How Rin's Copley Road kitchen handles coeliac orders, which dishes work, which do not, and what to say when you arrive or call.
Most coeliac diners landing on this page want one thing: an honest answer about whether they can eat here without worry. Here it is. The majority of our menu can be prepared coeliac-friendly. Two specific sections cannot. We will not pretend otherwise, and we would rather you knew that before you sat down than after.
What follows is the practical detail - how the kitchen handles a coeliac order, what to say when you order, the dishes that work and the ones we will steer you away from. For the full priced menu, you can view the gluten free menu page alongside this one.
The word triggers a specific sequence in Rin's kitchen. It is not a vague flag - it is a checklist. We use the word coeliac on purpose because it is treated differently from a general gluten free request, with extra care at every step.
A fresh wash on the wok, not a wipe down from the last order. Every dish is cooked in a single wok per order anyway - the coeliac order means the wash is checked before the burner goes on.
Regular soy comes off the station. Gluten free soy sauce goes on in its place for the duration of your dish. The bottle is separate, labelled, and only opens for confirmed gluten free or coeliac orders.
Pad Thai sauce, satay sauce and the chilli dips are mixed for your dish specifically, not ladled from a shared bowl on the pass. There is no pooled sauce sitting next to a wheat-containing one.
The final visual check on a coeliac plate is hers. She is the head chef, she does the cooking, and she signs off the dish before it crosses the pass to your table or your collection bag.
There are restaurants that will tell you everything is fine. We are not one of them. Two sections of the menu use wheat-based bases that we cannot strip out, and we list them plainly rather than risk you finding out the hard way.
The phrasing matters less than the word. Use "coeliac" rather than "gluten free" if that is your reality, and we treat the order accordingly. If you are unsure how to phrase it, any of the following work fine.
Any of those, in person or over the phone, puts the order onto the coeliac protocol. Phoning ahead is not essential, but if you have questions or queries - particularly if you have severe coeliac disease or have had bad experiences elsewhere - 01302 210408 reaches the kitchen and we will talk you through every step.
Thai cooking, at its roots, is largely rice and rice noodles. Wheat is not part of the historical pantry - it has been introduced through certain sauces and bases imported from Chinese-influenced commercial production, but the core dishes were never built around it. The curries, the soups, the salads, the rice noodles - all of these are naturally without wheat when prepared properly.
That matters for coeliac diners because the work is not stripping wheat out of dishes that depend on it. The work is using the right soy sauce, keeping the wok clean and avoiding the two specific menu sections where wheat is genuinely embedded. There is no recipe substitution required for a Thai curry to be coeliac-friendly - the recipe is already there. We just need to know to use the right soy and to plate it from a clean wok.
Rin has been cooking authentic Thai food across South Yorkshire for over ten years - Thai Garden Cafe in Manvers, Khao Niew in Barnsley, Happy Cha Bubble Tea, and now her own kitchen on Copley Road. Coeliac orders are not unusual for her. They come in every week, and they are handled to a system rather than improvised.
If you have severe coeliac disease, dermatitis herpetiformis, or have reacted badly to so-called gluten free meals in other restaurants, this section is for you. We will be straight: we are an independent kitchen of five tables, not a certified coeliac venue. We do not hold a third-party coeliac accreditation and we will not claim one.
What we do hold is a clean kitchen, a head chef who tests and adjusts every dish she cooks, separate sauces, dedicated fryer oil for the one fried item on the coeliac menu, and a willingness to talk through any concern you have before you arrive. For broader guidance on dining out with coeliac disease, Coeliac UK is the recognised UK authority and worth reading alongside this page.
For severe cases we recommend one practical thing: phone ahead if you have any questions before you order. Phoning ahead is welcome, not essential - it just means Rin knows you are coming and can think about your dish in advance, rather than reading it on the order ticket for the first time. 01302 210408 reaches the kitchen directly and is the easiest way to talk through any concern you have.
Five tables, hands-on cooking, and an honest kitchen. Phone ahead if you want to talk it through, or just arrive and tell us you are coeliac - either works.