Edinburgh Gluten Free

Edinburgh Gluten Free for anyone that's interested!

At the end of June/start of July we took a little trip to Edinburgh for a family event. Being gluten free I had to research the possibility of food, more particularly nice food, to be consumed for the duration of the stay. We decided against booking a hotel and opted for an apartment through AirBnB because then we could have a kitchen and control a few meals (and costs) throughout the stay.

When travelling I always say to research your destination. For the Edinburgh trip I used two sites primarily: Genius Gluten Free and Coeliac UK.

I'll start from the beginning in Dublin Airport! In Terminal Two is is possible to grab a sandwich in O'Briens. They did ask if I was coeliac or gluten intolerant, which shows some level of training has been given to the staff. When I advised coeliac the server changed his gloves and brought out clean utensils to make my sandwich. However, they do advise they cannot guarantee completely contamination free food. In saying that I was pretty confident the server knew what he was doing. 

Breakfast:

We had breakfast in Loudons Café & Bakery on the first morning and they provided gluten free bread with a smile.

We had rented an apartment through AirBnB so we had a kitchen to work with. The first morning was the only morning we ate out. After that it was cereal picking up in Sainsburys for breakkie!

Lunch and Dinner:

We had lunch and dinner in several restaurants throughout the stay. Most of which were extremely helpful and delicious! I didn't take pictures of the food because, well, I was on holidays and concentrating on eating and enjoying it! 

I've put the lunch and dinner categories together because we made our lunches in the apartment for the majority of the trip, but we had one fabulous lunch out in Howies. They've two locations for this restaurant, Victoria Street and Waterloo Places. We were in Victoria Street. 

The Theatre Royal has a whole separate gluten free menu. Looked delicious and we were immersed in a pub atmosphere. Pub grub.. Is there anything more comforting?

Café Saint Honoré is a gorgeously intimate French restaurant. It's tucked in a side street and across from it we found dumpsters, so we were a little apprehensive. That happened to be completely without cause. It was just delicious and perfect for a nice little romantic meal with a bottle of wine. 

All research told us to try Mamma's American Pizza Company. It's a very child friendly restaurant. There were a lot of children there when we were dining. The pizza was good though ad they've  gluten free starters, desserts, and beer too!

I freaking loved the tapas at Café Andaluz! Plenty of gluten free options and they stocked gluten free Daura Beer. Had a fantastic night here.

I'd been to Spoon Café before. Last time it was amazing. They had bread and lots and lots of options. This time was really disappointing. They didn't really have the knowledge they had. The waitress had to check and triple check with the kitchen. The only option we ended up with was vegetable soup. 

On our last night we ate in Wagamama. Wagamama is in Ireland too and generally are quite good with allergens so we knew this one would be a solid choice. It didn't disappoint. We had a nice meal and the staff were well informed on dietary requirements. 

Snacks:

We stopped for a quick gluten free wrap in the Costa of Edinburgh Airport.

Marks & Spencers were great for a quick gluten free chocolate muffin

Sainsbury's was the business for snacks! We nabbed these little beauties and brought them in our bags during the day. For our trips to the zoo (still really disappointed we didn't see the pandas!) and to the museums we made our own sambos to bring in our bags. We obviously couldn't expect the more touristy places known for fast food to have anything suitable. 

One place that did surprise was the National History museum. Found this snack by Honeybuns there. A little greasy in that it soaked brown paper, but not bad at all.

Throughout the stay we drank Crabbies Ginger Beer in practically any pub we entered. It was widely available and a happy break from being stuck with just wine or the hard stuff while we were away.

My travel advise is always the same:

• Pack lunch for the trip. 
• Research before you go. 
• Always have back up snacks for those moments when you run short. 

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