Shills of Cockermouth has extensive gluten-free menu

Shills of Cockermouth, based on South Street, calculated that around 75 per cent of its menu, across breakfast, lunch, evening, Sunday and dessert, is either naturally gluten-free or can be adapted to suit gluten-free needs.

The decision to expand gluten-free options came from personal experience.

One of the owners is Coeliac, and when working with the chefs to develop new dishes, they realised just how easy it was to adapt recipes without compromising on flavour.

A scotch egg on a plate. (Image: Supplied) Emily Spek, one of the owners, said: “We have noticed an increase in gluten-free diners, and this led us to our decision to offer more options to include these customers.

“Many restaurants do offer gluten-free free, but they have minimal options, especially when it comes to dessert options!”

Now, diners can enjoy everything from lemon meringue pie, sticky toffee pudding and salted caramel brownies to Scotch eggs, chicken tenders, Cumberland sausages, fishcakes, meatballs, arancini and gluten-free beer on draft.

Shills’ shop is also stocked with gluten-free crackers, biscuits, and beer.

Lemon meringue pie. (Image: Supplied) Emily added: “Our lemon meringue pie is a customer favourite! The customers are so grateful and appreciate the choices we have available.

“Non-gluten-free diners also enjoy the dishes, most dishes you wouldn't notice that it was gluten-free.”

Many other dishes at Shills can also be adapted to suit other diets.

Emily explained: “We can adapt a lot of the menu to be dairy-free. Our team are very knowledgeable and is happy to spend the time to explain to a customer with any allergy what they can have from the menu.

“We offer a variety of vegetarian dishes, some of these can be adapted to make them vegan. We also offer a vegan platter.”