Top 7 Gluten-Free Dessert Spots to Delight in Irvine

T1 triRents

To Whom It May Concern, I'm writing to express deep frustration and disappointment following a visit to your Irvine BJ's Restaurant on May 22nd, 2025, for my wife Roz’s birthday celebration. We had a party of 13 and called ahead, only to be told the wait would be 30–45 minutes. Instead, we waited over 2 hours while being repeatedly given conflicting and inaccurate wait times (20 mins, then 5 mins, then 15 mins, etc.). It was only after escalating the issue to a manager that we were finally seated — a full 45 minutes after being told our table was "being cleaned." The service did not improve once seated. Staff were rude and dismissive — not just to my wife, but to multiple members of our party who politely asked for status updates. At one point, BJ's attempted to offer "lobby pizza" to the waiting group, which would have been appreciated if they had respected dietary restrictions. My wife has celiac disease, and we explained she could not eat gluten. Despite this, we were told there would be no accommodations — even if we were willing to pay. To make matters worse, Roz also suffers from hypoglycemia, and being forced to wait that long without food triggered a medical episode. This was not just inconvenient — it was dangerous and negligent. When we were finally seated, the experience did not improve: only one overwhelmed waitress was assigned to our large group, service remained slow and unfriendly, and to add insult to injury, an 18% gratuity was automatically added — despite the substandard and outright harmful service. Our total came to nearly $800, and every single member of the group was charged that gratuity — regardless of their experience. This was meant to be a celebratory evening for my wife’s birthday. Instead, it was a source of anxiety, frustration, and actual physical harm. We expect a full apology and request appropriate compensation for the unacceptable experience we were put through. Sincerely, Mario A.

Dominick Smith

Christine Farag

First time here. Food and service was great. One gluten free patron in our party (celiac) and staff was very understanding. Carlos made the experience wonderful with checking in frequently!

Krystal S

Now offers vegan and gluten friendly cookies. We bought a few and they were just so yummy!

Kera Periwinkle

I was not a macaron person. I never enjoyed them, with the exception of a home baker I knew who made them but hers never looked right, despite tasting good. I've literally had them shipped from Paris, France and did not like them. Ever since discovering Honey & Butter five years back, I will not buy macarons anywhere else. I live almost an hour away, so it is quite a drive for me but they're worth it. The size, the feet, the texture, the flavors and the sugar levels are perfect. I cannot praise them enough. I've been to several different locations before they were closed down, save this last one. It's located at the Irvine Spectrum, really close to Nordstrom's, so that's where you should park. Parking has always been really easy for me to find. Then it's a short walk from there to the shop. Sometimes there's a line, sometimes there isn't. Even with a line, it moves very quickly. Each time I go there, I am purchasing anywhere between 8-11 dozen macarons because I give them away and am also purchasing for friends who place their orders for me to pick up for them. To make it easy for both the employees and myself, I grab a bunch of the paper flavor menus and will mark those up for each order that I have with people's names on them. Then I get in line, hand my sheets over to the cashier and they proceed to put my order together and tuck each menu into the box so I know which is which. It's a pretty good system I've worked out with them. It makes ordering clear and precise and I've never had a mix-up with my orders. A couple friends are gluten-free, which makes H&B macarons perfect treats for them. The employees are SO CAREFUL when I tell them which orders need to be gluten-free. They make sure to do those orders first and will change their gloves out between the orders as well. Since they know my drive is so long, they'll thoughtfully bag up my orders with ice packs. Everything about the shop from cute decor to the super creative flavors to the extremely kind, patient and thoughtful employees has me coming back time and again. I love everything about Honey & Butter!

Hekasq X

Delicious desserts and coffee. Gluten free selection range of products is very decent and most importantly tasty. My go-to place for cakes, cupcakes and macarons.

Avery Colthan

Overall, this place was really good. I did make the mistake of going on a weekend so it was incredibly busy, but they still seemed to be getting food out pretty quickly and it didn't feel like a huge weight. When we did get the food even though it was busy. It was absolutely delicious and well prepared. They even went out of their way to make sure that my gluten-free Burger was kept away from other things due to my gluten allergy which really impressed me because not a lot of places do that. I will have to say the staff was exceptionally nice. They were delivering food having fun at work, but they were also engaging the guests and cleaning tables in between to make operations go a lot smoother. I've been to many shake shacks not one this busy and considering how well everyone seemed to be working and how quickly everyone was getting in and out. I was pretty impressed