Being diagnosed with coeliac disease at the age of nineteen inspired me to search for innovative solutions to ensure that there were no foods I could not eat. Prior to diagnosis I had been an occasional pizza eater, eating for convenience at home and indulging in a take out once in a while. But now restaurants were starting to offer gluten free pizzas I felt duty bound to test them all! There seem to be a few classes of gluten free pizza bases on offer, there are those available from the NHS-hard, long-life, slightly sweet and almost too tough to bite through. I’ve not had a lot of luck with these, finding them either to be undercooked or burnt, or even both at once! The shape and weight of these pizza bases allows them to act as excellent Frisbees in the summer months! It may be that an alternative brand of pizza base available on prescription is much more palatable, but I am yet to experience this. Other pizza bases can be eggy, egg being used in higher quantities than normal as a binding agent to make up for the lack of gluten. Some pizza bases can be bready, and others can be very, well, pizza like!
I spend most of my time in Glasgow, being a student there so this article will focus on pizzas I’ve experienced in Glasgow, as well as some from chain restaurants available nationwide. The first restaurant gluten free pizza I tried was from Firebird, Argyll Street, Glasgow. I was very impressed; the base was thin, crisp, tasty and not at all soggy. I honestly couldn’t tell the base apart from the gluten containing bases I had previously eaten. My boyfriend confirmed that the base was just as tasty as his gluteny one. The toppings were interesting, tasty and the price was good. Firebird also serves Estrella Damm Daura gluten free lager. Having previously been an enthusiastic ale drinker, I find this lager to be tolerable, refreshing and a great accompaniment to the pizza. My first gluten free pizza out was off to a great start!
Sticking with the theme of independent (not large chain) restaurants I will review Sarti. Sarti is a small independent chain of restaurants located around Glasgow city centre. They offer gluten free pizza and pasta. In support of my diet, my boyfriend had the gluten free pasta so I had the chance to try this as well. The trouble I have often found with gluten free pasta in restaurants is that it needs careful attention whilst it is cooked. The difference between perfect Al Dente pasta and soggy mush can be less than a minute. Unfortunately, the pasta dish at Sarti was soggy. I had the same experience at Zizzi, the Italian chain restaurant. I intend to adopt a new policy of requesting it to be cooked Al Dente when ordering and then sending it back if it is not! However, the pizza at Sarti was very good, quite crispy and very tasty! The pizza was very hard to cut. A common theme of gluten free pizzas is the difficulty in cutting them. They tend to arrive uncut as the restaurants use common utensils to slice all their pizzas so these are contaminated with gluten. It’s best to ask waiter for a pizza slicer to avoid sawing at it for ages!
Little Italy on byres road is a convenient place for pizza to eat in or takeaway. The first time I went I had a take away pizza; the base was very thin and tasted quite eggy. Although the bottom of the pizza was crispy further up the base was quite soggy. The egginess meant the base was quite chewy, but the toppings were nice and the pizza was probably the cheapest of those I’ve tried. When I tried is again to eat in it was an entirely different, and more positive experience. The base had been sliced, which helped immensely. This time it wasn’t soggy at all and tasted great. Maybe being in the box for the walk home had made the pizza soggy.
The chain restaurants where I have tried the gluten free pizzas are Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pizza Express, which only started offering gluten free options recently. Personally, my favourite chain bases are Dominos, followed by Pizza Express then Pizza Hut. I tried Dominos for the first time the day they introduced the gluten free base and they were obviously experiencing some teething problems. The base was undercooked, and not at all crispy whilst the toppings were overcooked. Coupled with the fact that we were refused access to the “twofortuesday” deal as the deal is only available on medium and large bases whilst the gluten free base is only offered in small, and that the price was high I was not a happy customer! The second time I tried it was much better. The base was crisp and pizza like and the toppings cooked perfectly. The size might be a bit annoying for those with a larger appetite but was just right for me. Dominos has now included the gluten free base in the
Pizza Express gluten free pizzas were really good. Unlike Dominos, who clearly mark on the menu which toppings contain gluten, and Pizza Hut, who changed all toppings to be gluten free on the introduction of their gluten free bases, Pizza Express lacked the clear guidance on the menu as to which toppings are suitable. The knowledge of the waiter and/or the chef was relied upon. However, both pizzas I have had were no problem and tasted delicious. The base was quite thin and crispy, and the little holes reminded me of matzo cracker bread. One thing that’s unique about Pizza Express as a chain restaurant is that it has gluten free beer on offer. Greens Pilsner was enjoyable to drink but at £4.45 for just 33cl I think I’ll stick to wine in future! Here is a picture of a gluten free Pizza Express Pizza from the Manchester restaurant:
Finally, Pizza Hut provides a square gluten free base. Being a coeliac it’s always worrying when you order a gluten free version of something and when it arrives it looks identical to a gluten-containing version that a friend ordered. The square base is reassuringly different to the gluten containing round ones. The pizza was quite bread-like and tasty.
Overall, if I had to rank the experiences I’ve had based primarily on my enjoyment of the pizza, but also taking into account value for money, service and atmosphere, I would order them as:
1. Firebird, Argyll Street, Glasgow
2. Sarti, Glasgow city centre
3. Dominos, Nationwide
4. Pizza Express, Nationwide
5. Little Italy, Byres Road, Glasgow
6. Pizza Hut, Nationwide
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That being said I would go back to all of these restaurants for pizza in the future. Thank you for reading my first ever blog post. I hope you have found some of the information here useful.
Ellie
