicken marinated in turmeric, garlic and ginger on coconut and lemongrass dressed rice. It’s served with a tangy pickled slaw, radish, lime and coriander. It was dry rather than saucy, but wonderfully fresh flavours. And there are no filters on the photo – it really was that colourful.

    I washed it down with a fun looking can of East By East cider, made from supermarket surplus apples – what a great idea!

    SteelyMcSteel had a mahoosive bowl of chicken ramen. It was actually so big it defeated him. And it would have fed us both, to be fair.

    Despite not really having room, I decided to try the new GF dessert, a flourless chocolate orange cake with miso caramel ice cream. It was lovely but it certainly wasn’t light! A very chocolatey torte, rather than a cake. The strong chocolate drowned out the delicate miso flavour of the ice cream a little, but it was nice to try something with some imagination.

    I’d certainly say Wagamama was going in the right direction.

    Wagamama
    2 Leopold Square, Sheffield S1 2JG