Chicagoland Restaurants

Vinci (menu)
1732 North Halsted, Chicago, 312-266-1199
Many gluten free appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Excellent risotto.

P.F. Changs (menu)
Chicago, Lombard, Northbrook, Orland Park
Extensive gluten free menu and, of course, GF soy sauce. Reasonably priced and one of the few places you can go for Chinese food. We have gone many times and always had a good meal.

Da Luciano (menu)
8343 West Grand Avenue, River Grove, 708-453-1000
Wonderful gluten free selection - pasta, pizza, appetizers, soup, desserts. If you try one gluten free restaurant in town this should be it. They also have freshly frozen meals to go - the ravioli is excellent. Small restaurant, so make reservations.

Trattoria 225 (menu)

225 Harrison, Oak Park, 708-358-8555
Although they do not have a separate gluten free menu, they are happy to substitute GF pasta in all their dishes. They are quite knowledgeable about GF meal preparation and make dressings/sauces from scratch (so know the ingredients). I have had the baked penne pasta and pan seared tilapia - both are excellent! They also carry Redbridge GF beer!

Flattop Grill
Old Town, West Loop, Lakeview, Evanston, Oak Park
Flattop Grill does not have a separate gluten free menu, but they have a list of all ingredients in the various sauces (some of which are gluten free) and will cook your stir-fry on a separate cooking surface. They are very accommodating of all types of food allergies.

Wildfire (menu)
Chicago, Oak Brook, Lincolnshire, Schaumburg, Glenview
Wildfire has a separate (and extensive) gluten free menu, which includes sandwiches on GF bread, GFbeer, and flourless chocolate cake.

Great Desserts

Mandel Bread

Wedding Cake

Sugar Cookies

Ice Cream and Brownie Cake

Pumpkin Pie

Apple Pie

Berry Pie

Cranberry-Pear Pie

Cup Cakes

The World of Beer

Although they do not seem to carry them consistently, I have purchased all three of these gluten free beers at Whole Foods in the last year. The good news is they are more widely available than they were a couple years ago.

New Grist Beer

Honey Passover Beer

Bard's Tale Beer

While I have not tried it yet, Anheuser-Busch recently introduced a gluten free beer, Red Bridge Beer, so it might have wider distribution.

Another alternative is Hard Cider, which I had never had until a few years ago, but is quite good (although a bit stronger than beer). There are many on the market, however Woodchuck Draft Cider is good and all their varieties are gluten free.

Top Products

Cake Mix
Namaste Foods - Spice Cake, the best gluten free mix (period) that I have tried. I love this. This is one of the few baked products that you can make and no one will know the difference. Their other baking mixes are also very good. This is easy to find in larger stores.

Cookie Mix
'Cause You're Special! - Classic Sugar Cookie Mix. Excellent as sugar cookies or dipped in chocolate. If dipped in chocolate, make sure to refrigerate.

Gluten Free Pantry - Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix. These are especially good if they are frozen after baking. You can get these in a local grocery.

Bagels
The best I have found are from Glutino - they are frozen and better toasted. I have tried a number of others over the years, but think these are closest to what a bagel should taste like.

Pretzels
Not easy to make gluten free pretzels, but these are pretty good, although certainly not the same. This company, Glutino, also makes good breadsticks and cookies.

Waffles (frozen)
Lifestream - Organic Buckwheat Wildberry Waffles

Grocery Shopping

Whole Foods and Trader Joes win hands-down. They both have great selections of gluten free foods and because many of their foods are organic, reading labels is much easier. Whole Foods also has a dedicated GF bakery that ships to all their stores. The baked goods are pricey, but quite good. They are flash frozen for shipping and found in the freezer section.

Surprisingly, even mainstream grocery stores like Jewel have started carrying gluten free products (e.g., flour, baking mixes, cereal, cookies, pasta) on dedicated shelves, making shopping quite easy.

Fruitful Yield (stores are around Chicagoland) are small health food stores, but have extensive gluten free sections.

Packaged Foods

Thai Kitchen - One of my favorites... sold in many stores or online. Almost everything is gluten free. Lots of various sauces for stir fry and other meals - very easy to make.

Amy's Kitchen - Products are very good (for frozen food). Whole Foods sells many of the products, including a rice crust pizza (but it includes dairy). If you try the pizza get some extra sauce and toppings, otherwise it is a bit bland.

Fantastic Foods - Another strong product line of gluten free foods found in many stores. Whole Foods carries their instant soup mixes, which are perfect for making dips.

Enjoy Life Foods - Good cookies and snack bars (Whole Foods carries them), however I would pass on their bagels and cereal.

TastyBite - Indian and Thai foods. Almost all their products are gluten-free and they clearly indicate so on the package. Favorite is Madras Lentils, although I have liked everything I have tried from them.

Magazines

Living Without - Good magazine dealing with various food allergies, however most articles are on gluten free foods (it is quarterly and sold at Whole Foods or you can subscribe). It is well worth the subscription. Even the advertisements give you great ideas for trying new GF foods.

Gluten-Free Living - Another good quarterly magazine for anyone on a gluten free diet.