Eating out with a Coeliac child

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Hi

My 8yr old is coeliac and I'm find eating out can be a real issue. Is anyone else finding it hard?

It is difficult, especially for children as there is normally very little or nothing they can eat from the children's menu. A lot of the chain restaurants are good, pizza hut, pizza express, zizzi, etc - they all do gluten free pizza/pasta. But I don't know if they do a smaller children's portion. Wagamama is good for gluten free, and they're very child friendly so that might be an option.

I'm coeliac but my DCs aren't so I don't know so much about who does children's portions, but I've found lots of places are much better and clued up about it in recent years, so even if it looks as though there is nothing on the menu, if you ask they will often make something different.

We use chain restaurants a lot, Dd particularly likes Ask Italian. Otherwise we usually call places in advance and ask, quite a lot will do gluten free things but don't have it on their website. If you are members of Coeliac uk their website allows you to search for local restaurants that other coeliac so have recommended.

Pizza express do lots of gf options. I feel your pain; my son has severe allergies and we have given up eating out at the moment!

Be careful, as a lot of places will offer gluten free foods now.
But the food is still prepared in and on the same area as gluten foods.
So I would phone in advanced.
I'm celiac and I find it extremely difficult.

We like carrolicos, Eds diner, real hamburger co, TGis They all do good gf good,

Bell Italia do gluten free children's pizza

As others have said chains are your friend.
Pizza express is really good, as are Zizzi, Carluccios and Prezzo.
Honest burger (London only I think) are great as are Cote Brasserie.
One issue we have is getting chips for 5yo DS. They are his favourite and often he can't have them because other things are cooked in oil. We recently took him to The Chicken Shop which we had been to loads but they could no longer say their chips were GF so we had to leave with an upset DS.
We also have a few local restaurants which are good do don't give up on independents.
The one thing I miss is just stumbling across somewhere when you are out, everything has to be checked out before.

If you are in London, Pho (Vietnamese chain) is totally GF. Wahaca has a GF menu but my daughter was gluttened at their Liverpool St branch . There is a bakery on Brick Lane which is GF; Patisserie Valerie have some GF options and there is a new bakery on Upper St worth checking out. We eat out a lot and tend to take food with is for her (easier to do as she is only 2).

Be careful with wagamamas not every branch has separate fryers looking at you Guildford

Pizza express even changed the floor they use in other products, tossing pizzas etc, to gluten free to avoid cross contamination.you really can't go wrong with them in our experience

I know it's not really attractive to most adults, but McDonalds can be surprisingly good. Their fries are GF done in a separate fryer & their burgers are GF - just ask for one without the bun. The fact that they are everywhere does help if you are out & stuck for safe food.

Great - thank you everyone.