Hat Creek: A Review

So this is probably my new favorite fast food restaurant. I only really ever eat fast food on road trips, but this place I imagine I would go to anytime. The reason behind that being it is so gluten free friendly!

Food

There are so many options for individuals needing gluten free food here. The best part is…wait for it…all of their chicken nuggets are gluten free. You read that right. Gluten free breaded chicken nuggets at a restaurant. On top of that no gluten ever goes into their fryers, so all the sides are gluten free too. I know right, it is amazing. Honestly revolutionary for the gluten free diner.

They do also sell hamburgers, but oddly enough do not have gluten free buns. It seems pretty odd, since they are so gluten free friendly. But honestly I did not care. I can get a hamburger anywhere. And nowadays many places do offer gluten free buns. So I’ll get a hamburger at those places when no gluten free chicken nuggets are available.

Obviously if you could not already guess, I ordered chicken nuggets with tater tots. Because yes, sometimes I eat like a child. And yes I do want to be a dietitian, but with the intuitive eating mindset I can eat whatever sounds good. Oh and along with that however much feels right to my body at the time. On that night chicken nuggets sounded fantastic.

I helped pick up our food from the counter and brought it back to the table. And someone said “Alexa how do you know which ones are yours” and I giddily responded “it doesn’t matter, they are all gluten free!” I picked my meal from the tray and dug in. The chicken was so good. I was just so excited and happy. It was nice to have breaded chicken nuggets at a restaurant. Sometimes it is really the simplest things that bring the most joy. The tater tots, were tater tots. I could have made them at home, but I enjoyed them.

Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets and Tater Tots

As far as I could tell nobody was as excited as I was about the meal, but they did enjoy their meals as well.

Dessert

The night I visited Hat Creek I was with a group. In this group there were some kids. They were bugging for dirt milkshakes. They are like dirt pudding, with Oreos and gummy worms. I had seen that they had milkshakes and wanted one too. But obviously if my milkshake was spun on the same milkshake machine as the dirt milkshakes were it would not be gluten free.

So we went up to order milkshakes after we were all finished eating and winding down. And I asked. I asked if they spun all the milkshakes on the same machine, and said I have celiac and have to be gluten free. The lady at the register helping us said they have separate allergy specific machines. One for gluten free folk, one for peanut free and now I can’t remember the third allergen…sorry. This put me at ease and I was able to order a chocolate milkshake spun on the gluten free milkshake machine. The scary thing is, I’ve never thought of this before this night. I’ve ordered milkshakes from so many other places that do milkshakes with add ins, and never once thought of it before this. Just goes to show that even after 6 1/2 years of being gluten free you still do not know everything.

So I get my milkshake, and honestly it was fantastic. I may get kicked out of Texas for saying this, but I would buy their milkshake over a Whataburger milkshake. Everything about it was just right. It was the right consistency and had just the right amount of chocolate flavor for me. So definitely don’t skip dessert if you chose to check out Hat Creek.

Environment

The Hat Creek restaurant chain can currently be found in Austin, and Dallas. From the website I learned the brand is growing into other Texas cities as well.

The restaurant is very much family oriented. They have seating both indoors and outdoors. There is also a huge playscape for the kids to keep themselves entertained while you wait for your food. It definitely does not have such an Austin feel, but more of a Texas feel. The outdoor seating was all picnic benches. The cover overhead looked like the roof of a barn. It had a fun feel to it and it was definitely a great option for that evening with the kids.