Eating gluten-free in Cologne

In Cologne the cathedral, the main station and the old town all sit within a few hundred metres of each other, and that is where the local classics are on the menu. The wider choice for you starts one tram ride further out, in the Veedel, as the city calls its neighbourhoods.

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

Can you eat out gluten-free in Cologne?

Yes. Cologne is big enough for businesses that work gluten-free throughout, and for kitchens that start with rice or maize anyway. The local cooking in the old town, by contrast, leans unusually often on bread, on a thickened sauce, on Kölsch in the braising pot and on one pan of fat that runs for everything.

If you ask, you have to be told which grain is in a dish, so wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt or Kamut. That information covers only the 14 allergens named in law and is not an ingredient list. It may be given orally, but then the business has to keep a written or electronic record of the ingredients and let you look at it on request. What was in the pan, on the board and in the fryer beforehand you will only learn by asking.

What should I know about Cologne?

Plan by time of day and district rather than by sight. Ehrenfeld, the Südstadt and the Neustadt with the Belgian Quarter are a few stops away, the Neustadt also on foot, and that is where the independent restaurants are.

On trade fair days, on match days, on the 11th of November and in the days from Weiberfastnacht to Veilchendienstag, tables in the city centre are scarce and the kitchens are working to a rhythm, which leaves little room for questions and separate preparation. Book a table then, and raise your question right away on the phone.

Which Cologne dishes contain gluten?

With the classics the gluten often sits where you would not expect it:

• Halver Hahn: Not half a chicken, but a Röggelchen (a small rye and wheat roll) with medium-matured Gouda, butter, onion and mustard. The gluten is in the roll, because Röggelchen are baked from rye and wheat flour. With the mustard, ask which kind.
• Flönz as Kölscher Kaviar: Rhenish black pudding, cold, in slices, with onion rings and mustard, served with a Röggelchen of rye and wheat flour. Leave the roll out. Flönz is registered as a protected geographical indication whose recipe allows no grain, but only the name of the sausage is protected, not the name of the dish. Black puddings that do contain gluten usually have a name of their own, Semmelblutwurst (wheat) or Grützblutwurst (barley): ask about the particular sausage.
• Himmel un Ääd: Mashed potato with apple, fried black pudding and fried onions. Cologne recipes turn the black pudding in flour, and shop-bought fried onions almost always contain wheat flour. Ask about flour on the sausage, about the fried onions and about a sauce.
• Rievkooche met Rübenkraut (potato fritters with sugar beet syrup): Fritters of grated potato with egg, onion and a binder, usually flour or rolled oats. They are fried in plenty of fat on the same griddle that breaded food was on earlier, and a brewpub kitchen runs a fryer for everything as well. Ask about the binder including oats, and about the griddle and the fat.
• Rheinischer Sauerbraten (marinated pot roast): The meat and the marinade are usually above suspicion, the gluten is in the thickening. The Cologne version thickens with Printen, a wheat biscuit, other recipes with gingerbread, Pumpernickel or a commercial thickener. Ask what the sauce is thickened with and ask about the side, because potato dumplings often contain semolina or breadcrumbs.
• Hämchen met suure Kappes (cured pork knuckle with sauerkraut): Cured knuckle simmered in stock, with sauerkraut, mashed or boiled potatoes and mustard, no breading and no fryer. The knuckle takes on the stock it cooks in, though, and there is mustard with wheat flour and mustard with barley malt. Ask about the stock, about the kind of mustard and about a gravy.
• Ähzezupp (thick pea soup): A thick pea soup with pork, root vegetables and potatoes. The peas and potatoes thicken it themselves, but in many places it is thickened with a roux. Ask about the thickening, about the sausage and about the stock.
• To drink: Kölsch is brewed from barley malt, some brands add wheat malt, and the same malt is in Malzbier and in alcohol-free beer. In a brewpub your empty glass is swapped without being asked, so say when you order that you want no beer and no malt drink, and put the mat on top of your glass. Wine, apple juice and mineral water contain no grain, and with alcohol-free sparkling wine you read the ingredient list.

Your best bets are the Hämchen and the pea soup, once the stock and the sausage are cleared up, along with potatoes, meat, fish and vegetables without sauce or breading. Ask about flour in the pan there too, because fried food is often simply dusted with flour.

What should I watch for at the street carnival?

From Weiberfastnacht to Veilchendienstag the eating moves out onto the street, and almost everything sold there and in the bakeries contains gluten: rolls with minced pork or sausage, doughnuts, Muuzemändelcher and other deep-fried things from a fat that has had breaded food in it too. With the Muuzemändelcher, flour is the main ingredient despite the almonds, and they sit unwrapped on the tray without a label.

At a stall as well, you have to be told on request which of the 14 allergens named in law are in unwrapped goods. The list itself does not have to be on display, but a notice does: if a stall gives the information orally only, that has to be pointed out clearly and visibly, and there has to be a written record of the ingredients that you may look at. Ask for it rather than relying on a yes in the crush: only the operator or sufficiently informed staff may give the information, and whoever is serving usually did not make the food themselves.

So eat properly beforehand, take sealed food with an ingredient list with you, and drink something reliably gluten-free. Whatever gets thrown into the crowd along the parade route reaches you without an ingredient list. Out in the Veedel the parades are smaller and you are more likely to get to a counter, and for a hot meal you go before or after the parade times to a place outside the old town.

How does Gluti help me in Cologne?

In Gluti you can see on the map which places in and around Cologne are listed, and every one of them 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”. Where the whole kitchen works gluten-free, you do not have to hope for a free pan on a trade fair day or during carnival. Save a place out in the Veedel as a favourite for the evenings when it is too busy around the cathedral.

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. For the carnival weeks, café and bakery will help, and for travelling to the trade fair, gluten-free travel. If you know a good place in Cologne that is missing from Gluti, you can suggest it in the app. The German coeliac society (Deutsche Zöliakie-Gesellschaft, DZG) has volunteer-led discussion groups across the country, and the DZG can tell you whether there is one in Cologne or the Rhineland.