Cafe Rouge Gluten Free Review
If your planning on dining in Cafe Rouge then first, the smart decision will be, is to read my Cafe Rouge gluten free review.
First off, are you a vegan? Lactose or dairy intolerant?
Then I have BAD news for you.
Sadly, this restaurant is not for you!
Only two meals on the menu are vegan.
One being a salad was a BIG disappointment.
And sadly…
There was no indication on the menu whether any of the food contains dairy 🙁
It’s not all bad though.
For those who just want to avoid gluten, then there are many gluten free options available on the menu.
They have a filtering system on their website which you can tick and then it shows you what dishes can be made gluten free – Awesome!
Simple Starters
For starters, my husband had the potted smooth chicken liver pâté with shallot and raisin chutney and chargrilled sourdough bread.
And I can honestly say…
It was delicious!
The pâté had a beautifully buttery top, sinfully smooth and rich texture and a perfect salt balance.
According to my husband, the sourdough bread was cracking.
Don’t get excited about the look of the sourdough bread in the picture though.
Unfortunately, that’s NOT gluten free.
I know, I know, I hear you sigh. It looks too good to be free of gluten.
Now with my starters, I wish I could be just as happy.
Truthfully, It was rubbish!
I had the homemade
Basically, its layers of avocado topped with Devon crab meat and coriander mayonnaise.
Sound’s all good right?
Wrong!
The avocado had WAY too much lemon juice.
So much so that that’s all I could taste which KILLED the flavour of the crab!
At the end of it, it felt like I had been sucking on a lemon.
By the way, they replace the sourdough bread with that gluten free type of bread you find in shops.
Yeah, the ones that taste like dry, stale cardboard!
By then I was just hoping my main course was going to be nicer.
Mussel Mains
I ordered the Shetland mussels in basil, tomato, garlic, celery, shallot and white wine sauce accompanied with fries.
Hubby ordered the same but with the cream sauce (not gluten free).
I say sauce YET it was more like watery soup.
Ideally, the sauce should be thick enough so the mussels get nicely coated.
It was so watery that ALL the sauce was puddling at the bottom of the pan and I was left with plain mussels on top.
You couldn’t get to the sauce without eating the mussels first, which defeats the object of having sauce on mussels!
After eating all the mussels I was left with this watery mass.
What could I do with that??
I couldn’t soak it up with bread because I had none. It was only accompanied with fries.
Have you tried dipping fries in soup??
I guess not!
So, I decided to spoon it out and eat it.
But quickly gave up because I kept spitting out small cracked pieces of shell.
The risk of damaging my teeth as well as possible choking wasn’t worth it.
That and the fact that the sauce was pretty bland.
Trio of Desserts
On to desserts.
We ordered the gluten free classic trio of desserts.
Three mini-desserts including crème brûlée, tarte au citron (lemon tart), mousse au chocolat…you guessed it, chocolate mousse.
Served along with a strong espresso.
Even though I could only try a wee bit of the desserts because I knew for sure they contained dairy, I liked all three.
The chocolate mousse was good, I would of liked it to have more of a bitter chocolate taste yet perfectly good for sweet-toothed people.
The lemon tart was my favourite.
Although the tart crust was dense and a bit soggy, the lemon filling was exceptionally zesty.
Deliciously tangy and sharp.
Exactly what I expect in a lemon tart.
Lastly, the crème brûlée was very good flavour wise.
Super creamy crème speckled with vanilla seeds and perfectly caramelized sugar topping.
It was lovely!
So to sum it all up.
Would I go back to cafe rouge?
Probably not.
Saying that the other gluten free items on the menu may very well be tasty.
It might have been just my luck to pick the wrong dish.
Then again, it is a chain restaurant so I shouldn’t expect too much.
Just to note:
I have no idea whether they use separate pans when cooking gluten free because I was not reassured by the waiter in any way.
It seemed like a lazy approach as if they didn’t care about your needs.
Not at all like Frankies and Bennies where they have a serious full-on procedure to follow.
So if you’re a celiac sufferer or have a serious gluten intolerance, either avoid or enquire fully about their gluten free procedure.
Have you dined at Cafe Rouge?
I’d LOVE to know so please share your experience in the comments below.
Happy dining 🙂
