Find Me Gluten Free Review – My #1 GF App As a Celiac
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Looking for ways to simplify your life now that you’re gluten-free? Are you struggling to find safe restaurants when you want to eat out or when you’re traveling?
I’ve been there. Actually, I’ve been navigating life as a Celiac at home and abroad for more than 10 years. We’re actually coming up on year 13 as I’m writing this.
We all develop our own systems to keep ourselves safe when we’re eating out.
The Find Me Gluten Free app is an essential part of my system. I travel internationally at least 4 times a year, and it is still my go-to.
Here’s a review of Find Me Gluten Free with why I love it and how I use it (because there is a wrong way).
How does Find Me Gluten Free Work? Is it legit?
FMGF is a crowdsourced list of restaurants and reviews. I always say it’s like Yelp for celiacs, even though that’s not totally accurate.
You can use the search feature for where you live or in cities you’ll be traveling to. You’ll find reviews of restaurants from other gluten-free people who have eaten there.
Since it’s a crowd-sourced app, it will never be perfect because people aren’t perfect.
I appreciate that they’ve worked to add new features to the app in the past few years. The separate safety rating is nice. I love that they’ve made an attempt to standardize the scale and split a part safe dining from how much you like the food. Because those weigh differently in the minds of celiacs looking for a place to eat.
I also love that they’ve added badges for reviewers who have passed the safety test and for local and travel guides. I’m a travel guide!
You still need to do some reading and research to decide if a place is safe for you. But it gives a good starting point and helps you to know which questions to ask.
Honestly, I don’t think any app is ever going to take away the need to ask questions and advocate for yourself when you’re eating out. Expecting that sets you up for failure, in my opinion.
Maybe I’m just a control freak? I just know I really hate getting glutened.
I find very helpful and accurate, information when I’m using the app. But I’ve learned where to look.
My Favorite Gluten Free App
Find restaurant reviews by other gluten-free eaters. Upgrade to premium for safety ratings (it’s so worth it).
Look for reviews by travel guides (like me!) or local guides.
No app is perfect, but this has always been my go-to for gluten-free travel.
How to Use The App- My Go To System
This should be straightforward. But there’s a lot of nuance here. Eating out is very much a “your experience may vary” situation. Just because one person had a good experience doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to be good for you.
If you’re just pulling the app up and going to the first place you see, then you might find yourself in some situations you don’t love.
So, when you’re searching, these are the things I think you should look at.
1- How recent are the reviews?
If someone had a good experience 2 years ago but others have had negative experiences more recently, I probably won’t put that place high on my list.
The same goes for a bad review. If someone had a bad experience 2 years ago, but people have had great experiences in the last two weeks, a restaurant isn’t an automatic no for me.
I ask a lot of questions either way. The reviews just get me started.
2- Look for others who have similar standards to you.
I love that you can self-identify your gluten-free personality. For example, I am a celiac who is very sensitive to cross-contamination. When I see a review by another user who is similar to me, I will pay attention to their experience more than someone who is gluten-intolerant.
Nothing against the gluten-intolerant friends. We just have different needs.
3- Travel Guides and Local Guides are vetted
I look for reviews from travel guides and local guides as much as possible. Look for a little star next to their name to identify them.
If you can find one of these reviews, it can be really helpful. You have to apply to be a guide, and the staff does look through your reviews when you apply. So, the guides usually leave some pretty good reviews since they also use the app frequently.
There may not always be someone who meets that requirement reviewing where you’re traveling. But fingers crossed for you.
4- Look at safety ratings and if users have passed the safety test
First, look for a little red circle with a heart in it next to a user’s name. That means they’ve taken the time to take and pass the safety quiz in the app. I love that they’ve added this feature recently. It’s honestly one of my favorite things.
Use the safety ratings to decide if you think you can eat at a location safely. Take a look at the new standardized scale for the safety rating scale.
Any reviews before 2025 wouldn’t have had the scale as a reference, but hopefully, it can help the safety score to be more reliable in the future (or at least more consistent).
How to Leave a Good FMGF Review
If you’re using the app to find restaurants, be a good member of the community and leave a good review for others. Please.
There are a few things I’ve found that make a review extra helpful.
- Use the scale when you rate put in the safety ratings. It truly helps the rest of us set realistic expectations.
- Did you feel safe eating there? Explain why or why not a bit. How was the staff?
If I found any discrepancies when I was researching, then I will attempt to clarify after my visit. - How was the food and the service?
I love it when people leave recommendations or short reviews about what they ate. Sometimes I don’t know exactly what I want, or there are unexpected dishes that get called out.
Leave good reviews. Be part of the solution for the rest of us!
How to Use FMGF When You Travel
I believe so much of a trip going well has to do with how much you research before you leave your house.
So, before leaving, look up restaurants and find some you’d feel comfortable with (or find out there aren’t any). I like to keep notes in my planning document and in a collection, so I don’t have to repeat the research step.
Reach out to restaurants and ask questions via IG messages, emails, or WhatsApp. WhatsApp has the highest success rate for me if the restaurant has one listed.
If you don’t see lots of options, consider booking an apartment hotel or something with a kitchen. This was my strategy on the last trip I was on. I was staying in small towns that didn’t have options I felt good about. I packed a few basic spices with me and went to the grocery store. In this case, I’d recommend a quick search so you know what the grocery chains are named and where they’re located. But it’s always better to know before you arrive.
I also find it helpful to look at the map to see where restaurants are located. But, if I’m being honest, that is hard for me to wrap my head around until I’m there and oriented.
I use a collection to save my favorites so I can circle back to them.
You can use the app in a similar way when you’re traveling. Sometimes I miss great places in my initial search, so I love looking again when I’m in a city. I’ve learned to have my travel partners look too. I train them briefly on what is a possibility and what’s a real quick no. Then I can follow up on their suggestions.
A note about collections
If you have the premium subscription, you can create collections.
I find these to be very helpful for travel. But it’s also a great way to leave notes without impacting reviews. I leave notes about why I do/don’t want to eat somewhere before I go, so I remember. I’ll also put in notes about things I want to order.
If I don’t go to a restaurant when I’m traveling, I put a note in the collection. It helps me to give you a bit more information.
If you don’t want to pay for premium, you can do something similar by saving locations to a collection in your maps app.
Find Restaurants When Traveling
Find Me Gluten Free is my go-to app when I’m traveling.
Learn how to use it to make finding food on your trips easier!
This recording shows you how I prepare to travel using Find Me Gluten Free + Google Docs
How much is it?
The great news is that most of the features are free! You just have some ads in the app. So, yay for it being economical! Celiac is expensive enough.
Premium is $25 a year. You can get a discount with this link. You just have to sign up in the browser, not in the app.
My Favorite Gluten Free App
Find restaurant reviews by other gluten-free eaters. Upgrade to premium for safety ratings (it’s so worth it).
Look for reviews by travel guides (like me!) or local guides.
No app is perfect, but this has always been my go-to for gluten-free travel.
Is FMGF Premium Worth It?
Premium gets you more filters to sort by celiac-friendly restaurants, find dedicated gluten-free fryers, no in-app ads, collections, and better maps. a
I love collections. They make it so much easier to save places when I’m traveling and to share with others.
If you don’t travel as much as I do, you could probably get by with creating a Google Map with the saved locations.
I have found that the map interface with the premium subscription is much better. It is so nice to click directions and then go straight to my Maps app.
I also really love not having ads, and I use it enough that it was pretty annoying. If you’re someone who uses the app occasionally, it may not be as frustrating for you.
My partner likes to look at my version of the app because it’s better for him, too.
Additionally, I appreciate supporting a small business that has added a lot of value to my gluten-free life. I really love the FMGF team and the effort they’re putting in, so I like supporting them.
Other Features I’ve not Gotten to Try Yet
The app also has features to search airports, cruise lines, and colleges.
I always forget about the airports option, but it is so nice the few times I’ve remembered. I’m not in college anymore, but I can see that being a big help if you’re looking for information about specific campuses.
I also just found out they have dining questions in different languages. I haven’t played with it or used it in real life. I am fluent in Spanish, and the Spanish translations check out and could be really helpful.
FMGF vs Gluten Dude
Gluten Dude is the other app I sometimes use.
I do like that the Gluten Dude team vets restaurants by reaching out to them to get information about gluten-free practices. Those specifics aren’t always easy to find when you’re looking on Find Me Gluten Free.
I still don’t take the restaurant responses with 100% confidence – it’s easy to say, but I like to ask questions to make sure when I’m there.
There are fewer restaurants listed on Gluten Dude, in large part because it’s not as crowd-sourced as FMGF. I’ve found there are some places where I need the extra options in FMGF because I’m traveling to off-the-beaten-path places.
But if you’re looking for options in the US or in popular cities, either app would have you covered.
They are working on a Travel Planner function now that I will be checking out.
Gluten Dude App
I haven’t used this app as much but I do love it!
The Gluten-Dude team vets restaurants by reaching out to them about their practices.
I’m not an affiliate- just giving you all of the options.
Look for new features coming soon!
I have tried to simplify my process, so I try to stick to one app as much as possible. Otherwise, I find I get overwhelmed and bogged down in the process. But, there are times Gluten Dude has had better information for me.
FMGF vs Atly
Maybe an unpopular opinion, I haven’t tried Atly. And I don’t plan to. Here are 3 reasons why:
- I think it’s too expensive for something I’m going to use consistently when I already have two good, cheaper options.
- I didn’t find their reviews/suggestions in my hometown to be trustworthy. So, I would struggle to trust the recommendations when I’m traveling.
- I don’t have a lot of trust in an app that uses a lot of influencer marketing to get its product going. I can never tell if it’s really good or if the influencer just wants the commission. Plus… the influencers I’ve seen use it and talk about how good it is are using it in big cities that I’ve found to be easy for gluten-free. So, of course, it’s going to work well there. I’m just not convinced.
Find Me Gluten Free Is My Go To
This isn’t a sponsored post or anything.
I have my one affiliate link where you can get a discount. I’ve literally made $0 from FMGF at the time of writing this. You don’t even have to pay for it to get great use out of it. Which is one of my favorite parts. Celiac is expensive enough. We don’t need to pay for anything else if we don’t use it all the time!
I’m truly recommending it because I use it on every single trip I take. It’s made my life easier, and I want it to make yours easier too.
