Gluten-free Travel: PAESANO’S, San Antonio, Tx
Well….I didn’t want to write about too many San Antonio restaurants, but after a visit to Paesano’s on the Riverwalk, an iconic institution for 58 years, I had to give in.
The waiter pointed out a QR code that showed their gluten-free menu. Italian restaurants are always a challenge so knowing there are gluten-free pastas and pizzas is a treat. The chef came by at one point and told us the GF menu had been in effect for one year and he had worked on it for a year before that.
Shrimp Paesano is probably the closest to heavenly food as you will ever get. It is very rich and most of us have decided to indulge in the appetizer size instead of the main course to avoid overloading our digestive system. There was a gluten-free option available for Shrimp Paesano, which was missing the breading, but the butter sauce is the real secret anyway.
I decided not to get the gluten-free bread, but my husband enjoyed the whole loaf of regular table bread to himself and mopped up the Shrimp Paesano sauce remaining on my plate. I once made a recipe for “Nearly Shrimp Paesano” and it was so much work the recipe remains in my archives 15 years later. I’ll let them do the cooking for this particular dish.
There are three locations now for Paisano’s but we chose the Riverwalk on a summer evening to enjoy the river and watch the tourists. The other draw for me was the Mediterranean salad which contains mandarin oranges and cranberries with feta cheese and poppy-seed dressing. It used to have a parmesan-crusted chicken option which I would guiltily get sometimes, but fortunately, I didn’t see that as an option and so avoided that temptation. My husband got their Special Salad which for years was off the menu item, but now seems to be available at all locations. It is full of heart – artichokes and hearts of palm that is.
If you enjoy experiencing the local restaurants when traveling, this one continues to delight locals and with the Riverwalk location can delight visitors as well.
