Gluten Free Guide to Lisbon
- Megan
- Sep 24
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 23
Everywhere I ate as a Celiac in the city of Lisbon, Portugal and its surrounding day trips
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In May we had the privilege of traveling to Barcelona and Portugal with my husband’s family. Barcelona was one of the greatest cities I’ve ever been to for eating gluten free and you can read all about the restaurants we enjoyed HERE.
Portugal is another beautiful country full of gorgeous landscapes, incredible tiled buildings, wonderful food, and warm people. We started our Portugal tour in Porto, where we flew in from Barcelona. You can read the full Gluten Free Porto Guide here.
From Porto we took the train down to Lisbon where we stayed for a few days and did a couple of day trips from. Lisbon is another a beautiful place and it just feels like the whole city is alive with a happy buzz of people out enjoying their lives and having fun living there. We also got to explore the quaint (yet busy!) seaside town of Cascais as well as the hilly, castle filled town of Sintra. We really enjoyed our day trips but it meant that we didn't have as much time in Lisbon itself, and since I ended up being sick with a really bad cold and fever the first day we were there I missed even more time exploring the city. I only got to try out a few restaurants in Lisbon so I hope we get to go back someday so I can eat at more places that I had on my list!
Before we left for our trip I did a ton of research to find safe gluten free restaurants to eat at while abroad. I love using the Find Me Gluten Free app (FMGF) to start my planning since it makes it so easy to find restaurants other people have had good experiences at and you can read honest reviews for different spots. If you sign up through the link above you can get $5 off your Premium membership for the first year! (Note: In order to get the discount, you’ll need to sign up directly through the website and not in the app, but once subscribed, Premium is enabled on the app as well). I think having the premium plan is so worth it because it allows you to create your own collections (which is what I do every time I am researching a new city), filter by things like “Most Celiac Friendly” or “Best Match,” you get a better map experience in the app, and you are supporting a small business that works to improve the lives of those in the gluten free community. When planning for a trip I’ll also cross reference places on FMGF with any recommendations I’ve saved on Instagram or Pinterest from other gluten free travelers who have recommended certain spots.
Portugal also has the Associação Portuguesa de Celíacos (Portuguese Celiac Association) which accredits restaurants throughout the country that they deem as being Celiac safe. This is another great resource to use and you can read more about the restaurants that are accredited and other helpful information on their website.
Please remember everyone's experience eating out with food allergies can be different based on many factors outside of our control. The waiter you have, who is in the kitchen that day, and how well you are able to communicate your needs to the staff can change the dining experience from one person to another. There are also constant changes in the restaurant industry so it is always important to check information for yourself! This is my own personal experience with these restaurants but you should still do your own research before eating anywhere since things can change, always communicate your needs with your waitstaff and ask clarifying questions about their allergy protocols, and judge for yourself whether you feel comfortable eating at a specific location.
Gluten Free Lisbon
You can check out my Lisbon Collection on the Find Me Gluten Free app to see all of the restaurants I saved there. (If you want to get $5 off of a Premium membership for the first year you can sign up HERE).
This little bakery/cafe was a great find! It is pretty far out of the way from where we were staying and everything we were doing so it was an adventure to get there using public transportation lol, but it ended up being totally worth the trip since everything I tried was good. I ended up grabbing breakfast and then ordering a couple sandwiches and pastries to go for lunch that day and for our day trip to Sintra the following day. And I finally got to try a gluten free pastel de nada and it was so good! Definitely recommend picking one up from there, and their fresh juice was also so yummy.
One of my biggest travel tips is when you find a good spot with lots of gluten free options, grab extra items to take with you. It is so nice to have an easy option for a meal or snack later so you aren’t having to find a new restaurant every time you are hungry! I love picking up pastries or breads to have for a snack as well as a sandwich for an easy lunch when we are out and about. It reduces a lot of stress to know you already have food with you and you can skip the hassle of finding another safe restaurant for one meal.
To make grabbing food to-go possible I always travel with these REUSABLE ZIP-LOCK BAGS, and I used these COLLAPSABLE STORAGE CONTAINERS and this TO-GO BENTO BOX a ton in Europe too. The other purchase I made for this trip that turned out to be so helpful was this BACKPACK WITH A COOLER SECTION and some ICE PACKS for transporting food when we were away from the hotel for a while or out on day trips. Having all of these containers made life so much easier when I wanted to pack snacks or meals with me, and they wash out easily which means you can use them over and over again. A little bit of planning ahead of time can really make travel a lot easier and less stressful when you are there!
This restaurant is right next to the Rice Me Deli, and after being sick for 2 days I did not have the energy to make that trip back across town to eat there, so instead I ordered Uber eats to have it delivered to our hotel. I ended up ordering a ton of food from them because I wanted to have enough for dinner that night, dinner the next night after we got back from our day trip to Sintra, and something I could take with me for the plane ride home the following day since United had not provided great gluten free meal options on the trip to Europe so I did not have high hopes for the trip home.
I ended up ordering meat croquettes, pad Thai, mushroom and asparagus risotto, and Arabic rice. The croquettes and risotto were excellent, the Arabic rice was very good to have on the plane ride home (and transported easily in the Bento-Box!), and the pad Thai was fine but I’ve honestly had better from our usual Thai place at home.
This little gelato shop in the heart of town is 100% gluten free. We made our way there our final evening in Lisbon for an after dinner treat and it was so nice to be able to choose any flavor and get a cone! Of course I ended up being completely distracted by eating it that I forgot to take a picture 🤦♀️. The gelato itself was fine, but having a completely safe option was still wonderful.
Didn’t get to:
There were plenty of other restaurants dotted around Lisbon that we didn’t end up getting to try. You can check out my Lisbon Collection on Find Me Gluten Free to see what other places I had saved as possible options that we weren’t able to make it to.
Food For Day Trips
We ended up taking an afternoon trip to Cascais and full day trip to Sintra while staying in Lisbon. As I mentioned above, I got extra food at Rice Me Deli to take with me for these days which was so helpful! I had done some research beforehand and it did look like Cascais had some decent gluten free food options (you can check out the places I saved on Find Me Gluten Free HERE) but we were only there for the afternoon so we weren’t looking for a meal there. Sintra looked a bit more iffy for finding a safe meal since there weren’t a ton of restaurants to begin with and most had sort of mixed reviews on whether they were good for Celiacs. I was so glad I packed my own sandwiches and snacks for both days because it just simplified the outings so much, meant I didn’t have to stress about finding food, and everyone else I was with (who are not gluten free) were able to grab something from whatever sandwich shop we passed without having to think about it. The BACKPACK WITH COOLER SECTION was so helpful at being able to transport all of my food, plus it has plenty of extra space for things like umbrellas, water bottles, and beach towels that we needed to take.
When packing food for outings like this I always take more than I think I am going to need because I often find myself hungrier than normal when walking around all day. I took the sandwich and little pastries I had picked up at Rice Me Deli, an apple and grapes we had grabbed from a local market, granola bars, GF pretzels, and some gluten free cookies we had picked up at a grocery store there. Having enough food on hand made such a difference at making sure my blood sugar never dropped, simplifying our days, and taking away the stress and mental-fatigue that eating out with Celiac Disease adds.
Gluten Free Cascais
Check out all of the restaurants I saved on Find Me Gluten Free in my Cascais Collection.
The one place I did get something to eat at on our trip out to Cascais was this lovely little gelataria. The server was so knowledgeable about Celiac Disease and she told me that this shop was one of only 4 gelato shops in all of Portugal that was certified by the Portuguese Celiac Association (Grom being one of the other ones). I got a scoop of mango and a scoop of strawberry (the mango was my favorite!) And she went into the back to get new containers of each, plus they have gluten free cones that are individually packaged! I can’t remember the last time I actually got to eat ice cream in a cone 🥲. It was such a wonderful afternoon treat after being out in the sun and in the water, and I absolutely recommend you head there if you are ever in Cascais!
Final Thoughts on Eating Gluten Free in Portugal
Portugal felt like a pretty decent country to visit if you have Celiac Disease since there are a fair number of Celiac safe restaurants around, as an English speaker it felt pretty easy to communicate needs with most servers in the cities, and because of the Portuguese Celiac Association a lot of people are aware of things like cross contamination and having designated fryers or cooking spaces. The one downside I found was it felt like a lot of the safe restaurants were all pretty spaced out so we either had to plan to be in a certain area of town at a mealtime in order to go to a specific spot, or we were taking a pretty far trek across the city to get there. It eventually got exhausting when it felt like every time I needed to eat we had to go on an adventure (which, spoiler alert, happens at least 3 times a day!).
The biggest takeaways I had from this trip were to next time do research on food options before booking accommodations so that we know there is something safe for me right near the hotel as an easy option. I also think on our next trip I would try to plan at least a few nights in an Airbnb or somewhere that has a kitchen just to be able to take a break from eating out every night, give ourselves a bit more flexibility with meals, and lighten the mental-load of constantly finding safe restaurants.
All-in-all, Portugal and its cuisine are a wonderful experience and are absolutely doable if you have Celiac Disease! Because I ended up being sick part of the time we were in Lisbon I feel like I didn’t really get a good taste of the city, so hopefully sometime soon we will able to go back and explore it even more!!
Have you ever been to Portugal? Tell me all about your favorite meals and restaurants there in the comments below! And if you are heading to Portugal soon I hope you have an absolutely amazing trip. Happy traveling, friends!
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