I am lots of gluten free choices!

Cafe Gratitude

Cafe Gratitude has to be one of the most unique places I’ve ever eaten at. They have a few locations throughout the Bay Area , including Berkeley and Oakland but I ate at the one on Harrison Street, San Francisco. The menu is 100% organic and 100% vegan and mostly comprised of raw dishes and only a few cooked foods.

In terms of gluten free dishes, they claim to offer the most gluten free options of any vegetarian restaurant in the Bay area and this could easily be true as all but one of their entrees and a few of their beers are gluten free.

All of their dishes are sweetly named as ‘I am (various adjectives)’ such as the ‘I am Dazzling’ Ceaser Salad, ‘I am Fabulous’ raw, seasonal lasagna, ‘I am Graceful’ Indian Biryani bowl and perfectly named ‘Yo soy Mucho’ Mexican bowl. As it was lunch time on a chilly Winter’s day, I was feeling like a bowl of hot, warming soup. A mostly raw restaurant may not be the best place to find something like this but luckily for me the San Francisco location does a hot soup of the day. My ‘I am Thriving’ spicy butternut squash soup was delicious. John went for the ‘I am Thankful’ Coconut Curry Soup which was very cool and flavoursome.

Coconut Curry Soup

Spicy Butternut Squash

I found this place a little expensive at $9 for a medium sized bowl of soup, $15 for a grain bowl and $10 for a smoothie or shake but if you’re looking for something a wee bit different and you don’t mind your food mostly raw with quite a bit of hippy thrown in then Cafe Gratitude is somewhere new and interesting to check out. Some of their  raw deserts sounded pretty tasty too, especially the ‘I am cherished’ Cheesecake and ‘I am Adoring’ Tiramasu!

The Red Avocado

I’d been meaning to try The Red Avocado for a while but we always seemed to be in the vicinity between the hours of 2pm and 5pm, when it’s not open. It’s a vegan restaurant in Iowa city and I’d heard that they do quite a few gluten free dishes too. I haven’t found too many gluten friendly restaurants in Iowa that also have personality so I was very excited to try this locally inspired, organic place.

I emailed the restaurant to find out about their gluten free options. They didn’t provide information on which of their dishes were gluten free as their menu is bi-monthly and focuses on local and seasonal ingredients. They did say however that a number of things are gluten free and others can be adapted to be. They also said to mention that I am coeliac when I call to reserve a table.

Vegetable Peanut Satay

Quinoa Fiesta

The red Avocado’s menu is awesome. There serve a wonderful variety of delicious sounding dishes, filled with interesting vegetables, grains and spices. It was extremely difficult to decide on what to choose as I wanted to try everything. After more pondering I decided on the Vegetable Peanut Satay, which came with tempeh and quinoa. Fantastic! My boyfriend ordered the daily special (also gf) of quinoa salad with corn chips and black bean hummus with a side of corn and coconut soup. Again, scrumptious!

It’s not the cheapest of restaurants but the organic, locally produced, fresh deliciousness of each of their dishes makes it worth the price. I can’t wait to return and try something else!

The menu

Corn and Coconut soup