Eating gluten-free in Freiburg

Freiburg is a university city and the gateway to the Black Forest, and it lies so far south-west that France and Switzerland are closer than Stuttgart. Baden cooking is good and generous, and for you the gluten is often in what belongs with the meat: the roll, the sauce, the dough.

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

Can you eat out gluten-free in Freiburg?

Yes, and the old town makes it easy, because it is small. From the Münsterplatz to the Martinstor and the streets around Konviktstraße is a walk of a few minutes, and if a place is full or the answer from the kitchen does not convince you, the next one is not far. The number of checked places is still modest, though. So plan ahead, especially at weekends, when day visitors come into the city from Alsace, Switzerland and the whole of the Black Forest.

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 grill the rolls are warmed on, the water Spätzle cook in all evening. That is the part you have to ask about.

What should I know about Freiburg?

The first thing is where it is. Freiburg is a wine city, with the Kaiserstuhl and the Markgräflerland on its doorstep, and its cooking looks to Alsace on the other side of the Rhine: tarte flambée, cream sauces, pastries. In many inns the food is carefully cooked, but rarely without flour. So always ask what a sauce is thickened with, and if in doubt order without.

The second thing is the university. Freiburg has one of the oldest universities in Germany and a lot of young people, and with them cafés, lunch menus and places serving bowls, burgers and vegan food. Freiburg is also known as a green city, and you can tell from the many vegetarian menus. That widens your choice, but vegan does not mean gluten-free. Seitan is wheat protein, and many meat substitutes are bound with wheat.

And the third: Freiburg is a city of markets and day trips. There is a market around the minster every day except Sunday, and the cable car takes you up the Schauinsland in no time. More on that below.

Which Baden dishes contain gluten?

In Baden cooking the gluten is often not in the meat but in everything that goes with it:

• Lange Rote: Freiburg’s sausage from the minster market, around 35 centimetres long, in a split roll with onions. The sausage itself is usually fine, but the German food code generally allows cereals and starch in meat products, so ask for the ingredient list. The roll is made from wheat, and at the stall both lie on the same grill. Ask for a sausage without a roll before it touches one.
• Bibiliskäs: Quark with herbs, onions, salt and pepper, served with Brägele or boiled potatoes. There is no cereal in it. The bread that often lies beside it does contain some. Ask for a plate without bread rather than pushing it aside.
• Brägele: Baden’s word for fried potatoes. Potatoes, onions and bacon contain no cereal, but in an inn kitchen they often share the pan with breaded food. Ask whether they get a pan of their own.
• Badisches Schäufele: Unlike the Franconian one it is not roasted but cured, smoked and boiled, and it comes with potato salad. With the meat it depends on the curing mix, because the German food code generally allows cereal products and starch in meat products. Baden potato salad is dressed with stock, and stock cubes and stock powder can contain wheat. Ask about both.
• Spätzle and Kässpätzle: egg noodles made from flour, egg and often durum wheat semolina; spelt is no way out, it is a type of wheat. Kässpätzle come with fried onions on top, and shop-bought ones contain wheat flour. Gluten-free Spätzle need their own water and their own sieve, because wheat dough cooks in the Spätzle water all evening.
• Flammkuchen (tarte flambée): A thin wheat-flour dough topped with soured cream, onions and bacon, baked in a hot oven. Flour is the foundation here, not the topping. Even a gluten-free base helps little if it sits in the same oven on the same stone as every other tarte flambée.
• Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest gateau): Chocolate sponge made from wheat flour, cream, cherries and kirsch. The kirsch is no problem, the sponge is. Gluten-free versions exist, but only where they are explicitly baked that way.
• 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: Baden wine and sparkling wine are made from grapes and are naturally gluten-free, as are fruit brandies such as kirsch. 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. With anything containing syrup, ask.

Your best bets are meat, fish, 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 minster market and in the Black Forest?

The minster market means two things for you. Around the minster you will find fruit, vegetables, cheese in one piece and eggs, all gluten-free in themselves, and at many stalls you can ask directly what is in the sausage, the spread or the ham. In between are the snack stalls selling Lange Rote, and there sausage and rolls lie on the same grill. Shopping there is fine; eating there only if you get the sausage without a roll and the stall keeps the two apart properly.

For a day in the Black Forest: the huts and country inns are lovely but small, and their menus live on cold platters with bread, cake and tarte flambée. Take the cable car up the Schauinsland or set off on a longer hike, and you cannot just pop back into town along the way. Food of your own is not a stopgap here, it is the plan. And if you want to eat after the hike, book in town beforehand and mention your gluten question as you book.

How does Gluti help me in Freiburg?

In Gluti you can see on the map which places in and around Freiburg 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, but that means you can see at a glance which place saves you almost all the asking. Before a day trip, save a favourite in the old town, and you will not have to start searching again in the evening. If you know a good place in Freiburg, on the Kaiserstuhl or in the Black Forest 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. For day trips, the guide on gluten-free travel is worth a look. 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 Freiburg or southern Baden.