Da Luciano's

Da Luciano's is another family owned restaurant in River Grove, a suburb of Chicago. Started by the Libreri family from Caccamo, Sicily in 2003, Da Luciano's is a gluten free staple in Chicago, as well as a local hot spot for Italian food. They had found out in 2002 that four of the seven children in the family had celiac disease. In an effort to make sure their children had good tasting Italian food they set out to find a good recipe for bread and pasta. When their restaurant opened the following year they had a gluten free menu as well.

In Chicagoland it seems anyone who has been gluten intolerant for a while knows about Da Luciano's, you can't sit down and talk about dinning out without mentioning them. Like other places I've dined, you'll notice that the gluten free meals are plated differently then regular meals. The gluten free plates are large round plates while the rest of the meals are on a oval shaped plate. Great to help identify the meals for servers, and make the diners more confident as well.

I had been gluten free for about 5 months when I finally got introduced to Da Luciano's, and my first gluten free love began (well maybe it was two of my gluten free loves began). I was there on a date, with my now boyfriend. I was so excited to see all the options, but he was just as excited to find a place with so many great options.

Over the next couple months I found reasons to have my family, and other friends choose to go there for dinner. None of them turn down a reason to go to Da Luciano's for dinner. They had just opened up their little patio out back, it's super cute, and a little romantic.

Manicati

Recently we had a dinner party of 18 dine there for my birthday. Our group had 2 gluten free diners, one being a friend of mine who is newly gluten free. She was highly impressed with the meal, she was so excited that the food tasted so similar to what she already ate, and was so good. One of my other friends who is Italian said the regular meal was to her "family" standard, and that the only difference with the gluten free pasta was that it was prepared more Al Dente than hers, but she couldn't taste a difference. Her husband thought the gluten free menu was a "special extension" of the normal menu, he was impressed with the selection for gluten free.

Chicken Parmesan

The chicken Parmesan was a meal for 3 days for me! (The GF calamari and Mozzarella wedges as the appetizers probably didn't help) They even have Tiramisu and canoli's gluten free! You can't go wrong with a trip there.  

Tiramisu

They get my highest rating, they rank as about as safe as you can get when dinning out. They are super diligent with their foods and take it seriously in making sure your meal is prepared and served correctly.