Out The Door is the popular offshoot of San Francisco’s renown restaurant, Slanted Door. With a gorgeous new location in the heart of the Fillmore neighborhood, Out The Door is upping the ante. Their original to-go style cafés located in the ferry building and Westfield shopping plaza offer excellent gluten free friendly Vietnamese noodle dishes, spring rolls, and rice bowls that boast organic, local ingredients. With Out The Door’s newly opened restaurant location, you can find inspired variations on those tasty takeout dishes in a more elegant setting. For the gluten free crowd, their wait staff is knowledgeable about which dishes are safe (at the ferry building location they have a list of menu items that contain common allergens). Our waiter directed us to the beef pho and five spice chicken dish, served with thin rice noodles (had to be modified to be gf by omitting a soy sauce marinade). Both meals were exceptionally flavorful, in part because of their seasonal, fresh ingredients. For any trained gluten intolerant eater, you know that finding great Vietnamese food can sometimes be a challenge due to the common use of commercial soy sauce and hoisin sauce (both contain wheat). With restaurants like Out The Door, gluten free folk aren’t left with a plate of plain rice and steamed vegetables. Instead, we can share in the fun of slurping down a bowl of spicy noodles with all of the traditional flavors intact.
Mmmmmmm. I wish I had a bowl of that to slurp down for lunch.