Warbecks Restaurant

As I mentioned in a previous post, the bane of my life when eating out is the double header of having to ask the "is it gluten-free" question and then having to decide whether or not I trust the answer.

We ate at Warbecks in Falkland, Fife, the other night and it made a pleasant change for the chef to seek me out and explain their approach to storing, preparing, cooking and serving the gluten-free dishes on their menu. The rigour that they apply made it easy to trust the answer. Dishes on the menu are marked with an asterisk if they are GF and a double asterisk if a GF version can be made. They won't serve chips unless you tell them that you are OK with stuff cooked in the same oil as, say, a battered fish, preferring to use separate pans and oil to cook saute potatoes. GF shortbread is cut in a different shape so as not to get mixed up with the regular stuff. The soup of the day, minestrone, was available with GF spaghetti in it. There was quite a choice of meringues on the dessert menu and a GF cloutie dumpling and sticky toffee pudding.

In the end I had a fried brie and redcurrant jelly starter (the brie was not crumbed, alas) and a breaded hadddock fillet with saute potatoes and vegetables. This came with a rich, creamy and rounded tartare sauce. There were also steaks on the menu and a salad table with GF dressings available.

The food itself was good and homely, the kind of tasty meal you would cook for yourself. No fancy presentation or complicated techniques or flavours, just plain, wholesome, well-cooked food. When you have coeliac disease, simple food is often the best when you are eating out. The portions were a good size and the prices economical, certainly by Edinburgh standards. It was pleasing to have a choice of GF dishes rather than experience the familiar feeling of "there's one thing on here that I can eat - maybe" and the chef's eagerness to explain everything was a very welcome change.

If you are coeliac and driving through Fife, you should consider a stop off at Warbecks in Falkland.