A Celiac's Guide to Dining Out at Restaurants

Tips for ordering food safely

One of the most anxiety-inducing activities for anyone with celiac disease—myself included—is dining out at restaurants. At the beginning of my diagnosis in 2020, I didn’t know much about cross-contact.

This is when a gluten-free food comes into contact with a gluten-containing food or surface, utensil, or cooking equipment that’s been used to prepare gluten-containing foods.

I would order things like gluten-free pizza without asking how it was prepared—and I would end up with stomach discomfort. After meeting with a dietitian, I learned that I needed to be a lot more vigilant when ordering food at a restaurant.

I’d have to ask a few key questions to determine whether a menu item was celiac-safe and strongly assert my needs to prevent getting sick post-meal.

Now, I no longer panic when it’s time to order at a restaurant—and I know how to communicate with the staff to get a safe meal. Ahead, I’m sharing what works for me when dining out with celiac disease.

I recently enjoyed dinner at Claro, a dedicated GF restaurant in Brooklyn, with my Substack friends Rachel Ciordas and Hilary Davidson.

Restaurant dining tips for celiacs

1. Choose a dedicated gluten-free restaurant

The most obvious choice is to dine at a dedicated gluten-free restaurant when possible. Of course, this won’t always be an option, but if you’re located somewhere with gluten-free restaurants, this will make your life a lot easier.

I use the Find Me Gluten-Free app (use my code to get a discount) and the Gluten Dude app, as well as blogs and newsletters such as The Nomadic Fitzpatricks, Gluten-Free Globetrotter, Endless Distances, and Gluten-Free Guidebook to find dedicated gluten-free restaurants in cities across the world.

I also document my favorite gluten-free eats in New York City (and beyond) on my Instagram.

2. Ask to be in charge of picking the restaurant

While it’s taken me time to get comfortable doing this, now when I’m planning brunch or dinner with friends or meeting up with colleagues for a meal, I usually ask if they’d be open to me choosing the restaurant since I have dietary restrictions.

That way, I can guarantee the most stress-free experience for myself. I’m lucky that there are many good dedicated gluten-free restaurants (and other restaurants that understand celiac disease) in New York City—and that the people in my life have always been really understanding.

When it comes to dining at restaurants that aren’t dedicated gluten-free, I find that the chefs and waitstaff at higher-end establishments are typically more aware of gluten and how to safely cook food for someone with celiac disease.

3. Call or email the restaurant in advance

If I have to dine somewhere that’s not dedicated gluten-free—and there are limited reviews available online from gluten-free customers and no allergen markings on the menu—I’ll call, email, or DM the establishment on social media before I go.

This lets me assess in advance whether they’ll actually be able to feed me safely and come up with an alternative plan if needed.

When speaking or writing to the restaurant staff, I’ll usually use a script like this:

“Hi! I have an upcoming dinner planned at your restaurant, and I have celiac disease, which is a gluten allergy. I was wondering if you had any gluten-free options available and if so, how they’re prepared since I need to avoid cross-contact or I’ll get sick. Thanks so much, and I look forward to dining at your restaurant soon!”

Sometimes, I’ll get lucky and the response will be that they do have gluten-free options and can cook my food separately to avoid cross-contact.

In one unlucky situation, I called ahead to a restaurant my co-workers were looking forward to going to on a business trip (which had terrible reviews on Find Me Gluten-Free) and confirmed my worst fears: They had absolutely no idea what I was talking about when I asked how their menu items were prepared.

I spoke to three people on staff, and none of them could tell me if their tortilla chips came from a bag or were prepared in-house (and, if prepared in-house, whether they were fried in the same fryer as anything else).

Needless to say, I told my co-workers I didn’t feel comfortable dining there, and we chose another restaurant.

Last month, I attended a work dinner at Upland in New York City, where the restaurant staff was knowledgeable about celiac disease and cross-contact.

4. Tell restaurant staff you have a “gluten allergy”

You may have noticed in my script above that I use the phrase “celiac disease, which is a gluten allergy” when chatting with restaurant staff about my dining needs.

If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re probably well aware that celiac disease is a serious autoimmune disorder that can lead to long-term health complications—but unfortunately, it’s my experience that many people don’t understand the ins and outs of the disease.

There’s a better chance, though, that someone working at a restaurant will be able to grasp what a food allergy is (and the dire consequences that can result if you consume the food you’re allergic to).

While celiac disease isn’t an allergy—and I’m all for being accurate when it comes to describing this condition—the reality is it’s often easier to get a safe meal at a restaurant in the US if you say you have a gluten allergy. (In other countries, like Italy, celiac disease is much better understood.)

5. Ask the right questions before ordering

Simply confirming that there are gluten-free options on a menu and telling the restaurant staff that you need to eat gluten-free because you have celiac disease or an allergy isn’t always enough to keep you safe.

If gluten-containing food is in the kitchen, there’s always a risk of cross-contact. That means you’ll have to take extra steps to ensure you get a safe meal. This involves asking specific questions about how things are prepared before ordering.

In a recent article I wrote for AARP about navigating a celiac diagnosis after age 50, I interviewed two celiac dietitians, who suggested asking the following questions before ordering food at a restaurant:

• Does this piece of meat have a sauce or marinade on it? If so, is there any flour in it?

• Can you cook this item in its own pan for me, using separate utensils?

• Do you have a dedicated fryer for gluten-free foods?

• Do you cook your gluten-free pasta in the same water as regular pasta?

Dining at a dedicated GF restaurant (such as Wild Park Slope in Brooklyn, which is where this shrimp scampi is from) makes life much easier!

6. Don’t assume gluten-free equals celiac-safe

One thing I learned early on in my celiac journey is that just because a menu item is noted as being gluten-free doesn’t necessarily mean it’s celiac-safe. That’s why it’s necessary to alert the restaurant staff to your celiac disease and ask the above questions when relevant (even when something is labeled gluten-free).

I once went to a bar for happy hour and was excited to see tortilla chips and guac on the menu labeled as gluten-free. You’d think that’d be a pretty safe bet, right? Nope!

When I mentioned to the waiter that I had celiac disease and said I was interested in the chips and guac, he immediately told me I shouldn’t eat the chips because they were prepared in a shared fryer with gluten-containing foods. Instead, he said he could bring me a plate of raw veggies (which are naturally gluten-free) to go with the dip.

Besides shared fryers, pizza ovens are another big source of cross-contact. While many pizza joints these days offer gluten-free pizza, very few of them have a separate oven to safely prepare it for someone with celiac disease. I’ve gotten sick a few times from eating gluten-free pizza that was made in the same oven as regular pizza and now avoid this.

The bottom line: Even if something is labeled gluten-free on a menu, there might be cross-contact. You should still ask how gluten-free items are prepared to assess whether they’re celiac-safe.

7. Confirm your meal is gluten-free when it arrives

Even if I have a conversation with the waiter about my dietary needs and ask all the right questions about how the food is prepared, I still confirm my meal is gluten-free when it arrives because things can go wrong once the order goes to the kitchen.

Case in point: A few months ago, I went to a popular restaurant chain in New York City that’s known for being able to make almost anything on the menu gluten-free—and I would’ve been glutened had I not asked whether my meal was gluten-free when it arrived.

On this occasion, I sat solo at the bar and ordered my go-to gluten-free club sandwich with fries. This restaurant uses allergen flags to note when something is gluten-free, but there was no flag in my sandwich when it got to me. Plus, I’ve had their gluten-free bread many times, and this didn’t look the same.

I asked the server if it was gluten-free and sure enough, he said no. The bartender who took my order came over and said to me that I didn’t order a gluten-free meal. I definitely did order gluten-free food, but clearly, something was lost along the way.

The server ultimately took the food back and had the kitchen remake it for me—and this was a good reminder to always double-check my food before digging in, regardless of whether I asked for it to be gluten-free when ordering.

What tips do you have for dining out at a restaurant with celiac disease? Drop a comment and let me know!