Revisiting Wheatfields

This past weekend we had a couple friends visiting and when we were thinking of a restaurant to go to, I thought about a review of Wheatfields I wrote a little while ago for another local blogger. What made me think of Wheatfields, besides the fact that they have amazing food, is that they have an extensive gluten free menu and one of our friends is on a strict gluten free diet. I feel that it's so important for restaurants to take food allergies and restrictions seriously, especially with the prevalence of these allergies rising. It's certainly frustrating for me when restaurants drizzle chocolate all over my dessert (one of my more unfortunate allergies) but I can't imagine going to a restaurant and feeling like it wasn't safe to eat anything, like what happened to my friend when we went to Pacific Grill. But enough with my speech on restaurant responsibilities, let's get back to Wheatfields. Since this is a "revisiting review" I won't go into a full blown review but I'll recap our meal there and some of the highlights...enjoy!

When we strolled in around 7:30 on a Thursday night (during track season) we were told there would be a half hour wait, so we chose to wait at the bar. We ended up ordering our drinks and two appetizers off of their $5 bar menu, calamari and arancini. And I can't forget to mention the HUGE block of cheese at the bar that is pretty irresistible.

These were teeny tiny portions, but then again only five dollars so you get what you pay for. But before we even got these our table was ready...after only 15 minutes of waiting! Way to go Wheatfields! So we brought our drinks and met our appetizers at the table while we looked over the menu for some entrees. 

My date ended up going with the Three Course Thursday option and ordering the market salad, chicken caponata, and the macaroon and amaretto ice cream sandwich courtesy of the ice cream sandwich throw down. 

I loved the ice cream sandwich...my only issue was that it must have been waiting out for a while because the ice cream was almost completely melted. It looks only slightly melty in the picture, but that first bite sent ice cream dripping everywhere and it ended up being just macaroons soaked in amaretto ice cream. Still delicious, but they are definitely going to have to step up their game a little bit for the throw down with Albany. 

Our friends ended up ordering the beet and goat cheese salad, mussels, and buffalo chicken pizza - all from the gluten free menu!

I thought it was a nice touch that after we asked for a gluten free menu, our waitress brought over some gluten free bread as well. A little gesture that means a lot when it comes to your restaurant experience. Unfortunately another little gesture that became a theme was she kept trying to take our plates away when there was still food left! Granted, it was an extremely busy night, but I hate feeling rushed or silly for holding back the plate for a couple more mussels or calamari.

I ended up going with the pan seared scallops that came over the risotto of the day - a mushroom spinach risotto - also on the gluten free menu.

This dish was incredibly delicious. I had leftover risotto for lunch the next day and it was just as good the day after. I was so impressed with the amount of gluten free options they had, and I realized too that they actually have an allergy chart on their website that goes over the main ingredients on their menu...pretty great. All in all, another great experience at Wheatfields...it was packed but this is one of the restaurants that handles busy pretty well. For those of you who have food allergies or know someone who is on a strict diet, what is your favorite place to eat in Saratoga? Have you found that certain places are more accommodating than others?