Gluten Free in SoCal - Part 2

This post is a continuation of our first few days in SoCal.

Thuesday through Thursday, we spent in the Disneyland area. As far as allergens go, everyone we spoke to was incredibly accommodating, which was nice. It was the norm to have managers come over to talk to us as soon as they found we were gluten free, and even chefs come out to assure us they had personally overseen that no cross-contamination occurred!

On Tuesday night, we walked around Downtown Disney and decided to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. While they do not have a dedicated gluten free menu we were very comfortable with the menu and selections we made. We were a little disappointed to find out that the lava nachos appetizer contained gluten :( but we had wonderful dinners, both gluten free: my husband ordered the Tuscan Chicken (no Dijon mustard), and I ordered a special that was shrimp and veggies wrapped in parchment paper. Both were extremely yummy and we left very full. (By this point, my husband was starting to get annoyed at all the souvenir alcohol glasses I was collecting, though, lol).

Wednesday, we ate breakfast at our hotel (The Anaheim Sheraton) and then went to Disneyland. We had a blast! It was off-season so at least in the morning, there wasn't much of a wait at all for rides, though it got more packed as the day went on. Now, the thing with Disneyland and California Adventure - if you go to Guest Services and request a list, they'll give you a packet that lists all the safe options at all of their eateries. It's a pretty comprehensive list, and includes pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers (both with buns), fries fried in a dedicated fryer, and a lot of other things. We ate lunch in the park - my husband ordered a gluten free pizza (there were three other people there waiting for gluten free pizzas as well, as they're made to order!) and I had a salad.

For dinner, we went back to Downtown Disney and ate at Tortilla Jos. Their menu clearly marks all the gluten free items, and they had a wonderful outdoor, heated patio which we loved. How often can we eat outside in January?? We were extremely hungry after our day at Disneyland, and we ordered a bunch of stuff - first, they come with chips and salsa. We ordered a nachos appetizer, and my husband ordered their crispy tacos while I ordered the shrimp tortillas, all gluten free.

... The problem? Portion sizes. It was WAY too much food, and our eyes were significantly bigger than our stomachs. We left stuffed and didn't eat a lot of our food.

On Thursday, we went back to California Adventure and, since we had a park hopper pass, rode on a couple of our favorite rides at Disneyland too. For lunch we ate in California Adventure, at a place that did gluten free burgers/buns and fries. We weren't that thrilled with the overall quality of the food there, but they can get away with it in the park!

For dinner on Thursday we went back to Tortilla Jos. This time, we ordered only the nachos, to share, and dessert. They had a coconut-rum flan with pineapple that was gluten free and absolutely sinful. It's worth the trip to California just for this flan. (My husband also wanted photographic evidence that my always-cold self wore a T-shirt, outside, in January. Note the awesome "Nerds Rock" shirt). ;-)

On Friday, we left Anaheim and went to Ontario. We were flying out of Ontario very early in the morning, and we wanted to stay close to the airport. Plus, I'd read all about this huge outlet mall, Ontario Mills, and just had to check it out. The mall did not disappoint - 10 wings of stores, including Coach Factory outlet (and Coach Men's), BCBG, Calvin Klein, LOFT, Betsey Johnson, Saks off Fifth, bebe, Guess, etc. Unfortunately, we didn't want to eat at the Rainforest Cafe again, and no restaurants in the mall knew what gluten was! We left the mall for lunch and found a Claim Jumper in Ontario, and then went back and spent some time at Dave & Buster's playing games (my husband deserved it, he was a wonderful sport about spending the entire day shopping).

For dinner, we tried Mimi's Cafe. We actually hadn't done any research on them, but we popped in and decided to ask if they had a gluten free menu - they did! My husband had the best steak he's had on his trip so far. I stuck with soup and salad. Excellent food and the most reasonable prices we'd seen in California.

That night we knew we'd be leaving before anything opened for breakfast, so we bought cereal, fruit and snacks from Trader Joes and a local convenience store for breakfast and on the plane. The plane ride was tiring, though, with layovers in Houston and Cleveland. Again, we hunted down food in Houston - we finally found a Wendy's where my husband ordered a Baja salad, but by the time we landed in Albany we were starving and headed straight for Outback steakhouse.

Overall -- we had a wonderful time and saw a lot of great people and sights, and I'm so glad we went. We both needed a vacation. However - I'm grateful to be home and cooking in my own kitchen too!

Review: Outback Steakhouse

Before my husband’s diagnosis as a celiac, we enjoyed dining out on a regular basis. Every couple of months we’d have dinner at Outback Steakhouse – neither of us are big red meat eaters, but Vince loved their chicken and pasta dishes, and if I have a glass of Ecco Domani pinot grigio, their famous pumpernickel bread and their blue cheese chopped salad, I’m in heaven. The entrée was typically an afterthought, and usually brought home as leftovers for the next day (or, if I am to be completely honest, sometimes the puggle).

Well, after our gluten-free lifestyle change, we understandably started to stay in a lot more. There were two reasons for this – on a practical note, our monthly food budget used to include a lot of Kraft Mac and Cheese and the occasional Hamburger Helper. Switching to Tinkyada pasta and tapioca bread, well, let’s just say that our entertainment budget took a hit during our adjustment period. However, the second reason was the fact that we just didn’t have that many places to go in the beginning.

Now, keep in mind that since his diagnosis with celiac, we’ve found a lot of restaurants that accommodate our needs in the area. It seems that chain restaurants are adding (or at least publicizing) gluten free menus every week, which is really helpful. We’ve even ventured out to restaurants that don’t have dedicated gluten free menus, and have had – mostly – pleasant experiences with servers and cooks who are happy to answer any questions we might have and help us make informed choices about our meals.

Still, at the very beginning we only knew of three restaurants with gluten-free menus: PF Chang’s, Outback Steakhouse, and Carabba’s Italian Grill. Vince isn’t a huge fan of Chinese food, and when we ventured to Carabba’s it seemed more an exercise in cruelty than anything else – he had a very nice meal of chicken marsala when we went, but it was hard to look at all the plates full of pasta passing by that he could no longer have. Of the three options at the time, that left Outback Steakhouse (and the local sushi joint that serves – gasp – gluten free light soy sauce!).

Well, we’d gone to Outback once since going gluten free, and my husband had been satisfied with his meal overall. We hadn’t been back in a few months – busy with the wedding, etc. – and decided to go on a dinner-and-movie date. We asked the hostess for a gluten free menu, and a few minutes later our server came with bread.


Now, let me tell you, bread is a hotly contested subject between my spouse and I. Excluding a brief pre-wedding stint in Weight Watchers, the general rule of thumb pre-diagnosis was, we’d both do a lot of damage to the bread basket. Post-diagnosis, I usually prefer to request that the server not bring bread in the first place. Let’s face it, if I’m ordering a calorie-dense dinner out, I probably don’t need the extra calories from bread and butter anyway, and I really don’t like the idea of eating bread in front of my celiac hubby – I know if our roles are reversed it would torture me! He, of course, usually tells me I’m too silly and that I should just order the darn bread. I rarely succumb.

However, during this date night at Outback, we didn’t even have to start our usual bread debate. The server, bread in hand, exclaimed, “I didn’t see your gluten free menu! We have some freshly baked gluten free bread, would you like me to bring some out?” He got an emphatic “yes,” Vince and I both tucked into our individual loaves (what, don't look at me like that, the server had already left the non gluten free loaf on the table, and besides, rowing burns calories) like we hadn’t seen food in a year, and that server got a very generous tip! I tried a piece of Vince’s gluten free bread and I have to tell you – it was really, really good. It was super hot, you could tell that it was freshly baked, and it was very moist and fluffy.

The gluten free bread before our dinner really made our evening – and made such an impression on us that we went to Outback again two weeks later! (What, we’re newlyweds, that’s pretty excessive for us!). If you're from Outback and are reading this, thank you, thank you, thank you - and if you're from another chain restaurant, well, now you have something to live up to. ;-)