eat n park made me smile!
Two Eat N Park restaurants in two days. Do you know how peculiar that feels, when I generally don’t set foot in a restaurant unless a) I’m traveling, b) it’s a VERY special occasion, or c) Mo drags me (or talks me into it).
Well, yesterday some time during the work day I decided I was going to offer The Other Half (no, not Mo — my hubby!) the opportunity to go out to dinner for a change. Normally he eats whatever I feel like cooking, or whatever I suggest he heat up for himself if I’m not eating with him. But this week I forced him, kicking and screaming, to eat a dinner of kielbasa and kraut, with Conte’s pierogies. The kielbasa and pierogies he has no problem with… the kraut is another story. So, anyway, having foisted that on him earlier in the week, I felt he deserved a dinner out.
So we went to Eat N Park in Parma. I’d been kind of wanting to try their GF rolls. They are listed on the menu as a sandwich roll, so I ordered one with a burger.
As a note — the menu has the back page devoted to several different dietary issues, including gluten intolerance. It is very concise and lists the available GF items, advising that the fryer is shared so that no fried foods are GF.
I had salad from the salad bar. Most salad items at Eat N Park are gluten free, including all of the dressings. I really like how they segregate the bready-type items at one end away from the vegetable selections and dressings. They do have gluten items such as pasta salad, but I don’t miss it and it is kept far enough from the veggies and olives and things, that it would take a massive effort for someone to share the utensils back and forth. Of the soup selections, only the chili is GF but it is available every day and is fresh and tasty if a little salty. Sorry, no GF soups for the vegetarians.
My burger arrived while I was finishing my salad, so I let it sit for a few minutes, then cut it in half — it was huge, dripping with cheese and bacon and BBQ sauce. First bite. I chewed, swallowed. Examined the bun VERY closely. Honest — I could not tell it was gluten free. That bun was so good, it was hard to take its gluten-freedom on blind faith. (I brought half the burger home as leftovers which I ate for lunch today. Cold, I could tell the bun was GF. But it was still good.)
Today, visiting the Streetsboro location with Mo, I ordered an entree (liver and onions, with baked potato, if anyone cares) along with salad bar. I asked for a GF roll by itself with butter (the entree comes with rolls for the gluten eaters, why not for me?) and said it was OK if there was an additional charge for the roll (there wasn’t).
As a roll with butter, it was very very good. I could tell it was GF this time, but it was GOOD. I bought half a dozen to bring home ($8.99, so $1.50 a roll, which is a pretty typical price for this sort of product).
The rolls are from French Meadow Bakery. They are kept frozen and microwaved before serving (10 seconds in the super industrial microwave, recommended 15-20 at home).
I highly recommend a visit to Eat N Park. As the menu says, let your server know you are ordering gluten free so the correct measures can be taken to avoid cross contact with gluten items. Bon Appetit!
March 14th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I really can’t understand some points of this article, but I assume I only need to learn a bit more about this, because it sure seems interesting and kind of though-proviking! By the way, how did you first get involved with this?
April 28th, 2010 at 3:52 am
me and my sister are both allergic to Gluten and we were always on a gluten-free diet ever since we were teenagers. .