The Best Gluten Free Places

• Hurts Donuts: There are a couple of awesome donut places that will dedicate one or two days out of every week to ONLY making gluten-free donuts so that there is no cross contamination. So far, my favorite place is Hurts Donut. They are the bomb. They make so many crazy donuts and really just have a delicious recipe for those fluffy circles of heaven.
• Costa Vida: I love Mexican food, like a lot. I personally do not like corn tortillas very much, however. They are tough, thick, and flavorless. Costa Vida is like a way better Chipotle and is even just a little better than Qdoba. Their corn tortillas had me freaking out because I didn't believe they were corn, there was no way. They were so soft and so good, I could not believe it. Costa Vida has a kitchen routine procedure for people with gluten allergies, they care. <3 They take off their gloves, wash their hands, put new gloves on, replace all the cooking tools, wipes the grill, and cook your food on top of foil.
• Yogurt Land, Creamistry, and Amorino Gelato: Regular ice-cream is usually not gluten-free and I always have to remind myself of that. These places are amazing because everything they serve is gluten free, besides some toppings at the bar. For those of you don't know, Yogurt Land is frozen yogurt, Creamistry is milk-based ice-cream that they flash freeze with liquid nitrogen. And Amorino is this fancy gelato and sorbet cafe that makes those cute roses made of ice cream that you see on Instagram.
• Kozy Kitchen: I have actually not been here, but it was recommended to me by a waiter after I told him I have the allergy. He use to work there and told me that this place is entirely gluten-free. They make waffles, pancakes, bread (toast), muffins, and other breakfast items.

The rest of the places I recommend have gluten-free replacements but have a chance of being contaminated in the kitchen while being prepared. :/

• Cane Rosso, Taverna Rosso, and Grimaldis: These are very nice pizza places. They can make all their pizzas in a gluten-free version but like I said, could get contaminated in the kitchen. They make their crust with white and brown rice, maybe almond flour or gluten-free all purpose flour and yeast. The crust is thin and crisp but does not have that cardboard taste at all.
• In-n-Out: Proooootein style cheese burgers, baby! Your classic picture perfect, mouth watering cheese burger wrapped in butter lettuce in place of buns.
• Shake Shack: They offer the protein style too but it is not on the menu. What IS on the menu though, is gluten-free hamburger buns. Hopdoddy has gluten-free buns as well, but Shake Shack's are fluffy and sweet. Like Costa Vida, I didn't believe the buns at first. Hopdoddy's gluten-free buns are not horrible, but they fall apart right away. The outside is little hard but in a good way, like crispy, but then inside crumbles apart like it's literally unraveling.

The best part for me, Mexican restaurants are the easiest places to eat. Glorias. Mi Dias, Meso Maya, Mi Cocina, Ana Mias, Velvet Taco, Iron Cactus, and Torches Tacos are my favorites.

Another easy category for food... Persian and Arabic.

Terra Cafe, Sheraz, Afrahs, and Beirut Cafe are pretty good. Sheraz definitely wins first place though. Who doesn't love chicken kabob and saffron rice?

Another dessert place is BJ's: They have... wait for it... gluten free... pazookis! And they are amazing. A pazooki is a little pan of full of baked chocolate chip or whatever kind of cookie you want, with ice-cream on top.

Apart from all my recommendations, the biggest places to avoid are Chinese, Korean, American, and Italian restaurants. Also, fast food for obvious reasons and places like Cheesecake Factory, Chewys, any wings place and concession stand food.

-L