Slice - NY

Another place that got rave reviews from the GF community was Slice.

Slice pride themselves of using local, seasonal and farm fresh ingredients. So if you go during different season you may get different toppings for your pizza. Now, contra to popular belief, even though the name is Slice, they don't sell pizza by the slice. Everything is made to order, so you get exactly what you want.

Here's the lovely mosaic in the bathroom. I just had to take a picture of it and show you. And they actually encourage writing on the wall. People put stuff like: Petey was here, or for a Good Time Call. One stood out to me, it was a story of how 2 people went on their first date and how awkward the girl felt when the guy realize that he had enough money to pay for himself and not her. It was quite entertaining.

We did a create-your-own pizza. It was a tad misleading when the menu said 10" pie. Because most of us associate that to be a circle pie, not a long rectangle 'pie'. So, of course we thought between the 2 of us 10" wasn't going to work, so we went next size up considering we were hungry.

Little did we know that thing is 20" wide. Holy crap! It has daiya cheese, baked nicely. Chicken sausage, arugala on gluten free crest. By the way, if you wonder how to eat this, they are cut in triangles. Take it from me.

I also ordered their ginger lemonade. (sorry forgot to take a pic) Who would've thought that it's so refreshing?! It was so good that I ordered another one to go. It was delicious, not over empowered by the ginger, and not tart by the lemon. It was DELISH!

If lemonade is too kiddy for you, they do have alot of local beers to offer. These are all craft beer from local NY peeps. From as close as Brooklyn to Ithaca, mostly micro brewery.

You know what else you'd notice? Tons of Connect 4s. Yes, the game Connect 4s! Apparently, they are known for their Connect 4s tournament. You have to subscribe to their list in order to get more info. This is definitely a neat spot in the Village.

Slice
535 hudson st
new york, ny 10014
212.929.2920
http://sliceperfect.com/

Cafe Guy & Gallard - NY

You know, you don't have to go to a specific gluten free restaurant or a gf friendly place in order to enjoy the food in New York. You can go into any place and just chose carefully.

 

Around the corner of where we stayed was Cafe Guy & Gallard.  They actually have a corner to-go store.  That store obviously for the quick stop type of store.  They have pre-made breakfast and lunch all ready for you to grab and go.  Of course, that store also close earlier too.

At the Cafe, you get to have a sit down meal, and they do serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner with server waiting on you.  You can also sit at the bar for the same service too.  I imagine they get alot of hotel guests stopping by here, because I heard our server often say I'll see you the rest of the week, hinting that the guests come here daily.

I got their Frittata, sounded healthy enough.  It has eggs with spinach, mushroom, onion and cheese over a bed of home fries.  I will say that it is not home fries at all.  It's more like chunks of cooked potato.  Home fries to me is more fried and smaller, not just chopped potatoes.  The eggs was a tad bland as well, since I was putting a lot of salt on it.

Another day we happened to be back and ordered the 3 eggs and bacon and home fries again (that came with).   And that seems to be better and seasoned appropriately.  The servers are awesome, and know that we don't do toast and offered us a bowl of mix fruits.  Highly you go there for a quick meal.

Cafe Guy & Gallard
339 7th Avenue, 
(at 29th St)
New York, NY
(212) 279-7373 www.guyngallard.com/

Bouchon Bakery - NY

Welcome to Macaron Friday - NYC version!

This time, we went to Bouchon in Rockefeller Center in midtown.  They are quite popular after you walk around shopping for a good while. 

Even their table and napkins have matching logos, how cute!

That is one giant mac!

So huge that it's worth the price I paid.  It cost $3.50 per macaron.

This is their 'normal size'.  The size the rest of us consider as normal, is their mini version, which cost $2.25.

I had the Summer Mac, which had strawberry jam with ganache.  It's definitely nice and chewy and delicious, of course!  Definitely up to any good decent macaron's standard.  

I still can't get over how big that mac was.

They have other stuff too, sandwiches for lunch, crossants for breakfast, of course yummy cake by the French masters.  You can go by the Today show and wave to your friends and family at the background and stop by for a cup of coffee or a giant mac.

Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center
One Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020
212.782.3890

http://www.bouchonbakery.com/rockefeller-center

Pappardella - NY

So while we're walking by the Guggenheim. We were wondering where would be a good spot for lunch.

We found Pappardella that offers gluten free menu.  They serve lunch from 11a to 3pm.  See they have a special GF Lunch menu!

Seriously, I haven't had pasta for so long, I don't remember what it taste like.  The pasta they use is so close to the real thing it's so delectable.

Of course, I won't be happy until it's covered with cheese.  The Pasta Baresi has garlic, sun dried tomato, Italian sausage, and spinach.  It does taste like a real pasta!

Papparedella Cucina (NY)
316 Columbus Ave (at 75th)
NY, NY 10023

212-595-7996

http://www.pappardella.com/

Bloom's Deli - NY

Another place David found was Bloom's Deli.

It is on 40th & Lex, by Grand Central Station.

This is their normal menu, they do have normal deli food.  But you do need to ask for a separate gluten free menu, which you can see it here: clicky here.

Of course, the normal eggs and bacon are already gluten free, but they have something for breakfast that not alot of places offer:

Gluten free French Toast!!!  It's yummy!

Gluten Free pancake lumberjack version with bacon added.   Trust me, you want to do the Lumberjack version because if not, all you're getting is really just pancakes.  I will say the pancakes is quite filling.

What I like about Bloom's is that you definitely get the normal NY Deli as you imagine in your head.  But what's cool is that their servers are all fully educated and can tell by sight if they kitchen gave you the correct pancakes or not.  Not only are they trained, if you arrived late to breakfast (which cut off at 11am on weekdays), they'll sneak you in.  Yay!  Of course, they serve lunch and dinner too, but you're in NY, there are more options.

Bloom's is part of the gluten free restaurant directory called Gluten Intolerant Group  which list restaurants that serves GF by area.  That helps searching easier.  

Bloom's Deli

350 Lexington Avenue
Corner of 40th Street
New York, NY 10016

http://www.bloomsnewyorkdeli.com/

BRGR - NY

So before we head out to NY, I did some research to see what Paleo eaters in NYC do about sticking to their diet.  Alot of people suggested BRGR.  Lucky for us, it was near by where we were staying. 

They pride themselves of going against the grain by serving grass-fed beef.  I just care that they served good food.

I got the lemonade but I think they're famous for their blueberry-pomegranate shake.  It was heavily promoted and frankly a chocolate shake sounded good, except I didn't want to fill up with shake and no room for food. 

Here comes the food!  We asked for gluten free version of the burger, which really means lettuce wrap. I had a la carte the burger, and added mushroom and gruyere cheese to mine.  The meat patty was smaller than I expected and the side of fries was small for a $4 side add on.  

They pride themselves for serving grass fed meat and are willing to go the extra mile, but it does come with a price and the portion is super small.  Afterwards we felt like we need another meal.  So, if you go there, while you do get quality food, be prepare to pay and may not be full after.

BRGR

287 7th Ave

Between 26th & 27th

New York, NY 10001

212-488-7500
http://www.brgr.com/

Fontaine Caffe & Creperie - DC

As David travels, we have to find more gluten free friendly places.  Lucky for us, there are more up in the Northeast areas than in Texas.  As gluten free is gaining momentum, Texas is slowly catches on, but it sure makes it easy for travel when a city is already familiar with the allergy.

David found Fontaine  on Yelp.  And it was a great recommendation.  Located in Old Town Alexandria, it was quaint and cute.

You can see that they serve a wide arrange of alcohol if needed.  Opened by a pair of sisters who grew up eating whole foods, one sister went off to become a chef and opened this cafe after some experience with big named places.

 Lucky for us, they realized that there is a need for gluten free crepes and all crepes can be substituted with buckwheat batter.  

Here I ordered the Parisienne, which is chicken with ratatouille veggies, topped with a nice pesto sauce and inside there's baked brie.  It was definitely rich with the brie, I barely touched my side salad, I was full.

But how can you say no to a sweet crepe?  Of course you have to have some!  The sweet crepe wasn't as well done as the savory crepe.  This is just nutella crepe.  They didn't put alot of Nutella in it and it didn't have sufficient time to melt inside the crepe.  

By the way, if you order gluten free sweet crepe there's a $1 surcharge, however for savory crepe they don't charge you anything extra, so make sure to take note.

The place is small, they do have more seating on the back behind the bar, but if you go during peak meal time, don't be surprise if you have a wait outside the door.  Some nights they do French movie nights to go with the meal too.  Check their site for more info.

Fontaine Caffe & Creperie

Old Town Alexandria

119 South Royal Street  

Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 535-8151

www.fontainecaffe.com/