Our new Allergy Awards filter helps you find those restaurants who excel at catering for food allergies and free from diets.

When we launched Can I Eat There? (6 months ago – where has the time gone?) we set ourselves a clear mission: to list as many restaurants in the UK as we can track down, with their allergy policy (how well they cater for allergy) and their allergy menu, which you can filter by allergen to see exactly what you can eat. With almost 15,000 restaurants on our database already and that number growing daily, we’re feeling quite pleased with ourselves.

So whether you’re looking for somewhere for a special date or somewhere to stop on the motorway, Can I Eat There? helps you work out what you can eat where. Brilliant.

But as we all know, there’s a bit more to eating out with food allergies. It’s great to know what you can eat safely, but like the rest of the population, people with food allergies also want to eat out for the experience – for the joy of choosing something delicious from a menu, and having it served to you in a friendly, caring environment.

So how do you find places that really truly want to cater for you and your food allergy? Restaurants that will welcome you and offer you a thoughtful choice of dishes rather than a grudging gluten-free pasta or roast dinner without the gravy? Restaurants that let you relax and enjoy yourself because you know their staff are trained in all the front-of-house and kitchen practices that make sure you get only what you ordered, no cross-contamination allowed? And places where the staff are trained to recognise an allergic reaction and help you should, God forbid, the worst happen.

By looking for restaurants on our directory with an Allergy Awards accreditation

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been shouting about the FreeFrom Eating Out Awards a lot. Can I Eat There? is proud to be part of the Awards as sponsor of the Cafes, Coffee Shops & Tearooms category. But we’re also thrilled that the Awards exist, as they are currently the only Award celebrating the restaurants who cater for you and I.

Every restaurant on the Allergy Awards shortlist is listed on our directory, together with their “Shortlisted in the FreeFrom Eating Out Awards” accreditation. Over the next few months we’ll be adding more allergy plaudits – including restaurants who receive Allergy UK’s Allergy Aware Scheme accreditation, and restaurants who have allergen-free dishes or menus created by The Intolerant Gourmand.

You can filter your restaurant search by Allergy Award winners from the home page, so that you only see the best of the best. Or you can do a normal search based on location or cuisine, and the search results will clearly show you which restaurants have Allergy Awards.

We’ll be adding more accreditations to our list. And of course, if you know of any restaurants that deserve Allergy Award status, let us know – we’ll contact them and find out about including them in our Allergy Awards category.