Eating Gluten-Free and Vegan at Two Sisters

Lao and Thai food is unusually friendly to people avoiding wheat — the staples are rice, rice noodles, fish sauce, lime, herbs and coconut. But "usually friendly" is not the same as "always safe", and the difference matters. Here is how the menu actually breaks down.

Naturally gluten-free

These dishes contain no wheat as we make them. That is a statement about the recipe, not a medical guarantee — see the note on shared kitchens below.

• Lao larb — minced meat, toasted rice powder, mint, lime, chilli.
• Green papaya som tam — papaya, lime, chilli, peanuts, palm sugar.
• The coconut curries — penang and friends, built on coconut milk rather than a roux.
• Steamed sticky rice — rice and water, nothing else.
• Mango sticky rice — coconut, rice, mango.
• Grilled dishes and salads dressed with lime and fish sauce rather than soy.

At Woden the board marks gluten-free items with a GF note beside the dish name, which makes it quick to check against what is actually available that day.

Where wheat hides

Three places, mostly. Spring rolls and curry puffs — pastry and wrappers are wheat. Soy sauce — most soy sauce is brewed with wheat, so any dish that gets soy needs checking. Fried items sharing a fryer with battered or pastry items.

That is why the noodle dishes are worth a conversation rather than an assumption: pad see ew and pad kee mao both involve soy-based seasoning in most kitchens. Ask, and we will tell you what is in the version being cooked that day.

Vegan and vegetarian

Som tam, sticky rice and mango sticky rice are vegan as made. Beyond that, the honest lever is fish sauce and oyster sauce: they are in a lot of Lao-Thai cooking, and removing them changes the dish — it does not simply make it "the same but vegan". Ask for vegetables in place of meat and say explicitly that you want no fish sauce and no oyster sauce. The kitchen will do it; the result will be seasoned differently, and better for the warning.

Peanuts are everywhere in this cuisine — som tam, pad thai, satay sauce. If nuts are the issue rather than gluten, that is a separate conversation with the team.

The shared-kitchen caveat

Our kitchens cook wheat pastry, soy and peanuts in the same space as everything else. We can tell you what is in a dish and what we do to keep things separate. We cannot promise a zero-contamination environment, and a website should never claim to. If you have coeliac disease or a severe allergy, talk to the team directly before you order — at Dickson on 0499 905 867, or at Woden on 0438 167 141.