Giraffe

http://www.giraffe.net
Spitalfields Market
E1 6DW
020 3116 2000

After spending the morning wandering around Spitalfields market, we were both pretty hungry. I hadn't done any gluten-free research before hand, but I know the area pretty well and was confident we'd find somewhere.

It came down to a choice of three restaurants. Firstly we tried St John's Bread and wine
(Commercial St, E1 6LZ) which I was sure would be fine- they cook simple food very well and specialize in quite unusual traditional English ingredients (e.g. eels, sprats, samphire). Unfortunatly we couldn't get a table there (at least not without a two hour wait).

And then there were two. Canteen, which is right next to Giraffe is another restaurant serving quality British food at sensible prices (the pies are lovely though, of course not gluten-free!). I'm pretty sure they'd know what's in each of their dishes and be able to cope with gluten-free. Again however there was quite a wait for a table so we headed to Giraffe.

Giraffe serves global cuisine (think Burgers, Green curry, stir-fries, salads...). Looking at the menu, Laura fancied the Caesar salad so we asked our waitress if that was gluten-free (obviously it's not because of the croutons, but it's a good sign if they pick up on this!). She didn't appear at all fazed by the question (always nice) and went off to the kitchen to check. When she reappeared she told us that the dressing was fine and pointed out that it came with croutons which they'd leave off!

The salad was very nice, and I'm guessing all the salads would be ok. I had green chicken curry, very good again (though not spicy enough for my tastes) which I also guess was gluten-free (although I didn't check). Lots of other stuff on the menu looked like it would have been ok as well.

Overall a great experience, good food, friendly knowledgable staff. My only gripe would be that the service was a little slow at times, but then again it was packed to bursting. Giraffe has got a fair number of chains across London, and a few in the rest of the country as well.