How To Order Gluten-Free At These Common Restaurants

[caption id="attachment_824456" align="aligncenter" width="1068"] Bigstockphoto.com/pretty african female chef holding spaghetti dish[/caption] If you have Celiac disease or are very sensitive to gluten, you can often feel like you throw a wrench into everyone’s dining plans. Just when your friends are all hyped up on an email chain about getting together at one restaurant, sending photos of the food and great reviews back and forth, you have to step in and say, “Um…guys…I just looked at the menu and it doesn’t look like there is anything I can have there.” You know your friends are going to hide their disappointment and pretend they’re happy to find another place, which just makes things worse. If you were willing just to be a hermit, you could probably eat a gluten-free diet just fine! But you do still want to go out with friends, experience different restaurants and try all sorts of cuisine. And you can. Here are the toughest restaurants for gluten-free diners, hacked. [caption id="attachment_709793" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Korean or Japanese BBQ

You can’t quite tell your friends to keep their raw meat off of the cooking surface, but you can ask for foil. This is very common in cook-your-own-food places. Putting your meat inside of foil will protect it from the marinades of your friend’s food. Also, unless you can get a lot of information about the special marinades, skip them, and just ask for butter or salt and pepper. [caption id="attachment_622866" align="alignleft" width="465"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Hibachi

Don’t forget that Hibachi restaurants like Benihana have a-la-carte menus. The kitchen staff can usually make you the same thing the Hibachi chef would have made you, but on a surface, they can guarantee has been cleaned of gluten. [caption id="attachment_824457" align="alignleft" width="600"] Cuisine Culinary Buffet Dinner Catering Dining Food Celebration Party Concept. Group of people in all you can eat catering buffet food indoor in luxury restaurant with meat and vegetables.[/caption]

Buffets

Buffets often have a-la-carte menus too. If they don’t, however, head over to the cooking stations. These are where chefs are ready to make you omelets, pasta and the like. Some places will have gluten-free pasta in the back, but just in case, you can bring your own bag, and if you tip nicely, they’ll usually make it for you. [caption id="attachment_719421" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Burger places

In metropolitan areas, you can usually count on burger places to have gluten-free buns. But if you can’t confirm that, then BYO bun. Just order your burger lettuce-wrapped and add your bun yourself.   [caption id="attachment_698794" align="alignleft" width="421"] Sushi/Flickr.com[/caption]

Sushi restaurants

Since soy sauce runs pretty rampant in sushi restaurants, order just the fish and the rice. For flavor, you can add fish sauce. You can also bring your own gluten-free soy sauce.     [caption id="attachment_707056" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Italian restaurants

Again, if you’re in a major city, the Italian restaurants may have gluten-free pasta and bread available. But if this isn’t the case, you can usually get risotto (just make sure it isn’t made in a broth that contains gluten), or have your favorite sauce like Bolognese or pesto put over rice. A Caprese salad and most eggplant dishes (besides parmesan) will be gluten-free as well. [caption id="attachment_617438" align="alignleft" width="500"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Burrito trucks

How do you tell your friends, who’ve been drinking cocktails and dancing for hours, that you can’t eat at the tempting burrito truck parked right outside the club? You don’t. Instead, you order bean and cheese nachos. You can’t confirm that meat won’t be cooked on the same surface as wheat tortillas, but the beans will come from a can, and the nachos are made from corn chips. [caption id="attachment_717632" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Pastry shops

Your dear friend wants to take you to a pastry shop for your birthday! She may as well give you toilet paper as a gift, too. Or, not so fast. You can have macaroons, their flour-less chocolate torte, and marzipan items (so long as they don’t have any sort of crust). [caption id="attachment_707067" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Steakhouses

Steakhouses may seem like an easy choice, but a lot of the steak is made in a marinade or cooked on a surface where gluten has been. Ask them to make your steak with nothing but butter, and then have it with Dijon mustard. You can also choose from their seafood menu. [caption id="attachment_716511" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Chinese restaurants

First off, BYO gluten-free soy sauce. Next, know that chow fun and mei fun are rice-based noodles, so those are safe. But ask to see the package just to ensure they didn’t sneak gluten in. Brown sauces are off-limits because they’re almost always made with soy sauce. You can ask for your protein to have no marinade, and you can add Tamari or fish sauce. [caption id="attachment_705220" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Fast food burger chains

McDonald's, Wendys, Jack and the Box…you can’t guarantee these restaurants don’t cook all of their food on a surface that touches gluten. Fortunately, all of these restaurants have pre-packaged salads that were made at a separate location. [caption id="attachment_717453" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Sandwich shops

If your shop has gluten-free bread, make sure the carvist takes out a brand new cutting board to make your sandwich on so it doesn’t touch the surfaces where gluten bread sat. If they don’t have gluten-free bread, turn your sandwich into a salad, and go with simple olive oil and vinegar or ranch dressing. [caption id="attachment_716702" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Fried chicken chains

These restaurants will clearly be a bit of a nightmare, but some offer grilled chicken strips. As always, make sure these are not made on the same surface as any gluten. You should be in good shape since the fried chicken is made in a deep-fryer. As for your sides, you can order green beans (so long as they don’t add bread crumbs), corn on the cob or potato salad. [caption id="attachment_717407" align="alignleft" width="442"] Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Quiche and pie shops

If the restaurant’s specialty is pies of all sorts—from savory to sweet—you obviously need to avoid the crusts. However, most places that make quiche are happy to make you a frittata. As for dessert, you can just get baked apple—no crust or crumble. [caption id="attachment_610385" align="alignleft" width="500"] Corbis Images[/caption]

Tip well!

Anytime you need to ask a lot of questions, see food packages, or speak to the chef, you should just tip well. Servers are happy to bend over backward so long as they know it’s appreciated.

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