Château Dessert Chiswick

Happy New Year everyone!

It has been a while since my last post, as life sometimes gets in the way, but fear not, I've been out and about enjoying many gluten free meals, so it will all be revealed soon!

Bottom left: Choc and orange, top: mango, right fresh fruit tart

For my last gluten free outing of 2014, I visited Chateau Dessert in Chiswick.

I had been quietly stalking them on twitter for a while, looking at all those cake marvels and dreaming of starting at one end of the counter to finish at the other (all in the name of research of course!).

You will be glad to hear I managed to control myself and only ordered one cake, although my friends were kind enough to let me try theirs.

Chateau Desserts looks from the outside like an upmarket patisserie, with lots of gorgeous little morsels to tempt you, and when you go in, you discover two counters, one for all the gluten-free cakes, one for the others.

Within the gluten-free cakes, at least 3 were dairy free too when I visited, which is brilliant, as so many coeliacs also have trouble with dairy.

I have to say one of my companions was dairy-free but not gluten-free, so it might be an idea to have some cakes for others like her.

There are also some lunch options available, and for us gluten-free eaters you can have one of their savoury tarts. They are served with a side salad, and I loved my goats cheese and onion tart.

Once you have ordered, you can make your way to the upstairs room and they'll bring it to you (there is also a basement that I did not visit). We had some coffee and tea as well and it was a fantastic afternoon.

gluten-free goats cheese tart & salad

So, what did I ordered? As I've mentioned earlier, I had the goats cheese tart for lunch which was great and then the chocolate and orange cake, which I really loved.

The texture was quite creamy, very close to a mousse once you get through the chocolate coating.

I also tried the mango pudding and the tart with fresh fruit that my friends were having, and, although they were both nice, I would still stick with my first choice.

The price for the gluten-free cakes was £3.75 to take away or £4.75 to eat in.

Overall, I would be happy to recommend Chateau Dessert, there are plenty of delicious gluten-free choices and their seating area upstairs is very welcoming, airy and nicely decorated.



Chateau Dessert

http://www.chateaudessert.com/

Tube: Turnham Green
213 Chiswick High Road, London W4 2DW

Tel: 020 8742 2344

British Museum - Great Court Restaurant Afternoon Tea (or Mrs Crimbles special?)

I wanted to visit the Vikings exhibition at the British Museum and I was wondering if I would be able to eat anything gluten free there.

Gluten free afternoon tea

Standard afternoon tea
 

I was looking at the eating options and the Great Court Restaurant under the roof canopy looked like a fantastic location.
In order to avoid disappointment, I emailed them to ask about their gluten-free options for lunch and for afternoon tea.
They mentioned that they always have some gluten-free option on their regular lunch menu and that they could provide an afternoon tea with 24 hours notice.

That was brilliant news! Even though I couldn't get tickets for the Vikings in the end, I was so looking forward to the Gluten Free afternoon Tea that I booked it anyway.

It was quite busy on Easter Sunday, but I didn't mind too much. 
We were shown to our table and soon some lovely china arrived.

We had the usual choice of teas and I mentioned again my pre-booked gluten free afternoon tea.


Gluten free sandwiches

First we got some very nice sandwiches, and, although mine were on gluten-free bread, the filling was the same as in the regular afternoon tea, very nice fillings, very enjoyable.
I was soooooo looking forward to my scones and cakes.

Here is when I got the "treats" and we couldn't do anything other than laugh.
Where were my scones?
Can you spot your Mrs Crimbles favourites?
Is that a Sainsbury's brownie?
I couldn't identify the cherry bakewell tart, but it looked like it was just out of a packet, maybe Waitrose free from?
A bit of effort went on with the fairy cake, as it was "iced" with some whipped cream, and I got one macaroon of the ones available in the regular afternoon tea.

I suppose at least my companion enjoyed her treats, she said the scones were delicious.
It would have been so easy to make it worth it, even without much cooking, they could have served some of Waitrose's free from scones or some scones made with Helen's ready mix. They could have got some gluten free cakes from Konditor and Cook and dusted some icing sugar, or they could have added a selection of macaroons from Paul's.

I suppose as I could guess where all of it came from I was able to tuck in knowing I would not get sick. Not recommended unless you are a Mrs Crimbles fan.