The Chain Restaurant That Has A Huge Gluten-Free Burger Selection

If you have to eat gluten-free, it's always the most exciting when you find a restaurant that takes gluten intolerances seriously, offers multiple options, and makes you feel safe ordering there. Sure, there's usually grilled chicken and salad to fall back on, and when you're making gluten-free burgers at home, you could ditch the bun for eggplant, but what's the fun in that? Just because you're gluten-free doesn't mean you don't want a thick, juicy cheeseburger with a fluffy, bready bun every now and then. And you deserve one!

Luckily, there is at least one chain restaurant that offers a gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap for every burger on the menu and an extensive, easy-to-use online allergen menu to make sure you are crafting the safest order for you: Red Robin. That's right! Red Robin is among the chain restaurants that are surprisingly gluten-free.

Now, depending on your level of gluten intolerance, you'll want to be careful about what burger you order at Red Robin. Some of the options have sauces that aren't gluten-free (like, unfortunately, the famous campfire sauce) or fried components like jalapeño coins or crispy onion straws, so if you have a serious intolerance or celiac disease, you'll need to take some extra precautions to make sure your order truly remains gluten-free.

A true-blue gluten-free eater knows it's always the move to look at the menu beforehand no matter where you're going to eat, and this is your best bet for Red Robin as well. While some of the servers may be well-versed in the gluten-free offerings, it is extremely easy to use Red Robin's online allergen menu to craft a fully gluten-free order.

All you have to do is select the restaurant you want to visit, and select gluten under allergies and restrictions. You can also choose nutritional goals and whether cross-contact is okay. Lastly, you can choose whether to see only options that comply with your restrictions or the whole menu. Once you have your options chosen, select 'save and go,' and the holy grail burger menu will be there for your viewing and customizing pleasure. 

Since the burgers come standard with a regular bun, there will probably be a yellow triangle with an exclamation point next to each burger, indicating that there are some options suitable for you if you take certain ingredients off or swap certain things. When you click into the burger you'd like to order, you will see a list of each ingredient. The ingredients listed in green are gluten-free and safe, and the ones in red indicate what has gluten, meaning you'd have to switch them out. From there, it's very easy to click into each ingredient, which will open a menu of swaps available to make your burger gluten-free. Try this process even if you are going to order in person, as it's the most reliable indicator of the gluten content of individual ingredients on the Red Robin menu.

The terms of use for Red Robin's allergen menu say, "As we cook, prepare, and serve your meal, the listed menu option may come in contact with the allergen you want to avoid. For example, we might cook the listed menu option on the same flat top as a menu item that contains the allergen you want to avoid. Red Robin cannot guarantee that any menu item will be prepared completely free of the allergen in question."

So, if you are sensitive to cross-contamination and gluten-free due to celiac disease or another extreme intolerance, you may want to communicate that to your server and see whether they are able to take ingredients from a separate area and cook your burger on a different surface. It can feel like you're making a stink if you do this, but you deserve to have a meal that you feel 100% confident is safe for you.