Hell Pizza: Gluten Free Pizza Heaven!

We all know one of the things us poor coeliacs miss the most is the most delicious of the gluten based guilty pleasures - pizza (along with bread, beer, and well, fried things!).

I'd known of Hell Pizza for a while, but as I live on the other side of town to all three of their restaurants ( Clapham, Shepherd's Bush), I had yet to find the time to make the trek over ('tis a little bit of a trek).

But boy am I glad I did. It was FANTASTIC. Even my non-gf companion had a gluten free base, and said although it did taste slightly different from a conventional one, it was delicious none the less, and scoffed the whole thing.

As I hadn't had a pizza in a long time I played it safe with my pre-celiac days favourite - pepperoni and mushroom. Goodness - just thinking about it now is making me salivate! The base was really thin and crispy, a great texture and a perfect platform for a generous helping of toppings and a great tomato sauce.

My friend went more adventureous, with the "Mayhem" pizza- peanut satay, sweet chilli, chicken, green peppers and onions. Now I understand that that sounds slightly disgusting (it was what I was thinking when she chose it) - but, you know what, it worked! All of the many ingredients are chopped into small pieces so that each mouthful you get the full range of flavours. I was really very impressed and think I ought to put more trust into the hands of the hell pizza genii and their crazy menu ideas next time!

I really wished I lived within their delivery zone - can you imagine? Being able to get a pizza delivery whenever you wanted! Actually, it's probably a very good thing they don't deliver to me, I would gain large quantities of weight very quickly.

The interior is very much like the design of their website - a kind of chic goth look, which I could take or leave. The pizza, however, I'm definitely taking! And at just £5.50 for the smaller snack size, it's terrific value.

Please, all you other pizza places out there - take a lesson from Hell and start making some heavenly gluten free pizzas. (sorry for the pun folks!

UPDATE: It seems that the Fulham Branch has closed!

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Tierra Brindisi: Attentive GF Tapas

There is something about Tierra Brindisi I just really like. A combination of the atmosphere, helpful staff, great central location, and the decor just appeals.

Tapas as we know is a generally gf friendly cuisine anyway, but I liked the extra attention the staff here paid to my needs, so I thought it was worth a post.

When I ordered the Chorizo in cider, the manager came over afterwards just to check the type of cider they were using didn't have any barley malt in it (which it didn't). It showed knowledge and thoughtfulness, and he didn't make me feel uncomfortable in the least.

The quality of the tapas was excellent. The octopus was simply delicious, as was the complimentary chicken liver pate at the start (which, yes, I ate on it's own with my fork!). The Spanish omelette was one of the best I've had, in or outside of Spain, being moist and moorish.

So if you are stranded in Soho, and fancy some above-average tapas, in a wonderfully gf friendly and chic restaurant, look no further than Tierra Brindisa.

The Engineer: Gastropubbing with GF style

The Engineer in Primrose Hill is a favorite of mine, especially when it's summer and you can sit in the beautifully tended garden at the back.

I'd recommend it because of a strong gluten friendly menu, and knowledgeable and helpful staff, who are happy to cater to your needs.

I adore the vegetarian dish of crispy polenta with grilled vegetables and goats cheese. It has a bit of a chilli oil kick and is one of those perfect dishes where you could feed it to a meat and wheat eater and they'd be completely content. So all you (very brave) gluten free vegetarians out there, this is one to try.

The cheese burgers are also top notch- and I recently discover, 100% gluten free, always a treat, who needs a bun anyway?

If you fancy somewhere for brunch on the weekend and are sick of having nothing to mop up soft poached egg yolks with (is that just me?), then the added sauted potatoes with their eggs benedict/florentine/royale will be a welcome treat.

Next stop is getting in gluten free beer in bottles so be able to sit in the sunshine with..... I'm working on it - watch this space!

La Porchetta: Woohoo - edible GF pasta!

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!

Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons: The Ultimate Decadance for a GF Foodie

Okay, Okay, so it's not exactly somewhere that you could go once a month, or even once a year! But Raymond Blanc's Michelin starred, Les Manoir aux Quat'Saisons near Oxford, is superb, and worth every, of the very many, pennies.

I did let them know in advance about me being a coeliac, as it is only fair when there is a tasting menu that will have to be tailored. But boy did they tailor it!

Situated in the countryside, Le Manoir is a beautiful building with amazing gardens.

While the rest of the group shared their canapes out on the terrace, I had a whole plate of gluten free canapes just for me. It's the only time I think that having a gluten allergy has been a bonus! Little spoons with crab and infused jelly, gf toast with foie gras on top; so many exquisite little things with complex and sensational flavours. I really could live just off canapes like that for the rest of my life.

The five course tasting menu was astonishing. Every dish was perfect. The asparagus with duck egg and parmasan, the red mullet with its own little soup, the poached chicken (I know, chicken?! But it was the best, most flavourful chicken I've ever had) with morel mushrooms, and the most amazing strawberry dessert. I've never had anything that tasted so much of strawberries; pure, sweet, intense strawberries. Certainly the best gf dessert I've ever had.

They had warmed gluten free bread for me throughout the meal, which was a nice touch.

And with the coffees afterwards came the chocolate petit fours, and it was a repeat of the canape situation. Score! My delicious gf selection included the world's smallest pavlova, some sort of sweet lemon ball and miniature chocolates filled with ice cream. Yum.

Totally amazing, one of the finest meals you will ever have, gluten free or not. I couldn't recommend it enough. Now, all that's left to figure out is how am I going to make my millions so that I can buy a helicopter and pop to Les Manoirs for lunch every day? Any ideas, let me know!

Gluten Free en Paris; C'est pas possible, non?

Mais oui, c'est vrai!

Enough of the franglais now. It is true, the notoriously coeliac unfriendly French do indeed have their first gluten free restaurant in Paris. Hoorah! It's called Des Di et Des Mets, and is up near the fashionable Monmarte district.

I've not been yet, but I thought it was definitely worth a post in case any of you coeliacs find yourself up a french creek without a gluten free paddle, so to speak.

If anyone's been, please let me know what it's like!