On paper, a steakhouse is the easiest place in town to eat gluten-free. Meat, fire, vegetables. In practice people who avoid gluten have learned to be suspicious of easy-looking menus, because the gluten is rarely in the obvious place.
Here is a straight account of where it actually hides and what to ask.
Usually safe
- Steak itself. Beef, salt, fire. Watch for a seasoning blend or a compound butter, but the meat is not the problem.
- Grilled or roasted vegetables, plainly cooked.
- Most salads, minus croutons — check the dressing, since some contain malt vinegar or soy.
- Plain potatoes, baked or mashed. Mashed occasionally uses a thickener; worth a question.
- Wine, cider, most spirits, and dedicated gluten-free beer if a bar carries it.
Where it actually hides
This is the useful part.
Sauces and gravies. The most common culprit by a distance. Anything thickened with a roux — that is flour and butter — contains gluten. Pan sauces, gravies, some cream sauces, and plenty of soups. A mushroom sauce is a likely offender.
Marinades and glazes. Soy sauce contains wheat unless it is specifically tamari. Teriyaki, many barbecue sauces, and a lot of Asian-influenced glazes are therefore out. This catches people constantly because nobody thinks of soy sauce as bread.
The fryer. The big one. Chips and fries are naturally gluten-free, but if they share oil with breaded items — chicken fingers, calamari, onion rings — they are not safe for anyone with coeliac disease. A shared fryer is the single most common failure in an otherwise careful kitchen.
Beer in the food. A beer-battered fish fry is obviously out, but beer also turns up in braises, chilli, and cheese sauces where you would not look for it.
Dusting. Some kitchens dust steaks or scallops lightly with flour for the sear. Uncommon, but worth asking at a place you do not know.
The steak is almost never the problem. The sauce, the marinade, and the fryer are.
The two questions that matter
Skip the general "do you have gluten-free options" — every restaurant says yes. Ask these instead:
- "Is the fryer shared with breaded items?" This gets you a specific, verifiable answer and immediately tells you how seriously the kitchen thinks about it.
- "Is this dish gluten-free as written, or does something need to be left off?" Forces clarity about modification versus safety.
And be explicit about which you need: a gluten-free recipe, or genuine protection from cross-contact. These are different requests. Someone avoiding gluten by preference and someone with coeliac disease need different things, and a kitchen cannot read minds. Saying "I have coeliac disease, so cross-contact matters" changes how your plate is handled.
We have gluten-free pasta, and plenty of the menu is gluten-free as written or with a simple change. But we share a kitchen and a fryer with breaded and battered items. If you need strict separation rather than a gluten-free recipe, tell your server up front and we will tell you plainly what we can and cannot guarantee. We would rather have that conversation than serve you something we are unsure about.
Groups and events
Gluten-free is easier to handle well at a private event than à la carte, because the kitchen knows in advance. If you are booking a party and somebody in the group needs it, say so at booking rather than on the night — it goes into the menu build rather than becoming an exception. Our guide to sizing a private room covers what else to ask when you book, and planning for vegan and non-vegan guests together covers the dietary half.
The same is true for plant-based eating, where the full lineup lives on our vegan dining page, and for much the same reason: whether a restaurant treats dietary requirements as standard or as an inconvenience shows up in how far ahead they want to know.
What we would order
A steak off the wood fire, plainly seasoned, with grilled vegetables and a baked potato — the fire does the work, no sauce required. Or the primavera with gluten-free pasta, which is genuinely good rather than a substitution.
Ask us. The full menu is here, and if you would rather sort it before you arrive, call and we will walk through it. See for yourself at 3151 Main Street.