Not A Trace Awards 2016

Regular readers will know that each year I have my own little awards ‘ceremony’ where I acknowledge the best products / companies in various categories.

The awards for 2016 are obviously a little late(!) and as my blog posts were few and far between last year, due to a certain little person taking all my attention, the 2016 awards are more a summary of my blog reviews from last year.

Despite my inability to blog of late, it’s great to have had over 58,000 blog views since Not A Trace began. I am also very proud to see the constant stream of views every day even if I haven’t blogged for a while. Thank you to you all!

So, on to the awards / 2016 round-up….

La Grotta, Bristol – gluten free pizzas!

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you will be aware of my slight addiction to La Grotta, an Italian restaurant in Bristol city centre.

We went there for one of our Bristol Coeliac group meals last year, but I’ve been numerous times since then for lunch and also insisted that it’s where we went for my birthday work lunch last month. Basically I love it there!

When we went for the group meal (the full review can be found here if you’re interested!), La Grotta were in the process of producing gluten free pizzas, but they weren’t yet available, so we indulged in their amazing pasta dishes instead.

But things have changed, they now have their gluten free pizzas and they are incredible! 🙂

Not A Trace Awards 2015

Better late than never, welcome to my summary of the products and brands that caught my eye last year.

Unfortunately my blogging has once again had to take a back seat due to various commitments and the small matter of a wedding, but I’m very grateful to all of my readers that have stayed with me!

In the first year of my awards the blog had passed 9,000 views and last year it had reached 28,000, but I’m delighted that it’s now passed 46,000 views, even with limited blogging, so thank you very much! 🙂

So, let’s kick off the awards…..

Bristol Coeliac Group – Meet No. 6

The May outing for members of the ‘Coeliacs in Bristol’ Facebook group was to Italian restaurant La Grotta which can be found on Union Street in the city centre.

I regularly used to spend my lunch breaks eating at La Grotta when I used to work just around the corner, but this was in my pre coeliac days. So how would it compare now?

I’d been advised that they had gluten free options, so I emailed them to find out more and they supplied me with an entire gluten free menu, which was 4 pages long!! What a great start, but how would I know that they could be trusted with cross contamination etc?

Well, it turns out that one of the team is gluten intolerant. Not quite the same as being a coeliac, but she understands the pain of eating out when you’re sensitive to something and having to ask lots of questions about your food!

Here is the opening text from their Gluten Free Menu:

We are pleased to be able to offer the following options from our menu as Gluten Free. Here at La Grotta we understand all about food Intolerances and Allergies and the havoc they can cause to digestion and general wellbeing. We try to source the best tasting Gluten Free products for you to enjoy and feel passionately that Gluten Free customers should enjoy eating out as much as everyone else.