Gluten-free Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Gluten-free travel requires research. I’ve spent a weekend in Cluj, and it’s a shame this information will go to waste
** If you didn’t read the welcome page yet, please start there **
A Romanian once told me that gluten in Romania is kind of like peanuts in Israel. What he meant was that — like our beloved Israeli Bamba, bread is deep in the Romanian culture.
It sounded like trying to find suitable food for me wasn’t is not going to be easy, but hey — it’s 2021 so there must be more awareness!
In General
It’s common for a restaurant to not have a menu in English. Also, not all waiters you’ll meet understand English. And on top of all that — You’d be surprised how many people think gluten-free is in the vegan-vegetarian family — and that’s scary.
Here are some useful words:
Faina — flour
Paine — bread
Gluten-free — fara gluten.
It’s true that the Romanian cuisine loves its bread, but don’t worry — I didn’t starve ;)
So I did my usual research — asked google maps and trip advisor where should I dine, but the information was extremely inaccurate on this trip!
The Restaurants
Here you’ll find recommendations and dis-recommendations about restaurants I’ve been to.
Toulouse — They didn’t appear in my online search, I found them after I got rejected by another place— both because of the lack of gluten-free dishes and the late hour for breakfast. Toulouse did have options, and it was delicious!
As you can see below, The only difference between the gluten-full and gluten-free was a piece of bread :)
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vărzărie — The star of the trip! I was worried I won’t be able to taste traditional Romanian food, but luckily it wasn’t a problem here. I had delicious Farmer’s Beef Soup and A la Cluj style cabbage... Highly recommended!
Also, know that their website has a detailed allergies list in English for each dish.
Fun fact: the soup in the pictures is the same one. It is recommended to add sour cream to the soup, and it’s delicious!
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!
Minus Gluten — I was excited for this one but unfortunately, it’s closed for a while now, and Google Maps is not up to date.
Souper — Not much for us there, but it’s nice to have a warm soup when the weather is cold. I had the lentil soup and it was nice. They have a detailed allergens list but it’s in Romanian, so look for the words I taught you ;)
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Double Tree Hotel restaurants — The hotel has two restaurants: one for breakfast and one for dinner.
The breakfast restaurant is called Marco Polo Restaurant and they have gluten-free bread and cereals.
The dinner restaurant has great gluten-free awareness and allergens on the menu.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Other Recommendations
Muzeon — Storytelling Jewish History Museum — Very interesting, especially for those who are not familiar with the Jewish culture.
That’s it!
I really hope you found this blog post useful.
Have any recommendations to add? Found a mistake? Please send an email to glutenfreetravel1@gmail.com. This will be helpful for all of us!
Enjoy your vacation in Cluj! :D
