restaurant reports (Zadin in SF, Speisekammer in Alameda)

August 26, 2008

Yesterday we took some visting relatives around the bay area a bit and

ended up going to dinner at Zadin in San Francisco. I think they are

the only bay area restaurant I have ever been to personally that

actually lists anything as being gluten-free right on the menu. I was

pretty excited to be able to drink a beer at a restaurant (they have

Redbridge), and the onion rings (rice batter) are fantastic. So were

the imperial rolls (ok, I really like deep fried stuff). I personally

wasn't a big fan of the entrees but everyone else seemed to like

theirs (the veggies are served relatively raw which I am not big on,

and I wasn't a fan of their tofu -- but hey maybe my mistake was

ordering tofu...). In any case they seemed to be very knowledgeable

about gluten free and hey, did I mention the beer and onion rings?

A couple weeks ago for my wife's birthday we went out to Speisekammer

in Alameda, a German restaurant. Its a meat and potatoes kind of

place. No gluten free beer on the menu but they seemed to have some

knowledge of eating gluten-free and they were able to check on various

things for me. In any case, we had a good meal there and I am pretty

sure that everything worked out ok in terms of not getting

contaminated. I really liked the fries there, and they also had a

chocolate dessert that wasn't made with wheat. I think after I send

this email I'll launch my personal compaign to get them to carry

gluten-free beer. I think Green's would fit well on the menu there.

Ok now for my personal rant. What is it with these pizza places all

carrying GF crusts now and wanting to charge $5 extra? I appreciate

that they are carrying them, but hey, I am going to drag my whole

family in and order a whole bunch of stuff so they are going to make a

bunch more money off of us anyway -- no need to gauge us for an extra

$5. I realize they have some costs to cover, but if they didn't

provide they option, they would miss out on our bill altogether. And

they should at least add GF beer to the menus too ;-)

-Luther

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