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Mama Fu’s

Posted: May 7th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Restaurant Reviews | Tags: , , , | Comments Off on Mama Fu’s

Mama Fu’s is a restaurant I had seen on a number of local gluten free restaurant lists for years, but had never visited. We recently watched the release of Titanic in 3D (which was fun) and happened to be near one of the local restaurants and decided to give it a try.

Chinese and Asian restaurants where we can safely eat are few and far between. Most soy sauce is fermented with wheat and soy sauce tends to be everywhere in an Asian restaurant. There’s Pei Wei and PF Chang’s, of course. And there are higher end local restaurants like Uchi’s (which is really more Japanese). But the options are pretty limited.

Their gluten free guide contains a note that not all locations outside Texas have the gluten free sauce, so check first if you live in another state with a Mama Fu’s.

The food was decent. I wouldn’t call it great, but it was pretty good and as far as my daughter and I could tell it was safe. Neither of us got noticeably sick, anyway. And it was reasonably quick, convenient, and not too expensive. I got what was listed on the menu as one of the spiciest dishes and found it somewhat bland personally. But then, I tend to like spicy things.

So if we’re out doing something and need to go grab a bite to eat somewhere, Mama Fu’s definitely makes the list of options.


P.F. Chang’s

Posted: August 1st, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Restaurant Reviews | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off on P.F. Chang’s

My brother called last week as he was driving back to LA from working the past six months on a film that will be released in the future sometime and wanted to have lunch as he came through Austin. I had to pick something quickly and decided on P.F Chang’s because I haven’t had Asian food in a long time and they have a gluten free menu. I thought it would be a good time to test and see how well they managed meals for celiacs. I was impressed that their gluten free menu is apparently updated monthly.

I was very pleasantly surprised. After I went through “the explanation” of my condition with the waiter he immediately knew the menu I needed. Even before I saw the menu, he knew the only starter we could get that I could have was the lettuce wraps. He also told me that the soy sauce on the table was not gluten free and brought me a cup of gluten free soy sauce. And then he made a point of letting me know that he would discuss my order with the kitchen to make sure they knew to be careful about accidental contamination when preparing my food.

Wow!

The food was good and that level of knowledge and service was beyond what I expected from a chain, even a more upscale chain. I was definitely impressed by our North Austin P.F. Chang’s!