NutrixeSardinia is a pleasant surprise for coeliacs: of the 13 places Nutrixe has verified on the island, 12 are fully dedicated gluten-free businesses. There are few sit-down restaurants, plenty of bakeries and gelato shops, and they are scattered all over the island. Here is the overview, town by town, along with the traps in Sardinian cooking.
Where the places are
The island’s two gateways, Cagliari in the south and Olbia in the north-east, have three places each. The rest are scattered, so a car is almost essential to get from one to the next.
Cagliari and the south
The capital has its own Cagliari guide covering its three dedicated places. In short: Man.gia, a restaurant-pizzeria that describes itself as Sardinia’s first gluten-free restaurant; Verì Pan Cafe, a gluten-free and dairy-free bakery-café; and Gluten Free Store, a large gluten-free grocery inside a pharmacy. In our database, Man.gia is the only proper restaurant in the south of the island.
Olbia and the Costa Smeralda
Olbia, the gateway to the Costa Smeralda, also has its own Olbia guide. You will find the 100% gluten-free restaurant Be Free, the Da Brivido gelateria, where gelato, cones and cakes are all gluten free, and the bakery-shop Food Senza Glutine for fresh bread in the morning.
Further north, on the La Maddalena archipelago, the gelateria Dolci Distrazioni on Largo Matteotti highlights its gluten-free gelato and appears in Gambero Rosso’s gelato guide. But it does not present itself as dedicated: ordinary cones and wafers may be on the same counter. It is the only Sardinian place we class as “gluten-free menu” rather than “dedicated”. Ask for a tub and a clean scoop.
Sassari and Alghero, in the north-west
Sassari doesn’t yet have enough places for a guide, but both of the ones it has are dedicated. Caffetteria da Nicoletta on Via Risorgimento is 100% gluten free and dairy free: pastries, traditional Sardinian cakes, bread, and dishes of the day such as lasagne or meatballs. The founder is coeliac herself. Rated 5.0 from 26 reviews.
Gusto Senza Glutine on Via dei Gremi is a fully dedicated bakery and pâtisserie with a wide sweet and savoury range, some of it also dairy free (4.6 from 87 reviews).
In Alghero, Babaglù on Viale Giovanni XXIII is a small, recently opened bakery: pastries, bread, mini pizzas, biscuits and home-made Sardinian specialities, all gluten free (4.7 from 45 reviews).
Oristano and the east coast
On the west coast, in Oristano, Celiò on Via Mazzini is an artisan gluten-free bakery: bread, panettone and sweets for coeliacs (4.8 from 85 reviews).
The east coast, Ogliastra, has two places that matter all the more because they are isolated. In Tortolì, Celiasì on Viale Santa Chiara is a fresh pasta maker, bakery and pâtisserie in one, 100% gluten free, with traditional Sardinian pastries made in front of you (4.8 from 228 reviews). A little further north, in Santa Maria Navarrese, the family-run Mastro Gelataio on the seafront says all its flavours and cones are gluten free (4.8 from 1,202 reviews). It is seasonal, so check opening times outside summer.
Pane carasau, culurgionis, seadas: what’s in Sardinian food
Sardinian cooking is built on durum wheat. The three specialities you will see everywhere contain gluten in their traditional recipes.
- Pane carasau, a very thin, crisp flatbread, is made with re-milled durum wheat semolina, water, salt and yeast.
- Culurgionis d’Ogliastra, ear-of-wheat-shaped ravioli filled with potato and cheese, are protected by a PGI whose specification requires a dough of durum wheat semolina and soft wheat flour.
- Seadas (or sebadas), the fried dessert of fresh cheese and honey, have a casing of durum wheat semolina worked with lard, and are deep fried.
Cheese and honey are not enough. Even when the filling of a seada or a culurgione is gluten free, the pastry isn’t, and shared frying oil adds another risk. Only eat these specialities from a fully gluten-free kitchen, and ask for them: several of our places make “Sardinian specialities” in gluten-free versions.
Grilled meat, fish and cheese contain no cereals by nature, but outside our dedicated places the kitchen is shared: marinades, breadcrumbs and shared griddles need checking every time. Our article on Italian dishes you can order gluten free explains what to ask for in an ordinary restaurant.
Holiday villages, agriturismi and hotels
This is what many families ask, and we don’t yet have a verified Sardinian hotel in our database. The right source is AIC, the Associazione Italiana Celiachia, which is present on the island as AIC Sardegna. Its Alimentazione Fuori Casa programme trains and inspects businesses that sign up, and it explicitly covers strutture ricettive, meaning accommodation, as well as restaurants, pizzerias, gelato shops and bakeries. The current list is in the AIC Mobile app and on the AIC website.
Before booking a village or an agriturismo, ask in writing whether it belongs to the AIC network, how breakfast is prepared and whether gluten-free bread goes in a separate toaster. Our gluten-free hotel guide lists the questions to ask.
Our tips on the ground
- Say “Sono celiaco” (men) or “Sono celiaca” (women). In Italy the word is understood everywhere and triggers real precautions. Our coeliac restaurant card in several languages gives you the full sentences.
- Stock up in town. The dedicated places are in Cagliari, Olbia, Sassari and Oristano; along the coast between towns there are few options. The grocery shops in Cagliari and Olbia are your picnic base.
- Check opening times out of season, especially for seaside gelato shops.
- For the rest of the country, our guide to gluten-free travel in Italy explains why Italy is one of the best-prepared countries in Europe.
In short
- 13 verified places in Sardinia, 12 of them fully dedicated, across eight towns.
- Cagliari and Olbia have three each and their own guides.
- Pane carasau, culurgionis and seadas contain wheat: only eat them from a dedicated kitchen.
- For hotels and villages, look for AIC’s Alimentazione Fuori Casa network.
Every place is on the Nutrixe map. Know a Sardinian place we’ve missed? Suggest it: we check it before publishing.
Figures at the time of publication. The database grows every week: today's exact count is always on the map.
