Carluccio's – Gluten Free Review.

I’ve missed a post this week so I thought I’d drop this one in to make up for it. I’ve been eating gluten-free for around three months now. I’ve been very lucky in the sense that I’ve yet to not find an alternative to something I used to eat. However, something I do struggle with is eating out. There definitely aren’t as many places offering gluten-free menus as I had hoped there would be, or perhaps I’m just not looking in the right places. Nevertheless, I had my mum come down to visit me a few weekends ago and we decided to pop out for dinner. Our go-to restaurant was full and a few other places we tried could only offer us a menu that had ‘low gluten’ options which is enough to send a shiver down the spine of anyone who doesn’t eat gluten. Then we stumbled across Carluccio’s. We’d never eaten there before, and they had a whole gluten-free menu as well as a dairy-free one too! I was surprised by the variety of dishes of offer and was really spoilt for choice.

To start I went with the bruschetta. I absolutely love tomatoes so I always go for a bruschetta if its on offer. I was a little underwhelmed by the fact it seemed to be just a standard slice of gluten free bread but it was lovely regardless. The bruschetta itself had a lovely taste to it and the only thing I needed was more of it!

The main was definitely the winner for me! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten gluten-free pasta that tasted this nice. After debating between this Duck Ragu and the Risotto, which I will definitely be going back to try, I’m sure I made the right choice. The pasta was amazing, the duck was so tender, it literally melted in your mouth. If I could I would have taken enough home with me to feed me for weeks.

I love dessert but the only time I ever really have it is when I’m out, so I was super excited to see that there was a nice selection of desserts on the menu. This was absolutely lovely, however personally, I thought there was too much meringue and not enough passion fruit cream. That being said I still demolished it, but I would definitely only recommend it if you like things that are extremely sweet.

To round off the meal I got a hot chocolate. Personally I found it was a tad too thick for me, but it had a lovely flavour, definitely no too chocolatey. I also really like the way you get to stir in the cream yourself and watch it change colour. The restaurant itself has a very relaxed vibe even though they were full which I absolutely loved. The staff were so friendly and answered all the questions I asked about the menu. There’s also the chance to buy from the Carluccio’s shop which is on your left as you walk in. I was very tempted to buy a few of the cakes and pastries they had on offer, but unfortunately I couldn’t eat any of them but they all looked as though they would have been delicious.
So if you’re looking for somewhere to go that offers gluten-free of dairy-free alternatives then I would definitely recommend Carlussio’s. You can find a link to their normal menu here and their alternative menu here. Have you found anywhere new that you love eating? Let me know in the comments below.