Thursday, April 26, 2012

Minako's Organic Japanese Restaurant, Mission District, San Francisco

For the gluten-free, this place is a gem! The main waitress, whose family runs the place totally "gets it" in regards to being 100% gluten-free. I went there with a party of four, me being the only gluten-free person. She gave me my own Wasabi and ginger dish, so that the others would not contaminate mine with their chop sticks because they were eating some non-gluten-free stuff (it's all gluten-free Tamari there though). It is so reassuring for those of us with Celiac disease when the waitstaff understand details like that. She explained to us that they have two tempura fryers to avoid contamination there, and she even told me Tobiko is not gluten free! I did not know that. It turns out Tobiko is usually processed with wheat starch.

The first time I went there, we mostly had sushi and I was not super impressed, not being a fan of brown rice in my sushi. The gluten free tempura was definitely a disappointment. However, at Minako's is the only gluten free inari I've found so far. So we went back. This time I ordered the gluten free Chicken Katsu and it was AMAZING. I can't wait to go back for more.

One thing that sucks about being gluten-free is that even though restaurants are getting better at coming up with gluten-free options, it's usually a regular menu item without the yummy sauce because the yummy sauce that really makes the dish has gluten in it. I'm pretty sure that this is the only place in San Francisco that has gluten-free Chicken Katsu with gluten-free sauce! YAY! I can't wait to go back for that.

Not only do they accommodate the gluten-free, but they are also very vegan friendly, all while offering plenty of options for those who eat the full spectrum off foods.

On a totally unimportant side note - their bathroom is super cute!