Papa Bear's Italian Restaurant

I have only ordered carry out. They have a separate gluten free menu, but when you call and try to order from it, the staff is not very knowledgeable. The portions are small based on the pricing.

How confident are you that this establishment takes safety precautions against cross-contact?

— Not at all

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— Separate gluten-free menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Some

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Good

Other Characteristics

• Offers delivery

Terrible GF pizza. Wouldn't feed it to my dog.

Celiac friendly?

No

Their Gluten free pizza is awesome!

Celiac friendly?

Yes

My wife has Celiac, and gluten pretty much wrecks her within a few minutes of eating it. Earlier in the year, we noticed that Papa Bears had a "Gluten Friendly" menu, which at other restaurants typically means that they have some gluten in the food. We avoided the place for several months because they couldn't explain properly what their interpretation of "Gluten Friendly" meant.



Recently, it changed to a "Gluten Free" advertisement. My wife called to talk to the manager, who told her that while the food is prepared in a common area, the utensils and cooking vessels are kept separate from anything that touches gluten, and the surface used to make the food is also cleaned before each use. They were concerned about marketing it as Gluten Free because of that, which I can certainly appreciate. I'm going to mark the "Celiac Friendly" as a No, simply because they do not have a dedicated kitchen for the food preparation, but in all honesty, my wife was perfectly fine the one time we have visited so far.



We ate there on 12/17/17, and my wife had their gluten-free pizza. If you have been to Papa Bear's before, you will know that all their pizzas are rectangular. The gluten-free pizza is circular, which looked kind of comical the way they had to cut it to get it to fit on a rectangular pan. I'm not sure if it was a third-party crust or not, but it was extremely thin like most gluten-free crusts. My wife really enjoyed it, and I admit that I liked it as well when I tried some of the crust.



We may go back and try the gluten-free pastas, but my wife seemed happy enough with the quality of the pizza that she will likely have it the next few times we go. Papa Bears' baked ziti is outstanding on its regular menu. I'm curious to see if their gluten-free offering is equally as good.



Their gluten-free menu is quite extensive. Their salad dressings are all homemade, too, so I'd recommend giving them a shot if you're in the mood for a salad.

Celiac friendly?

No

Was so excited to see a sign posted out front saying they now serve gluten free pizza. Asked waitress the procedure for handling of the pizza. She didn't know, asked to speak to manager. Manager sent message to table, evidently too busy to come over personally, saying if I was celiac, don't order the gluten free pizza. We left.