Susan S.'s Profile

I went with a group here on a Thursday night--the decor is more bar-like atmoshpere, dark, casual, but perfect for that.  The margaritas were excellent.  The menu is somewhat limited but what I had was tasty and gluten-free (achiote steak tacos with corn tortillas).  My server knew what gluten was and steered me away from their corn chips since they are fried in common oil but was happy to make sure my tacos were made on a clean part of the grill.

This was a fun place to go when you want to have some food and drinks and just hang out with friends.  I will definitely be going back.

In many ways this place deserves 5 stars, particularly for its selection of gluten free goods, but two things keep me from doing that:
(a) I've filled out the suggestion form a couple times asking them to re-organize their bins to keep their gluten free flours separate from the rest.  When I've talked to the people that work there about that, they tend be like, 'oh, huh, yeah, that'd ben nice...yeah, we should do that sometime' in a very non-commital, "I have no ability to change things" sort of way.
(b) Although they aren't happy, organic brands, I wish they would carry some products by Glutino (pretzels) and Chebe (the bread mix) and then I'd be able to get pretty much everything I want from one store.
(oh, and larger bags of sorghum flour)

On to the good: they have a fantastic selection of gluten free cereals (at least 10 or so), incluidng all the Environ Kidz brands, Crispy Rice, and Nutty Flax.  They also often have gluten free rolled and steel cut oats, quinoa flakes, various gluten free hot cereals, 100% buckwheat soba noodles, some rice crackers, and various flours. I do buy a few things from the bulk bins, particularly that just dispense down, and I've been fine--though I think I'm not as sensitive to small amounts of gluten as some people are.  They even carry chestnut flour!  They have some  gluten free cookies (though I prefer Canyon Market since they sell  KToos)

I hear the produce is very good as well, but I've never bought any there.

I'm not a huge Safeway fan, but there are some things like sweetened flaked coconut that my favorite grocery stores (Canyon Market, Rainbow Grocery) don't carry.  I like this one up in the city as it's very close to me and nice and well-kept on the inside.  It's basically like going to your typical, well-maintained suburban Safeway.  I've also found the express lane cashiers to be very pleasant.  Parking is easy as well.

I love this place!  You can do pretty much all your grocery shopping here, and they are very gluten-free friendly.  They have frozen gf waffles, pizza crusts, and breads, 8 or 9 different kinds of gf cookies, gf cereal and grains.  I'm guessing that Whole Foods has a larger selection, but this is still quite great, especially considering the size of the store. It's so nice to be able to pick up what I need without making a special trip.  If they would just carry sorghum flour, gf rolled oats, and chebe mix, I'd be all set.  They also have lots of local and organic stuff like truly free-rang eggs (pricey!), strauss milk and butter, raw milk, spectrum shortening, and organic chard and kale.  It's just a short walk from my place, so I try to make a point to do a fair amount of my shopping here.  I do go to Manila Oriental Market for my asian foods fix, though.

Also, they've sharpened my knives before, check on ingredients, and are just generally very helpful.

While the start of the service wasn't promising--we were asked 4 times if we wanted tap or sparkling water, things got better.   The menu was a bit on the upscale/pricey side ($10 for the pear and greens salad, $38 for the steak, $24-25 for most of the meat and fish courses, $16-20 for the pasta dishes) but fairly priced considering the current cost of food and the quality of ingredients they use.  My friend had the pear and greens salad--it looked fantastic.  I was really pleased that they understand what 'no gluten' meant.  There were only a couple main dishes that I could, though (lamb, steak, fish special), but the chef was really nice and made the (normally breaded) red snapper without the coating and just sauted the potatoes instead of frying them in the same oil as is used for flour-coated items.  I was really happy that they just volunteered that--I didn't have to tell them.  The waiter also went ahead and checked which desserts were gluten-free as well.  I was really sad that the souffle apparently has flour in it. :(  I hope they'll offer one without flour. *hint hint* But the dark chocolate mousse was quite excellent.  The snapper was good.  The potatoes were fine, nothing special, though the fried ones my The chef came out to say hi to us--that was nice!  Anyways, despite the somewhat limited options for gluten free, I'd definitely go back. I think it would be fun on a romantic date.

It was fun to go to such a nice looking restaurant, eat really tasty food, share a bottle of wine with 4 friends, and still spend under $30--and did I mention that they can make almost any dish gluten free? yay!  The freshly fried imperial rolls were my favorite dish followed by the shaken beef.  Every dish we had was tasty, though the veggies were often standard fare: broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and tomatoes.  Slanted Door is still my favorite place for upscale Vietnamese food, but I had a great dinner at Zadin and the price point/atmosphere were perfect, so I'm sure I'll visit Zadin a lot more than I'll ever go to Slanted Door.  Plus, as someone with celiac (and has to eat gluten free), it's so nice to eat out and be able to order straight from the menu with no worries or waitstaff interrogations.

I had dinner here recently with a group of 6.  I called ahead and mentioned that I have celiac (ie. can't eat anything made from wheat, barley, rye, and often oats).  They said it wouldn't be a problem.  Our waitress had me order with the manager to make sure that they got the details right.  There were quite a few things on the menu that looked to be safe for me to eat, and when I wanted to get the hearts of palm and endive salad, they made up a different vinaigrette for me that I could eat.  Soo good!  I had the sizzling shrimp and sides of sauted chard and roasted baby potatoes.  The shrimp were some of the best I've eaten in a long time--super fresh and not over cooked at all.  The decor was great, and I loved the large round table that they sat us at.  I'll definitely come here again when I want a more "dress up" meal.

A nice place to take a break from a walk or some browsing.  Good cappuccinos.

I've caught up with a friend over lemonade, stopped in for a bowl of lentil soup and more chat with friends, run into friends...maybe some day I'll even make new friends here.  It has a friendly (duh), slightly hip vibe and great drinks and lots of sun on good weather days....oh, and open late when you want to be out but not in the mood for a bar.

I've eaten food from Fattoush twice--once as take out and once at 9p on a Saturday night.  Soo good!  Well, I can't speak for the whole menu, but the Mediterranean salad and Mansaf (rice, chicken, almonds smothered in really good yogurt) were good enough that we fought over the last bites.  I tell myself it's healthy since it's yogurt rather than heavy cream, but the sauce tastes likes the best butter to me.  I'm surprised they aren't busier.  I can't wait to try out their brunch.  The service was fine, too.