Saturday, September 8, 2007

Restaurant Review - Hannah's Tapas Bar in Waterloo

The other night we visited Hannah's Tapas Bar for dinner (http://www.hannahsbellabistro.com/). For a Friday night, the restaurant wasn't very busy, but apparently gets busy later in the evening as people are looking for snacks ('tapas' are really just small tasting plates, like appetizers.) Also, Friday night happens to be $4 martini night! You only could choose from 4 different types of martinis, but the 4 they had were still excellent.

The atmosphere was cool, and the waitress was very professional. It was hard to tell if she knew about Celiac disease, but she seemed to know that gluten was wheat and related products.

Our party of 4 ordered a variety of tapas, and I could eat most of them. The waitress went over the whole menu and indicated what was and wasn't gluten-free. At one point the waitress recommended a dish cooked with beer. This just shows you that even though wait staff may know some things about eating gluten-free, it's always best to ask lots of questions.

The highlights for me were the scallops, shrimp, warm olives and tomato & goat cheese salad.

We ended up passing on dessert (even though they had creme brulee - my favourite). Instead, our party went for a walk and ended up at Yukiko's for dessert. (They also had creme brulee which was gluten-free. It was decent, but not the best I've ever had.)

Overall, the food was excellent...but perhaps a bit pricey if you are hungry and are looking for quantity. The bill for the 4 of us was around $110, including a couple drinks each. Service was good, and knowledge about eating gluten-free was definitely better than average.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5
Celiac friendly: 4 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great review. I was there recently and my server took a copy of the menu to the chef, who put check marks by the dishes that were gluten free, or could be prepared gluten free (usually by not including the bread). Since the menu changes frequently, this seems like the safest choice.