Eating gluten-free in Bremen

Bremen is a Hanseatic city, with its town hall and Roland statue as a World Heritage Site, the Schnoor quarter and the Town Musicians. The cooking is northern German and hearty, and for you the gluten here is especially often in the groats: in the sausage and in the kale.

Gluti offers guidance and is not a medical device. Its information does not replace medical advice.

Can you eat out gluten-free in Bremen?

Yes, but you are better off planning ahead here. The centre between the market square, the Schnoor and the Weser is compact, and the tram gets you quickly to the Viertel, where there are especially many places to eat, or to the Neustadt on the other side of the Weser. The number of checked places is still modest, though. So look at the map beforehand rather than comparing places once you are out.

What the allergen information tells you is not quite enough. It has to say which of the 14 allergen groups is in a dish as an ingredient or a processing aid, naming the cereal itself in the case of gluten. It may be given verbally, in which case a written or electronic record has to exist and be made available to you on request. What it leaves out is everything that joins the dish while it is being cooked: the pan that held breaded food before, the fryer shared by fish and chips, the knife that has just cut bread. That is the part you have to ask about.

What should I know about Bremen?

The first thing is the groats. In northern German cooking, oat or barley groats go into sausages and sometimes into the kale, and no plate shows it. Barley contains gluten, and oats are only suitable for you when they are explicitly declared gluten-free. So ask for the ingredient list with every sausage, even if the menu only says “Kohl und Pinkel”.

The second thing is the Schlachte. The promenade along the Weser is full of beer gardens and pubs in summer, and what they serve is mostly beer, fish in a roll and fried food. It is lovely for an evening by the water, less so for a safe meal. Eat beforehand somewhere you know, or ask specifically for grilled food without breading.

And the third: Bremen has a university and colleges, and the Viertel has many places serving bowls, burgers and vegan food. That widens your choice, but vegan does not mean gluten-free. Seitan is wheat protein, and many meat substitutes are bound with wheat.

Which Bremen dishes contain gluten?

In Bremen cooking the gluten is often in groats, bread and dough:

• Knipp: Bremen’s groats sausage made from pork, bacon and oat groats, fried in slices in a pan and served with fried potatoes and gherkin. The groats are not a trace but a main ingredient, and oats are only suitable for you when they are explicitly declared gluten-free. So Knipp is practically out for you.
• Grünkohl mit Pinkel und Bregenwurst (kale with Pinkel and Bregenwurst sausages): Many recipes stir oat groats or oat flakes into the kale, and oats are only suitable for you when they are explicitly declared gluten-free. Pinkel is a groats sausage made with oat or barley groats, and barley is gluten. With Bregenwurst it depends on the butcher. Ask about the ingredients of the kale and of both sausages, because a no to one question says nothing about the others.
• Labskaus: Mashed potatoes with corned beef, beetroot and gherkins. The basic ingredients contain no cereal, the tin and the bottle do: cured meat can contain wheat starch, and Worcestershire sauce used for seasoning classically contains malt vinegar made from barley. Ask about the meat and the seasoning.
• Bremer Klaben: A heavy Christmas bake of yeast dough with raisins and candied peel, similar to a stollen. The dough is made from wheat flour, so flour is the foundation here.
• Gravy and soups: Plain country cooking thickens with a roux, and a thickened sauce cannot be rescued afterwards. Agree on a swap for starch before anything is cooked, or order the dish without the sauce.
• To drink: Bremen is a beer city, and beer made from barley or wheat contains gluten unless it says “gluten-free” explicitly. Malt beer and other malt drinks are made from barley malt and contain gluten. Wine and sparkling wine are naturally gluten-free. With anything containing syrup, ask.

Your best bets are fish, meat, vegetables, potatoes and salad without breading and without a thickened sauce. Ask about the preparation there too, for instance whether things are fried in the same pan.

What should I watch for at the Freimarkt and on a kale outing?

The Freimarkt, which runs for 17 days from mid-October, is one of the oldest funfairs in Germany. People eat on the move and in the beer tent: sausage in a roll, Schmalzkuchen (small fried doughnuts), fried fish, chips, roasted almonds. At a stall one fryer or one grill serves everything, and even when a dish’s ingredients are gluten-free in themselves, cross-contamination there is next to impossible to rule out. At the Freimarkt, food of your own is not a stopgap, it is the plan.

In winter many people in Bremen go on a Kohlfahrt: a walk with games and drinks that ends at an inn with kale and Pinkel. If you are invited, let the inn know beforehand and ask whether there can be a portion of kale without groats and meat without groats sausage. Otherwise all you have that evening is what you bring yourself.

How does Gluti help me in Bremen?

In Gluti you can see on the map which places in and around Bremen are listed. Every place is checked by the Gluti team before it appears. The level tells you how a place works: “100% gluten-free”, “Separate preparation” or “Gluten-free options”. For many places you can also see whether other people would eat gluten-free there again and what they were able to eat.

The list is still short, and so far the places offer gluten-free options. That makes other people’s experiences all the more worth a look before you go. Save one favourite in the centre and one in the Viertel, and you will not have to start searching again in the evening. If you know a good place in or around Bremen that is missing from Gluti, you can suggest it in the app.

Even checked information is no guarantee, because things can change in a kitchen. So ask every time anyway. Which questions work and which answers are a warning sign is in the article What to ask in a restaurant, and the background on fryers, pizza ovens and toasters is in the article on cross-contamination. And for talking to others: the German coeliac society (Deutsche Zöliakie-Gesellschaft, DZG) runs volunteer-led discussion groups across the country, and the DZG can tell you whether there is one in Bremen.