The Dopamine Diaries: Delicious & Gluten Free in NYC

During this second Lockdown I've been really enjoying looking through and organizing all my photos from the last few years, especially my travel ones...

Instead of feeling sorry for myself and being sad that I can't travel right now (like I did in Lockdown #1!), looking back at photos is making me feel grateful for all the fun and amazing experiences I have had. This year has really taught me to truly appreciate what I have.

I spent my twenties wishing I could travel more so when I turned thirty, I decided that that was all going to change. Little did I know that a few years later we would be in the second lockdown of the year... but anyway, moving on.

One of my dreams had always been to go New York City so what better way to kick off my thirties than with a trip to the big apple!

We stayed at ROW NYC on 8th Avenue - right by Times Square. It's the perfect location, you can walk all over Manhattan from there. It is a stylish and buzzing hotel, the only downside was that it was very expensive - I think I paid 18 dollars for a small wine.

The gluten free food options in NYC were incredible. Our hotel had the City Kitchen attached to it, an industrial style marketplace with all different types of food vendors. For breakfast, I would have the breakfast tacos with bacon, egg and avocado and a coffee before we went off on our daily adventures.

One morning we went for brunch at Friedman’s, Hell’s Kitchen. It was really busy but worth waiting for. Their gluten free options were great and came with a little Gluten Free flag for your peace of mind.

For dinner we went to Bareburger in Hell’s Kitchen. We actually went there twice because the burgers were amazing and they have plenty of gluten free options.

Another night we went for pizza at Nizza NYC, Hell’s kitchen, where they have gluten free socca pizzas, which is like a chickpea pancake. It was great but they did nearly give me normal non-gluten free bread which would have completely ruined the trip.

Leaving the best until last, on our final night we wandered down to Greenwich Village to try Senza Gluten. I was so excited because I had seen a lot of people raving about it on social media. The restaurant is really cosy and cute and 100% gluten free. The walk down there from Times Square was a long walk but we got to see so much by going on foot.

The portions were huge and the food was actually incredible. I had burrata for the first time in my life (why had I not heard of burrata before?!) followed by a huge plate of Pollo alla Parmigiana.

New York City really is an incredible city, there's nowhere quite like it, I think everyone has to go there at least once; I would go back every year if I could!

We did so much but my top things we did were:

Top of the Rock (both at day & night)