Prior to our Celebrity Cruise round Alaska we spent a week in Seattle, doing the usual touristy things and sampling lots of gluten-free food!
I did find a lot of useful information from various blogs out there, although they were mainly written before the pandemic. As such, there were quite a few places that have now sadly closed down. For anyone that uses blog information, including this one, to make a list of places to visit, I’d always advise you to give the restaurant/eatery a google, and make sure they’re still open. Nothing more disappointing than turning up to somewhere you think sounds really good, only to find it isn’t open, or even worse, has completely closed down!
Obviously we couldn’t eat everywhere, so this blog will just cover the places we did manage to eat at.
The Mayflower Park Hotel
This was our base for the week, and I would highly recommend. All rooms have a fridge and a coffee maker. Following some advice I was given online, I contacted the hotel to ask if there was any possibility of hiring a microwave for the room. They replied very quickly, and for the bargain price of $10 for the whole week, we had a microwave. This gave us lots of flexibility, and there were a couple of times when we just bought frozen ready meals rather than going out.
We also bought a toaster at Target on our first day there. It was only around $12, but again, meant we could have easy breakfasts in the room (we did make sure to open the window when using it, as we we were slightly paranoid about the smoke alarm!).
The hotel was situated quite centrally, with Target only a few minutes walk away (along with CVS, which is a popular American drugstore that carries a fair amount of food and drink options). There was also a chemist across the road at the back of the hotel that had quite a varied selection of food and drink.
Gluten-free groceries were expensive in Seattle, as was eating out. A loaf of GF bread (which incidentally, you bought from the freezers in this particular Target, we found no fresh ones) was $6.50 for a loaf, and gluten-free frozen ready meals were around $5.00 each. I was desperate to buy some gluten-free Oreos. There seemed to be some kind of shortage when we were there, and Target had none on the shelf (not just the GF ones, but none at all!). We found some at Safeway, but they were $4.50 a pack. Obviously we treated ourselves to a pack – we were on holiday after all, but food prices are definitely something to bear in mind if travelling to the USA at this currently time.
Capitol Cider
Capitol Cider is a really popular restaurant, bar, and events space, with live music on most nights. The best thing about it though, is that it has a 100% gluten-free kitchen. You definitely need to make a reservation, we made the mistake of not making one, as we thought that getting there for around 6pm we’d beat the crowds. However, we had to wait about half an hour before getting a table.
Although cider is obviously their speciality, they do have gluten-free beers as well, which was a relief (I hate cider!). The food was fantastic, and it was a great atmosphere with the music (although if you want to chat, it’s probably not the place to go, as it was quite loud!). We had a sharing starter of loaded chilli fries, which were vegetarian but could have been made vegan. My husband had a half pound burger for mains, whilst I had the Impossible burger. Dessert was buttermilk cheesecake, and we pretty much waddled out of there!
As anyone who has to eat GF for whatever reason knows, finding a completely gluten-free restaurant feels like the ultimate dream. This was definitely a brilliant place to eat, and was the first of two completely GF restaurants we ate at.
Ghostfish Brewing Company
This was the second 100% gluten-free place we ate at in Seattle, and even better, they have loads of different GF beers in the pub as well. Ghostfish are a gluten-free brewery, so as well as drinking in, you can also buy cans and bottles to take away.
It was a bit more of a casual environment than Capitol Cider, reminded me of a pub where you’d go for some quick food and a drink and watch sports (there was a big Mariners baseball game on when we were there at the nearby stadium). Food arrived really quickly, but was very tasty and big portions. And also, they have gluten-free churros (which were awesome!)!
Veggie Grill
This is a 100% plant based fast food place, where you can eat in or take away. There are lots of gluten-free options marked on the menu, and also many options that can be made GF with slight adaptations (e.g. replacing the bun with a GF bun).
The person taking our order instantly knew what coeliac was, which was reassuring, and confirmed that there was a separate fryer for fries and GF food. He was able to go through what could be made GF, and ensured that our orders were made as safely as possible.
If you’re expecting a fast food place to be cheaper than other options, you’d be wrong! Still expensive, but we went a couple of times and really enjoyed it, and felt safe eating there.
Razzi’s Pizzeria
Razzi’s is a must if you’re anywhere near either of their locations in Seattle. We ate in once, and also ordered take-out one night as well. They have four menus, two of which are gluten free! That’s right, not just one, but two! There is a standard GF menu, and also a vegan GF menu.
They take allergies very seriously, and the GF food is made completely separately to the standard menu food (they have a separate gluten-free kitchen for GF orders). We went for lunch one day, and ordered so much food just because the choice was incredible! Our huge lunch consisted of garlic bread with marinara sauce, chicken tenders, pizza (me) and calzone (my husband). Not surprisingly, we had no room for dessert! They also serve GF beer, like a couple of places mentioned above, which was good because we couldn’t find any in the local supermarkets.
We reigned ourselves in slightly when ordering via Uber Eats to our hotel – a shared starter of mozzarella sticks, a shared pizza, and then a key lime pie for dessert. All gluten free, and all amazing!
Kati Vegan Thai
Almost all of the menu here is marked as gluten free, and they have their allergy information online (not everywhere does). We let the server know we were gluten free, and she confirmed extra care would be taken with our order to avoid cross contamination.
The food was delicious, and it’s clearly a popular place with the locals, as really busy. Definitely highly recommended.
Cinnamon Works
Based in the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle, Cinnamon Works is a scratch bakery that does amazing gluten-free bakes. They are extremely careful regarding cross contamination, and the dedicated GF cabinet is all taped off and sticks out a mile! They have ingredients lists up for everything, which is helpful, although oats weren’t listed as specifically gluten free. I did ask about this, and was assured that they were. We went a couple of times and sampled some of the muffins (cinnamon crunch and apple and raisin) as well as the monster cookies.
Like everywhere else we found, nothing was cheap, but it tasted delicious and it was lovely to be able to have some freshly baked GF goodies.
Be careful of limited opening hours since Covid (and having checked the link I’ve put up, they seem even more limited than when we visited in April).
Kastoori Grill
This restaurant specialises in Indian and Tibetan food. I found this place from a recommendation in another blog I found online. I emailed them, asking the usual questions about cross contamination etc, and they replied saying that they could cater, and that most of their menu was gluten free.
When we got there, there were no allergen markings in the menu, so we asked the server. He said that all the curries were gluten free. When asked about the starters, he seemed a bit unsure, then confirmed that everything was fried together.
We stuck with curry and rice each, and it was very tasty. The restaurant does look quite basic inside (and nothing special from the outside either!), but the food was great, although we only had the one dish each.
Chipotle
Another fast food place, this time Mexican. They are all over the USA, and can also be found over here as well. Their allergen information is online, and very clear. You need to tell them that you are gluten free, they should then change their gloves and be extra careful with your food.
Useful for food in a hurry, and fairly GF friendly (assuming they take the correct precautions).
Blue Water Taco
We found this in The Armoury, which is an events hall with several food outlets. It’s situated right next to the Space Needle, which we had just visited, and was one of only two places in there that had any reference to gluten free on the menu (the other was Kabab).
All the fillings and sauces are GF. They do have corn tortillas, which are gluten free, however we were advised that they were warmed on the same plate as the flour ones, so we went with burrito bowls instead. The food was decidedly average, Chipotle was much better, but it filled a hole and was convenient to where we were.
Summary
We definitely found that Seattle catered pretty well for gluten-free on the whole, but I think that without researching first, and writing lists of possible places, it would have been much more of a struggle.
There were other places that were on my list, but with only a week spent there, we just couldn’t fit in everywhere. The places we ate in fitted in best with our tourist plans, and also the location we stayed in. I also have to pick places that have some vegetarian gluten-free options for me, as it wouldn’t be much fun sitting watching my husband eat whilst I couldn’t! Even prior to having to eat GF, I haven’t found the USA to be the best place in the world for vegetarian eating, so I was quite impressed at the variety during this visit. It did mean that a lot of seafood places were out though, for obvious reasons!
I hope my blog provides some useful options for anyone heading to Seattle, and reassures you that there are lots of options out there for safe, gluten-free eating.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks.