"Can I Eat Here?": Revolutionizing Restaurant Discovery for the Celiac & GF Community

Celiac.com 03/01/2024 - Imagine you and a friend are trying to decide on a place to meet up for dinner. But with celiac, this is a high-stakes decision – the last gambit you took on a restaurant left you sick for days, and you've had enough of the same two places you always eat at.

Truth is, gluten-free (GF) food is not necessarily hard to come by – many restaurants today offer accommodating choices or are flexible with their menu items. 

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However, finding them has never been easy.

Many user-submitted reviews are either out-of-date or even contradictory, and even if you go the extra mile and contact the restaurant, the staff member on the other end of the line may not be fully aware of all the relevant dietary considerations.

But even if potential diners do get the all-clear, there's no actual way to verify the information they receive is legitimate. As a result, those with celiac or gluten sensitivity are left to take any dietary information they discover with a grain of salt.

Reaching Your Destination: Atly's Gluten-Free Eats Map

Atly, the user-generated social mapping platform revolutionizing location-based knowledge sharing, has created a new Gluten-Free Eats map entirely dedicated to helping celiac individuals find suitable restaurants seamlessly and quickly.  

Developed in conjunction with dieticians and nutritionists and with feedback from those within the celiac and GF community, the map provides a uniquely high level of detail, imparting a degree of confidence that other platforms are simply unable to deliver.  

To truly accommodate celiac eaters, the map categorizes restaurants based on their respective friendliness levels – those that are 100% GF verified, celiac friendly, or those that are accommodating and serve GF dishes in non-GF kitchen settings, allowing users to make well-informed decisions. 

Unlike other discovery platforms, Atly goes the extra mile to contact restaurant owners and staff to understand just how safe the food and kitchen stations are for patrons with celiac or gluten sensitivity – information which is routinely updated and reverified.

For restaurants that fall into the "gray area," the map provides users with an essential list of cuisine-tailored questions that celiac and GF customers need to remember to ask their waiters. At sushi restaurants, for example, Atly's GF platform reminds users to request soy sauce that does not contain malt vinegar. 

Limitations of Current Digital Platforms 

Despite its popularity, Google Maps leaves much to be desired – especially for those with celiac disease. While it can offer users quick general overviews and concise reviews of places that may be gluten-free, it does so without any substantiated verification process.

And even the apps and websites facilitated by and tailored to gluten-free communities have their own shortcomings. On top of delivering a clunky user experience, these platforms suffer from stagnant user-generated information. What's more, they tend to focus on 100% gluten-free locations as opposed to non-GF restaurants that are accommodating.

Because of these limitations, many are relegated to painstakingly filtering through the vast "gray area" of dining options – that is, the restaurants that accommodate GF needs but aren't wholly dedicated to GF cuisine or aren't necessarily branded as GF or celiac-friendly.

Celiac and GF consumers deserve a thorough and easy-to-use tool that enables them to find a restaurant quickly, offering confidence to anyone following a GF lifestyle.

All You Can Eat

Those suffering from celiac or gluten allergy have to be diligent, and insufficient solutions complicate that task every time they want to dine out. It should be just as easy for a GF person to find a restaurant as it is for someone who isn't. Likewise, they should feel just as relaxed and confident at a restaurant as someone without celiac.

Fortunately, Atly's new Gluten-Free Eats map transforms uncertainty into an all-you-can-eat buffet. By fostering up-to-date restaurant information, verification processes, and tiered safety rankings, individuals with celiac are not limited to the same old GF-only options.

Going out no longer needs to involve endless Google searches, anxiety-filled dining experiences, or the risk of falling ill. It can be the enjoyable experience it was meant to be.

Atly's Gluten-Free Eats map is currently available to early-bird subscribers for $6.99 per month. For more information about the map and to start exploring, click here.