Senza Gluten: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Senza Gluten is a 100% gluten-free Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village, and its menu holds plenty of vegetarian dishes alongside veal, lamb, and chicken. Nothing on the menu carries a vegetarian label, so you pick your own path. The path is a wide one, with pasta, risotto, gnocchi, ravioli, and a long antipasti list.

Start with the meatless pastas. Penne Pomodoro comes with tomato sauce, basil, and olive oil. Gnocchi ai Quattro tosses spinach and four cheeses in cream sauce, and Ravioli ai Funghi fills pasta with mushrooms, pecorino, and ricotta. Risotto allo Zafferano brings saffron, onions, parmigiano reggiano, white wine, and butter. Dinner adds Risotto ai Funghi with portobello, cremini, and shiitake, and a gnocchi alla Sorrentina with tomato sauce and buffalo mozzarella.

Antipasti work as a meal on their own. Bruschetta Originale uses tomato, garlic, basil, and olive oil, while Bruschetta ai Funghi adds mushrooms, shaved parmesan, and truffle oil. Caprese pairs buffalo mozzarella with beefsteak tomatoes. Parmigiana di Melanzane layers fried eggplant with mozzarella and marinara, and Arancini con Quattro Formaggi fries rice balls stuffed with four cheeses. Pasta e Fagioli blends ditalini with cannellini beans. Order two or three of these to share, and you have dinner.

Meat sits throughout the menu, so you need to read each line. Prosciutto di Parma appears on its own and on a sandwich, Fettuccine Bolognese and the lasagna use meat sauce, and Rigatoni Funghi e Speck adds smoked prosciutto to a mushroom cream sauce. Mains include veal chop, lamb chops, grilled salmon, and three chicken dishes. Spaghetti alle Vongole uses clams. The menu does not say what stock goes into the Pasta e Fagioli or the risotto, so ask your server before you order either one. The chicken soup, the burger, and the strip steak sandwich are plainly off the table.

Brunch gives vegetarians more room. Uovo al Pomodoro poaches eggs in San Marzano tomato sauce, Uova Strapazzate piles scrambled eggs over toast with spinach and parmigiana, and the kitchen also makes French toast and buttermilk pancakes. Eggs Benedict and the avocado toast arrive with salmon or pork bacon by default, so ask for neither. Weekend brunch runs until 3:45 p.m.

Gluten-free is the headline. Management says it uses no wheat, rye, oats, or barley, and the kitchen is strictly gluten-free. It also tells guests that its kitchen is small and that dishes can contain dairy, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, peanuts, and tree nuts. The restaurant opened in 2014 and publishes no note on separate prep for meat and vegetarian dishes, so this profile leaves the cross-contact rating blank.

Bring cash. The contact page says the restaurant takes cash only, while the menu says American Express or cash. Neither source mentions other cards. Reservations go through Resy and OpenTable, and Resy showed open tables for the next evening when we checked.

Doors stay open from noon to 11 p.m. every day, and the kitchen closes at 9:45 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9:15 p.m. on Sunday. Order the Ravioli ai Funghi, split a Caprese, and ask for the bread basket.