Fast Food Restaurants With Disappointing Gluten-Free Options

When you decide to begin eating a gluten-free diet, whether due to medical reasons or just personal preference, you may assume that your days of chowing down on your favorite fast food combo meals are over. Gone are the days of late-night delivery and swinging through the drive-thru for a snappy breakfast. While most can probably agree that eating an abundance of fast food isn't exactly doing your body many favors, for those with a gluten intolerance or celiac disease, a fast food habit can spell more than just extra pounds or high blood pressure. Think near-immediate pain and suffering.

Fortunately, no matter your first assumptions, many individuals find that they can safely eat at a handful of fast food restaurants that offer gluten-free options. Unfortunately, though, when it comes to gluten-free dining, there are just as many lackluster fast food chains as there are safe havens. Here are some of the worst offenders, based on factors like lack of gluten-free options compared to the chain's overall menu, as well as gluten-free options that just aren't that great, from a foodie and fast food fan who's dealt with gluten intolerance for nearly seven years (and you can read more about my methodology at the end of this article!).

As one of the largest fast food chains in the world (but not currently the largest — that honor goes to Chinese bubble tea chain Mixue Bingcheng), you might expect McDonald's to be on the cutting edge of latest food trends and changing consumer needs. After all, the gluten-free products market is expected to reach $11.48 billion by 2029, up from $7.7 billion in 2024, per MarketsandMarkets Research. Shouldn't the Golden Arches want to get a slice of that?

Apparently not. McDonald's officially says it doesn't certify any of its menu items as gluten-free and all menu items are prepared in shared areas, using shared cooking equipment and utensils. 

Compared to other burger chains, like Five Guys and Wendy's, the McDonald's menu is overwhelmingly filled with gluten, and if you do modify menu items to make them more or less gluten-free, you risk cross-contamination. You'll also likely find yourself with what is more or less a pretty sad meal. Even the french fries — a menu item often safe on the majority of restaurant menus — are not gluten-free at McDonald's due to the fries' wheat-containing natural beef flavor. If you ignore the cross-contamination possibilities, you can order a burger or breakfast sandwich sans bun, but my experience doing so has resulted in near-inedible meals. Think Egg McMuffins thrown muffin-less into a cardboard burger box, so the cheese glues itself to the cardboard, rendering it useless, while the egg and bacon, due to the lack of bun, grow cold exceptionally quickly.

Before I scrapped the majority of gluten from my life, I was known to devour my fair share of fried chicken (and I still do, just with a gluten-free approach to the breading — doable, but hardly as good as the "real" thing). Unfortunately, if you roll up to KFC hoping to avoid gluten, you're not going to find many options on the menu that will work in your favor. The fried chicken is definitely out. That delicious gravy? Also out.

According to the chain's food allergy and sensitivity guide, your options are going to be limited to veggie-based side dishes. The mashed potatoes are miraculously gluten-free and you can pair them with coleslaw, corn, and green beans. Caesar and house side salads are also up for grabs, if you remove the croutons and stick to a handful of dressings. Many of the dipping sauces are game as well, if you fancy adding some honey mustard or barbecue sauce to your spuds.

However, who wants to go to any fast food chain and just eat a few vegetables? No one is going to KFC for the corn. This chain could definitely consider adding a gluten-free grilled chicken option to its menu in the style of Chick-fil-A (while, yes, KFC does offer a grilled chicken option, it's not gluten-free).

The story at Popeye's is much the same as it is at KFC. When a chain's entire identity is based largely on one, big, gluten-heavy menu item, it's no surprise that gluten-free options take a backseat. That said, Popeye's does still perform slightly better than KFC, as the chain offers at least one chicken option that's free of gluten: the blackened tenders, which are seasoned rather than breaded.

Otherwise, you'll be, once again, mostly relegated to eating sides, and Popeye's has even fewer gluten-free sides than KFC. The red beans and rice and the coleslaw are gluten-free, but that's it. The fries, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and mac 'n cheese are all filled with gluten. You can add some various gluten-free sauces to your blackened tenders and sides, though. The only Popeye's sauce that contains gluten is the BoldBQ. All this considered, while Popeye's at least gives you enough gluten-free options to cobble together a standard meal of chicken and sides, the lack of options and diversity is going to leave gluten-free diners bored of this chain pretty quickly.

As we peruse the world of fried chicken chains further, your options just get worse. Raising Cane's, for example, has even less menu variety for gluten-free diners than Popeye's. Of course, when you do something really, really well, why not just stick to what you know? That's the case at Raising Cane's, where the chicken strips, fries, and toast are, frankly, amazing and a top-missed eat for this gluten-intolerant foodie.

Unfortunately, the chain's overall limited menu makes for a severe lack of gluten-free options. The only things you'll be able to eat at Raising Cane's are the coleslaw and the Cane's Sauce. The chicken, fries, and toast all contain wheat — yes, even the french fries contain wheat, according to the brand's allergen guide. That said, one Redditor posting in the website's Celiac forums noted that the fries may be gluten-free if fried in a separate fryer, though you need to ask if the individual restaurant even has a separate fryer, as that's not always the case. The same user likewise pointed out that you can sometimes ask for "naked" chicken, which is fried but not breaded. While it's not on the menu, it may be an option if again the restaurant does have a separate fryer that's not used for the regular chicken strips.

Panda Express has some menu items that you might think are gluten-free — after all, not all the chicken dishes are breaded, nor are the beef, pork, and seafood entrées, and there are various veggies on offer — but, sadly, that's not the case. Every single Panda Express menu item contains wheat, save for two side dishes: the white steamed rice and the brown steamed rice. Furthermore, due to the risk of cross-contamination within the shared cooking spaces, the chain clarifies in its fine print that it does not technically offer any verifiable gluten-free dishes, even though its allergen menu marks the white and brown steamed rice as not containing any wheat.

If you want gluten-free Chinese food, some Redditors say that P.F. Chang's is a good option, though others report mixed results. Still, at least P.F. Chang's does have a dedicated gluten-free menu, with way more options beyond Panda Express's lonely rice. Unfortunately, Panda Express is fast food while P.F. Chang's is not, so if you go this route, be prepared to wait a bit for your meal.

As far as burger chains go, there are some clear winners when it comes to gluten-free food (like Shake Shack and In-N-Out) and there are some clear losers, Burger King being among the latter. Burger King offers very few naturally gluten-free menu items. Your options include the crispy taco (an item not always available and not always nationwide, despite its popularity and fanbase), garden side salad, french fries, and ice cream. Additionally, the french fries, which you might normally expect to be gluten-free, are fried in a shared fryer along with fried chicken products, fried fish products, and similar. As such, if you have a severe gluten intolerance or celiac disease, the french fries are basically a no-go, too.

You can, of course, personalize your order to make it gluten-free, by, for example, removing the bun from one of the chain's burgers. However, the Whopper and similar burgers don't lend themselves well to this, due to the way the ingredients are simply tossed into a bowl. Maybe Burger King should take a page out of Five Guys' book and offer a lettuce wrap option, or from Chick-fil-A and invest in some gluten-free buns.

Compared to some of the chains on this list, Panera does have a fair number of gluten-free options, whether those options are naturally gluten-free menu items, or menu items that you've personally adjusted by removing gluten-containing items. However, for how large the Panera menu is and for being a chain that has so many gluten-containing options on offer, from baguettes to bagels, brownies to bread bowls, you'd think the chain could've managed to throw in just one, singular gluten-free option.

Alas, there's no gluten-free bread at Panera whatsoever. If you're dining gluten-free at Panera, your options will be limited to fruit cups, yogurt, and hard-boiled eggs at breakfast. Then, the rest of the time, you're limited to salads — but not all salads at Panera are a-go. The Fuji Apple, Greek, Green Goddess Cobb, Ranch Cobb, and Southwest Chicken Ranch salads are all gluten-free, as are all of Panera's dressings and sauces. You can also, in certain months of the year, when these seasonal items are available, enjoy the Hearty Fireside Chili and Autumn Squash Soup. Actually, the Hearty Fireside Chili is one of the few Panera menu items that contains no major allergens whatsoever! So, yes, while you can eat a full gluten-free meal at Panera, the lack of variety may grow boring for many diners.

Checkers or Rally's — whatever you call it in your neck of the woods — the fact holds true that you're not going to find many gluten-free options on the chains' standard menu. The chains, known for their over-the-top, indulgent fast food burgers, dogs, and more, offer gluten-free classic wings, gluten-free sauces and dressings, and gluten-free chili. Technically, just as you could at Popeye's, you could throw together a basic gluten-free meal here, with wings as your entrée and chili as your side, but it's a bare-bones, boring meal at best.

And if you're thinking you'll just remove your burger bun and order one of the chains' oversized handhelds, think again. While most burger chains will allow you to remove the bun from your burger or even swap it out for a lettuce wrap, resulting in a gluten-free meal, a Redditor reports that staff may not give you this option at Checkers or Rally's. Likewise, Checkers and Rally's notes that it can't 100% guarantee that you won't find certain allergens in any menu items, due to the risk of cross-contamination in its shared cooking spaces, supply chain, and manufacturing facilities.

Classic chain A&W offers a few gluten-free options. According to the brand's nutrition and allergen guide, the grilled chicken tenders, coleslaw, fries (including cheese and chili fries), and all sauces do not contain wheat. This means you could easily have a combo meal with little worry of "being gluten-ed." However, while the worry is minimal, it's still there. Some say that, while the fries are labeled as wheat-free, they're deep-fried in the same fryer that all the other breaded menu items are fried in, which can lead to cross-contamination. Additionally, some have posed that A&W's root beer may contain gluten as well.

Do note that there might be some differences between A&W locations in the United States and A&W locations in Canada (and the differences aren't just relegated to gluten-free menu items — while sharing a name and logo, as well as a few menu items, the two might as well be separate chains). Some say that Canada's A&Ws do offer a great gluten-free, lettuce-wrapped burger. That's not really enough to make up for the overall lack of gluten-free menu items, as well as the cross-contamination risk and many reports of gluten-intolerant diners suffering reactions after dining at an A&W location.

While the fast food Italian chain isn't as popular as some of the others on our list, and some gluten-free diners might argue that we should be merely thankful that a fast food Italian chain offers any gluten-free options whatsoever, there's still room for improvement on this menu. In 2021, Fazoli's introduced gluten-free rotini to its menu. As such, now, you can order several wheat-free items off the menu, including gluten-friendly rotini with three different sauces: marinara, meat sauce, and alfredo. You can also snag a house side salad while you're at it. 

However, there are still so many menu items on the Fazoli's menu that could be made gluten-free, that aren't. Why not offer traditional bone-in wings that are gluten-free? Why not add a gluten-free pizza crust to the menu? Why not offer pasta shapes beyond rotini? Olive Garden is a good example of an Italian chain that's managed to broaden its gluten-free options just a little more than Fazoli's — and when Olive Garden's delivery and pick-up services are pretty quick, there's no reason why you wouldn't choose Olive Garden over Fazoli's.

Last, but certainly not least, Dave's Hot Chicken is yet another example of a chain that puts the full focus on all things chicken, all the time, while completely leaving gluten-free diners in the dust. While Dave's Hot Chicken's allergen information isn't readily available on the chain's website, in-store allergen charts show that, once again, you won't be able to put together a full meal at this chicken chain. Wheat-free items are limited to condiments, fries, coleslaw, and ice cream. Still, that's more than Raising Cane's will give you.

It's reported that potentially Subway could purchase Dave's Hot Chicken in the near future, for a cool $1 billion, though. If that happens, could we see more gluten-free options on the Dave's menu? Subway is already one of the better fast food chains for gluten-free options, with its gluten-free bread and naturally gluten-free bowls, so that might just be the case. If it were, Dave's would certainly stand out among the KFCs, Raising Cane's, and Popeyes of the world, which refuse to give us a gluten-free fried chicken option.

I was diagnosed with IBS-D in 2018 and, after much trial and error, discovered a short list of trigger foods that I needed to avoid in order to minimize discomfort — and one of the big ones was gluten. While I do still eat gluten in small amounts, I found that eating gluten in larger servings or for multiple meals in a row resulted in a bad time. While I luckily found plenty of fast food chains that can cater to gluten-free diners successfully (though note that what is "successful" for me may not be for those with more serious gluten intolerances, allergies, or celiac disease, as many fast food restaurants do carry a risk of cross-contamination), I also found a lot of my prior favorites had either little or nothing in the way of gluten-free options.

The above observations are based on my personal experiences/history as someone who must eat a primarily gluten-free diet. I've chosen the restaurants that I feel do not offer substantial gluten-free options in comparison to their competitors, or those who may offer gluten-free menu items that are low-quality or lackluster compared to the chain's overall menu. While you can eat gluten-free at some of these restaurants, in my personal experiences, other chains are doing a much better job at serving the substantial gluten-free customer base.