For the estimated one in 70 Australians with coeliac disease, Mexican is a surprise saviour of safe eating out.
Whether by necessity or by choice, more of us are going gluten free, with Coeliac Australia estimating that 3 million Australians have banished it from their diets in 2023.
While better-quality gluten-free products and gluten-free menus are on the rise, Mexican restaurants are emerging as an unexpected safe haven for dining out. Corn supplants wheat in so many staple dishes from the Latino country, with other gluten-free friendlies like beans and rice featuring prominently.
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At beloved Brisbane taqueria Cartel del Taco — which has just revealed its second store, over the river in New Farm – the reassuring ‘GF’ symbol appears on all but a handful of plates. In the cherry-bright 1980s-inspired dining room, coeliacs can happily chow down on vegan jackfruit pastor tacos with the warm heat of ancho chilli adobo, or split the distinctly non-vegan bone-in rib eye with chorizo and black pudding. While up on Baja’s chic rooftop in Fortitude Valley, nearly the entire menu is safe – even the batter on the Baja fish taco.
One of a trio of gluten-free Latin venues in Melbourne, Hotel Nacional is five storeys of calm for coeliacs, from the cacti-adorned rooftop bar (with its 10 house margaritas) to the sophisticated dining room off Hardware Lane. Inspired by the Oaxacan and Yucatan regions, the menu is prepared in a strictly gluten-free kitchen. Its Latin American sister venues – Elwood’s Repeat Offender and Rufio in St Kilda – should also be on any gluten-free hit list.
At La Chiva Taqueria in the Adelaide CBD, the tortillas and corn chips are made fresh in-house, minus the gluten, every day. Meanwhile, north of the city, gluten-free Adelaide bakery Gluten Free 4 U has recently opened its own gluten-free taqueria Taco Cielo.
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Gluten has almost been entirely banished at new Sydney rooftop eatery Lottie, too, which plates up a modern Mexican menu punctuated with homegrown produce. Walk on by the rooftop pool crowning the achingly stylish EVE hotel for dishes that range from the delicate (raw scallop swimming in a verdant celery apple broth) to the rib-sticking (pork jowl braised in Molecola, best wrapped in house-made tortillas). Get thee gone gluten, you’re not needed here.
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