Leon new Gluten-Free Chicken - Oh dear!



Gluten Free Chicken

I was invited to try the new Gluten Free Chicken at Leon that is trialling for a week at their Spitafields branch.
The Spitafields branch is well located inside the market, so it's fun to see the hussle and bustle from the windows.

My invitation included the new chicken dish plus side, cake and drink which was very generous of Leon.

Every item I ordered was labelled gluten-free on the menu, however I started feeling unwell a bit later, and I believe there was some cross-contamination in the food I had.

After mentioning it on twitter I got a call from their Head of Food who went through all the processes they have in place and I have to say, it is surprising if they do all that that I got ill there, but unfortunately my gut doesn't understand of processes, only of gluten.

They seemed to take it seriously and someone was dispatched to the restaurant to investigate. It might just be a problem with training.



Pecan Pie

Although I am unlikely to go back due to food safety, I did like the chicken, the flavour was very nice and the coating quite crunchy and full of flavour. The pecan pie was lovely too, with lots of nuts.

I would like to know if anybody else has had a similar experience or a positive one eating gluten-free at Leon, please leave a comment, I'd love to read it.

Leon Restaurants
http://leonrestaurants.co.uk/

Wahaca

I went to Wahaca, Southbank recently with the Meetup Gluten Free London Club.

It's always a nice outing with the group, and all the restaurants selected have gluten free options.

The Wahaca Southbank branch is quite cool, built with containers and overlooking the river, it was a fantastic location for a Spring evening.
They do have a dedicated Gluten Free menu, so that says to me they do take it seriously.

I ordered the British Steak plato fuerte as main and mango sorbet to finish.
The Steak dish comes in two large soft wraps with lots of salad, and two side sauces, guacamole on the left, and creamy black beans with corn tortillas on the right.
By far my favourite flavour was that of the creamy black beans.
I found that on the main wraps there was quite a lot of salad but didn't seem to have any dressing, which made it very dry.
The steak bits were quite nice, as the grilled cheese on top, but overall, if I went again I would choose the smaller dishes ordered by some of the others (street food tacos).
They got three small wraps per dish, and two or three dishes per person seemed to be a good portion.
As a special they had corn tortilla lasagna pictured here on the bottom left, interesting dish, which according to Ben was good.
The sorbet was very nice, and I'm glad I ordered it. Actually all the ice creams ordered by the group were enjoyed.
I ordered two drinks, a Citrus fizz and a Hibiscus mojito and both were a bit watered down and disappointing.

Overall it was a good evening, as the group is great, but the food was quite unremarkable, maybe because it was a busy Friday? It might be worth going again on a quiet day and compare....

Udis Apple and Cinamon Toaster Pastries

I am not sure what to make of these pastries.
The taste is nice but it is very much like having a toast with some warm jam. They don't do much for me, but my sister loves them.

I suppose it is the sort of thing handy to have in the cupboard if you tend to run out of food without warning, very much an emergency ration for me.

What do you think? Worth trying?