Gluten Free Living – Pizza Express

Before I start I’ll just put it out there again that I am by no means a food expert. The smile on my face after somebody bought me McDonald’s chips and a crunchie the other day will vouch for that (don’t judge me, it was one of those days.) But being coeliac, celiac if you’re American, means that eating out and eating on the go can be – to put it in the best way I possibly can – an absolute pain in the arse! There’s an articulate sentence if you’ve ever seen one….

 So, based on the fact that; I’m always on the lookout for helpful gluten-free blog posts, there isn’t actually a lot of gluten-free information on Pizza Express and, most importantly, my last post on gluten-free food at popular pan asian restaurant Gilgamesh actually ended up – to my complete and utter surprise – being my most popular post, I’ve decided to write about my experiences with other restaurants.

On first thoughts and impressions you would think Pizza Express would be an absolute nightmare for coeliacs, and absolutely rightly so. Let’s face it a place that predominantly sells pizza, pasta and all things doughy is never going to be the most inviting for people who can’t go near gluten. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that my dear old mum has been receiving money off vouchers for as long as I can remember (what is it with mums and vouchers? and sorry about the ‘old’ if you’re reading mum) it wouldn’t be a place that I would have chosen to go to.

As I have been to Pizza Express a fair few times before, I didn’t have to do my usual ringing up the restaurant before hand to see if there was anything I could have (an absolute essential after rocking up to China Town and realising the only thing I’d be consuming all night was drinks!) So, cutting to the chase, what can you actually eat there if you’re on a gluten-free diet?

First thing’s first, I have to give credit to Pizza Express as they do have allergy information on their website. Praise the bloody lord!! Which I’ve linked to here – Allergy info

But for anyone who is having a bit of a lazy day (we all have them) and can’t really be bothered to search through (my kind of people) I’ll summarise it for you as quick and easily as I can.

Items not containing gluten:

Intro’s: –

• Nocellara Del Belica
• Macarona Almonds
• Olives Marinate
• Roasted Tomatoes

Starters and sides: –

• Mozarella and Tomato salad
• Mixed Salad
• Coleslaw

Mains: –

• Melanzane Parmigiana ** UPDATE – Please note that in some restaurants this dish is now made with normal breadcrumbs meaning it is no longer gluten-free. Please double check the menu, and with staff at the restaurant you’re visiting to make sure it’s gluten free first**
• Pizza Express do not sell gluten free pasta dishes or pizza’s but I know that with the branches I’ve visited you can take your own GF pasta or pizza bases and they’ll make a dish for you. Obviously cross contamination issues will be different in every restaurant so I’d speak to the manager of whichever one you plan to visit and make your own opinion.
• Salads – All salads are listed as containing gluten as they come with dough sticks but each one, taking away dough sticks and dressings (and croutons if included) are gluten free.

Deserts: –

• Raspberry sorbet
• Caffe Reale
• Tartuffo al Ciocolato
• Semi Freddo Reale
• Coppa gelato chocolate, gelato coffee, gelato strawberry, gelato vanilla and the Toffee fudge glory all without the wafer

So there’s your options. As I said I’ve been many times and tried just about every option but it was only the last couple of times that I actually had the balls to take pictures of what I ate (new blogger inhibitions and all that..)

*UPDATE – this dish in some restaurants is now made with normal breadcrumbs, please double check with staff before ordering*
Here’s the Melanzane Parmigiana. A mix of aubergines, bechamel sauce, mozarella and tomatoes, gluten-free bread crumbs and grana padano (whatever the hell that is)