Review of Emeril's Orlando

We dined at this Universal location 3 years ago. This was the only place we could find back then that could handle GF for people with Celiac. Since then, Universal has many more options including inside their theme parks. Since Emeril has a daughter with Celiac and another with gluten intolerance, I guess I expected a bit more from his restaurant this time. There was no gluten free menu not gluten free indications on the menu. The waiter offered to run interference between us and the chef to find out if our selections were GF. This did work ok. There was only 1 option in a kids portion that could be made GF. There was no GF bread. No GF fries (not even in a frying pan) because they apparently pre-blanch their fries in the grease it sounded like. When we ordered dessert, we reminded the waiter that the crime brûlée needed to be GF and said please don't bring the shortbread cookie with the dessert. Well, both GF creme brûlée's came with shortbread cookies. When we pointed this out to the waiter, I had the feeling that he was just going to take the creme brûlée's off the plates and give them to us. I explained that if any crumbs fell into the creme brûlée's it would be a health problem. He complied by bringing new creme brûlée's- but he didn't seem happy about this. For as upscale as a restaurant as Emerils is and given the fact that Emeril should know first hand how difficult it is for people with Celiac to dine out, I expected this experience to be better. The food was delicious (except the scallops that were extremely gritty - waiter told me I must be mistaken and that the grittiness was probably from the quinoa. It wasn't from the quinoa at all - it was the scallops. They brought a new dish of short ribs which were super delicious!!). This restaurant can handle a person with Celiac so I'm rating the restaurant a 4 - but be aware what you are being served and if something doesn't look right, ask. Our particular dining experience was more like a $200 3 star meal for 4 people.

Celiac friendly?

Yes