Review of Grateful Bites

The GOOD: Lovely atmosphere; good celiac protocol, lots of GF options. Desserts look beautiful.

The BAD: There is at least a half hour wait for any food (and it is not really worth that long a wait). You would be better off getting just dessert and beverage and avoiding the excessive wait.

The UGLY: Ordered a turkey panini sandwich. The menu says turn any sandwich or panini into a GF option with GF bread. Not really true. My idea of a panini is bread (olive oil on the inside & butter on the outside), cheese and some other fillings like meat and/or veggies that is pressed and grilled resulting in a warm grilled cheese like ooziness of a sandwich. Their idea is bread (dry no oil or butter) oven baked to a crouton like crunch with turkey & cranberry chutney and no cheese, even though the description says Gruyere cheese. I took one bite, looked inside and thought I got the wrong sandwich. I brought it up to the counter and I said that it was supposed to be grilled and have cheese. They said that they would fix it. The fix: a teaspoon of shredded UNMELTED cheese was put on the turkey and then the bread was dried out even more in the oven. I brought it back and at this point I was more than cranky, being really hungry and waiting almost an hour for this "panini". When I went up to the counter upset, this is when it is explained to me that they do not want to cross contaminate the GF food so they make the panini in the oven, no grilling, no dedicated panini press. Explain this to me when I order, explain it when I take it back the first time not after I am beyond patience and really hungry. Then they insist that I got what I ordered and that I pay for it. Really?

I know those machines are expensive, but get a dedicated GF cast iron frying pan and grill the panini in that. Or wrap it in parchment paper and press it in the panini press. Or buy a dedicated waffle iron to press it. No matter what, warn the customer when they order not to expect a real panini.

Celiac friendly?

Yes