Quick Bites: Gluten-Free St. Louis, Missouri Metro Area

Welcome to our Quick Bites series, where we highlight a handful of safe restaurants in areas we were only able to spend a short bit of time visiting. While these posts won’t be as comprehensive as our full travel guides, we still wanted to share the bit we did try out so that our readers at least have a proven safe option or two.

To kick things off, our first Quick Bites guide focuses on celiac-safe, gluten-free options in the St. Louis, Missouri Metro Area.

Note: Our posts may contain affiliate links. For example, as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you purchase something through those links, you won't be charged extra, but we'll receive a small commission. All opinions expressed herein are our own, and we will only recommend products, services, and restaurants that we have personally tested and found to meet our quality standards.

Table of Contents

Restaurants
Food Safety Tips
Tourist Attractions and Activities

Restaurants

Recommended Eats

Salt + Smoke

Cities: St. Louis, St. Charles, and more

Safety: ★★★★☆

Not dedicated gluten-free, but staff is knowledgeable about cross contact to safely accommodate patrons with celiac disease.

Pros:
- A gluten-free menu is available, which includes most of their regular menu and also lets you know which of their sauces are gluten-free
- Dedicated gluten-free fryer
Cons:
- There’s still a good amount of gluten on the premises, such as cornbread and regular buns, so be sure to firmly articulate your cross-contact precaution needs

Taste: ★★★★☆

St. Louis is one of the country’s BBQ centers, so Salt + Smoke is a good option to try out this style of barbeque. While not our favorite barbeque, everything was solid.

Overall Experience: ★★★★☆

It’s been a bit since we last visited here, but we remember the waitress being helpful, kind and knowledgeable, and we had a good meal with no symptoms. There are multiple locations of this restaurant in the St. Louis area, making it easy to find no matter where you're staying. Salt + Smoke can get a bit busy, so for peace of mind we recommend visiting outside of main meal rush times, if possible.

Smoothie King

Cities: Various - many locations in the area

Safety: ★★★★☆

Dedicated, 100% gluten-free smoothies and bowls

They use Califia oat milk and Purely Elizabeth certified gluten-free oats, giving an additional level of comfort.
Note: While everything they make in house is gluten-free (i.e. all smoothies, bowls, lemonades), we haven’t had a chance to verify the sourcing/cross contact risk/celiac-safety of their powders. In addition, for those locations that also have a little packaged snack store area, not all of the packaged snacks for sale are gluten-free.

Taste: ★★★★★

Whether you’re in the mood for fresh fruit, fiber, or just feeling like having a lighter meal, Smoothie King will hit the spot.

Must tries: Acai bowls, Choc-A-Laka (kids menu)

Overall Experience: ★★★★★

This is a great in-a-pinch option, especially for breakfast, lunch, or a sweet treat. We’ve loved everything we’ve tried here, and wish there was one near us locally!

Heartwood

City: St. Charles

Safety: ★★★★★

Dedicated, 100% gluten-free and vegan cafe and bakery.

They use certified gluten-free oats in their granola

Taste: ★★★★☆

Taking into account that vegan dishes often have a rather unique flavor profile, we found their foods to be decently yummy, and their drink options quite decadent. They have so much variety in their offerings, from pasta and bowls to curries, nachos, smoothie bowls and more. They also have an extensive drink and dessert menu, featuring healthy smoothies, teas, drinking chocolates, muffins, cakes, and more. Heads up that their nachos were surprisingly spicy, so if you’re craving the nachos or a more traditionally spicy dish like curry, be sure to keep this in mind.

Overall Experience: ★★★★☆

This cute cafe fully embraces a hippy, health-food vibe with its cozy interior filled with warm woods, plants, and artwork — there’s even an area where you can create your own sketches to hang up on the customer art wall! They’re very cognizant of earth-friendly practices as well, all the way down to recyclable water cups. The cafe is also kid-friendly, with a dedicated area filled with toys and games to keep little hands occupied while their grownups enjoy a leisurely chat. If you have extra time, the street Heartwood is located on looks like a fun place for an afternoon stroll and shop!

Pure Plates STL

City: Chesterfield

Safety: ★★★★★

Dedicated, 100% gluten-free prepared meals storefront.

Also soy-free, and diabetic meals are available. They use organic produce, non-GMO grains, grass-fed meats and wild-caught fish, and there are no added sugars or sweeteners.

Taste: ★★★★☆

On our most recent weekend in the area, we bought three takeaway meals each, and we enjoyed every single one of them. From beef stroganoff to turkey dinners and stuffed pork tenderloins, everything we had was delicious and high quality.

Must tries: Pork Quesadillas, Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Overall Experience: ★★★★★

This isn’t a restaurant in the traditional sense, instead positioning itself in the meal prep space. But don’t let that discourage you, as the variety of options here is insane, pricing is extremely reasonable (many options are less than $10), and this gives you the rare freedom to be able to eat on your own schedule/terms without the stress of needing a full kitchen or time to cook. There are several large refrigerators filled with pre-made meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and all you need is a microwave to reheat them. They also offer a weekly delivery service if you find yourself in the area for a longer period of time — we’d definitely be signing up for it if we lived nearby!

Others We Tried

Kung Fu Tea

Safety: ★☆☆☆☆

This chain frustrates us to no end, because they seem to be the only boba chain that actively marks their menu for gluten-free, but we’ve been two-for-two for glutenings at two different locations, so we cannot recommend them at all.

Additional Researched Options

You can find our full list of researched gluten-free St. Louis restaurants, including some we haven’t had a chance to visit yet ourselves, on Find Me Gluten Free here (get $5 off FMGF Premium here). **Please note, all places on this list were well-reviewed for celiac safety at the time of its creation. We were only able to visit the above restaurants ourselves, though, so if venturing to any places on the larger app list, be sure to read the reviews and do your own due diligence before visiting.

Food Safety Tips

U.S. Gluten Awareness and Labeling

Tourist Attractions and Activities

Once you've got the food sorted, here are a few fun attractions and activities to consider for your gluten-free St. Louis trip:

Culture It Up
- Visit the St. Louis Arch
  - The linchpin of the St. Louis skyline, this iconic landmark is the area’s top attraction. It’s worth seeing from the outside, both further away as part of the skyline and up close from the base, especially if you’re into architecture. We don’t, however, recommend paying to go up to the top of the arch unless you’re a fan of old-timey elevators (technically it’s a tram), as the view at the top is marred by its surprisingly tiny windows. The free Visitor Center at the base does have some interesting history and souvenirs, though, if you’re so inclined.
- Take in a Cardinals baseball game
  - Put on some red and take yourself to a ball game! Locals are hugely into this MLB team, so this is a great way to immerse yourself in the area. But take a word of advice from an Illinoisan — do NOT wear blue unless you want to unwittingly find yourself in the middle of a fight with a local for supporting their biggest rival, the Chicago Cubs.
Embrace Your Inner Child
- City Museum
  - This was my FAVORITE museum growing up, and is such a fun time for kids of all ages. It’s essentially a giant playground made out of recycled and reclaimed materials, both indoors and outdoors. With tunnels, caves, slides and more, you’re in for a treat.