Some delicious gluten-free restaurants in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO – Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity can make eating out frustrating and cause you to miss out on the fun like everyone else.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes the body’s immune system to attack the small intestine if gluten is consumed.

Gluten is found in wheat, barley and rye products and is most commonly found in bread, fried foods, pasta and even cakes.

In honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month, here are some tasty spots in San Antonio that make delicious gluten-free dishes.

Restaurants advertise themselves as gluten-friendly and do their best to avoid any cross-contamination. None, however, can claim to be 100% gluten-free, as other products that have gluten are present on their premises.

Gigi Cupcakes:

Gigi’s Cupcakes doesn’t just serve delicious cakes and desserts, they also make delicious gluten free brownies, cookies and cupcakes.

Daily gluten-free cupcake flavors include wedding cake, triple chocolate cake, and a seasonal flavor that’s now strawberry shortcake. A gluten-friendly flour blend is used in cakes and pastries — which can be customized for many other flavors. Call ahead 2-3 days in advance for custom gluten-friendly cakes and 2 weeks for custom gluten-friendly cake orders.

Stix and Stone:

It is an Asian Tex-Mex fusion restaurant that is fully dedicated to being gluten friendly. If you have a gluten allergy, don’t worry, you can still order everything on the entire menu.

Owner and chef Leo Davila said Stix and Stone’s dedication to being gluten-friendly was a personal choice.

“My little sister, Michelle, who’s our head of house manager, our GM, she’s celiac,” Davila said. “Then I was diagnosed with a wheat sensitivity. I wanted to go back to the food I loved growing up. And that was a lot of Asian food, which has a lot of soy sauce, and even a lot of Mexican food has a lot of flour. So we just wanted to find a creative way to cook, to bring back the same flavor profiles in a new and fun way.”

Davila has worked for years to perfect his dishes that aren’t just “good enough” to be gluten-free.

“Gluten-free has a bad rap,” Davila said. “And it listens gluten-free and is automatically used to see people’s faces changing their body language. And what we’re trying to do is show that you can have a good meal without adding gluten.”

Fried chicken with goods

Craving fried chicken? Good! Head to Freight Fried Chicken in the Pearl, which is owned by James Beard-nominated chef Nicola Blaque, who also owns the Jerk Shack and the former Mi Roti. Chef Blaque created the concept of Freight Fried Chicken in honor of black women who cooked and sold fried chicken and paved the way for future entrepreneurs of color like her. She said it was her customers who asked for gluten-free fried chicken.

“If you can make gluten-free fried chicken for us and the only way to do that was we had to go all the way or not at all,” Blaque said. “We only have two fryers there, and so I just made the commitment that all of our fried chicken and everything that goes into the money is gluten-free.”

At Freight’s Fried Chicken you can enjoy gluten-friendly fried chicken, chicken tenders and even sides like potato salad and camo pickles.

“To share our love of fried chicken obviously and to be able to, you know, cater to a community that hasn’t been able to enjoy fried chicken for a long time,” Blaque said.

Here’s a list of some other places that offer gluten-friendly dishes:

Pizza:

Sandwiches/Burgers:

More places with delicious gluten-free options: