Spain

Guest Post: Gluten-Free in Madrid (Sin Gluten en Madrid)

In January, I connected with Amaya of celiaquitos.com after she found and used my Gluten-Free NYC map during a recent trip. I was so pleased she found it helpful and shared this map with her readers. Amaya and I continued to email the past few months so I asked her to contribute her top five gluten-free friendly restaurants in Madrid, Spain. Here is her guest post.

CeliaquitosenMadridGlutenFree
Amaya of celiaquitos.com in Madrid, Spain

Los 5 Mejores Restaurantes de Madrid para Celiacos
(The Top 5 Restaurants in Madrid for Celiacs)

Hi my name is Amaya, I am a celiac person living in Madrid, Spain.

I am lucky of living in a city with a lot of options for eating gluten free food, so it has been very difficult to decide the best five gluten free restaurants in Madrid.

These are the places that I prefer:

1. Danicola http://www.danicola.es
The best restaurant for gluten free people in Madrid in fact, they have a special gluten free menu with a wide variety of pasta done by themselves, specially a spectacular lasagna. They have meats, fishes, rices, gluten free beer and special desserts. Their gluten free bread baked in the moment with spiced oil is the best!

They have two restaurants, one very near the city center (Plaza de los Mostenses 11), near Gran Vía, and the other is near Santiago Bernabeu Stadium (Calle Orense), this place is an obligatory visit if you like Real Madrid football team.

2. Celicioso  http:// www celicioso.es
Gluten free Bakery. The owner is celiac, so all is gluten free, it is a paradise for us. American bakery, with delicious cupcakes, cakes, cookies, alfajores, sandwiches, lasagnas, bread, etc… I like so much the carrot cake there. It is placed very near Gran Vía (calle hortaleza 3).

3. El Arrozal http:// www elarrozal.com
It is placed in the old city centre (Madrid de los Austrias). Here you can enjoy the typical Spanish gluten free paella. The owners have a celiac child, so they know perfectly the celiac disease. All the rices are prepared gluten free, spectacular croquettes. It is very near Palacio Real, Almudena Cathedral or Plaza Mayor. 

4. Taberna la Concha http://www.laconchataberna.com
Something very typical in Spain is going out with friends and have dinner sharing plates or eating “tostas” (bread with something onside). Here you can enjoy a gluten free beer, or a wine in a very good environment (“La Latina”), one of the most fun areas in Madrid at night.

5. Bar el Taller http://www.bareltaller.es/
It is the furthest place from the center, but it is near of Bull ring “Las Ventas”. It is the typical Spanish bar with a good terrace to enjoy in summer time. They have a great variety of gluten free food. Home-made food, paella and cocido madrileño, all gluten free. Other option is sharing plates, the croquettes are very nice, or you can eat “tostas” or sandwiches with a home-made bread. They have gluten free beer.

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Gluten-Free Food in Madrid

Click here for a map of Madrid which includes additional gluten-free friendly recommendations from Amaya.

We have more gluten free restaurants that you can search in www.celiaquitos.com. I have recommend the places that I prefer and where it is easy to eat with less risk. I hope that you decide to come to Spain and enjoy our gluten free cuisine

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Europe, Spain

Guest Post: Gluten-Free Travel in Spain

Maria Roglieri, PhD. has written for Gluten-Free Globetrotter before when she shared her tips for traveling gluten-free. Today’s guest post is about gluten-free travel in Spain which coincides with the launch of her newest book, The Gluten-Free Guide to Spain.

Palacio Real in Madrid (S. Amatangelo)
Palacio Real in Madrid (S. Amatangelo)

GLUTEN-FREE IN SPAIN

Hello everyone, my name is Maria.  I live in New York, and I travel a lot for work and pleasure to lovely European cities like London, Paris, Rome, and Madrid!  We all know that traveling in Europe is great fun but can be somewhat stressful for us as celiacs. We always need to be careful about what we eat, and we need to be able to ask particular questions of restaurant staff in foreign languages.  Luckily, as a professor of Romance Languages, I can maneuver my way around restaurants in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan.

I recently went to Spain to visit good friends who were living in Madrid and Barcelona and to do research for my latest book, The Gluten-Free Guide to Spain. My friends had started looking for gluten-free restaurants for me even before I arrived, and had a list of places ready for me. We had a great time going to these places and exploring the gluten-free scene in Spain.

I loved my trip to Spain because of the museums, the beautiful landscape and sea, the friendship, and especially the gluten-free food! If you haven’t visited Spain  you must go!  Fall is a great time to go, and the airfares are lower than in summer. The crowds are smaller and the weather is mild. Some of the best museums in the world are in Madrid (the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofia) and Barcelona ( Museu Nacional D’ Art De Catalunya ). You could spend days and days in these museums enjoying their treasures, but you must also checkout the amazing Sacra Famiglia of Gaudi, as well as the beautiful thirteenth-century Gothic cathedral, La Seu, both in Barcelona.

If you are a musician like me, you will love Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica! Its beauty is unforgettable and entirely different from the Paris Opera House or Milan’s La Scala.

You can also enjoy a walk through Madrid to see the gorgeous Royal Palace, the beautiful Retiro Park (Parque del Retiro), and the sixteenth-century Puerta del Sol (Sun’s Gate) which marks the center of Spain. Or you can catch a flamenco dance performance at the Corral de la Moreria. Inside of Palau de la Musica in Barcelona

There are plenty of things to do and to see in Spain. And the good news is that at every turn I found establishments that were actively catering to the gluten-free community! Thanks to the efforts of the many Spanish celiac societies and the restauranteurs themselves, there are thousands of restaurants all over Spain that will be happy to serve you a delicious gluten-free meal! Here are a few places you will enjoy when you go:

IN MADRID:

The hotels Radisson Blu Madrid Prado (Calle Moratín 52, www.radissonblu.com/pradohotel-madrid), and The Westin Palace (Plaza de las Cortes, 7, www.starwoodhotels.com) have a special celiac menu.

 El Pescador is a great seafood restaurant on Calle Jose Ortega y Gasset 75 (tel.914021290, www.masqueriaelpescador.com). They have many GF options and they speak English. You should make a reservation as this is a very popular restaurant.

El Espejo is a nice outdoor café and indoor restaurant with an international cuisine. In Centro, it is on Paseo de Recoletos 31 (tel. 913082347, www.restauranteelespejo.com). The ambience is very pleasant and the staff is very accommodating.

Da Nicola Gran Via is an Italian restaurant that has a GF menu and is in Centro at Plaza Mostenses, 11 (Gran Via) (www.danicola.es , tel. 915422574). These guys are serious about gluten-free with delicious fish, meat, pasta, pizza and desserts.

IN BARCELONA:

The hotel Apolo (Avinguda del Parallel, 57-59, tel. 8887418931, www.solmelia.com) has a special celiac menu.

Ca L’Isidre is a Catalan restaurant on Les Flors 12 (www.calisdre.com, tel. 934411139).  They even have gluten-free bread and they speak English.

Go for delicious tapas to Quimet-Quimet on Poeta Cabanyes 25, Poblo Sec in El Raval (tel. 934423142). Don’t forget to enjoy a nice gluten-free Spanish beer while you’re at it! (Try Estrella’s Daura brand). Editor Note: Daura is a “gluten removed” beer and might not be suitable for all gluten-free drinkers. 

Finally, the Mediterranean Restaurant La Luna on Carrero Sant Bonaventura (tel. 933424479, www.lallunarestaurant.com) has a special menu for celiacs since they work with the Spanish celiac society.

Enjoy your trip to Spain, and stay as long as you possibly can! The people, the landscape, the culture and the gluten-free food are wonderful!

¡BUEN PROVECHO

Part of Gaudi's Sacra Familia in Barcelona
Part of Gaudi’s Sacra Familia in Barcelona

About Maria of The Gluten-Free Guides:
Maria is a professor of Romance Languages at St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York. She is a celiac and author/editor of the series, The Gluten-Free Guides (see www.theglutenfreeguides.com). The series currently includes: The Gluten-Free Guide to Spain, The Gluten-Free Guide to Italy, The Gluten-Free Guide to France, The Gluten-Free Guide to New York, and The Gluten-Free Guide to Washington, D.C. She lectures regularly and writes for magazines and blogs worldwide on gluten-free living and travel. She also coaches newly-diagnosed celiacs. She is a member of the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America, The Celiac Sprue Association USA, and the Westchester Celiac Sprue Support Group.