NICE MATIN

Sans gluten bread with herbed butter and olive oil

Almond cookies:)

Last week my sister and I went to Nice Matin on the Upper West Side of New York City for an early dinner before a concert at the Beacon theater. We picked Nice Matin because of it's proximity to the Beacon and the menu looked great with naturally sans gluten options.  Little did we know they have an actual sans gluten menu.

When we were ready to order I did my usual "I have a wheat allergy-is there flour in the sauce, breadcrumbs sprinkled on this, etc." -you know the drill....The waiter Nick responded "Are you Celiac?"  Although I have Celiac disease and AM NOT Celiac disease I was so happy to have a knowledgeable waiter. I love it when this happens! It's an instant assessment of the intelligence of the wait staff. Of course I replied yes and Nick was incredibly helpful with the rest of my order (Arugula salad with parmesan cheese and steak au poivre with spinach-delish!). This type of interaction is somewhat standard but then.....

My sister and I asked them to remove the bread basket to which Nick replied "Do you want gluten free bread?" I think I may have screamed YES!!! This never happens so as excited as I was I was also a bit skeptical. What kind of sans gluten bread would Nick bring? As you can see for yourself above the bread tasted as good as it looks!

The rest of our dinner was delicious. I received a side of mashed potatoes without having to ask because normally the steak au poivre comes with fried onions on top.  For dessert I had almond cookies (see above). I'm not usually a big dessert girl but had to try them and they were awesome!

Overall this was a fantastic dining experience and my sister and I let the manager know before we left.  I think it's important to let people know when they are doing a great job (and when they're not-in a nice way of course).  It's nice to dine out and have naturally sans gluten options to choose from but when you have sans gluten replacement foods it really makes all the difference.