Review: Baja, Bedford

Baja, Bedford // ***

Style // Mexican

Where & when // Bedford only, although owned by a local restaurant group. We visited on a Saturday evening at about 7.30.
Budget // ££

Gluten free capabilities // No separate gluten free menu, and no gluten free alternatives like bread or tortillas, however quite a few of their dishes are naturally gluten free, and they offered to make me any of the burrito/fajita etc fillings without the tortilla. See the end of this post for pictures of the food and drink menu.

Food // To start we shared a bowl of nachos, which came with sour cream, guacamole, and refried beans with melted cheese on top. It was served in quite an unusual way, which led to some hilarity and more than a bit of food on the table, but overall was delicious and tided us over well until our mains came. 

I had the rump steak which came with chips and salsa. The steak was delicious, I ordered it medium rare and it came perfectly cooked. It was also well seasoned, and if you’re not one for lots of heat this is the dish for you. The chips were gluten free (cooked in their own oil) and very good. The salsa was also delicious. There weren't any puddings suitable for coeliacs, but I was so full that I wouldn't have been able to manage one anyway. Special mention to the select but very tempting cocktail menu featuring mojitos and caipirinhas.

Service // Friendly, and knew what gluten was. You may laugh, but that's not always a given!

Ambience // I thought the décor was great; quite trendy and modern. It was moderately busy when we sat down at 7.30 on a Saturday, and had filled up by the time we left. Overall a very friendly and laid back vibe, with anything from backless dresses with high heels to jeans, boots and a jumper spotted – I’ll leave you to guess which option I went for

Top tips // Book ahead, especially at the weekend, as it does get busy. Check their Twitter, where I've seen the occasional special offer listed. If you've somehow managed to spare room for pudding, head next door to Spaghetti John's and sample the gelato. You won't regret it!

Areas for improvement // A separate gluten free menu would be a help, and would assure diners that the restaurant knew what they were doing and that the kitchen staff had been trained in matters of cross contamination. Of course, the dream would be if they were able to provide gluten free wraps (B Free's ones are really very good) for diners. 

Final verdict // I'm awarding a 3, because whilst the food we did have was excellent, there wasn't a specifically gluten free menu which may put off some coeliac diners. With that being said, we had a great time and will definitely be returning.


Food menu (click to enlarge)

Drinks menu (click to enlarge)

Rant: Browsing charge?

Would you pay a fee to browse a shop? Alright, I can see the look on your face. But what if the shop was a specialist retailer? Still not so much? Even if the fee was deducted from your purchase?

A news article in the Brisbane Times was brought to my attention recently. In it, a shop owner explains the reasoning behind starting to charge prospective customers to browse. If at first your reaction was one of shock, or outrage, then I invite you to read on. 

Georgina runs a specialist shop in Brisbane supplying coeliac friendly groceries to the city. Her range is, by the looks of things, varied and extensive. Some products in her shop could probably be found at supermarkets, or online retailers, for less than she sells them. However, her shop is unique in the fact that she, who I assume is a coeliac or at least has extensive knowledge of living with the disease, runs it and provides expert guidance and assistance to her customers. She says she often spends half an hour with people who visit her shop. How many of us have had that in a supermarket? 

The browsing fee has been set at just A$5 (£2.75) and is redeemable against any purchase. Additionally, says Georgina, pensioners, children, and regulars will not be charged.

Now here's why I would be more than happy to pay a browsing fee to shop in a place like Celiac Supplies. As a coeliac, it's incredibly time consuming and frustrating to trawl multiple supermarkets looking for the products I need. Each supermarket stocks a slightly different and limited range, and I find myself needing to visit more than one supermarket just to pick up the things I need. For example, only one of the big four supermarkets near where I live stocks tamari (gluten free soy sauce). 

Alternatively, there's the online retailers. These have a much larger range of goods than the supermarkets contain, and I can get everything in one place. The delivery slots are getting more reasonable and arguably the time spent waiting for the delivery to arrive is much more pleasant than the equivalent time spent schlepping around a giant hangar-like supermarket. Except that doesn't quite work out either, because a lot of the most interesting gluten free food comes direct from independent retailers who all have their own separate shopping sites, with minimum purchase quantities and awkward delivery times. Online retailing works for products which you already know and love, but for trying new things it sucks. You can't give those nice fluffy looking bread rolls a good prod to see whether they're actually rock solid, and could very well end up with a product which bears little resemblance to the nice marketing photo on the website.

Most people's disgust at this practice, which some have called "showrooming", seems to be based on their experience of shopping for consumer goods, such as clothing or electronics. In this case, it's understandable that you might want to shop around to find a style or product specification that suits your tastes exactly. However, grocery shopping is not like that. How many times have you gone to the pasta aisle, spend a while deliberating each of the options on offer, and then decided to try a different shop because you didn't like any of the shapes? No; it's a different scenario. When you shop for groceries, you know what you need, and you go and buy it. If you're "just browsing", chances are you're price matching, or you're not in a specialist shop. Why go out of your way if you don't already know what you want?

Let me tell you, if I could go to a place where everything I needed was in one place, which was easily accessible, didn't take half an hour to cross the shop floor and locate the free from section and could be taken home immediately, all with friendly and knowledgeable customer service, you bet I'd pay a browsing fee. Especially if it was redeemed on purchase - because lets face it, us coeliacs don't browse. We go hog wild at the sight of foods which are normally off limits that we can eat without restriction.

If you were anti-browsing charge at the beginning of the article, I'd wager you're not a coeliac. And if you are, and you're still anti-browsing charge after reading this, can you please tell me where you live as I think I'd like to move there?

-Rachel

Who's ready?

I've had a little think about reviving this blog, as the more I go about my daily coeliac life in this here Great Britain the more I think it might just help out others like me. This may or may not have been shortly after I was asked whether I could eat potatoes for roughly the 7,392th time. So, coming as soon as I can manage, will be all the posts I wished I'd written but somehow never found the time.

It will be mostly restaurant reviews, but who knows what else I'll throw in there.

I hope it helps someone who needs to eat gluten free... That would make me very happy!

-Rachel

Review: Plum + Spilt Milk

Final Marks: 4 out of 5

In January I went for a meal at Plum + Spilt Milk, a new restaurant in the refurbished Kings Cross station. I went with work, which always makes me apprehensive as it means I am powerless to influence the choice of restaurant and sometimes it’s difficult to be asking questions about the menu in a large group.

We went for what I think must be their 45 minute gourmet express menu, as we had a limited choice of 3 dishes per course rather than the full menu. Again this gave me a little cause for concern, as often there’s very little choice for me even with a full menu.

However my fears were allayed by this lovely restaurant. We had an incredibly friendly and attentive waitress who made sure all our needs were catered for, and gave good advice for a choice of wine. She seemed genuinely concerned for our welfare, which does make a change. I was also pleasantly surprised to be informed that most of the options were already, or could be, gluten free. Result!

For my starter I had the creamed smoked haddock and poached hen’s egg which came straight from the oven, baked in a white sauce. It was absolutely delicious and I’m trying to devise a recipe of my own so I can eat it at home. For my main course I had pork chop with Bramley apple sauce, which is the only course I managed to get a picture of. It was a decent sized helping without being too heavy, and all cooked very well.

Now we get to pudding, my favourite course of the meal by and large. Here something strange has happened – I have completely forgotten what I had. The passage of time and perhaps the excellently chosen wine I had have clouded my memory such that it is now a blur. However, one thing I do know is that I was pleasantly surprised by being able to eat it and that it was excellent. Which means it probably involved chocolate.

Overall I’d highly recommend this restaurant. The setting is very pleasant and the service is excellent. The express meal is quite good value and this would be a great place to treat yourself before or after a long journey.

I've given this a 4 because they weren't as prepared for gluten free diners as some other places I have been to, and because the price point is slightly on the high side especially if you stick to the all day menu.

Review: Pizza Hut

Location: All across the UK and across 5 continents

Style: Chain pizza (I think that's a style in itself)

Budget: A meal can be around £10 if you don't try too hard to budget, or less if you have a coupon, of which there are usually plenty around. Prices are not inflated for gluten free products.

Gluten Free options:.A gluten free pizza base is available, and gluten free diners have full choice of all toppings and sauces*. They seem to have good kitchen practices for avoiding cross contamination. The launch was in consultation with Coeliac UK so I feel reassured that they have been given the best guidelines possible. You are served on a different type of plate with your own cutting wheel, the pizza itself is square to avoid confusion, and I think the pizzas are cooked on different trays and made in a separate part of the kitchen. There is also a salad bar with some gluten free options in it, although not all are and they are not all marked. There is ice cream which is gluten free for dessert, if you still have room.

What I ate: A gluten free pizza with extra cheese, bacon and sweetcorn. Having been a couple if times now (ahem), I find that they can sometimes come up a bit short with the cheese. I am a cheeseaholic so I like to order extra, just to be sure. I also find that sometimes, with their own pizza topping options, the ratio of topping to base to sauce sometimes isn't quite right (too much topping/not enough sauce/not enough base) so I like to make my own.

The pizza itself is pretty good. I mean, it won't win any culinary awards but I personally like it a lot. The base is thin but squidgy, the sauce and toppings are tasty, and they have all the usual options. The food arrives hot and all in all it's pretty tasty.

Service: Generally decent, although due to the fact that it's a huge chain, naturally it varies.

Good things: Pizza Hut were one of the first big chain restaurants to start offering gluten free bases back in late 2012/early 2013. 

Top Tips: Choose your own toppings for the pizza, look out for voucher codes, and book ahead if it's a busy day. I'd also call ahead just to double check whether they have gluten free bases in stock, as they have been known to run out before.

Areas for improvement: There is only one size of pizza available and, whilst it’s perfectly big enough for me and I usually have leftovers to take home, it may not be big enough for everyone. You can’t go for the buffet, which is usually the best value and most interesting option, as there are no gluten free pizzas on the buffet (which I'm very glad about – can you imagine the cross-contamination?!). I personally wouldn't risk the salad bar either, for the same reasons. If you arrive at the start of the day then perhaps you might be able to select the gluten free salad options without worrying about stray bits of croûton, but you’d be a braver person than I. Also, hardly any of the starters/sides are gluten free

Final score: I'm giving this a 3 out of 5 because whilst it has a good selection of gluten free items and is good value, arguably some of the the best bits of the restaurant are off limits (the buffet, the salad bar). Also, whilst I personally really like the pizza and the type of base, it won't appeal to everyone especially if you like a more "authentic" thin and crispy base. 

*Just checking the allergy information sheet and some toppings are marked as a risk of cross contamination from the supply chain. These are not marked on the main menu, which I think they should be.