Eating gluten-free in Mannheim

Mannheim is the city of squares, with a baroque palace, a water tower and some of the most varied food in the south-west. Heidelberg is only a short S-Bahn ride away. The cooking of the Electoral Palatinate is hearty, and the gluten is often in the dumpling, the dough and the filling.

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

Can you eat out gluten-free in Mannheim?

Yes, and together with Heidelberg you have more choice than you might expect. Mannheim’s centre is laid out in squares that carry letters and numbers instead of street names, which makes it surprisingly easy to find your way around. The tram gets you quickly to the Neckarstadt or the Jungbusch, and the S-Bahn to Heidelberg in about 20 minutes. Most of the checked places offer gluten-free options rather than cooking entirely gluten-free. So the choice is there, and the asking stays.

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 chips and falafel, the kebab spit where the bread is warmed. That is the part you have to ask about.

What should I know about Mannheim and Heidelberg?

The first thing is the variety. Mannheim is a city of people who have come from all over the world, and you can tell from the food: Turkish, Italian, Arabic and Asian cooking stand alongside that of the Kurpfalz region. For you that is an advantage, because some of these cuisines work a lot with rice, grilled food and pulses. The risk is in the bread that comes with almost everything, and in the shared fryer.

The second thing is Heidelberg. The old town with its castle, the Old Bridge and the long Hauptstraße draws a great many visitors, and it is also home to Germany’s oldest university. At busy times the restaurants are full, and a kitchen under time pressure has less calm for a special order. If you want to eat in Heidelberg, choose the place beforehand rather than walking along the Hauptstraße to the first free table.

And the third: the universities, colleges and many young people bring places serving bowls, burgers and vegan food to both cities. That widens your choice, but vegan does not mean gluten-free. Seitan is wheat protein, and many meat substitutes are bound with wheat.

Which dishes of the Electoral Palatinate (Kurpfalz) contain gluten?

The cooking around Mannheim shares a great deal with the Palatinate on the other side of the Rhine, and the gluten is often in the filling:

• Pfälzer Saumagen (stuffed pig’s stomach): A pig’s stomach filled with pork, sausage meat, potatoes and often carrots, cooked and served in slices, often fried. The basic recipe uses no cereal, but many home recipes add soaked bread rolls to the filling, and with the sausage meat it depends on the butcher. No slice shows it. Ask explicitly about rolls in the filling, about the sausage meat and about the pan.
• Pfälzer Leberknödel (liver dumplings): Dumplings made from liver, meat, onions, egg and soaked bread rolls, often with sauerkraut and mashed potato. The roll is the binding and belongs to the recipe; the dumpling does not work without it.
• Dampfnudeln (steamed yeast dumplings): Yeast dumplings made from wheat flour, cooked in a closed pot until a salty crust forms underneath, served with wine sauce or potato soup. Flour is the foundation here.
• Spundekäs: Originally from Rheinhessen, but common in Palatinate wine taverns too: a cream of soft cheese or quark, often with butter or cream, plus onions, paprika and, depending on the place, garlic. There is no cereal in it. It is almost always served with small lye pretzels, though, and those are made from wheat flour. Dipping pretzels into the Spundekäs leaves crumbs in the bowl. Order a portion of your own rather than eating from the shared bowl.
• 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: Wine from the Palatinate and the Bergstraße is naturally gluten-free, as is the wine spritzer that often comes in a big glass here. 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, rice 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 Maimarkt and in Heidelberg’s old town?

The Maimarkt is Mannheim’s big consumer fair in spring, with halls full of exhibitors and lots of food stalls. People eat on the move: sausage in a roll, chips, tarte flambée, baked goods. 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 Maimarkt, food of your own is not a stopgap, it is the plan. Packaged goods with a list of ingredients, and drinks, are the exception you can build on.

In Heidelberg’s old town the distances are short but the restaurants are full, above all at weekends and in summer. Look at the map beforehand, book and mention your gluten question as you book. And if you walk up to the castle or take the funicular, bring something with you: there is food up there, but not a choice you can rely on.

How does Gluti help me in Mannheim?

In Gluti you can see on the map which places in and around Mannheim and Heidelberg 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.

Because Mannheim and Heidelberg are so close together, it pays to look at both cities here. Save favourites in both, and after a day in Heidelberg’s old town you will not have to start searching. If you know a good place in Mannheim, Heidelberg or the Kurpfalz region 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 Mannheim or Heidelberg.