Gluten free Guide to Porto

Porto really is wonderful. All the narrow streets, arts and interesting places to check out. Especially when youre into arts this is one of the places to be for you. Apart from exploring the street art yourself you can book private guided tours, workshops and visit wonderful galleries and designer shops. Just get lost and make sure to explore the city off the beaten track.

At first, I thought finding gluten free and vegan places in Porto would become very difficult. But as so often, I proved myself wrong. There are a lot around. I also recommend using the App Happy cow since most of the vegan places also serve gluten free options.

The evening I arrived in Porto it was already late but I still hoped to find a place for dinner - and I did! I quickly checked in and made my way to the Centre. On my way I stumbled upon Popup Workshop. It is a culinary school with a beautiful store included as well. They offer a few gluten free options (not labeled but you can talk to the servers, they’ll tell you). One of their bowls is vegan and gluten free - it looked very tasty but since I was very hungry I decided to go to another place serving bigger portions.

My actual destination was a restaurant called “Viva Creative Kitchen” but by the time I arrived there the line waiting for a table was long. It was a shame I couldn’t try one of their dishes, the ones I saw looked very good. So if you wanna go there make sure to reserve a table in advance and also dress a bit natty - this restaurant is for the fine dining experience.

Club Life Porto

So I had to find another place. Again I took advantage of the app Findme Glutenfree. It showed me the nearby restaurant “Club Life Porto” where you can order a menu including soup or salad and a main dish with two sides. They always have a vegetarian option and luckily the evening I went there the vegetarian option was not only vegan but also gluten free.

So I had a salad with an almond dressing - very good - and a plate full of rice with stuffed egg plant rolls and vegetable cakes. Very satisfying - especially the vegetable cakes were great!

When I saw the gluten free, vegan and sugar free treats I started craving. There is always space for dessert right? Brownies, energy balls, chocolate fudge and snickers bars - the decision was tough!

Fortunately I had several days so I tried the Oreo, the fudge and the snickers bar. The last one is definitely my favorite but the fudge was also very good - especially if you’re craving chocolate, it’s intense!

The staff was super friendly and I really enjoyed going there.

Quintal Bioshop

This is my favorite place in Porto. It’s a little bioshop with a little café and yard in the back. The atmosphere is very special. While you’re having a drink probably one of the cute cats will sit on your lap.

Leonor - the Cook - is an adorable person. Apart from the fact that her food is amazing, she really makes sure that you enjoy your visit. Their lunch menu changes on a daily basis but whenever I went there it was gluten free.

They even had a gluten free cake (unfortunately not vegan), oat milk and other drinks healthy drinks (lots of different Kombuchas). It’s the perfect place to recharge your batteries and calm down before going out to explore again.

Restaurants Sabores da Amazonia Porto

If you follow the Rua de Miguel Bombarda to the Centre you will find a very little Brazilian restaurant called Restaurante Sabores da Amazonia Porto. It probably is a hidden gem - it is so small you might miss it. But you shouldn’t!

Naiane and Rui (the owners) are one of the most passionate restaurant owners I met.

When we came in they explained their whole menu to us, also telling us which options we could chose regarding our dietary needs (gluten free and vegan). They offer a vegan and gluten free version of the traditional feijoda (a bean stew with different kinds of meat) and also their tapioca pancakes are naturally gluten free (I tried this one with tofu and some seasonal vegetables - very delicious).

If you also eat meat or fish they have even more gluten free options. I definitely recommend going there!

Masseira

Very close is a bakery called Masseira. Every Wednesday and Saturday they sell gluten free sour dough bread. Just to let you know, you would need to order it in advance and when I talked to Benedita about the safety for coeliacs she warned me cause it is prepared in the same kitchen with the same kitchenware. So there is a high risk of contamination. Also it is not vegan since they use butter for the separation of the breads.

Anyways, I took the risk and tried their bread. And I am very glad I did! It was very good. I have never tasted such a good sour dough bread before. It is very moist (not like the usual gluten free breads that tend to be very dry) and you can basically taste the fermentation process. This is slow, high quality food!

I also didn’t have any health problems but of course it depends on you whether you wanna try it or not.

Hereby I also wanna thank Benedita for taking so much time telling me about their breads and bakery. She also shared a book tip with me about Einkorn. An Italian mother (Carla Bartolucci) wrote it. Einkorn is one of the oldest domesticated grain species that turn out to be safe for coeliacs (at least it did for her son). Back home I definitely wanna try it - so further information will follow!

Namban Oporto Kitchen Café

A bit further up the street you can find this Japanese slow food restaurant. Honestly, the dish I had there was one of the best things I have ever had in my life. Although I prefer trying the local dishes I really, really recommend going there. Usually, they do not serve gluten free lunch options that are savory (but gluten free buckwheat sour dough pancakes and some seasonal desserts) because they use soy sauce for their meals but when it’s not that busy they will prepare a special plate for you.

I had this amazing plate with:

- Beetroot soup with parsley oil

- chickpea salad with apple, tomato, coriander, lime and zest

- tomato relish

- Water Kimchi (mul kimchi)

- Watermelon and São João apple salad, fermented tangerine and lemon vinaigrette

- last but not least, brown rice onigiri ball with AONORI seaweed filling

Sako, the cook, knows the traditional Japanese kitchen very well. She knows a lot about natural products and how to prepare them that they are very healthy for your body. I really enjoyed talking to her and her husband Miguel. They shared a lot of interesting information about the Japanese cuisine I definitely wanna look more into back home.

So when in Porto make sure to go there - if not for lunch, go there for breakfast or to treat yourself in the afternoon with one of their amazing desserts!

Thank you so much again and hope to see you soon!

Mercado do Bolhao

The place where you can find this lovely market is currently under construction so it moved to the underground floor of a shopping mall. You can find it by entering Mercado Temporario do Bolhao in Google Maps.

There a lot of stalls offering fish, meat, fruits and souvenirs.

In the back you will find my favorites: the fruit stalls, a little bio shop and a little restaurant called Vegetariano.

Vegetariano offers gluten free Quiches (three options, two of them also vegan), plus gluten free and vegan pizza and falafel. It is super cheap (4,20€ for a Quiche with salad) and very delicious.

Although I always try to go to different places in my very limited period of time I just had to go there a second time.

So you can imagine that I recommend going there!

Places I have been to but didn’t make to try the food:

DaTerra

Very close to Club Life Porto you will find Da Terra. They have a huge buffet and some of their dishes are labeled gluten free. Believing my gluten free guide it is not safe for celiacs due to cross contamination. I didn’t make it to try because honestly I am not a buffet person - I just always tend to put more on my plate than I can actually eat and feel very stuffed afterwards. But I think it is a good place if you’re fine with the risk of cross contamination and wanna have a big plate. Whenever I passed by it was very busy and the girls I met recommended the food as well - so it’s probably very delicious!

O Consulada

In the same quarter you can find O Consulada. Like all the places I have been to in Porto this is not a 100% gluten free restaurant, they do have options though.

Here you can create your own gluten free and vegan pancake! So probably a nice place for a delicious breakfast. Treat yourself in the morning and start your day right!

Early Cedofeita

Just across the street is Early Cedofeita. I’d probably prefer this one for breakfast because their breakfast bowls sounded amazing. Brown rice porridge with coconut milk, heather honey, vanilla seeds, coconut shavings and cinnamon or Chia pudding with almond milk, banana, cashew cream and season berries (both also vegan) - wow!

They also offer gluten free bread but it is stored just next to the normal bread.

Since they are part of a hotel, they can prepare your food in a separated place if you request it in advance! Additionally, they offer gluten free lunch option (one also vegan) and energy balls for dessert or as a snack.

Cultura dos Sabores

This vegan restaurant offers an all you can eat buffet including salads, soups and some mains. The staff is endeavour but I didn’t feel very safe concerning their information about what is gluten free and what not. I had to ask several times and only felt a bit uncomfortable with it.

Be Porto Café

On my way to Casa de Música I stumbled upon that quiet new restaurant. Joana and Artur opened it a few months ago and wanna support the sustainable lifestyle by not only serving good quality food but also renting e-bikes. They are still in the progress, so for now you cannot get gluten free bread or cakes but they already have some naturally gluten free options (mostly salads) and are currently working on more options (safe for coeliacs since they wanna try to prepare and keep them separately) for the future (probably in about three months).

They are very honest with you, know about coeliac and won’t just sell you something you might suffer from. Although I could only stay for a little while I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to visit their place again in the future.