Gluten-free Sardinia, Italy
Restaurant recommendations in Sardinia, Italy and all you need to know about eating gluten-free in Sardinia
** If you didn’t read the welcome page yet, please start there **
In contradiction to my previous visit to the country of pizza and pasta, I traveled the whole island.
Whether you are visiting various cities or stay only in a certain area — you’ll find recommendations and dis-recommendations about restaurants, and also tips and tricks to prepare you for your stay!
Man.Gia — This is not a place you occasionally find in the street. This is the restaurant you go to BECAUSE you are gluten-free. The only problem here is that it forces all your friends to eat gluten-free as well, and some won’t like this idea.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Incognito — Finding gluten-free food in the area was not easy. We chose this restaurant only because we were sick of searching and the waitress had gluten-free awareness. In lack of options, I chose the tuna dish, which I didn’t like, but not because I am not a fan of seafood — my fish-lover friends ranked this dish 2/10 as well.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Sa Domu Sarda Cagliari — I found this place in my search for gluten-free food, but it was way too expensive, so we didn’t eat there eventually.
Su Nuraghe Bar Ristorante Pizzeria Gelateria — This was a great place with great food. They had allergins marks, which was refreshing and made me very happy. The only problem — the number of wasps and flies! My friends continued eating, but I couldn’t stay at the table. So if you decide to go there — sit inside.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Ottagono — Stabilimento Balneare — this was the first restaurant on our visit so I was delighted to discover they have gluten-free pasta! Note that this dish is very small, including the gluten version.
I am giving this place a low rank on “My Experience” because of two reasons: First, they didn’t speak English, which can make the process harder.
Second, we ordered coffee with the food but got refused because “coffees only after”. I think it is the customer’s decision to make, not the waiter’s.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Black Bull — I loved this place, and so did my gluten-with friends. Great service, variety of options, great taste. Highly recommended!
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Da Gabriele — Trattoria — This was a great restaurant and looked like it was the only place in the area that was open and had gluten-free — lifesavers!
The service was great and they even had gluten-free bread, which I appreciated. The only reason I give them 4 stars in the awareness section is that the gluten-free options are not mentioned on the menu.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Grains Pizzeria — This was disappointing because they have only one dish that is gluten-free — Faine, which is sort of a chickpea flour pancake. If you don’t like that — you are screwed. I didn’t like it, and I was disappointed to see that they make such good gluten pizzas, have awareness for gluten-free — but do not provide gluten-free pizza. Disappointing.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Hotels:
Hotel Ristorante FLora — My friends and I had an excellent experience there! Foodwise, due to COVID they give you a page of options for breakfast and you submit it before midnight. In the morning, when you arrive at the dining room and tell you room number — you will receive the breakfast you ordered prior.
I knew that there are gluten-free options but I didn’t know for what, so on the first day I did trial and error: I ordered everything that is commonly gluten and added “gluten-free” next to it, assuming that they won’t have it all, and then I’ll have something: bread, croissant, morning cereals… something.
They had it all! which was a fun surprise.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Residence Hotel Lu Nibareddu — Wow, so many reasons to not recommend this place. The beautiful views are not worth the awful experience.
let’s ignore all the non-food-related reasons (which does exist) and focus only on food: The hotel is composed of a series of houses that are pretty far from the city center. The hotel owns 3 restaurants and when you ask about restaurants in the area, they only mention theirs, even though there are more. The closest restaurant was also the place where you receive breakfast, and that’s where we went for dinner.
Dinner:
The only gluten-free options were the expensive ones, so while the rest of the table was eating 5 euros pizza I had to get a 20 euro steak. The drinks were over-priced as well.
Breakfast:
The problem with the included breakfast is that they don’t tell you what the options are. It seems to me like they prefer you wouldn’t know. Only when you see other people’s plates you know there is an omelet, pancakes… I don’t like this approach.
I didn’t have breakfast included, and there were two options: either you pay 10 euro per person (which is over-priced), or you pay separately for coffee and croissant. When I went to pay, the manager demanded I’ll pay 10 euros because the gluten-free bread is not part of the coffee and croissant deal. I’ll mention that the gluten-free bread was next to the croissants and I had no reason to suspect it is not included. Also, 10 euros for a coffee and a piece of gluten-free bread is theft! That was a horrible customer service experience.
For the next days, I made myself breakfast, and it was way better! This is the one you see in the bottom-left picture.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐
Hotel Residence Ulivi e Palme — A very simple 3-stars hotel, I don’t have any complaints. They had gluten-free snacks, which was nice. The reason I gave them 3 stars for variety is that they had only packaged items in a basket, and not a real bread or croissant.
Awareness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variety: ⭐⭐⭐
My experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
General tips:
- It’s very common to arrive at a restaurant and discover that the menu is in Italian and there is no English version. I don’t have a solution for that, just prepare yourself mentally.
- In some areas, I wish you good luck with finding places to eat during Siesta. The “siesta” time in Sardinia is more or less between 2 pm to 5 pm.
- This is an annoying one: many restaurants will charge you for Coperto, whether you used the services the Coperto covers (BREAD, cloth napkins, etc.)
- You will have nothing to eat on the beach. You’ll barely have something to eat even if you weren’t gluten-free. Bring food to the beach!
- Plenty mosquitos! Insect repellent is mandatory!!
- Arrive with low expectations regarding customer service. Otherwise, you’ll get annoyed very easily.
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 Sardinia:D
