May 2014: We didn’t eat at a ton of places in Miami because we were only there for four days, but maybe these reviews will help somebody searching for places to eat gluten-free in the future, so here they are before I forget!

We rented out a flat while we were there and headed to Whole Foods for a great selection of gluten-free breakfast foods. They had frozen GF donuts. I was. in. heaven. Aside from breakfast, we’d usually bring a snack to the beach, so we only had to eat out for dinner.

Pizza Rustica

This was the first pizza I had since beginning the gluten-free diet two weeks before our trip to Puerto Rico and the US. It was freaking delicious, but the gluten free dough is placed on the same wooden paddles as all the other pizzas made with normal flour. I ate half my pizza and stopped because I wasn’t sure how it would affect me.

The next day I felt a little glutened… low-grade fever, headache, tired, same ol’ same ol’ stomach problems, so I gave Kay the rest of my pizza. It was tasty, but not worth making myself sick over it.

Sushi Samba
Sushi Samba was one of the few restaurants that had a dedicated gluten free menu, including tamari sauce instead of soy sauce. I told Kay that it would be pretty lame to go to a sushi place and not be able to partake in any of the soy sauce. We don’t know how much soy sauce affects me, but I’m doing the first year gluten-free with no exceptions, so I’m not testing it now. Maybe in the future I will chance some soy sauce on trips. Who knows.

The waiter tried to convince Kay that he should order a normal sushi plate, but I asked him to just make everything gluten free so that we could share everything as we normally do with sushi. He said this meant skipping out on tempura flakes for Kay. Big whoop.

The sushi tasted OK, but man alive this place was kind of pricey. It was right on the Lincoln Road shopping strip and it seemed super touristy, but then again, everything kind of had that feel in Miami.

Tequiztlan
We went out for tacos with Kay’s brother and I was a little nervous because we didn’t decide where to go beforehand, so we walked around from restaurant to restaurant looking for a menu with something for me to eat. I’m not a big fan of having to walk out of a restaurant because I didn’t do any research about where to eat with my allergy and I felt guilty and ashamed that I was the reason we couldn’t eat so many places.

This definitely stressed me out, but eventually we settled on Tequiztlan and they had lots of corn-only options. We had some salsa and chips and nachos for appetisers. I ordered tostadas with rice and beans for dinner and the boys had tacos. The food was alright, the margaritas kind of sucked and the whole place also seemed overpriced, but as far as GF, it was OK and I felt fine the next day.

Yardbird
The next day we went to Yardbird with Kay’s brother. I was happy to know where we were going beforehand and at that it would have gluten free things to eat. The staff was knowledgeable about gluten-free eating and celiac to some extent and I got to try a house special that they were testing out.

The food was good, the prices were all right and they had hard cider. I was happy!

It’s fairly easy to eat GF in Miami with the usual “safe bets” restaurants like Outback and PF Changs available in addition to a smattering of gluten-friendly places. If I would go back again, I would definitely have researched places to eat first!

Heading to Puerto Rico? Check out my GF run down in San Juan as well: Gluten-free San Juan

We were in Vieques for about a week, but we didn’t hit up that many restaurants. If I recall, we ate one meal at home and twice in another restaurant. I’ve learned now that once I find something good that’s gluten-free, it’s best to just go back for ease!

I wanted to do a quick write up on the restaurants we visited in Puerto Rico before they slip out of my head. I learned on this trip that I need to be a lot better about researching restaurants before a trip to find gluten-free friendly options, but hopefully these reviews will be helpful to some celiacs heading to PR in the future!

Mango’s Ocean Park
We arrived in Puerto Rico after a very long day of traveling. Transferring in America takes up a lot of time! We were also jet lagged so we slept in for a long time and then spent around an hour trying to figure out where to go for breakfast before we landed at Ocean Side Cafe.

I enjoyed a nice fruit salad and eggs. We really liked the coffee here too and we would have come back again, but every other day we got up earlier and this place doesn’t open till 12, so we never went back. 🙁 It was a shame because this was one of the only places in PR we found that served fresh fruit, which was a little disappointing for PR in general.

La Chola
This was the first restaurant we went to dinner for with my new diet and it wasn’t really advertised as gluten free, so I was nervous. The wait staff spoke some English, but the menu was all in Spanish and I had no idea what I was ordering. The guy thought it would be OK, but as we waited for dinner I was terrified what would come. I honestly felt sick to my stomach anticipating what would arrive for dinner. Kay realised I was freaking out and told me it would be fine, but my anxiety was getting really out of control.

I was really close to crying by the time the waiter brought our food, which happened to be delicious by the way. It turns out we had ordered ceviche and it was totally fine to eat. I loosened up a little once we were eating and that was when I started to realise that I’m nervous before my food comes and was much happier to not be thinking about food on that trip.

Basilia’s
We went to Basilia’s on our second morning after figuring out that Ocean Park was not open. Basilia’s is kind of like an old school diner. The food is good and hearty, but not super special. The first time we went here for breakfast I was using my Spanish GF cards and made sure to be very clear that I could not have any bread or anything like that. They were very friendly and accommodating.

The second time we came for breakfast, I ordered an omelette that didn’t mention any bread and I freaked out when it came with both toast and french fries, which I also refused to eat. I pushed them all on to Kay’s plate and brushed the crumbs off my plate with a napkin before starting to eat. That was where I learned my lesson of always mentioning celiac and gluten to the waiter no matter what is on the menu.

We also came here for dinner one evening because we knew the food was pretty good and easy for me to find something to eat. For dinner I had mofongo (mashed plantains) with shredded pork and it was oh so good. It was a little uncertain whether fried food would make me react, but I seemed OK with the plantains.

Pinky’s
Pinky’s had a lot of good reviews on Yelp and promised GF eating, so we went there the third morning because we figured we shouldn’t just go back to Basilia’s. Really, we should have done just that. We waited in line to be seated because the restaurant was packed on a weekday and then the menu basically only had a cob salad for me to eat. Yay…. I mean, not.

The worst part was that Kay’s breakfast  gave him some food poisoning, so he lost his breakfast later and felt a bit sick all day. We did not return to Pinky’s again. The food was overpriced for the lack of quality.

La B de Burro
This place was really close to our guest house and actually had pretty good reviews for tacos. I was also a bit nervous about ordering here because it seemed like the staff didn’t know

Che’s
We decided to indulge in some churrasco on the last evening in PR. We figured that a meal full of meat would be pretty safe and we were right, although we might have overdosed on beef. The first two cuts of beef were very, very good, but after that there was a lot of filler meat. There was also way more meat than two people could ever eat and it wasn’t worth stuffing mediocre meat down our throats.

We ordered pina coladas with dinner, something I rarely indulge in, and by the end of the meal we were both supremely stuffed. I’m glad we got a chance to have some churrasco here because we didn’t end up going again with Kay’s brother in Miami.

Eating gluten-free in San Juan was not terribly hard, but breakfast was definitely the hardest meal. We went to a cafe one day and asked about breakfast. While we were waiting for coffee, the waitress had already started a continental breakfast for us without letting us know that there was no menu, only a set meal with toast and more toast. Kay noticed her putting a bunch of toast in the toaster and told her we were sorry, but we’d have to go eat somewhere else.

It was definitely frustrating to arrive at places hungry and then have to find a new location for breakfast and dinner. That’s why planning gluten-free options is so important!