Some people call themselves foodies in the sense that they love good food, hunt down good food, appreciate good food. (Basically, it’s all about good food). I call myself a foodie because I just like food, full stop. I don’t care if it’s from a greasy spoon or a michelin star restaurant, if it’s tasty, if it makes me wanna hunt the chef down and check if he’s got a ring on it, if it makes me make embarrassing noises that sounds a little bit like that scene in When Harry Met Sally, then I am one happy girl.
New York is also kinda all about food. With all different cuisines, stunning restaurants, tacky restaurants, street food that smells so good that you almost wished Jo Malone would release a candle in the scent – lol, Jo Malone Hot Pretzel and One Dollar slice coming this Autumn – it turns me into the girl that plans breakfast as soon she wakes up, lunch right after eating breakfast, and dinner after lunch etc. etc. (I’m kinda always that girl, but especially in NYC), so I thought I’d put together a little list of places I love to eat in New York that also happen to be gluten free. Because despite NYC killing it in the food department, those one dollar slices ain’t coeliac friendly, but here are a few places that are.
P.S I massively overthought this and started to panic because there are 2847294752974 incredible coeliac friendly restaurants in New York and I’m talking about just 5 of them, but then I took a chill pill and gave myself a reality check as after all, these are merely recommendations… but we all know the best way to do NYC is to wander off down any random avenue and discover your own little spots of gold.
Spots of gold? FML, I’ve been in America for too long…
I first discovered Big Daddy’s after a mad google session post “jesus christ I’m watching Dan eat pancakes that I can’t touch again” feels last November and it has been a worldwide favourite ever since. Big Daddy’s is nothing particularly fancy shmancy to look at it. It’s very colourful, very cool, very American, but most importantly… it has gluten free pancakes (and waffles, which I’ve not tried, yet). The pancakes are f**king incredible – soz for the swears but they’re totally necessary – fluffy, thick, light, sweet, syrupy… BRB while I have a moment for myself and those pancakes. Both times that I’ve been to Big Daddy’s I’ve gone for the Bacon cakes which are basically a massive pile of pancakes with bacon cooked in between, on top, everywhere and a good ole glug of maple syrup to boot. I genuinely can’t recommend them enough!
This was another “I can’t handle not living my best life” moment because I’d missed out on Mac n cheese for too long. S’Mac is another place we revisited after a previous trip because their Mac n cheese is actually to die for.
No literally, it’s basically all cheese. Heaven – and a heart attack – on a plate.
But the portion sizes are very Ellie friendly – i.e huge – the Mac is so ridiculously tasty and it’s a really nice casual, non-pretentious place to rock up and eat.
2 words – Instagram. Porn. This place really is one of those dreamy West Village, chic AF haunts that I can totally see why is a huge hit with the blogging ladies of the world. All of their food is flatlay heaven, whilst the cute slogan sugar sachets make you all “OMG Dan look how cute these are” (word of warning, 99.9% of men out there give absolutely no shits about cute sugar sachets.) Now, despite being trendy AF, Jack’s wife Freda isn’t the best for gluten free in that it doesn’t have gluten free bread which is such a huge shame considering that a lot of their dishes are gluten free minus the bread. But still, the food is seriously good and they do have a fair few options. I had the poached eggs with halloumi and grilled tomatoes – and then ordered a side of Avo because I’m as basic as basic gets – and it was seriously so tasty. Dan ordered the Smoked salmon and avocado on toast and I was genuinely shocked over how much he loved it. This is coming from the boy who ate an oreo donut and bacon, egg and sausage bagel for breakfast most days! But he said it was really delicious, so that’s saying something gal pals!
I frickin loved Lasso. Again, like all of these choices, it’s completely non-pretentious and really laid back which is exactly the vibe that I go for. Ain’t nobody got time for snobs and people that are too polite and only eat a couple of bites. (“shovel that pizza down ya girl before I pick it up and demolish the rest of it myself”). We stumbled across Lasso after a day of wandering Brooklyn and it really does give me that Brooklyn vibe – it’s actually in Nolita. Back to the actual subject in hand, the gluten free pizza was so, so, so good. I went for the Brussel sprout – don’t judge me – bacon and smokyy mozzarella pizza and I think it might just take the crown for the best pizza toppings I’ve ever had. So rich and full of flavour but also completely unique. The guys in there are also really cool and friendly and totally make you feel at home and not at all like the massive camera lugging tourist I am.
Finally, the big guns. Or, you know, the really cool place with the drink of dreams. Serendipity isn’t the place to go if you want 33598398 gluten free options, but it does have options, and mostly I included this in there to let you all know that the infamous Frozen hot chocolate is gluten free [insert hand clapping/hallelujah emoji’s here]. If you’ve never heard of it before – you clearly haven’t watched Gossip Girl and we clearly can’t be friends – the Frozen hot chocolate is pretty much just that. I think you’re meant to order it to share but lols, definitely had it to myself #IRegretNothing. It is pretty much the sickliest thing you’ll ever drink once you get to the bottom but it’s worth every last sip. For my main, I went for the Texas chill con carne which was actually surprisingly delicious. So packed full of flavour – rather than just heat that knocks your socks off – and a nice portion size too.
Lol, I need to stop praising American portion sizes now. My cellulite definitely isn’t it’s biggest fan!
But yes, that’s it for my 5 places that are gluten free friendly that I’d highly recommend. I would love to hear your recommendations for gluten free spots in NYC because I am the city’s biggest fangirl and will most likely return much sooner than my bank balance would like 😉
