Rockfish Totally Rocks!

Recently, we went on a short holiday to Devon. The hotel in which we stayed (supposedly five star, but that's another matter) was such a disappointment, but thankfully Rockfish provided a much needed highlight to our stay. Finding Rockfish online, was a total Godsend!

Rockfish actually have a number of restaurants dotted around the South coast of Devon (see here for a map), but the one which we visited was situated in Torquay, right by the harbour. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I haven't been to Torquay in about 30 years, but I had heard that almost everything on the Rockfish menu (see here) could be made gluten free, so it had to be worth a visit!

It is a fairly small restaurant, decorated in a laid back contemporary beach shack chic kind of style, which I really liked. There's no parking, but there is a public car park just up the hill, a short stroll away, from the restaurant itself.

Great for dining casually, but nothing to stop one dressing up!

When we arrived, we had not booked, but as the place was almost empty, that wasn't a problem and we were soon seated, by efficient and friendly staff. The restaurant filled up as the evening went on, so if you wanted to go in the future in high season, I would definitely phone ahead to book.

Kiddo's entertainment!

Drinks soon ordered - mine a locally sourced, absolutely delicious apple juice, Kiddo was issued with a children's pack, the like of which I've never seen before in any restaurant. It wasn't just your bog-standard and over too quickly colouring sheet with word search, oh no! It was instead stuffed full of all kinds of educational and fun activities - including a kind of fishy Top Trumps, which we all enjoyed playing whilst we were waiting for our food! 

Fishy Top Trumps was really quite fun!

The boast that almost everything could be made gluten free was not an empty one. I soon found myself gleefully tucking into a plate of calamari - a starter?? An almost unheard of luxury for me!! And, oh my word! It was so good - the best I've ever tasted.

The Hub's starter - Vegetable Tempura - also came gluten free, so we all helped him out with his veg. - even the Kiddo!

I had to avoid the soya dip, but otherwise, the tempura was also suitable for me.

Kiddo has a number of choices to choose from, but, much to my surprise, stuck to cod and chips. It arrived in the form of goujons and she was soon tucking in.

Kiddo's meal

My main meal, was the Fritto Misto - minus the soya sauce and replaced with a seaweed dip instead (I didn't have to ask - what a measure of excellent service).

Fritto Misto

This I had accompanied by a lovely, lightly dressed, side salad. I could have had chips, but mindful of all the batter I was consuming, I decided to behave, and settled for pinching one of Kiddo's!

In reality, if I had put more thought into it, my main was a bit similar to my starter, but heigh ho - it's so long since I've been able to enjoy calamari in a restaurant, I was simply making up for lost time! ;)

Dessert was a little more tricky for us, but in the end we simply had no room for any more food anyway, but am pretty sure I made up for it - certainly calorie-wise - by sampling their wonderful Prosecco. 

From start to finish, this was a wonderful place to visit and the only shame was that it took so long to get there, from where we stayed, otherwise we would have been back for more! 

During our visit, we met some wonderful friendly locals, who recommended their other restaurants and said they were equally as good, which is good to know. As they seemed quite accustomed to fine dining, I would take their word for it. So if you're gluten free and find yourself in South Devon, you know where to go! You'll be doing yourself a favour by the visit.

And one other thing, it was all so reasonably priced! Our combined food and drink bill (two adults, one child, two courses) came to around £60.

Point to note: 

I have to say, this restaurant totally lived up to everything that I had hoped for. I took a bit of a gamble assuming that if they could do gluten free, then dairy free also wasn't a problem. Indeed dairy free was possible, but please note, you need to make this clear, as the standard batter they use contains milk, whereas the gluten free doesn't. The gluten free flour is also soya free - bonus!!

Rockfish have worked hard to fully comply with Coeliac UK standards. See here.

Further posts about Eating Out can be found here.

And you can also find further reviews by me, of restaurants, days out and hotels on Trip Advisor, under the same name as this blog. I am beginning to build up a list of places I have been recently, because when I was away, Trip Advisor was far more useful than any other site for finding suitable places to eat - so I think it's only fair to pay back, or even 'pay it forward', and help others.

Carluccio's in Cobham

I like a good bit of alliteration in my blog post titles - check my past posts and you'll know it's true. However, there's a really good reason why I've done so for this particular post - read on and you'll see what I mean!

Now, I've heard of people having a great allergy free dining out experience at Carluccio's in the past and, to be quite frank, I was utterly astounded! My experiences have been pretty mixed - the worst being the time I went to one, where, having told the waitress I was dairy and gluten free, she promptly went off and returned with bread sticks for me to nibble on, whilst I waited!!

SO, when we visited Carter's Steam Fair in Cobham a few months ago, and my sister suggested eating at Carluccio's afterwards, I was none too thrilled. However, my sister being quite... hmm... 'persuasive' is the best way of putting it, I think, we did.

All the fun of the fair!

To begin with, I was none too impressed by the waiter who tried to serve us. It wasn't long before he was obviously floundering. He tried to bluff it out but soon had to resort to asking his superior for some help. Now, SHE was brilliant. To my shame, I can't remember her name but I was really impressed with her understanding. She completely 'got it'. It transpired that her friend had a daughter with various allergies, and who had actually written a cook book. 

The superior (eek, wish I could remember her name) dismissed the first waiter, and took over our table herself. She was able to knowledgeably guide me through my choices on the menu and disappeared out to the kitchen to place our order and oversee preparations. Then, she personally delivered our dairy free and gluten free dishes, herself (pronouncing them as dairy free and gluten free, as she did so - just in case anyone was in any doubt). I was amazed!!

It's the variation in what you might experience (in terms of service) that has made me a lot warier about relying on chain restaurants these days. It all depends on the staff in that restaurant, on that day, as far as I can tell. Hence specifying a particular place in my title!

Now, the service in Cobham was spot on, but the menu (as set by Carluccio's) was a bit limiting really. 'Baby' ended up with pasta and sauce (as per usual). Some days she'll eat it, some days she won't!!

'Baby's' dairy free pasta

Meanwhile, mine was a 'dairy free, gluten free' salad. Now, I'll eat salad, but I'm not a real salad fan. There being not much choice, though, it was that or go hungry. 

Polo e Prugne (chicken and prune)  actually turned out to be a very nice salad (as salads go). It was really nicely dressed and well-balanced, so a change from the usual fish and potato that I often end up with!

Pollo e Prugne

So, 'Baby' and I both got to eat something... and didn't suffer any nasty reactions!

Dessert was non-existent, but that was no surprise. Everywhere we go it's a variation of some kind of fruit - usually a sorbet. Now, I don't know about your little one, but mine doesn't go a bundle on that and neither do I. Add into the mix that I get allergic reactions from fresh fruit such as kiwi, pineapple and melon (the basis of many a fruit salad) and you'll understand why I'm so unimpressed!

I did trawl the shop at the front to see if there was any suitable treat, but even the meringue was out of bounds, as it was dusted with some kind of chocolate powder - so near and yet so far - 'Baby' loves meringue! Mind you, the main reason for trawling the shop was to keep 'Baby' away from her cousin, who was devouring chocolate ice cream with unholy relish!!

When, oh when, I have often wondered (and this is aimed not just at Carluccio's), will restaurants provide proper desserts for the dairy and gluten free?? To borrow the catchphrase of many a frustrated coeliac on Twitter, 'Fruit is NOT a dessert'!

Another pic of the fair

If you've also pondered this question, the good news is that Leon restaurants have dessert options that are dairy and gluten free and most definitely are not fruit. Check them out! :)

Other posts about Eating Out:

Eating Out - Mission Possible

Dinner with Leon

Eating Giraffe Food

Supping at Strada

Hanging out in the Roof Gardens of Babylon

Lunch at Starbucks
Celiacs Fayre Gluten Free Cafe