Local Eats: green Restaurant

Today I'm going to do a short little gluten-free post, because I'm working on getting my blog more beautimous.  I want to make sure this place is fun and easy to navigate.  So keep an eye out for that!

For Labor Day, Hubs, Dellie, myself, and a friend of ours went out to eat for the first time since we moved (whoo hoo!).  Naturally, we decided to find a weird, hole-in-the-wall place with good reviews.  And a place that Josh could eat at.  Our first choice was a little Polish restaurant called Beaver Choice (yes, we did pick it for the name), but alas, it was closed.

a screenshot of their website

What we found instead was a place called green Restaurant. I didn't mis-type.  The name of the place is in all lower caps.  You can even see for yourself at their website if you don't believe me.  The number one reason we picked to go here was because they were still open on Labor Day.  The number two reason is that their menu had a slew of gluten-free options.  the third reason is that they serve organic meals, all of which are vegetarian, some of which are vegan.  

Why?  Well, we've been trying to figure out ways to eat healthier.  An easy way to do that is to eat less meat, and more veggies.  The nice thing is, vegetarian and gluten-free easily come hand-in-hand.  

Okay, back on track.  So we went to the restaurant, hoping desperately that we would leave the place full.

Good news - we left full.  Their menu has a surprising number of what the chef calls "comfort foods."  We're talking pizzas, po-boys, and stir fry.  Everything on the menu can be made gluten-free; all you need to do is ask for it when you order.

My friend and I ordered salads off the menu.  Both of them turned out to be not quite our tastes, respectively, however, they were full blown fill you stomach salads for only $6 each.  I got the balsamic picnic salad.  I'm a huge fan of fruit in my salad, and this salad definitely had yummy fruit in it.  The balsamic syrup dressing, however, was a little too tart, in my opinion.  By three quarters through the bowl my tongue was uncomfortably coated in the stuff.

Josh got the daily special - fish tacos.  I haven't quite figured out the whole vegetarian-but-I-still-eat-fish thing, but I don't really care because these tacos were worth it.  They were just the right hint of spicy, the fish was yummy and not fishy tasting at all.  If it's ever on the menu again when I go back, I'm totally getting them.  And I don't even like fish.

I also ordered wontons. The restaurant calls them crab puffs, but they're really your typical asian restaurant wontons. I'm used to imitation crab meat, so I wasn't too concerned, but the filling was...how do I say this...weird. If you like your wontons, don't got them.

Conclusion: if you are looking for a lot of gluten-free options and aren't freaked out by the idea of eating imitation meats, give this place a try.  The prices are incredibly reasonable for the portions and the quality of meal you will get.

Just don't get the wontons.

green Restaurant has two locations in Tempe and in Phoenix.  They are open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.  For specific times and their locations, head over to their website.

Any other Phoenix metro recommendations for great, gluten-free options?