Find out what menu items from Smashburger do not contain gluten and what you need to know about their gluten-free options.
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Smashburger is a popular restaurant that offers burgers, sides, and milkshakes among other menu items. If you enjoy grabbing a burger for dinner with your family or friends, you may have found yourself at a Smashburger – or at least considering visiting one.
If you’re following a gluten-free diet, you know that it’s not always easy to find restaurants that offer safe options for folks like us. That’s why I’ve decided to dig into the details on how Smashburger says they handle gluten and other allergens, as well as what their menu options are that don’t contain gluten ingredients.
By the time you finish reading this post, you’ll have a good understanding of how Smashburger handles gluten in their kitchens, what you need to know about cross contamination, and what menu items from Smashburger may (or may not) be options you can consider ordering on a gluten-free diet.
Let’s talk Smashburger!
What is gluten?
Gluten is a protein found in most wheat products, and acts as the “glue” that helps to hold wheat, barley, kamut, spelt, farro, durum, bulgur, rye, and semolina together to maintain their shape.
Gluten is naturally occurring, and therefore is impossible to strip away from the grain. If a grain naturally has gluten in it, there’s no way to make that food gluten-free.
Where can you find gluten in food?
Gluten can be found in the form of wheat and grain products, like bread or flour in the more obvious places.
You can also find gluten as a binding ingredient, an ingredient added for texture like to make a food more crispy, or as a thickening agent.
Where can you find gluten in restaurants?
Depending on the restaurant you’re visiting, you may find gluten in a variety of places.
At fast food restaurants, there will be gluten in hamburger buns, the breading of crispy chicken sandwiches or chicken nuggets, some French fries, salad dressings, croutons on salad, and chili or soup options.
At other restaurants, you’ll find gluten in flour in sauces, in pizza or other pastry dough, pasta, and as a thickener in some soups.
Where gluten is found in the menu items will vary from restaurant to restaurant. That’s why it’s always a good idea to review menus from home, and see if you can find any allergen information before you get to the restaurant itself.
Being able to review nutritional information and allergen statements before visiting a fast food restaurant can be the difference between ordering something that you think is safe for your gluten-free diet and getting sick.
Being knowledgeable about what specific menu items you’ll be able to eat without any worries of later reactions is crucial to sticking with your gluten-free diet.
Smashburger allergen statement
Smashburger has an interactive allergen and nutritional menus area on their website. This is the information they provide regarding how they handle gluten and other allergens in their kitchens and what to expect when you visit this restaurant:
“We strive to ensure that every guest has a great dining experience, and that includes those with special dietary needs and medical requirements. For this reason, we have prepared the following menu options based on information obtained from our food suppliers.
Every effort is made to keep this information current and accurate. However, ingredient changes may occur due to substitutions, preparation variation, and regional availability of products.
We encourage you to use these menu options as a tool to help you make your dining choices. These options are not intended to supersede professional medical advice that you have received.
We will update these online menus as our menu selections, ingredients, and/or preparation techniques change. Please visit our website upon each visit for the most current allergen/sensitivity and nutritional information available.
Please be advised that food prepared in our kitchens may contain these ingredients: milk, eggs, wheat, soybean, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish.
While every effort is made to minimize the risk of cross contamination, we cannot guarantee that our food products are free of any of these allergens or are gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan.”
What you need to know about the gluten-free options at Smashburger
With the Interactive Allergen & Nutritional Menus on the Smashburger website, you can choose which food allergies and restrictions you have to narrow the menu down to items that work for your diet. You can choose from milk, eggs, gluten, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish.
The menu comes up with “OK to eat with modifications” for menu items that you may consider ordering. With each of the menu items, you can click in for more details and it will show you with a red font and a line through it telling you what modifications or omissions you need to make to your order to make it free of gluten ingredients.
Keep in mind that everything listed in this post are not truly gluten-free options. They simply do not contain gluten ingredients. There is still a chance for cross contamination in the kitchens and prep areas due to shared equipment, utensils, and prep surfaces.
If you decide this restaurant is worth visiting, even with the knowledge that gluten cross contact is probable, keep in mind that all burgers will need to be ordered with a gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap.
All chicken and turkey menu items should be ordered without any haystack onions or smoked brisket. Four of their wings options don’t have gluten ingredients, as well as all their shakes and many of their side dishes.
What to know about cross contamination at restaurants
Most fast food and carryout restaurants are not considered gluten-free establishments so it’s useful to keep this in mind when making decisions about where to go and what to order.
It’s important to know that even if a fast food restaurant claims that their menu items do not contain gluten, that the possibility and probability of gluten in their products is going to be high if there is even one menu item with gluten available.
Depending on your level of sensitivity to gluten, this can be make or break information for you.
If you are Celiac and are allergic to trace amounts of gluten, you’ll likely want to avoid most fast food restaurants that offer any bread products or French fries that are cooked in a shared fryer with other gluten-containing ingredients.
If you are not sensitive to gluten at the trace level and have adverse reactions to gluten due to a food intolerance, you may decide that these trace amounts of gluten from cross contamination are worth risking for a quick, easy, and convenient food option.
Being aware of how you have reacted to gluten in your diet in the past and how much gluten it takes for your body to react is useful knowledge when it comes to situations like these.
Use your best judgment about what you know about your body, how you react to gluten, and what the risks are for you specifically.
Smashburger Gluten-free Menu Items
Using the Interactive Allergen & Nutritional Menu, the menu items below are from choosing the Gluten and Wheat as allergens.
All menu items come up in the Interactive Menu up with either “OK to Eat,” “OK to Eat with Modifications,” or “Not OK To Eat.” I’ve included those with “OK to Eat” and “OK to Eat with Modifications” in my list.
Those listed on the Smashburger website with “OK to Eat with Modifications” will be listed with their specific modifications in parentheses below.
Burger
All burgers should be ordered with haystack onions and smoked brisket.
- Colorado Smash (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Classic Smash (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Double Classic Smash (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Bacon Smash (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Double Bacon Smash (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Avocado Bacon Club (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Double Avocado Bacon Club (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- BBQ Bacon Cheddar (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Double BBQ Bacon Cheddar (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Double Colorado Smash (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Smoked Bacon Brisket (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Double Smoked Bacon Brisket (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Double Truffle Mushroom Swiss (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
- Truffle Mushroom Swiss (choose Udi’s gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap)
Chicken
All chicken options should be ordered with haystack onions and smoked brisket.
- Classic Smash Grilled Chicken
- Bacon Smash Grilled Chicken
- BBQ Bacon Cheddar Grilled Chicken
- Avocado Bacon Club Grilled Chicken
- Truffle Mushroom Grilled Chicken
Turkey
All turkey options should be ordered with haystack onions and smoked brisket.
- Classic Smash Turkey
- Avocado Bacon Club Turkey
- Bacon Smash Turkey
- BBQ Bacon Cheddar Turkey
- Truffle Mushroom Swiss Turkey
- Double Classic Smash Turkey
- Double Bacon Smash Turkey
- Double Avocado Bacon Club Turkey
- Double BBQ Bacon Cheddar Turkey
- Double Truffle Mushroom Swiss Turkey
Wings
- Garlic Rosemary Wings
- Plain Wings
- Scorchin’ Hot Wings
- BBQ Wings
Limited Time Offer
- Non Dairy Reese’s Shake
- Non Dairy Strawberry Shake
- Non Dairy Vanilla Shake
- Non Dairy Chocolate Shake
Fresh Salads
- Classic Cobb Salad (no black beans or crispy chicken)
Sides
- French Fries
- Smash Fries
- Tots
- Smash Tots
- Sweet Potato Fries
- Sweet Potato Smash Fries
- Crispy Brussels Sprouts
Shakes
- Chocolate Shake
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Shake
- Strawberry Shake
- Vanilla Shake
Kids Meals
- Kids Smashburger with Fries
- Kids Smash Cheeseburger with Fries
If you’ve been looking for a list of options that may work for you from Smashburger, I hope this information takes some of the guesswork out for you. That said, none of the items listed here in this post are considered truly gluten-free.
All ingredients and menu items from Smashburger are susceptible to cross contamination in the kitchens and prep areas.
Even if there are no gluten-containing ingredients in the dish, it doesn’t mean there is no gluten in it after being prepared. Keep this in mind when deciding on a restaurant and when choosing from their menu.
Looking for more information on gluten-free restaurants?
Be sure to check out my Gluten-free Restaurants post or get all the information in one place with my Gluten-free Restaurant Guide!
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More Gluten-free Restaurant Menu Items
If you’re looking at other popular restaurants and wondering what gluten-free menu items they offer, be sure to check out my Gluten-free Restaurant Guide. I’ve outlined all the gluten-free options from 45+ popular restaurants and fast food chains.
- Gluten-free Fast Food: Options from Major Chains
- Gluten and Dairy-free Diet: 4 Restaurant Tips
- Applebee’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- Arby’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- Blaze Pizza Gluten-free Menu Items
- Boston Market Gluten-free Menu Items
- Buffalo Wild Wings Gluten-free Menu Items
- Burger King Gluten-free Menu Items
- California Pizza Kitchen Gluten-free Menu Items
- Cheesecake Factory Gluten-free Menu Items
- Chick-Fil-A Gluten-free Menu Items
- Chilis Gluten-free Menu Items
- Chipotle Gluten-free Menu Items
- Cracker Barrel Gluten-free Menu Items
- Crumbl Cookies Gluten-free Menu Items
- Culver’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- Denny’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- Domino’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- Dunkin Donuts Gluten-free Menu Items
- Einstein Bros Bagels Gluten-free Menu Items
- Firehouse Subs Gluten-free Menu Items
- First Watch Gluten-free Menu Items
- Five Guys Gluten-free Menu Items
- IHOP Gluten-free Menu Items
- Jack In The Box Gluten-free Menu Items
- Jimmy John’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- KFC Gluten-free Menu Items
- Little Caesar’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- Longhorn Steakhouse Gluten-free Menu Items
- McDonald’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- MOD Pizza Gluten-free Menu Items
- Nothing Bundt Cakes Gluten-free Menu Items
- Olive Garden Gluten-free Menu Items
- Outback Steakhouse Gluten-free Menu Items
- Panda Express Gluten-free Menu Items
- Panera Gluten-free Menu Items
- Papa Johns Gluten-free Menu Items
- Papa Murphy’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- P.F. Chang’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- Pizza Hut Gluten-free Menu Items
- Qdoba Gluten-free Menu Items
- Red Lobster Gluten-free Menu Items
- Red Robin Gluten-free Menu Items
- Ruby Tuesday Gluten-free Menu Items
- Shake Shack Gluten-free Menu Items
- Smashburger Gluten-free Menu Items
- Sonic Gluten-free Menu Items
- Starbucks Gluten-free Menu Items
- Subway Gluten-free Menu Items
- Taco Bell Gluten-free Menu Items
- Texas Roadhouse Gluten-free Menu Items
- Wendy’s Gluten-free Menu Items
- Whataburger Gluten-free Menu Items
- Wingstop Gluten-free Menu Items
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