Gluten-Free?

pizza plant on transit has a gluten free menu, but only on wednesdays.

Wegmans has a gluten-free section within its Nature's Marketplace area and Curly's restaurant has gluten-free menu options.

Red Pepper restaurant does not have a gluten free section on its menu but they can tell you which items are gluten free. I spoke with Martin, the restaurant owner, about it once in order to accomodate family member. Typically the dishes with white sauces are gluten free but i was surprised to learn that their version of sesame chicken is gluten free...it is breaded with cornstarch.

My girlfriend needs to limit gluten in her diet.
It's tough because it's difficult to find gluten free options at restaurants and the gluten free products at Wegmans are expensive and don't taste that great.

Merge has many gluten-free items marked on their menu.

Here is a link to the local Gluten Free support group, they offer restaurant and menu suggestions.

http://www.buffaloglutenfree.org/home.html

This is a great resource for someone looking for gluten free recipes and ready-back mixes.

http://www.glutenfree.com/home.aspx

For Greek Salad Dressing and Marinade use Greek Goddess.

All natural, no preservatives. It is indeed gluten free although it might not say.

It's at Wegmans in Amherst, Amherst st., and Hamburg. Plus some other delis around town.

Check out Ilio DiPaolo's in Blasdell. They have gluten free selections on the menu. Link: http://www.iliodipaolos.com/menus.php3 - choose gluten free menu. And now that it has become a more well known issue, I'll bet most restaurants would accommodate special needs, esp. if they want your business. No harm in asking.

I have heartfelt compassion for dining out while on a gluten-free diet! We have been doing it for a decade! My daughter has life-threatening food allergies to any milk, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts, an extremely bad reaction to preservatives, food dyes and chemicals in foods - all of which makes our gluten-free dining look like a picnic. Here is an idea...

For my gluten-free and dairy-free sons (ages 10 and 13), we take our own delicious gluten-free/dairy-free rolls for use with a burger or other gluten-free menu item. We even take our own gluten-free/dairy-free salad dressing. My daughter is a whole different situation, so we take food for her, which most restaurants will warm up. We typically take in a boxed, commercially made food, in the original food container (Kettle Cuisine Chicken Noodle Soup, Ian's Chicken nuggets, Ian's Mac and No Cheese, or Van's GF Waffles or pancakes). No matter WHAT your food issue, you can still dine out with some adjustments.

I have loaded free tip sheets, white papers, videos, recipes and other helpful items on my website to help people with food issues. My family and I travel and live a great life with a huge amount of food issues, so can you! I live right here in Buffalo, so let me know if I can help you further.
Love,
Lisa A. Lundy
Author of: The Super Allergy Girl™ Allergy & Celiac Cookbook
www.TheSuperAllergyCookbook.com

Although its not a local independent restaurant...Carrabba's on Niagara Falls Blvd does a great job with Gluten Free...The staff is great with this!

My wife is gluten free; here are our suggestions:

Carrabas & Pizzeria Uno: great GF menus
La Tee Da, Nektar, Trattoria Aroma: very accommodating chefs
Best of Health in Kenmore: health food store with lots of good GF products.
Franco's Pizzeria & Bocces have recently unveiled gf pizza...and not just on Wednesdays!

ENJOY!

i would'nt say that Carrabas has a gluten free menu at all. I went there expecting wheat free pasta dishes- INSTEAD. they tell you - oh - this salad is gluten free. um.....you can have this chicken....and um...we can put rice on it.
PF Changs has a serious gluten free menu , but of course most Asian places you can find gluten free options without looking hard- sushi, Chinese ( just ask about the sauces) and Thai are usually with what I stick with. Mexican is usually pretty safe too- just go with corn tortillas and ask about sauces.
It was nice to see at la tee da that they had wheat free pasta and meatballs- because thats what we crave— the foods we can not have.

My Tomato Pie on Sheridan has several gluten-free options on their menu (a couple of pastas and I think a pizza)...I have to admit, I've never tried them, but anything else I've had there has been delicious!

Ahhhh.... So much info to share.
LaNova on Ferry...yes you can order a gluten-free pizza and have it delivered!!!! A little pricey but sooo worth it. Actually, I believe they get their pizza from Vin-Chets Bakery on Kensington.... another secret. You can stop in and get frozen pizzas, cookies, etc. They are excellent.
Papaya on Chippewa carries gluten-free Beer...as does Wegmans, and Village Beer Merchant on Elmwood.
As for restaurants, Curly's (S Buffalo) La Tee Das (Allen)are good choices. If you know enough about what to eat you can order off of many Thai and Asian Fusion menus. Ask for rice pasta.
Spicy Thai on Sheridan--"Crazy Tofu" is an awesome treat.
Wegmans has a large selections of Gluten free foods.
Always on hand....Chex cereal, Rice cakes, and torilla corn chips!

Curlys in Lackawanna is great for gluten free, so is Nektar.

I second Curley's Bar & Grill - excellent gluten free offerings with no worries. Another favorite is The King & I on Kensington for Thai. They are very knowledgeable about what is and isn't g-f. Lastly, Bonefish Grill. They have a gluten-free menu and helpful staff. They have a chocolate desert to die for. Our last meal there, the manager caught my meal as it was being brought to me and saw there was a sauce on it that was NOT gluten free. It was corrected and my dinner was on the house. That's service!
I hadn't heard about Swiss Chalet, that's too bad as it was a great fallback and to-go option.

Thanks for the suggestions! keep them coming

Curly's Grill Committed to a Gluten Free Menu
**New Gluten Free Dinner Menu Available every evening starting Feb 24, 2010*** See the menu on the Curly's Grill & Banquet Center Group page on Facebook.

A few years ago my sister was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I was unfamiliar with the disease, so I immediately starting doing research to gain a better understanding of what my sister was going through. I quickly came to realize that so many of the foods she enjoyed so much were the ones causing her the most discomfort. I promised her that I could create her two favorite items gluten free, so she at least had these to enjoy - pizza and chocolate chip cookies! Once Curly's was able to make these two items with the same flavor as the non-gluten free versions we decided to take things a step further. We reviewed our menu in detail and realized that we had so much more to offer the Celiac community. Our fresh approach in preparing stock, soups, & sauces along with our culinary expertise allowed us to create this menu. I have come to realize that a gluten free diet is a healthier way of eating and promotes a healthier lifestyle.

Krista Van Wagner, Chef Owner
Curly's Grill & Banquet Center, 647 Ridge Rd, Lackawanna NY
716.824.9716

I launched a website almost exactly two years ago to address this specific challenge: dining and traveling safely on a gluten-free diet. My son, who was diagnosed with Celiac before he was even two years old, is now almost seven. The site, GlutenFreeTravelSite ( http://www.glutenfreetravelsite.com ) helps people find restaurants, grocery stores, hotels/resorts, and cruise ships around the world that accommodate gluten-free diets. It is a review-based site, with dining and travel reviews submitted by people all over the country — and the world. We have over 800 reviews, and they are organized geographically to make it easy to access the ones most relevant to you. In fact, we just added new and improved search technology to allow users to narrow their search down to the city/town or zip code level — and map the results. I just did a search of a 75 mile radius around Buffalo, and three reviews came up on our website…not a lot, but a start. So please pass the info on to your friend. She may be able to add to the Buffalo-area reviews herself (we’d certainly welcome some more so that we can better help people living in AND traveling to that area. We also have a section of our site called Gluten Free Restaurant Menus ( http://www.glutenfreetravelsite.com/restaurants ) dedicated to listing some of the best national and regional chain restaurants with gluten-free menus (with direct links to those menus). So all told, our site helps users find THOUSANDS of great places to safely dine gluten-free around the world. I hope your friend will find it useful!