Carluccio’s Gluten Free Bread Is In The Soup!
I had soup for lunch in Carluccio’s one day this week.
Carluccio’s Gluten Free Bread Is In The Soup!
The gluten free bread made excellent croutons.
A Cause For Complaint In The Scottish Capital
I was checking a Carluccio’s restaurant for lunch today in London and not that they now have two in Scotland; Glasgow and Aberdeen.
I wonder if they’ve had any complaints signed Disgusted in Morningside.
No Clocks In Terminal Five
Terminal Five at Heathrow doesn’t seem to have any clocks.
There wasn’t even one in Carluccio’s in Departures.
Surely a few obvious clocks, would help people get to their plane on time.
Paranoid Moi? But The Devil, She’s Getting At Me Again!
Today looked like being a good one, after looking at the weather about nine.
But it didn’t start well, as when I went to get the Sunday Times from my usual newsagent, none had been delivered and he said come back around twelve.
I did go around East London and over the cable car, as I often do on a Sunday, to see if there’s anything happening on Crossrail, that I could include in this blog. I didn’t have any problems with the trip and the cable car was unusually quiet. Perhaps it was because I was early.
Carluccio’s in Canary Wharf wasn’t busy either, when I arrived there for a late breakfast or an early lunch. I’d been looking forward to an eggs florentine, but as they didn’t have any gluten-free bread, I skipped it and just had a cup of tea. To even rub it in, the young lady on the next table had a delicious eggs benedict with normal bread and ate it with gusto.
So I then moved on to Waitrose to get the paper. But I was before twelve and so it wasn’t exactly shut, but you couldn’t buy anything. Surely, in this day and age, in summer when you want to encourage tourism and business, shops should be able to open when they want!
I then decided to cut my loses and try a paper shop round the corner from Waitrose. They were open, but they’d sold out of Sunday Times, as not that many had been delivered.
I then decided to come home and took the Jubilee Line towards London Brifge, where I hoped to get an elusive paper. I then remembered that Canada Water had a nice paper shop. But it didn’t have any Sunday Times.
So I took the Overground home and finally got the paper in the Co-op at Dalston Junction station.
However, the Devil was not finished, as the Liverpool Manchester United match wasn’t on Radio 5. They were commentating on motorcycle racing.
The sooner I get some fibre optic broadband the better!
Gluten Free Bread In Carluccio’s
On Friday night after the film, I had a quick supper in Carluccio’s in Islington, where the manager informed me that they now had gluten-free bread.
As I was in a hurry and only having a salad, I didn’t partake.
But this morning, I went back for breakfast on my way to football at Ipswich and had an eggs florentine with gluten-free bread.
Carluccio’s Gluten-Free Eggs Florentine
It was so much better, than one without, as the bread was ideal for soaking up the yolk of the egg.
The bread incidentally is Yes You Can, who would appear to be an Australian company, who don’t have a UK web-site. My only problem, could be that the bread is manufactured in Norwich.
Are we starting to see a tipping point, where no professional cafe or restaurant doesn’t offer gluten-free bread? After all, I found that this was very much the case in my visit to Stockholm a couple of months ago.
I did hear that new menus are being printed in Carluccio’s, but certainly Islington has jumped in to offering the new bread. I’ll try a couple of others in the next week or so.
How To Do Service
Yesterday, I went to Carluccio’s in Upper Street, Islington, as I needed a good lunch, as I was going to a reception in the evening, where I felt gluten-free food, would be non-existent.
Admittedly, I’m known well there,, as I go probably two or three times a week, but I was ushered quickly by the manager, to an out-of-the-way corner table, where I can sit and do my sudoku, without bothering anybody. He had the gluten-free menu at the ready too. Not that I need it these days, as I could probably repeat it by heart.
I do like saltimbocca and as they had a pork one on the specials menu, I asked if they could do a gluten-free one. The answer was yes and the waitress didn’t even check, as she said, they’d done one the day before for another customer.
But unfortunately, the pork saltimbocca had been popular, so she came back and asked, if I would like a chicken one. I said yes and this is the what I had for my lunch.
Carluccio’s Chicken Saltimbocca
It was very good and it kept me going all day, especially as the reception was gluten-free free.
I think I can draw a big conclusion from this incident and other experiences lately. In general, service and the provision of gluten-free food is getting better in restaurant chains, with possibly the exception of All Bar One.
A Bus Stop With A Carluccio’s
The Carluccio’s in Upper Street, Islington, is a uniquely convenient restaurant.
A Bus Stop With A Carluccio’s
Today, I had to get a snack lunch and then go on to Kings Cross station to pick up some rail tickets for my trip to Burnley for the last day of the football season.
So I got a 30 bus to this bus stop, had my lunch at Carluccio’s and then after lunch got on another 30 bus to the station. It really, is a conveniently placed restaurant, at one of those mini-bus interchanges, you get all over London. And Carluccio’s is not the only restaurant in walking distance of this bus stop.
I do think sometimes, that those who open restaurants forget about the buses and don’t think to place their hostelries, where passengers change buses. I can think of a couple of bus interchanges, where the cafe offerings are distinctly poor.
Shopping Centres Aren’t For Me!
Tomorrow, I’m going to Sheffield to see Ipswich at Wednesday. As there is now a Carluccio’s at Meadowhall, I thought that it might be an easy place to have lunch before the match.
I’ve booked a ticket out of Kings Cross to get to Meadowhall with a change at Doncaster, rather than go the obvious way of St. Pancras and Sheffield.
So I thought, I’d look up where Carluccio’s was in Meadowhall on the web. They are apparently in the Oasis Dining Area. But can I find a plan, which shows me where that is in the centre? No! Of course not! After all, the one thing I don’t want to do, is walk past every useless shop in the place, as I would expect few would have any goods that I would ever need. But that is what these infernal shopping centres want me to do, as they think I might buy something. But I’m going to a football match and then home to London!
After all, I’m only ever going to Meadowhall for one reason! And that is to have lunch!
In fact this is probably why I don’t use shopping centres. when I go shopping, I generally need some specific things and have a list of shops I will visit to get what I want! I don’t want to walk miles, when I need one specific item.
I suppose you could call it precision shopping. I arrive, buy and retreat immediately.
Often with John Lewis, I just go and check out what I need, write down the stock number and then go home and order it over the Internet.
They must love shoppers like me!
An Alternative To Motorway Services
As my old friend was going around the M25 and then down the A3, we’d decided to meet at Cobham and Stock D’Abernon station and go to the Carluccio’s in nearby Cobham.
It was a good choice to make, as there was two hours’ free parking outside of the restaurant and the food was certainly not of Motorway Services standard.
The restaurant also had quite a high percentage of well-turned out ladies amongst the clientele.
So it was a visit worth making!
The Fastest Gluten Free Pasta In The East
I eat quite a bit of gluten-free pasta in Carluccio’s, but in some ways the best place for this is their restaurant in Cambridge.
Normally, when you ask for gluten-free pasta, they advise you there will be a little wait, but not yesterday.
So just as I was settling down to have a long sip of lemonade, which had just been delivered to my table, I was surprised to see the pasta arrive. This was probably only after about five or six minutes after I’d ordered it.
As I used to live in the area and be a patient of a gastro-enterologist at Addenbrookes, I know the area has a high number of coeliacs. Why this should be so, I know not!
But I also know that the restaurant uses methods to get the pasta to the table quickly.
The pasta was excellent incidentally and tasted exactly the same as in their other restaurants.
The Anonymous Widower 