Eating Out

I went out for lunch with my friend, Jackie, today - my first restaurant experience since going wheat-free. I have a bit more of a challenge in that not only are my husband and I off of wheat, we are also not eating any refined flours (potato, rice, tapioca, etc.) or sugar.  So it's a bit more complicated than just being "gluten-free".

I did a bit of research ahead of time to see which restaurants in Edmonton might offer gluten-free options. I found this awesome website called Gluten Free Edmonton that lists a whole bunch of restaurants, what they offer for GF foods and rates them on GF-friendliness. 

From this list, Jackie and I decided to go to Soda Jerks on the west end.  I was SO impressed with the food there and how accomodating the staff was.  The atmosphere at the restaurant is fun and laid-back, they serve pop in the bottles and you can build your own burger.  I opted to drink club soda with lime juice, which is my sugar-free version of Italian Soda and is delicious!

From the build-your-own-burger menu, you just check off what you want.  They do have a gluten-free bun option, but I chose to have no bun, and my burger came on a salad with the tomatoes and pickles that I chose from the list.  I also chose guacamole and swiss cheese for it.  For the salad, when I asked if any of their dressings were sugar-free, they weren't sure, but they were very accomodating and brought me olive oil and malt vinegar for it.  As it turned out, the burger and guacamole were so tasty that I didn't need any other dressing for the salad.  I would highly recommend this place for anyone.  It was by far the best restaurant burger I've ever had. Doesn't it look delicious?!

So my first GF restaurant experience was actually not so bad.  I'm going for lunch with another friend next week, so we'll be trying another restaurant on the list.  I'll let you know how that goes!