Well done to the folks running La Porchetta- they have gluten free pasta on the menu, and, more astonishingly - it actually tastes good!
I was absolutely delighted upon reading the menu at this cheap and cheerful restaurant in Camden to see that I wasn't limited to the usual Italian restaurant "I-can-only-eat-a-salad" scenario (salads can be so tedious, can't they? I'll just munch away gratefully on some leaves whilst watching melted cheese from your fresh baked pepperoni pizza dribble down your chin. Lucky me!).
That great big honking pasta section that is usually an irritating waste of space? Add in a gf pasta option and it's transformed like magic into a thing of beauty! The amount of gf pasta sauce options were excellent, unlike the unfortunate Carluccio's situation. I had the Rigatoni Sofia - spinach, ricotta and tomato sauce. Scrumptious! The pasta didn't taste gluten free at all, in fact, it was so good that I couldn't believe it was true and asked the waiter to check that it was actually gluten free (making a bit of a PITAC fool out of myself!).
I'm looking forward to going back to try out some of their other sauces - there's a salmon and cream one, and another that has chorizo and prawns. And at under £7 a dish, it's a place you can eat at on a regular basis.
And for those of you not in the Camden area there are four other branches; Islington, Clerkenwell, Holborn and Finsbury Park.
Next stop - gf pizza bases? If I ask nicely? Pretty please?
For now, go and enjoy the world of gluten free pasta in a restaurant, my coeliac friends!
Hi! Great post! My partner and I are visiting London (we are from Australia) and really jumped for joy when we found your blog. Just wanted to ask if you've seen this cool thing, it's a list of cards that explain celiac requirements in different languages and I have used them in Italy, France and China with great success. Just thought I'd share the site with you...
ReplyDeletewww.celiactravel.com/restaurant-cards.html
Kate :-)
Thanks so much for the comment Kate, I really appreciate it! It's good to know it's useful.
ReplyDeleteThose restaurant cards are very helpful, thanks! I usually gesticulate a lot and say things like "No bread" in whatever language - but the cards are much better.
Let me know if you have any more GF questions about London I can answer!
Like Robert, we've used the celiac travel cards and we can attest that the Russian and Turkish versions also work. MUCH more effective than gesticulating!
ReplyDelete