Gluten Free London: A Complete Guide for Celiac Foodies

Wondering where to dine gluten free in London? You`re in the right place. We recently spent two weeks in London, eating our way through excellent food markets, many with a great selection of gluten free options.

I, Matt, have Celiac Disease, and need to consume a strictly gluten free diet. However, I also greatly enjoy food. When we started discussing a trip to London, I wasn’t exactly certain what to anticipate. Fish and chips? Toasties? It did not sound especially promising in terms of gluten free cuisine.

However, I was quickly proven incorrect. London is one of the top cities worldwide for finding quality gluten free cuisine, rivaling places like Portland and Rome.

What I didn’t quite realize is that the diversity of London means that there is a wide variety of different cuisines represented in London, many of which have naturally gluten free options available. In the guide below, you’re going to find restaurants bringing flavors from Colombia, Vietnam, Venezuela, and India (among many others).

Here is how we will structure this guide. First, we`ll run through some quick tips for navigating London gluten free (basically, plan on eating a lot of arepas). Then, we`ll split the gluten free choices in London into three types: restaurants dedicated to gluten free (no gluten in the kitchen), bakeries dedicated to gluten free, and restaurants with gluten free selections?

Does that work for everyone? Let`s start delving into what London has to offer culinarily!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post, like hotel links, are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we make a little bit of money if you click through and book. That being said, we would never recommend something to you that we don’t stand behind 100%.

Tips for Navigating London Gluten Free

Here are some recommendations and strategies for navigating London with Celiac Disease.

Note that as an American, I employ the standardized spelling of Celiac – in the UK it’s spelled “Coeliac.” They`re interchangeable, so I’ll maintain familiar terminology.

Communicate Your Needs

As always, when dining out with Celiac Disease, it is your responsibility to communicate your needs clearly to the restaurant.

If you’re a native English audio communicator, the good message is that it’s simpler to do here than in places like Paris or Rome because there’s no language barrier. Here are some things I make certain to do, particularly at locations that are not dedicated gluten free.

• Guests should always notify their server that they have Celiac Disease and require a gluten free meal.
• Kindly ask them to assist you in determining what is safe for your diet.
• Confirm with the server upon the arrival of your food that your meal is verified to be gluten free.

Arepas!

For whatever reason, there are a TON of Venezuelan and Colombian food stalls around London selling arepas.

If you`re unfamiliar with us, we have a strong affection for arepas, which is a delightful dish originating from Colombia and Venezuela (ask people from either country who invented them and they`ll confidently claim it was definitely their own nation).

When discussing arepas in the US and UK, we`re usually referring to the Venezuelan version, essentially a flat corn cake sliced in half and stuffed like a sandwich.

The arepas are generally gluten-free, but some items require checking like fryers used for multiple foods. Tequeños, similar to mozzarella sticks, may be fried in the same oil as plantains, a popular arepa filling, so asking is advised.

You’re going to find about five in the list below, all of which are dedicated gluten free. Hooray!

Coeliac UK

I have mixed views about this organization. On one hand, it`s good to have a charity supporting local Coeliacs and providing them important resources and tools they may lack elsewhere.

On the other hand, it’s not particularly helpful for visitors and guests (definitely nowhere near as useful as the AIC App in Italy). Their online resources for locating gluten free restaurants that are approved by them leaves much to be desired.

I tried to utilize it multiple times, and strangely the only thing that appeared on the interactive map was Pizza Hut. NO THANKS.

Using their app requires being enrolled as a member, removing it from the tools visitors can employ while touring.

Therefore, my assessment is it is ideal for UK citizens, but not as practical for people voyaging to London.

Gluten Free Beer

Like most of Europe, gluten free beer in London is a little different than what we are used to here in the States. Here, if a beer is brewed with barley, it CANNOT be labeled gluten free.

Instead, terms like “gluten removed” or “gluten reduced” are seen, and numerous resources confirm these should be avoided by those with Celiac disease.

In the UK, it’s totally acceptable to refer to those beers as gluten free, so you need to actually examine the label of every gluten free beer to check whether or not it contains barley. Some people are fine with drinking that kind of beer, I am firmly in the “NO THANKS” group.

Closures

After two difficult years of dealing with various levels of restrictions, there are many restaurants that have permanently closed or entirely changed the way they conduct business. London staples like Beyond Bread and Yorica are gone forever.

However, there are still plenty of great options, with more opening regularly. I do my best to update this guide, but please let me know if a place is permanently closed when you explore London.

If you’re interested in learning about our process for discovering and validating gluten free locations, along with how and when we update our guides, you can read our gluten free FAQ.

Gluten Free London: The Best Gluten Free Restaurants in London (and Bakeries!)

Now let`s discuss potential places to enjoy gluten free cuisine in London.

We will begin with an overview of the five best foods we enjoyed in London to share our must-visit spots. Next, we will explore three sections – dedicated gluten free restaurants in London, dedicated gluten free bakeries in London, and more Celiac-safe gluten free restaurants in London (that aren`t dedicated).

The Best Things We Ate in London

Before getting into every lone restaurant and bakery you could visit, let’s take a step back and discuss the six best components we consumed while we were in London. These are our “must see” spots.

As an aside: If you want a high-level assessment of the gluten free options in London, look no further than the development of this section.

We began with the five top things we ate, but the list quickly expanded due to the sheer NUMBER of delicious gluten-free foods we consumed in London. You`re in for a treat!

• The beef arepa from Pabellón
• A sour cherry chocolate covered cake from the Free From Bakehouse

We frequented Aroma numerous times during our stay in Bologna, which included purchasing a bag of beans from Gardelli, my favored Italian roaster.

• The spicy tofu dish from Pho
• Everything at Ceru, but particularly the roasted parsnips
• The cereal doughnut (topped with corn flakes) from Borough 22
• The scone with strawberry preserve and fresh whipped cream from Floris’ Bakeryat Broadway Market (Saturdays only!)

Dedicated Gluten Free Restaurants in London

Here is the wide selection of dedicated gluten free restaurants in London. Some are stalls at a food market, some are standalone restaurants.

We visited almost all of them (there are two exceptions), and included some of our opinions on what to order and what stood out to us about each place.

Niche Gluten Free

The website Niche is referenced as being the original dedicated gluten free restaurant located in London. It is noted as being the first restaurant accredited by Coeliac UK, and it is said to still be 100% gluten free currently.

It’s a little out of the way of the main sights in London – it’s in Angel in north London, which is about 20 minutes away from Central London by Tube – but it’s well worth the effort to get there for the amazing, safe gluten free food.

We really enjoyed both the cuisine and the ambiance, and it was a lovely night spent alternating between conversing and filling our faces with delectable dishes.

They’re open for dinner, and brunch on weekends. They also have a special Sunday menu, where you can experience a Sunday roast, but 100% gluten free.

Another noteworthy point: They offer the gluten free kind of Green’s Beer naturally. I discovered while in Italy most Green`s Beer in Europe is actually brewed with barley and then has an enzyme added to reduce the gluten rather than being organically gluten free as available here in the US. I double checked awkwardly wanting to view the bottle to confirm which version it was here, and sure enough it was the suitable type! If seeking a gluten free beer option they have you catered for.

Anyway, let’s talk about the food. 

We decided to opt for a multifaceted approach and sample a few starters, split a main course between us, and share a dessert.

The standouts on the menu were:

• The chickpea tender potato pie: A delightfully spicy mixture of tender potatoes and chickpeas tucked away in an edible pie dish made of pastry dough. We were puzzled on what to do with the gravy on the side, so we asked and they told us “it’s like a Sunday roast, you just drench everything in it.”
• The parmesan cheddar donuts: When isn`t fried cheese a good choice? That’s basically what these are.
• The bean spread: No animals were harmed in making this dish – it’s an herby bean spread served alongside toasted bread and herbed butter. It was probably the single best thing we ate that night.

They also offer fried chicken, which proved palatable, but not remarkably distinctive. I`d order it again, but it decidedly isn`t the most stimulating choice on the menu in our opinion.

It’s worth making a reservation in advance if you want to dine here – we didn’t and showed up at opening on a weeknight to snag a table. By the time we left, it was packed.

Pabellón (Southbank Centre Market)

All I need to really tell you to convince you to try Pabellón is that, over the course of two weeks in London, we went back here not once, not twice, but THREE times. It’s that good.

Pabellón is a stall at the Southbank Centre Market (which occurs here on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) that provides three selections: arepas with various fillings, bowls, and deep fried sweet potatoes tempura. All of it is gluten free.

They got their start in 2017, when two young Venezuelans decided it would be nice to share their cuisine with Londoners.

Fast forward five years and they’ve won the British Street Food awards and have a long line at their stand of people waiting to get their hands on what we think is the best arepa in London.

They have two primary menu items – the “Pabellón,” a bowl with rice, beans, meat, and plantains (among other things), and the arepa, which is a corn cake sandwich with fillings like chicken or beef, beans, avocado, cheese, and the best part, fried plantains.

We’re huge arepa fans, so we got arepas every time we were there. We tried the chicken version, beef version, and veggie version (black beans and cheese), and the beef was our selection for the best variation (though the veggie is fantastic too).

Now, I`m going to share the best tip you`ll find in this guide. The first time at the stall, when asked if I wanted sweet potato fries, I regretfully said no.

Fast forward to our subsequent visit, when Alysha ordered them, allowing me to realize just how much of an error I`d made.

These are not your typical sweet potato fries – they’re submerged in (gluten free) batter, fried until they’re crispy, and topped with a generous sprinkling of smoky paprika. DELICIOUS.

Guasa

We first encountered Guasa in Madrid, where we had an excellent couple of arepas for lunch, and were eager to hear that they also had locations in London. We added them to our future London list and went about our joyful way.

Fast forward six months, and we were headed to London! We looked into Guasa and found out that they have multiple areas in London nowadays, and settled on the one at Mercato Metropolitano for dinner on our initial night in town.

Regretfully, the arepas just weren’t as good here as they were in Madrid.

Or, frankly, as they were at any of the other arepa places on this list. The options included lacked bold flavors, and even the fried plantains – which often capture our interest – were past their peak, tasting as if they had been exposed for multiple days before entering our mouths.

It’s an adequate gluten-free option at either Spitalfields Market or Mercato Metropolitano, neither of which has very many other risk-free options, but I’d set your expectations moderately low.

Paladar

A cafe without dairy (Castle Rock, CO – ~35 minutes from Downtown Denver): 100% gluten free and dairy free bakery in Castle Rock. All sorts of baked goods.

Without a doubt, the finest meal we consumed – significantly surpassing all others, we feel obligated to emphasize – was the charred eggplant with fried beans and Maya hummus, which we likened to a spicy, tangy black bean smoothie on a plate. It was remarkable.

The runner up for best snack was the blue corn churros, which were perfectly cooked to be warm, crispy, and light. However, the true stars were the dipping sauces. Options included a spicy chocolate and coffee dulce de leche cream that raised the bar above standard accompanying condiments.

The bright outdoor patio in back provides a lovely setting for lunch on a warm day, and they offer a set lunch menu where you choose between two or three courses.

They feature an extensive selection of wines, most notably those from Latin American countries like Chile and Argentina, on their menu.

Arepas and Cachapas (Sunday Upmarket)

Hey, what do you know, another 100% gluten free spot for arepas! This stand operates out of the food hall at the Sunday Upmarket (which, contrary to the name, takes place on both Saturday and Sunday) on Brick Lane.

The Upmarket food hall provides sensory overload, with scents and sounds originating from the stalls lining the hall serving foods from all corners of the world.

We incredibly lucked out at Nami Nori, because we arrived at 7:00 pm without a reservation, got an outside table, and within five minutes there were exactly zero spaces left inside or outside.

Here’s how it operates. First you decide what you want to eat – an arepa, a cachapa (like a sweet corn crepe filled with similar fillings to the arepas), or a plate (rice, beans, and meat).

Then you select from the variety of main filling possibilities they provide – spicy pork, orange pork, chicken, beef, or vegetarian – and choose a few toppings to include on top.

The Odeon of Herodeion theatre is situated on the Acropolis’ southwest slope. Construction of the building completed in 161 AD, it was destroyed in 267 AD, and renovated and reconstructed in 1950. Theatrical performances and concerts still take place here)

Station 26

Regretfully, we did not ultimately make the trip to Station 26 because in the concluding days of our journey, it felt a bit too distant for us to travel (though realistically it was perfectly feasible). It`s situated in Brixton, about a 30 minute subway ride south of central London.

This restaurant is an excellent choice for obtaining a gluten free brunch in London, with a extensive menu of freshly made gluten free dishes to opt for, like eggs benedict and a delicious tomato based stew served with a side of ciabatta bread.

Plus, it takes roughly five minutes on foot from the train station, making it convenient in that sense.

Indigo at Hotel Aldwych

This establishment is highly elegant, which is why we opted to skip it while in London.

It offers a totally gluten-free option for special events right in the heart of Covent Garden. They`re certified by Coeliac UK, and though breakfast items may not all be gluten-free (they serve continental breakfasts for hotel guests), lunch and dinner menus are completely free of gluten.

You have the option to enjoy a curated tasting experience or select dishes individually depending on your preferences.

Menu items include roasts, fish and chips, along with a pistachio cake that looks outstanding.

This establishment also offers an excellent option for gluten free afternoon tea in London!

Maize Blaze (Camden Market)

This establishment is a restaurant located in London that represents cuisine from Bogotá, Colombia. The entire menu is free from gluten with many vegan and vegetarian choices so that no matter dietary restrictions or preferences, patrons can enjoy a taste of Colombia in the heart of the city.

Which, naturally, we were completely onboard with after spending six weeks in Colombia a few years ago and falling for the diversity and beauty that exists there.

You can find them in a couple places around London, although for most visitors it`s easiest to search in Camden Town.

They offer two locations here – a stall at Camden Market with a streamlined version of the menu highlighting bowls and sides like fried plantains, and a “cloud kitchen” (which indicates they have their own small stall in a commercial kitchen) also in Camden, where they present a more extensive list including arepas.

The highlight of the Camden Market menu has to be the “Colombian Marching Box” – a generous bowl of rice topped with meat, potatoes, plantains, and more.

It brings to mind the bandeja paisa – a generous plate of food with about seven different kinds of meat that’s practically everywhere on menus in Bogotá and Medellín. Definitely get a side of fried plantains too (and get them topped with sweet and spicy sauce).

At the cloud kitchen, they also offer arepas (though I think it’s amusing that they’re the stuffed variety, which generally is more Venezuelan-style) and a few additional menu items.

Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen (Camden Market)

At Camden Market, this is the place to go for arepas. I walked up on a sunny weekday afternoon, and the stall was playing Latin American pop music loudly and the chef was dancing behind the counter as he filled arepas to the brim with all sorts of tasty fillings.

His enthusiasm was infectious, and I was not the only one whose mood lifted due to his upbeat attitude and overall zeal for living – multiple other people started moving to the music, like those behind counters at nearby stalls.

They serve one thing, and one thing only: arepas. And they’re all gluten free, with vegan and vegetarian options available.

I’m partial to basically any combination with toasted sweet plantains, so I opted for the shredded beef arepa. It was messy, but it was easily in the top few arepas we consumed in London.

We found ourselves returning to Camden Market numerous times (we were staying nearby part of our London trip), and saw a constant line of four to five groups queued each visit we made passing by. It’s undoubtedly popular, and we understand its appeal.

Tapioc Wraps

We happened upon this place by chance, located a few blocks south of Camden Market. They also exclusively serve gluten-free options, including tapioca crepes originating from Brazil.

The crepe part is made from tapioca flour that is sifted and then heated in a pan until it sticks together, forming a round pancake that is then filled with various ingredients before being closed up and served.

We`ve tried tapioca wraps in places like New York City and San Francisco, so upon learning about this establishment, we knew we had to visit. It serves as a nice breakfast and lunch spot for those in the Camden area.

Be certain not to miss out on pão de queijo, the delightful Brazilian cheese bread crafted with tapioca flour and cheese, which might be one of our favorite foods globally.

We make them at home all the time (it’s quite simple, especially if you use a premix like Chebe).

Calm Indian Cow (Broadway Market)

This is another location that we happened to stumble upon as we wandered around Broadway Market on a chill weekend morning.

On Saturday mornings, Broadway Market is our favorite market in the city. It features farm-fresh produce, meats, and cheeses as well as numerous food stalls setting up to sell their food to passersby.

Calm Indian Cow caught my attention because we enjoy dosa, but it isn’t always safe for people with Celiac disease due to potential cross-contamination during preparation, or, in some cases, adding wheat flour to the batter (which goes against the understanding in that culture).

This establishment is entirely gluten free, and we walked by it once before stopping again and actually ordering on our second visit.

We shared a dosa and a small serving of chai, similar to the traditional Indian style of drinking chai. The dosa was excellent – after emphatically requesting it be prepared in a spicy manner, it most certainly delivered on that promise.

Conversing with the owner about South Indian cuisine and its prevalence in both the UK and back in the US was perhaps the most interesting part of the interaction.

Dedicated Gluten Free Bakeries in London

Now, let’s talk about the bakeries.

There aren’t really too many dedicated gluten free bakeries in London these days after the tragic closure of Beyond Bread a few years ago, but if you look hard enough, there are actually several great options (that are a little more logistically challenging than some other cities).

All of these bakeries are 100% gluten free – I don’t fool around with mixed bakeries – and the majority are also vegan and dairy free too. Plenty of great gluten free choices in London when it comes to baked goods!

Floris’ Bakery (Broadway Market) 

Broadway Market in general is truly amazing. Both for gluten free foods available, and it`s just a wonderful place to wander around and observe people.

The jewel of Broadway Market is the Saturday Market, bringing various food trucks and stalls to the street near London Fields, including Floris’ Bakery. Which was likely our favorite bakery there.

When you approach the stall, you’ll understand why. Whether sweet or savory, there are a LOT of choices waiting for you at the stand. There are donuts (some filled with custard or rotating fillings), scones, numerous different savory selections, and plenty more. The options here are fairly extensive.

We opted to get a couple of things that were sweet to eat promptly, along with a couple of savory items to consume later.

First, regarding the sweet item. The scone with strawberry jam and fresh whipped cream was nothing short of exceptional, if a little crumbly. Especially the cream – it was ideal.

The doughnut filled with custard was a tad less impressive, but we realized as we ate it that it may have been because neither of us are particularly fond of custard. Perhaps choosing the alternate filling would have been better!

The savory pieces were excellent, serving as a nice breakfast the following day. We obtained a savory veggie muffin (it essentially resembled a large blueberry muffin, but substituting the blueberries with spinach and broccoli – highly unique!) and a spinach ricotta pastry combination.

Be sure to stop by Broadway Market on Saturday if desiring a bounty of gluten free baked goods!

Borough 22: Gluten Free & Vegan Doughnuts (Online Order Only) 

So if previous gluten free travel guides were perused, probably awareness that being gluten free donut aficionados, using the Americanized version here, this location possibly provides London`s finest gluten free donuts. .

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