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Oh dear, the responses from people who would or would not eat pizza in restaurants really covered the field.  Either people felt it was worth the risk or they wouldn't attempt it at all.  

I can agree that the best and safest place to eat pizza out is in a restaurant where the owner has celiac (or a relative), such as Pasta Pomodoro in Voorhees, NJ, or a place like that. (It's not a chain.) I've eaten at Uno's, myself, and the problem there is the crust dissolves. It's cheese and mush. 

I've also tried different locations that buy Still Riding Pizza, which is excellent...tastes real, but you have to make sure the restaurant is adhering to Still Riding's protocol. The one in Wayne, PA really does it right.  An Extreme Pizza in (I think) South San Francisco, CA, has such a tiny oven, but they prep it in a clean area and don't fling pies in the air...that I did a "take and bake". They prepped it and I baked it at my son's house.  And then, there's the one in rural Chestertown, MD, where I'm responsible for their carrying the product, and the owner is prepping the pies at the regular prep table, and not using uncontaminated toppings....unless you specifically ask him to make it special.  (But this is in a small town where the other pizza parlor that does "gf" puts the pies right on the oven surface...no pans... with the other pies...and no-one complains. Boggles my mind.)  

Here is part one of the most telling responses. The ones I've omitted either say...I won't eat pizza out or I do it all the time without reaction...but they don't say where.

Thanks for all the responses.  Lin

1.The oven is not what concerns me, what does in the flour in the air at these resturants. My husband owns a pizzeria and he refuses to make a gf pizza because of the risk for cross contamination. The flour in the restaurant ends up in the corners of the filing cabinets in the office that is located no where need the flour and is behind closed doors. The flour is in the air and then settles so no matter how clean the utensils or pans, my question is where is the GF crust stored and how do they know its not cross contaminated.   There is a lot of risk, unfortunately!

2. Unless you can actually watch what they are doing, I would stay far from GF pizza in a regular pizza restaurant.
I speak from experience. Iwas so excited when I discovered that my favorite pre-diagnosis pizzeria was no0w serving GF pizza. I spoke to the owner and told him I wanted to be sure that there was no chance of cross contamination. He assured me it was OK, and even told me that his mother has celiac, so he knows. But when he added the comment "but she's better now," I decided I had better watch closely while they were preparing my pizza. Holy cow, there was a guy making regular pizza with regular flour, spinning it up in the air, and then the owner came over and handed him the GF pizza dough, which was on a separate aluminum dish. The guy then finished with the regular pizza, then took the GF pizza dough and started kneading it a bit with his hands (the same hands that were just handling the regular dough.). He didn't even wipe his hands off or anything. Then he took those same hands and put them in the same shredded cheese that he made other other pizza with, and sprinkled the cheese all over the GF dough. Talk about contamination!!! Needless to say, they no longer serve GF pizza there, and of course, I did not eat the pizza they so carefully made for me. 
Just consider this... there is wheat flour all over the place in a regular pizza restaurant, so unless they are using a completely separate room and separate ovens, you are going to get some contamination. How much is too much is the question. I don't take any chances.

3.When the Canadian Celiac Association was working with one of our Canadian
chains to roll out procedures for a GF pizza, the pizza chain scraped their
ovens and tested the residual for gluten. None was found - anything that
stayed in the oven turned to charcoal because of the high oven temperatures.
The chain still cooks the pizza on a sheet, not on the stone at the bottom
of the oven, but to me this finding adds an extra level of comfort.

4.The pizza places we use have either a dedicated oven or a dedicated rack that's at the top of the oven.

5.
We eat pizza from 2 trusted restaurants probably twice/month. Two weeks ago, my son had an endoscopy - showed complete healing, so his beloved pizza clearly is safe.
 
It helps that one of the pizza places has 2 celiacs on staff - they've taught their co-workers well, as does Still Riding Pizza Crusts.


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