Gluten-Free Chicago: a dedicated bakery, café and taquito bar, plus brunch and pizza, for celiacs

Chicago is big, and the places on this page sit in two parts of it. Four mixed kitchens are in River North and Streeterville, just north of the river and close to the sights: Do-Rite Donuts & Chicken and Seoulspice are each about 5 minutes on foot from the Magnificent Mile, Beatrix about 10, and Egg Harbor Cafe about 5 from the Riverwalk. Aba is west of the Loop on N Green St, about 25 minutes on foot from the Willis Tower Skydeck. The three entirely gluten-free places are on the North Side: Kite String Cantina on W Addison St, about 30 minutes on foot west of Wrigley Field; Defloured: A Gluten-Free Bakery on W Balmoral Ave, about 7 miles (11 km) north of Clark/Lake station in the Loop in a straight line; and Wheat’s End Cafe on W Diversey Pkwy. 11 Degree North (about 15 minutes on foot from Wrigley Field), Chicago’s Pizza (about 25), BienMeSabe and Daisies are north and northwest of the centre too: from the Loop, plan a train, a bus or a car, not a walk. Downtown itself is walkable: Millennium Park and the Art Institute are about 5 minutes apart on foot, and the Shedd Aquarium on the Museum Campus is about 30 minutes on foot from Millennium Park. All walking times and distances here are our estimate from the map.

A day that works: start at Millennium Park, open from 6am, for Cloud Gate, then the Art Institute next door (from 11am; closed on Tuesdays). Walk north to the river and along the Riverwalk, and cross into River North for lunch: Egg Harbor Cafe and Beatrix are both mixed kitchens with their own gluten-free menu, so say you have coeliac disease when you order and ask about the fryer. In the afternoon, walk the Magnificent Mile up to 360 CHICAGO (daily 9am to 11pm) for the view over the lake. Do-Rite Donuts & Chicken, about 5 minutes from the Magnificent Mile, has a gluten-free section on its menu; ask how those donuts are made, cooked and boxed. Keep the North Side for another day: pastries at Defloured, where everything is gluten-free in its own words (its site gives two different sets of opening days, so check before you go), then Wrigley Field, and dinner at Kite String Cantina, where the kitchen is entirely gluten-free in its own words. It is a bar with a beer list, so ask which drinks are gluten-free.

In the US, “gluten-free” on packaged food is a voluntary claim under the rule of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and a product that carries it must contain less than 20 ppm of gluten. The rule covers packaged foods. For restaurant menus the FDA only recommends that a “gluten-free” claim matches its definition, so a GF on a menu is the restaurant’s own word. Two programs of the Gluten Intolerance Group go further: GFCO certifies products, which must test below 10 ppm (or below the country’s limit, if that is lower), and GFFS validation (Gluten Intolerance Group) reviews a restaurant’s policies and procedures, recipes, ingredients and training. A third, Chef to Plate, is a separate program with a lower bar: the Gluten Intolerance Group itself calls GFFS validation the one with higher standards and an annual audit. Whatever the menu or the sticker says, say you have coeliac disease every time: “celiac” is the spelling staff in the US know.

Chicago’s famous food is mostly wheat: deep-dish pizza, Italian beef on a soaked roll, hot dogs on poppy-seed buns. Fries are the classic trap, because many kitchens fry them in the same oil as breaded food: ask about the fryer every time. US allergen labels must name wheat but not barley or rye, so watch for malt and beer in batters and sauces. A gluten-free menu is not a gluten-free kitchen: Chicago’s Pizza, for example, says every pizza is cooked in its stone-hearth oven, so ask how the gluten-free ones are kept off the shared stone and away from flour. We haven’t checked a Chicago hotel kitchen ourselves: when you book, ask about gluten-free breakfast and pick a room with a fridge. Defloured and Wheat’s End Cafe, both entirely gluten-free, are the places to stock up; Wheat’s End is carryout and delivery only and also sells frozen goods, and its site shows two addresses and two sets of hours, so check before you go.