For mine and my boyfriend’s 4 year anniversary and our first holiday together abroad, we decided to visit the cultural city of Barcelona. Every street held a new discovery, whether that was stunning gothic buildings, Gaudi architecture or cute shops hidden behind the hustle of bustle of the famous La Rambla.
We stayed in an apartment in the centre of Barcelona (about a 5 min walk from the Plaça Catalunya) for 3 nights. It was a short trip, but we managed to fit quite a lot in! We visited the famous Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Barcelona Cathedral and wandered around the stunning Gothic Quarter and the busy La Rambla.
Gluten-free food is simply amazing in Barcelona, there’s so much choice with traditional Spanish food (paella and tapas), as well as plenty of sweet treats in the well-known coffee shops. I’ve listed below some of my favourite places to eat in Barcelona, as well as places I would love to visit if I return!
McDonald’s
Our first stop when we arrived was to try out the highly anticipated gluten-free burger at McDonald’s, which received a big thumbs up from me! For the last 4 years, I’ve had to order the dreaded ‘bunless burger’ which arrives in the horrible pancake boxes and overall looks pretty depressing. I’m not sure why the UK hasn’t started selling gluten-free buns, but I’m hoping they sort it out soon!
M2 Gluten-Free
M2 Gluten Free – Avinguda Diagonal, 505, 08029 Barcelona, Spain
We were knackered on the first night and decided to be lazy and order Deliveroo to our apartment – such rubbish tourists we are! We found this 100% gluten-free restaurant online and although we didn’t visit in person, we were pretty happy watching Disney (the only English channel) and eating these GF goodies!
I ordered the gnocchi with mushrooms, nuts and parmigiano which was delicious. However I was slightly jealous of my boyfriends choice which was the pizza with Italian porchetta and mushrooms – it was yum! We were up at 4am to catch our flight, so I think ordering food in is acceptable, right?
Patisseria Jansana
Pastisseria Jansana – Carrer de Balmes, 106, 08008 Barcelona, Spain
This was the one place I wanted to visit when researching where to eat in Barcelona, and I wasn’t disappointed. Patisseria Jansana is a 100% gluten-free bakery, with every type of croissant, pastry, dessert and sandwich you can think off – all gluten-free!
I was actually a little bit stumped on what to order as there was so much choice, but in the end, I bought the most delicious ham and cheese croissant, puff pastry spiral and doughnut which were all amazing and very tasty. Unfortunately, the bakery wasn’t very close to where we were staying, so I only visited once. If I had the option I would have gone every day to try something new!
Arrosseria Sant Pere
Arrosseria Sant Pere – Carrer de Sant Pere Més Alt nº18 08003 Barcelona
On our second night, we decided to find somewhere to have a traditional seafood paella, and it didn’t take us long! Arrosseria Sant Pere wasn’t much to look at from the outside, however once we entered the restaurant we were led down a little corridor to the most beautiful room with ornate ceilings, stunning paintings and plants everywhere – it was pretty spectacular.
We already knew what we wanted to order, and after a quick chat to the waiter about gluten-free options (all fine with the paella, as expected), we didn’t have to wait long before this beautiful traditional dish was brought out to us. If you try one naturally gluten-free dish in Spain, it has to be paella!
Flax and Kale Passage
Flax and Kale – Carrer de Sant Pere Més Alt, 31, 08003 Barcelona
This was by far my favourite place to eat in Barcelona, so much so we visited three times! The restaurant is classed as ‘healthy flexitarian’ and although I’m not vegan/vegetarian, the menu was 100% gluten-free with lots of healthy options so I was very happy.
Brunch 1: Chocolate waffles with almond ice-cream and chocolate sauce. When on holiday, why not have the most decadent brunch possible at 10am? These waffles were delicious and so chocolatey! In my eyes, there isn’t a better way to start the day.
Dinner: Mini crunchy tacos with yellowfin tuna and avocado puree to start & sundried tomato and spinach pizza. We came here to eat on the second night as Flax and Kale was only round the corner from our apartment – healthy and a convenient location! To start we shared these mini tacos which were absolutely delicious, then we both had a pizza which had THE best GF base I’ve ever tasted! My boyfriend who doesn’t eat gluten-free loved his as well – so a thumbs up all around.
Brunch 2: Coconut parfait with chocolate crunch granola and fruit. We then went back again on our last day for brunch (I should get an ‘I ♥️ Flax and Kale’ tee) and I went for this delicious breakfast bowl. After 4 days of McDonalds and pastries, I needed a big bowl of fruit in my diet!
Gluten-Free snacks
I never went hungry as there’s always some kind of gluten-free snack available! Here are a couple of places you can find GF snacks:
- Starbucks/Costas are dotted around everywhere, and they all had GF brownies and muffins.
- Starbucks also don’t do oat milk in Barcelona, so make sure to order your favourite hot drinks!
- Supermarket snacks – most of the small supermarkets they have some type of GF cookie or biscuit available. In one of the bigger supermarkets, they even had a dedicated gluten-free section which had a variety of Schar! products I’d never seen before.
Other Gluten-Free Places to Eat
I didn’t visit these places on my trip, but I’ve heard great things about them!
If you want to see more of what I got up to in Barcelona, check out my Instagram stories ‘TRAVEL’ highlight, where I’ve saved all of my Barcelona IG stories.
Check out my last GF Travel Diaries which was in beautiful Turkey – this was very different from a popular city like Barcelona but was great for gluten-free.
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