Gluten Free London: The Natural History Museum

Days out to museums and art galleries can often be a bit hit and miss when either you or your children have dietary restrictions.

So on a recent day trip to The Natural History Museum in London to the see the new exhibition with Lyuba the baby mammoth, I was flabbergasted to find this menu in the museum’s Restaurant:

There are a number of places to eat in the museum (more on that later) but we chose The Restaurant because it happened to be very close the the current exhibitions on Mammoths and also that we were told in advance they had lots of highchairs and a dedicated space for parking buggies (highly important these days!).

I went for a NGCI pizza with parma ham, rocket, olives and marscapone. This was a ‘no gluten containing ingredients’ pizza but having talked to the staff, I was reassured that there were sufficient measures in place to prevent cross contamination.

The pizza was utterly delicious. Despite eating a lot (ahem) of pizzas, I was surprised at the quality of this pizza. In truth I was expecting to be brought some kind of reheated frozen gluten free pizza, not this freshly baked gem.

The really great thing about the Natural History Museum is that there’s an area – used by school parties on our visit – on the lower ground floor which has tables and chairs to eat your own food. This is so refreshing. In a more commercial gallery/museum this wouldn’t be provided, you’d have to either go outside (perhaps not ideal on a cold, rainy day) or use the museum’s own restaurant.

Location: The Restaurant (Green Zone on Fossil Way), Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD

Cost: Under £30 for lunch for 2 people including drinks.

Would I go back?: Looking forward to it…although perhaps after the school holidays!