Gluten Free Food in Dallas ?

I'm going to be visiting my son next month and in looking through restaurant website stuff see a lot of ridiculously stupid advertisements. "Our buns are Gluten-Free Whole Wheat!" or, "Almost Gluten Free!"

At least the phenomenally stupid advertisements like that tell me don't bother as they clearly have no clue. Then there's the usual, "Oh sure, we'll charge you the same price for half the food." OR worse, you have to send the food back and all they do is pick out the thing that you told them you were allergic to in the first place. That even happened to me as a patient in the hospital AFTER talking to the dietitian.

I found a couple celiac blogs that favorably mention some restaurants that also have franchises/sites in Dallas area. I also found some contradictory sites regarding Blue Laws. Can I get wine with dinner there on a Sunday? Know of any places to consider or avoid? I'd prefer a place that isn't a chain but takes allergies seriously. I like to try different stuff but can't do fish. The gluten thing is very unpleasant but fish is potentially fatal.

I found most of those too but thanks.

We made reservations for
https://www.vacationsmadeeasy.com/G...TX/activity/MedievalTimesDinnerTournament.cfm

They don't advertise it but reportedly have gluten free if you call ahead

Also Texas De Brazil has a good rep

The mom and pop places I found have broken links that are 10 years old so chances are no longer in operation

just seemed appropriate. Restaunteur kills customer by lying about allergens. Sentenced to 6 years
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...eaway-containing-peanuts-cheaper-almonds.html
It's the UK, rather than Ky but restaurants around here won't take allergies seriously. Maybe the climate will change

Steakhouses generally are safe unless they have much fish on the menu. The cross contamination on the grill is very dangerous but I can easily cook steak at home. I've never eaten at a Chang's. Is it like BD Mongolian Grill? Where they have a separate prep and cook area they call the allergy zone? Or is it like most oriental restaurants? I've had to stop eating at them because of fish cross contamination.

The problem with a gluten allergy is that it seems a lot of places simply refuse to understand that it's a real thing for some of us and the kitchen thinks it's funny to dust something with flour because there are people who want to be gluten free for reasons other than an allergy and I've seen many restaurant and chefs' blogs complaining about customers eating dinner rolls and then demanding gluten free food and wanting their meals comped. So there are some customers who try to scam. Stuff like fish allergies or nut or egg tend to have immediate effects and it's bad for business if a customer collapses in the dining area but gluten...I'll never eat at a Carrabas again. What should have been a 90 minute drive home was 4 hours and stopping at every gas station, Walmart and fast food place to use the bathroom.

The nicest place for food that I've visited was Portland Oregon. Explaining food allergies was not an issue. Everyone was helpful.

I see that Dallas has at least one Russian restaurant. I've never eaten at one of those. However the menu is actually in Russian so I have no way to guess at the ingredients.

I found http://twistedrootburgerco.com/menu/
I would like to try kangaroo and camel, although would prefer a steak to a burger. I'm hoping to find something I haven't tried before

I've had decent allergy success with Outback and Longhorns, but like you, the closest is a 90 minute drive one way. I don't want to fly all the way to Dallas and eat at a place that I've been to before. Sometimes for a safety standpoint I have to. I've started looking into specialty food shops and may just cook something at my son's apartment with ingredients that I can't get around here. My wife thinks it weird that on a vacation I like to tour new grocery stores. My favorite colander I found in an oriental grocery store in Tucson. My favorite ladle is from Mainz Germany. Other people collect knick nacks

The problem with finding exotic ingredients is that what's exotic to one person is common to another. I've found that I absolutely despise Yelp. The posters have no useful comments. It's like reading a Beta reader's comment of, "I liked some of it, but not other parts," and leaving it at that. The actual stores supposedly having something that I haven't tried don't actually have their own sites. My son once brought a friend home from school who I think was maybe being a smart ass and asked if there was anything spicier to put on his food. I was like, "Sure, what do you like?"
"I imagine you just have ground pepper?" he asked sort of sullenly.
"I got black, white, green and pink whole peppercorns. I don't get preground, pickled jalapenos, dried anchos, frozen habaneros, some little tiny hot peppers that were called firecrackers and several hot sauces including pure capsacin."
"Frozen habaneros?"
"Yeah the ice moves the heat from your lips and tongue to the back of your throat"
"You don't eat frozen habaneros."
So I got out the bag and had a few and offered him some.
He ate one, with a glass of milk and commented, "I've never been to anyone's house in America where they actually had anything spicy."

regdog said:

The closest Changs to me is about 45 minutes-1 hour away and I don't drive. I did find a gluten free beef and broccoli recipe that I"m going to try one of these days. Another restaurant I've good things about allergy-wise is Outback.

Click to expand...

A beef and broccoli stir fry is easy to make gluten free. While the meat strips are marinading in whatever you like (I'd personally probably go with kosher salt, fresh black and white pepper, ground anchos, garlic, maybe some ginger and or cumin, a couple bay leaves ground, a little bit of rice vinegar, some sesame oil a dash of worchestershire, maybe a splash of sriracha) prep the vegetables and stir fry. Deglaze with liquid of choice, probably the liquid from a can of shrooms or maybe baby corn. You could use a wine that you'd be willing to drink. The cardinal rule of deglazing with wine or beers is don't use it in the food if you wouldn't be willing to drink it on its own. Thicken the liquid with a slurry of water and potato starch which will thicken at a much lower temperature than corn starch and reheats better without breaking. If it's still a little thin stir in an egg, heat a little more and then set aside. Stir fry the meat in another pan with a nice oil of some sort. I'd use walnut oil but that's because there is no local source for actual good olive oil. Mix them together and serve over rice, or even better rice with lentils and I'd cook the rice and lentils with a bit of whatever spices I used on the meat

Back from Dallas

Great to see our son

Food was very tasty and never got glutened!

Saltgrass...I assumed it was on par with Outback. It's Much better! Thank you for the suggestion. I don't know how many years it's been since I could get ribs. Every other place puts flour in the sauce to thicken it. It was decent rib sauce, not as spicy or tangy as I make but good. The peppercorn Ribeye had peppercorns, not what you get around here where they charge you $5 extra for the cook to think about peppercorns while grilling the steak.
Medieval Times...The Blue Knight, our knight won! I knew he would. He was the only one who could twirl the lance. The people working there played their parts. "Half a baby dragon M'Lord?"
"No, dragons are sapient. I'd like a wyvern."
"Of Course M'Lord." She roots around in her bag of holding and pulls out an identical roasted half chicken. It was tasty and they asked about allergies. In place of garlic bread I got, "something a wizard concocted." She called it hummus. The food was good. No allergic reactions. The show was fun. There were beautiful horses and trained riders. There was even a falconry demonstration.
We drove back to the Jefferson B&B which had a tub big enough to soak tired human sized legs that were larger than the usual hobbit sized tubs and an actual recliner that actually fully reclined. It was by far the best hotel room we've been in. We discussed the job applications for people at the Medieval Times.
Page Boy...Horse Pooper Scooper...He was the only one who appeared to not enjoy his job.
Knight...Must have glorious hair!
Horse Attendant to brush and comb and braid horse manes and tails
A word to the wise...don't be on the floor level tier. Be on the 2nd tier for the best view and out of the way when dancing, thrashing, twirling horses poop.

Twisted Root...Exotic meat of the week was Rabbit, not Kangaroo or Camel as I was hoping. They said it was rabbit but to me it tasted like Turkey. 2nd attempt at a different Twisted Root the exotic was buffalo, tasted like beef. It was good, and no allergy issues, but I wouldn't exactly call Rabbit exotic, also what they listed as exotic, Lamb. We raise sheep. Lamb and mutton are not exotic to us. They are staples.

Back from Dallas again, great visit with my son. Places to eat if you are Gluten Free, or more accurately Gluten Imprisoned,

Pera, a Turkish Restaurant in Ft Worth, they actually made me have to think about eggplant as a food instead of a food vehicle

From Across the Pond, A British food themed restaurant. Almost everything on the menu is gluten free to the point that they don't mark the gluten free items, they mark the glutenned items. It's been years since I had onion rings and Scotch eggs are tasty, but It's been so long since I could have onion rings that I filled up on them. They are best dipped in the Tikka sauce.

One place to NOT go if you have to be gluten free is the Dallas Chop House. Well technically you can. I didn't get glutenned or food poisoned, but the food just wasn't good enough for the price. The burger was best described as boring...unseasoned, overcooked...The Truffle fries had no truffles as far as I could tell, but were good compared to fast food fries.

Read the ingredients and the food warnings and if it says, "May contain wheat," read that as "Be within 3 minutes of a bathroom."

It's a good thing that I know how to cook or I wouldn't eat