Tag Archives: gluten-free pasta

Seattle Sans Gluten // Cafe Piccolo

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I do a lot of (some may say obsessive) browsing on the internet, looking for restaurants that serve gluten-free food. Italian food has been difficult to find, beyond gluten-free pizza and maybe pasta. So when I read that Cafe Piccolo made gluten-free ravioli, bread, parmigiana, and lasagna, I knew I had to go try it for myself.

Their menu has little notes on it about their ability to substitute gluten-free bread or pasta. The website says that they cannot make gluten-free ravioli or lasagna, but that is no longer the case! Our server informed us that the only thing the kitchen was unable to make gluten-free was the gnocchi. I briefly considered being sad about that, but I had so many choices (at an Italian restaurant!) that I really didn’t mind.

We settled on the antipasto plate to start. Our server brought out house-made gluten-free bread to accompany it. The bread was served with a wonderful paste made of herbs, spices, balsamic vinegar, and roasted garlic. I am so used to ordering antipasto with “no bread.” It was really nice to eat cheese and meat with some starch alongside it!

I really enjoyed the antipasto as well. The was a wide assortment of items on the plate, from carrots in mint oil, to marinated mushrooms, to cheese, to cured meat. There was just enough for a few tastes or bites of each item, but the variety was wider than a lot of antipasto plates I have encountered.

For our main course, we shared the Ravioli Sage and Brown Butter:

and the Calamari Amatriciana:

Both were very good, but I definitely preferred the calamari dish. The pasta, house made squid ink pappardelle, had a really great, soft, chewy (dare I say glutinous?) texture, and the calamari was cooked perfectly. One note, though, the food was very salty for my taste. I know that salt is a matter of palate, and mine probably just differed a great deal from that of the chef’s, but it made it a bit difficult for me to fully enjoy the meal. The boyfriend said he did not find it to be too salty, so I really do think it may have been just a matter of taste.

Every dessert at Cafe Piccolo is gluten-free! We finally settled on the Goat Cheesecake. It was really fantastic, and it got even better with every bite. It had a creamy texture and a really great tanginess that was never overpowering. I decided dessert needed some company in my belly, so I ordered the house Limoncello, which was wonderful. They also make a lot of other flavors of “-cello” there. The boyfriend had fennelcello, and he thought it was really good (I don’t really like fennel, so my opinion is not worth noting here).

Overall this was a really great dining experience. Our server was very knowledgeable about the menu and the gluten-free options. The restaurant itself had a softly lit, homey feel. The menu was extensive (and tasty sounding!) enough that I would like to go back to try some of the things that I was not able to on the first visit. Thank you, Cafe Piccolo for catering to gluten-free diners!

Gluten-Free Dining at Olive Garden

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Gluten-Free Penne Rigate Pomodoro at Olive Garden

I recently learned that Olive Garden has added some gluten-free options to their menu. I was not in Seattle yesterday, and so my gluten-free restaurant options were a bit more limited than usual. Lunchtime was nigh and I was hungry, so my boyfriend and I decided to give the gluten-free menu at Olive Garden a try.

I asked our hostess for the gluten-free menu before we were shown to our table. This can help gluten-free dining to go more smoothly as it saves the wait staff or host a trip, and it gives the host a chance to alert your server that at least one of your party is of gluten-free status before they even get to your table and introduce themselves. It also gives them the option, if they choose, of assigning your table to someone more experienced or well-versed in the gluten-free options on the menu.

Their Gluten-Free menu was not huge, but there were enough choices available that I did not feel limited. It also had a lot of choices for those of you that are dairy-free as well. I chose the Penne Rigate Pomodoro, and my boyfriend went with the Herb-Grilled Salmon.

The hard copy of the menu we were given listed the salmon as herb-crusted, just like the “regular” menu. The online description, “brushed with Italian herbs” is more accurate. The Boyfriend still thought it was good, but it wasn’t quite what he was expecting.

I went with pasta, mostly because I was curious about what type they would use and whether the texture would be up to par. There were two pasta options on the gluten-free menu, I went with the one that sounded like it had the chunkier sauce. It was actually pretty good. I believe they used a corn-based pasta. The texture was not as good as some of the brands I cook at home, but it was certainly passable and it was fun to order pasta in a restaurant.

Of course we had to order the salad (I mean really, why else does anyone even go to Olive Garden?), we simply had it without croutons and I ate my usual embarrassingly large amount of it. As in, more than one serving-bowlful. I didn’t even miss the croutons.

We also took advantage of a new wine serving size they offer (don’t judge us, it was a snow day!). It’s called the Quartino, and it’s basically a glass and a half of wine for only 2-3 dollars more than the glass price. We split two of those, so we didn’t have to get an entire bottle, and we also saved some cash.

Overall, eating there was a good experience. They seemed well-prepared for gluten-free patrons (and believe me, in the town I was in that is definitely not always the case!), I felt safe simply ordering from the gluten-free menu, and I left full of decently tasty food and wine. It’s always nice to have a few chain restaurants in my mental gluten-free restaurant inventory for times when I am not in a region that has fully embraced the fact that gluten-free diners are here to stay. I would definitely go to Olive Garden again in the future.