McGuire’s Irish Pub: Gluten free in Pensacola

While in Pensacola, we also visited the famous McGuires Irish Pub.  Here people sign & staple dollar bills to the ceiling.

They have mug holders like pubs in Europe do, where people have a mug they keep at the pub on a certain hook to use which entitles them to cheaper drinks.

The decor and atmosphere were great.  The drinks were cheap.

    

Since my group had already planned to eat here, I called ahead and thankfully found out they had a gluten free menu.  Again, it isn’t necessarily a restaurant I would pick as a celiac, but I had to make do since I didn’t have my own car there.

Since I don’t eat pork or love seafood, I was yet again left with very few options. I decided to order the Irish potato skins (without bacon) and tenderloin bites–2 appetizers for a meal.

The Irish potato skins scared me at first, as it had brown pieces of what looked like bacon, but the waitress double checked with the kitchen and found that they were the rind pieces of the gouda cheese.  They were delicious and safe thankfully, a plate of them filled me because that was my entire meal.  (They would not serve the tenderloin bites well done and I don’t like my meat undercooked. There was also a crouton on the plate when it came out rare–needless to say, I was just grateful for the potato skins at that point.  People there seem to like their meat uncooked and don’t like to accommodate any other tastes!)

There were no gluten free dessert options, sadly.  To keep with the $1 bill theme, after dinner mints were served. No clue if they were gluten free, so I didn’t eat them.

(I was not compensated for this review. This is just my own personal experience and opinion to help others.)

Fish House: Gluten free in Pensacola, FL

It’s time for another weekly installment of Restaurant Review Sunday.  This past week I traveled to Pensacola, FL and was in a unique situation with very limited choices.  The restaurants I ate at would not have been my first choice as a celiac, but I did manage to find something safe and keep from starving.

The first night my group ate at the Fish House.  This is a nice location on the water that has a sister restaurant beside it called Atlas.  Both menus had some options with a GF next to them on the menu, so that was why we ate here.

(Picture credit: http://www.pensacolaburgertour.com/old/results4.html as I forgot to take my own of the entrance.)

The gluten free selections were limited, especially considering I’m not a huge fan of seafood: my choices for main entrees were steak, salad, or fish.  I choose the sirloin steak.  For gluten free sides (that were also pork/nut free), there was cheese grits, asparagus, and not listed but mentioned in the special was fingerling potatoes.  I had my favorite fingerling potatoes and asparagus. (I apologize, I forgot to take a picture until I had already started to eat my steak.)

My steak was severely undercooked, so I sent it back.  It took a while and when it was returned to me, it was very fatty and tough.  I was happy it was safe, but it left me a bit unsatisfied, I also splurged for dessert. The vanilla bean creme brulee was delicious.

Overall, it was safe, but expensive and the quality wasn’t great.
(As always, I wasn’t compensated for my review and this was my own personal experience and opinion.)