This past week I had the chance to visit 2 restaurants in New York City that are known for being Gluten Free friendly. One I was so so on, the other I can’t wait to go back to.
The first restaurant I went to was S’Mac which is short for Sarita’s Macaroni & Cheese. As you can guess, they specialize in Mac & Cheese. They have both gluten-free and regular pasta. The bread crumbs and flour used are gluten-free and if your lactose intolerant, they can use a coconut milk.
First I want to start off saying that I knew this wasn’t a gourmet restaurant. It is a quick service restaurant. The food however is made to order since it is custom-made to how you want it.
I am not a big Mac & Cheese eater, but my wife is. This was for her birthday so I didn’t mind trying it. Overall, I wasn’t that impressed. I thought all the pasta and sauces would be made already so all they had to do was mix everything together and heat it up. However, it took quite a long time from placing our order to getting it. Once we did get our meal, they were both ice cold to the point that I got the impression they were being cooked from a frozen state. They were more than happy to heat it some more. Again, I had to send it back a second time due to heat issues. Once it was finally hot enough to eat, it wasn’t bad.
My other issues, and this is probably what caused our heat issues, was that it seems like there was recently a shift change and a lot of the off duty employees were hanging out and talking with the employees that were working. The current employees seemed to be preoccupied which is why our meal was probably cold.
One bright side is when I posted all this onto their Facebook page, Sarita answered back pretty quickly and said she would talk with the manager. I would give her the benefit of the doubt and try it again one day. Overall, I would give this place 3 out of 5 stars.
This place I have wanted to go to since I went Gluten Free. It has really great reviews and almost everything here is gluten-free. Their main specialty is risotto and most of the risotto dishes are GF. They also have some salads, pizza’s both GF and regular, and panini’s, also GF and regular. The meal starts with some homemade GF bread sticks which I thought were excellent. I wanted to try the risotto but since I was there for brunch, I went with a panini.
Besides the main meals, they have a complete GF dessert menu. For drinks they also have a selection of gluten-free beers. Everything here that we had was excellent. The place is small and can only accommodate 20 people, but that was fine with me. We got there when it opened so we didn’t have to wait.
Overall, I loved everything here and can’t wait to go back again. It definitely lived up to all the reviews I read. On top of everything, they also sell their mixes, breads and desserts. I was tempted to buy some but I decided to wait until next time. I would give this place 5 stars out of 5.
Since going Gluten Free, my biggest concern has been eating out. I find most restaurants are not GF friendly. This was the first time I went out and didn’t worry about the food at all. It was nice not to have to worry if I will feel sick after eating. So, if you are ever in New York City and you need a gluten-free meal, check these places out.
