La Polenteria Italian gluten free restaurant

Delicious homemade gluten free food!

During my trip to London, Elise and I, we visited a restaurant that I wanted to go since I spotted their yummy food on Instagram: La Polenteria.

La Polenteria is the first 100% gluten free restaurant in London that is also certified by the Ceoliac UK Association and it is specialized in great tasting Italian food.

Today it has changed its name into Leggero.

Gabriele Vitali and Silvio Evangelisti, the two co-founders, were doing different jobs before taking the leap and jump in this new adventure together: Gabriele was working in finance while Silvio was a dental technician. Food was a passion for both and they came up with the idea of creating a restaurant that celebrates one Italian dish in particular: the Polenta.

But what is Polenta?

Less famous than traditional pizza and pasta, the Polenta is a traditional Italian dish made of cornmeal flour, water and salt. It is naturally gluten free and if you have travelled a bit in the North of Italy, where it originally comes from, you might have seen how each region treasures its own peculiar recipes of the Polenta.

Personally I like it very much: it’s warm, tasty, it’s about sharing it with your tables mates or friends, and it goes beautifully with basically everything, it can substitute bread or more traditional pasta and it definitely makes a good, healthy change in our daily habits.

At the Polenteria everything is home made and the menu doesn’t stop at the Polenta: you can also find delicious home made pasta with teff or chestnut flours; there is also focaccia that it’s basically to die for! Crunchy outside, moist inside, it was so delicious! We dipped it in extra virgin olive oil….I can still remember the feeling…

The polenta we tasted came with a delicious red pesto.

Our main dishes were Teff Tagliatelle with eggs, asparagus, pecorino cheese and Polenta gnocchi with pesto. They were both very good.

For dessert, we tasted the cheesecake that is one must have here, along with tiramisu.

On Sunday there is brunch and it is all gluten free of course.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Francesco, the restaurant manager, along with the team working at the Polenteria who are among the kindest that I have ever met: welcoming, smiling, professional.

It is fantastic, I think, when you can combine great food with great people.

The Polenteria has quickly become a success in London, so if you go, it is better to book a table in advance and I am pretty sure that you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.