Cafe Andaluz is a Spanish Tapas restaurant, of which there are two in Glasgow. One is in the centre of the city on St Vincent Place and the other is in the city’s west end on Cresswell Lane. The West End location is where I ate a couple of night ago. My boyfriend and I began dating 4 years ago on the 14th of January 2006 so we decided to celebrate our anniversary with some gluten free Spanish food.
The restaurant has a nice warm vibe, attentive staff and some interesting art and lighting which to me had a bit of a Moroccan feel. Their menu has a good selection of things to choose from and they do various Tapas Vegetarianas, Carnes and Mariscos y Pescados (Vegetarian, meat and fish and seafood) They also have 3 paellas (which serve 2 people) and various sides and desserts. Their drinks menu is fairly varied and they have a good selection of white, rose and red wines. The menu indicates which dishes are gluten free with ‘GF’ and whilst none of the sides or desserts are gluten free, there is a good and varied selection of tapas and paella which are.
John and I ordered a nice bottle of Chardonnay and to start, one tapas to share, the ‘Carne de Res Picante’ which is spicy beef on a bed of rocket and manchego cheese with chorizo dressing. Not particularly picante but Muy delicioso!! We then went for the Paella Valenciana. (2 of their 3 paellas are gluten free) This was rice with chicken, pork, seafood and shellfish flavoured with saffron. Again, really delicious and full of various tasty meat and seafood.
The paella was very filling and in our case enough for the two of us as we had shared a tapas before. We enjoyed a really good night here and would probably go back since it’s nice to see ‘GF’ on a menu rather than have to ask lots of questions. I was stuffed for the rest of the night but not painful gluten stuffed. Unfortunately John ended up with food poisoning, which we think must have been from the seafood. I felt fine after sharing the same dish but sometimes all it takes is one dodgy prawn! It’s a shame this happened after having such a good meal here but I would still recommend this restaurant to any gluten free travellers passing through Glasgow. As long as you are not on a budget, as Cafe Andaluz is fairly priced but definitely not cheap, you can choose from a bunch of gluten free options. If you like Spanish tapas, there are a whole bunch of other similar tapas style places in Glasgow too.
