Went to the Farm & Fire Restaurant last weekend and had a lovely gluten-free meal. The photo above is of the Cauliflower Steak! It was so tasty. I loved the candied hazelnuts and the Korean BBQ sauce had just the right kick to it. The kimichi aoili sauce went very well with the crunchy cauliflower. Now, just a note of caution!! Do let the staff know that you are a celiac! This dish was marked gluten-free on the menu, but the cooking method needed to be changed to be celiac safe. This dish is usually deep fried and they do not have a dedicated gluten-free fryer, so they baked it for me. It still tasted delicious.

The Farm & Fire Restaurant is located in the Elk + Avenue Hotel at 333 Banff Avenue in Banff, Alberta. It is a modern open concept restaurant. They were very good about accommodating a celiac, but as stated above, even though items are listed gluten-free on the menu, do double check with your server and the kitchen. Our server was fantastic. She checked with the kitchen and came back to let me know that some of the gluten-free items were not celiac safe, but that they would adjust the preparation to make them safe.

Another dish that was labelled as gluten-free, but needed to have the coooking method altered to make it celiac safe was the BC Shrimp Pasted Eggplant. They panfried it for me. It is served with fresh basil leaves and smoked creme fraiche. I found this dish a bit disappointing. Maybe because it was panfried, but the eggplant was still quite crunchy and cut very thick with not much shrimp paste inbetween. I would have preferred thinner slices of eggplant with more paste. The smoked creme fraiche sauce was yummy, but overall I would not order it again.

The Rotisserie Chicken was marked gluten-free and didn't need to be adjusted. We ordered a half and it was lovely. The meat was succulent and so delicous. It was served with lemon slices to drizzle on top which I absolutely loved. I adore the taste of lemon. Next time we will order a full chicken as we all enjoyed the flavour.

GLUTEN ALERT! The non celiac in the group had a gluten crust Margherita Flatbread and enjoyed it. You could have a gluten-free crust substitution if you wanted. They really enjoyed its flavour and said it had a hint of spiciness to the sauce. This is one I may try in the future with the gluten-free crust. I would need to find out more about possible cross-contamination when it is made and cooked. Has anyone tried the gluten-free version?

For dessert we all shared the recommended gluten-free Double Chocolate Mousse Cake. This was so very scrumptious! Our server told us that the cracker like items you see on the plate were burnt white chocolate with sesame seeds. I have never had that before and the slight bitter taste went very well with the sweet mousse and slightly tart haskap berry coulis.

Above is the dessert menu for you to look at. I've included a photo of it because I could not find it on their website.

I also had a cafe latte and it was suberb. Delicious strong coffee flavour. For me it was a perfect way to end the meal.

Above is a photo of my plate. The dishes are served family style. I do recommend this restaurant to celiac's, but with the caveat to always let the restaurant know ahead of time that you are a celiac and check that they can accommodate you. Also, let your server know you are a celiac. Ownership and management and staff change a lot in the restaurant business, so always do your due diligence when choosing a place to eat. Here is a link to the Farm & Fire website.

My only negatives were that as it is open concept there can be quite a lot of background noise. But perhaps because of the whole pandemic thing I'm just not used to regular busy restaurants. Also, the bathrooms that are shared with the hotel in the hotel lobby were not very tidy, but this could be the hotel's issue.

Note: These are my personal experiences and opinions. Always seek out a medical opinion for medical concerns.