Naples Flatbread goes far beyond flatbread on its menu. Its fire-roasted chicken wings are signature, and you can order them in flavors and degrees of fiery from house-made garlic parmesan to "atomic." It also offers a nice variety of salads, including Spicy Saku with sashimi-grade tuna and the Julius Caesar with the addition of grilled chicken and crispy prosciutto. Flatbreads and pizzas - both available with gluten-free crusts - come in exciting and unusual combinations as well as classics. Try, for instance, the Pietro flatbread - an inspired conspiracy of prosciutto, goat cheese, mozzarella cheese, black mission figs, arugula, grape tomatoes, caramelized onions and balsamic glaze. Calzones, burgers, paninis, wraps, pasta and Italian meat and seafood entrees complete the comprehensive menu.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: It gives you the option of ordering flatbreads and pizzas with gluten-free or cauliflower crusts.
Chelle's expert tip: Save room for something off the delightful dessert menu. S'mores for two or salted caramel cheesecake perhaps?
Pazzo! is one of the most reasonably priced Italian restaurants in Naples, particularly for Fifth Avenue South. The decor at this "crazy" (as the name translates) restaurant, purportedly one of the most exciting in town, is casual and modern with a bit of a Southwestern influence. The display kitchen adds an air of Iron Chef drama to the dining area. Menu favorites here include roasted octopus or house butternut squash ravioli appetizer, classic Caesar and buffalo mozzarella Caprese salads, homemade pasta dishes, grilled fish and meat, and grouper or veal piccata. The wine list here is quite admirable, and the dessert menu downright irresistible.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: Pazzo's well-rounded gluten-free menu includes seafood, steaks, salads and a soup.
Chelle's expert tip: Pazzo! pours a nicely rounded selection of wines by the glass, including a bubbly prosecco.
It's thoughtful that a restaurant would strive to serve the best possible food for our good health. But it's even better that Food & Thought's dishes reflect the kind of creative thinking that raises them above typical health food juice-bar fare. Like most of its kind, Food & Thought's service is order-at-the-counter. It serves all the typical veggie juices, including wheatgrass, and fruit smoothies, plus your standard hummus wrap and tabouli salad. It breaks the mold, however, with its daily hot entrees, soup and side dish menu. These are served cafeteria-style, but somehow manage to taste made-to-order. On the regular menu, you will find breakfast items such as quiche and sprouted pancakes, plus chickpea salad and chicken salad wrap or sandwich. Everything is certified organic and homemade, and the indoor-outdoor setting is fresh as the food.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: Most of Food & Thought's menu items are gluten-free, vegetarian and all-organic.
Chelle's expert tip: Come for lunch and buy your ingredients for a healthy dinner in Food & Thought's marketplace, filled with fresh organic produce plus plants for purchase.
Chez Boet labels its cuisine "French home cooking," but also delves into the North African cuisine that one finds in Paris. Hummus accompanies the crusty bread; tagine - slow roasted stew with couscous - is a specialty. The lamb variety is exceedingly hearty and flavorful. Mussels comes in a delicious light wine broth as an appetizer or as moules frites, an entree with hand cut French fries. Seafood, pates and fondue rounds out the menu. Less snooty than the French restaurant stereotype, intimate Chez Boet even caters to "well-behaved" kids with a menu that owners and Parisian transplants Lisa and Philippe Boet's daughter, Isabella, designed at age 7.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: Most of the dishes at Chez Boet are gluten-free; ask your server to help identify them.
Chelle's expert tip: The canard orange entree is perfectly crisp and moist.
Chef Ruth Wardein bakes more than 50 gluten-free products also customizable to vegan, dairy-free, keto, low-sugar, Paleo, and a slew of other diets and sensitivities. Pick up or custom-order anything from almond poppy seed bread and wedding cakes to sandwich bread and pizza crust. She also serves a café menu of pancakes, waffles, chicken pot pies, quiche, pizzas, soup bowls, hot sandwiches, and other things people on a gluten-free diet might have a nostalgic hankering for. Wardein experiments extensively to get the right taste and texture so that customers rarely find her baked goods and comfort dishes are lacking the taste and mouth-feel of gluten products.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: You won't find a speck of gluten in this kitchen.
Chelle's expert tip: Saturday means paleo waffles and hot glazed dairy-free donuts - both delicious.
One of the first restaurants to spark the culinary renaissance on Fifth Avenue South back in the early 1990s, it continues to reign as one of the most popular and daring. With a handsome bar and dining room that spills onto the sidewalk, it lets guests peek at the magic happening in the kitchen. Small plates, salads, pasta and seafood and meat entrees all take global cues, but with a sublime comfort level. Take the Kurobuta "Shake & Bake" Pork Chop with a smoked bacon and panko crust finished with mustard peppercorn gravy; or tuna with a crust of kalamata olives, capers and prosciutto. Pay close attention the night's specials, for that's where Chef Jess Houseman shines.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: Bistro 821's gluten-free menu lists 12 entrees plus starters and two types of risotto.
Chelle's expert tip: For a true "bite" of Florida cuisine, try the alligator quesadilla, made with grilled gator tenderloin, caramelized onion and manchego cheese.
At Inn on Fifth, this restaurant excels at sophistication and personality. The staff goes beyond the extra mile to make your dining experience. They have solid help from the kitchen, which produces the signature prime steak and creative seafood dishes. Starters such as the spicy tuna tartare with avocado and six types of sushi including the signature tempura shrimp and beef carpaccio roll are perfect for sharing. Order a craft cocktail from the sexy bar while you are at it. Walls of wine bottles or walls of glass looking out onto a courtyard: your choice. Top entree picks include filet mignon with Maytag blue cheese crust and pudding-like sea bass with champagne truffle sauce.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: Its focus on seafood and steak ensures its designated gluten-free menu offers a good variety of choices.
Chelle's expert tip: The ten-layer carrot cake is an architectural and gastronomic wonder easily shared by two.
Part of a small, Texas-based chain of restaurants, it is anything but cookie-cutter. The dining room seems oversized at first, but its popularity fills the warm, welcoming space at the back of Inn on Fifth most nights. They come for their fix of various varieties of crab, lobster, grouper topped with crawfish and shrimp, miso-glazed sea bass, Faroe Island salmon, sweet and spicy Pacific yellowtail, plus fine steaks and chops. Steak cuts include filet mignon with or without bone-in, ribeye, and New York strip. The signature Filet Oscar Royale adds caviar to the typical crab, asparagus and bearnaise Oscar topping.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: From appetizers to seafood, steaks and desserts, Truluck's designated gluten-free menu stacks up the choices.
Chelle's expert tip: Don't miss the stone crab - Truluck's owns its own nearby fishery. It's that fresh!
As fresh as its pea-green banquettes, True Food Kitchen opened in March 2017 fueled by the expertise and name-recognition of Dr. Andrew Weil, whose anti-inflammatory diet has made him a respected author. The spacious, open dining room presents a seamless experience of watching chefs and juice bartenders work magic with the freshest, healthiest ingredients possible. With nearly 20 restaurants nationwide, True Food's menu localizes somewhat to its venue. Every location's menu indicates vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan selections, plus organic wines and fresh-made cocktails. Don't-miss items: Medicine Man iced tea with black cherry, pomegranate and sea buckthorn; Charred Cauliflower with harissa tahini and dates; Inside Out Quinoa burger with hummus and tzatziki; poke bowl, and banana and chia pudding. Even the lasagna - made with gluten-free noodles, house-made chicken sausage and lemon ricotta - tastes healthy.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: It has an extensive menu of gluten-free items including delicious gluten-free lasagna and muffins.
Chelle's expert tip: Weekend brunch incorporates many of the regular menu favorites plus yummy egg dishes and gluten-free muffins.
Patric's has a split personality. On one hand, the charming little retro cafe loads up diners on comfort food such as muffins, pot roast skillet and bacon benedict for breakfast; and deep-fried hot dogs and bacon and PBJ sandwiches for lunch. Then there's Patric's healthy side - its well-designed salads such as grilled salmon with strawberries and orange basil dressing and grilled Portobello wrap sandwich. But its ultimate tip of the toque to healthy eating is its Paleo breakfast and lunch menus. These follow guidelines for the mostly meat and leafy greens regime of the grain and gluten-free Paleo diet. Breakfast and lunch sandwiches come on gluten-free bread or sans bread at all. The burger, for instance, rests on a bed of lettuce and tomato and is available with bacon, a fried egg or avocado. The kitchen is so skilled you won't even miss the grains.
Recommended for Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menus because: Patric's has a Paleo diet menu and makes many of its bakery items gluten-free.
Chelle's expert tip: The Cali Benedict is delicious - served without an English muffin on a bed of fresh spinach, tomato and avocado.