We visited Porto for 3 days (April 2024 – city guide and itinerary). Suzanne had some tummy troubles in Porto, so we ended up eating at one restaurant (Honest Greens) for most of our nights here. Despite this, we still have some gluten free recommendations from our time in Porto.
As always: do your research, ask questions ahead of ordering, and reach out to restaurants ahead of time when needed. I have included a map at the end of all the gluten free places I had researched as being safe to eat at, even if we didn’t end up eating there. There were a decent amount of options (though the gluten free Pastel de Nata was not nearly as good as in Lisbon, so if you’re going there, make sure you hit up Rice Me! in Lisbon).
Gluten Free Porto
Honest Greens
A Spanish chain that lists what has gluten rather than what doesn’t have gluten. They do have a couple items that don’t list gluten but where cross contact is possible, so if that’s an issue for you, look up their allergens menu ahead of time (readily available online). We ate here 3 times while in Porto and tried almost every protein (steak, salmon, halloumi, and piri piri chicken). Our favourite proteins were the hot honey halloumi and the piri piri chicken.
We always opted for double salad on our main dishes (otherwise it comes with salad and bread – make sure you specify you want double salad!).
We tried many sides, including truffle smashed potatoes, Moroccan rice, chilli con carne, hummus, and the seasonal vegetables. The seasonal vegetables were great, and the chilli con carne was a pleasant surprise. I liked the rice, but Ahmed didn’t really. The potatoes were fine, but nothing special. The hummus, however,… DELICIOUS! And Ahmed is picky about his hummus. It was so good, we wanted to buy the whole bowl. We also tried the Latin lover bowl, and the salad with goat cheese, cranberries, and sweet potato. The bowl is fantastic, but I didn’t like that the goat cheese sort of tasted like blue cheese.
Overall, we highly recommend Honest Greens if you’re looking for a safe place to eat with healthy, protein focused meals (even if that means not eating local specialties).
Tasquinha do be
This spot has many gluten free dinner options, with a separate prep area and fryer. Some items they mention right on the menu there is a gluten free option because there is a slight upcharge, but there are many more items you can order gluten free! Just ask if something is interesting to you, and chances are, they have a gluten free option. We tried the gluten free local specialty: Francesinha! We also got fried cod. We had fries and salad as our sides. This was way too much food! The Francesinha is huge! If you plan on ordering this, don’t get another main dish, just do a starter and share with your dining partner. Or arrive very, very hungry! We quite liked the food, and recommend giving it a try. We didn’t have a reservation, so we went early (about 6:30) and had no trouble getting in.
Nola Kitchen
Nola has many gluten free options, which are listed on the menu. The servers asked us about allergies, and when I said gluten free, they immediately started asking if I was okay with certain ingredients in the dish and made swaps when I said “no” to oats that weren’t dedicated gluten free. Ahmed had a smoothie, and I had a smoothie acai bowl. They were very good, but very pricey! Nola is a very hip place with healthy dishes, but definitely a bit more expensive than your average stop.
Com Cuore
A 100% gluten free bakery and eatery in the heart of Porto. They have simple dishes you can order and eat there, such as wraps or sandwiches and omelets. We had a chicken wrap and an omelet with tomato and tuna. They were both fine, but very simple and the wrap was quite sparse. We also tried a pastel de nata, which was also fine, but the crust wasn’t flaky like a regular one (more like a crust than a pastry). If you have nowhere else, you’ll be able to try a pastel de nata, go ahead and get one here, but the one I tried in Lisbon was far superior.
Padaria Celiacas
A 100% gluten free bakery that is quite far out of the city. We walked here and took a Bolt back towards the “stuff”. We were very disappointed, as we had read so many good things from as recently as the day before about their fantastic pastries, especially croissants. When we got there only 30 min after they open, all they had was bread and buns, as their two bakers were not in that day. We tried the ciabatta and a bread roll. The bread rolls were great, the ciabatta was dry and didn’t taste like much. We’d recommend messaging or calling them before heading all that way to make sure they have stock for the day (or ordering ahead and then picking up).
Glanni Portugese Ice Cream
They have allergen labels on their flavours, so we could see which ones were gluten free. We both tried Viennese Coffee, which was a subtle hint of coffee flavour. Is it the best ice cream we’ve tried? No, but it was clearly labelled and in the middle of a tourist area, so I’ll take what I can get.
McDonald’s
We went to the location near the train station as we head read it was beautiful due to being in an old café. We didn’t come here to eat, but the screens did say they had the coveted gluten free burger (which if you haven’t tried in Europe before, comes individually wrapped to prevent cross contamination).
NOT GLUTEN FREE
7G Coffee Roasters
We had read that this was some of the best coffee in Porto, so while on that side of the river we decided to check it out. We only went here for coffee, and not food! They could have gluten free, but I have no idea, and I didn’t look into it. The coffee was definitely decent though and it’s a good stop if you’re in the area.
Map of Porto Gluten Free Options
If you want more options, here is the Wanderlog map I made of everywhere I could find that had good gluten free reviews, labelled menus, and/or indications that gluten free was safe at their restaurants. Please note that I did not personally eat at all these restaurants, so do your own due diligence and reach out or check their websites/menus ahead of your visit.
HOW TO USE THE MAP: Click on the Wanderlog logo in the bottom right corner to open the full-size map up in a new tab. There, you can choose to just look at one category at a time or see all the categories on the map at once (click the 3 squares in the top right to choose). You can also export the map to Google Maps, share the map with others, or save the map.
Helpful Porto Planning Tips
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For our Portugal trip, we used on the following:
- Accommodation: we stayed at Moov Porto Centro – book here
- Tours & Tickets: we use Get Your Guide to book tours and tickets – explore options here
- Stay Connected: data is important for us to find restaurants on the go or connect to our map, we use Airalo eSims – book here
- Planning: we use Wanderlog to organize our food maps and itineraries – check them out here
- Trip Insurance: we’ve used World Nomads, though never needed to claim – explore plans here
