Gluten Free in Orlando, Florida - Part 5: Restaurants Outside the Parks and Wholefoods

So, I'll admit we did most of our Florida gluten free eating inside the parks, but we still had a few evening meals in restaurants on I-Drive and  the surrounding area.

Bahama Breeze

This was definitely my favourite restaurant chain, just because I love Caribbean food and really liked the vibe, we ate at the one on I-Drive twice (near the Wonderworks building), both times we had to wait around 30mins (they operate a pager system). They were really friendly and knowledgeable about gluten and offered us lots of choices. Both times I had the grilled chicken with cilantro crema, mashed potatoes topped with toasted corn. Totally gluten free and really tasty. Seb had grilled chicken breast and fries (dedicated fryer) both times. You can see their menus HERE but unfortunately they do not mark them gluten free.

Outback

Brilliant for coeliacs! They even have a dedicate gluten free menu, I think this is probably my top choice for a gluten free friendly restaurant outside of Disney. Both times we had their ribs with a jacket potato, I think they are probably the nicest ribs I've ever had. Top marks, the only downside is we had a long wait, even at 9pm.

Pollo Tropical

We grabbed a quick lunch here on the way back to Sanford airport. It's a quick fast food type place but with really good food. We totally over-ordered, just beware the portions are huge! You can check out the gluten free/containing items on their website - we had lots of grilled chicken, corn, slaw, rice and mashed potatoes.  

Wholefoods

Oh my goodness I am totally in love with this HUGE natural supermarket in Turkey Lake Road. We only discovered it a week into our holiday but I wish we'd found them sooner. It is literally gluten free heaven. I've never seen so many gluten free products under one roof - they stock anything you can imagine, we bought gluten free pizzas, gluten free waffles, gluten free doughnuts (yes doughnuts!), gluten free blueberry muffins, gluten free breakfast cereals, gluten free brownies, gluten free cookies, gluten free bread and more and the fresh salad/ready cooked food section looked glorious. Oh how I wish there were stores like this in the UK (I know there are a handful in the UK, but nothing like the size of this one and all too far away sadly). I would seriously consider moving to Florida JUST for Wholefoods, it's that good. If you are a coeliac off to Orlando you MUST, MUST, MUST go here as soon as possible to stock up on gluten free goodies, you know when you go to a normal supermarket and spot something gorgeous, choc full of gluten and you wish that you didn't have coeliac disease? well that doesn't happen at Wholefoods, you feel normal and their gluten free food is *really* good. Have I sold it to you yet? LOL.