Gluten-Free Cagliari: a dedicated kitchen and pizza for coeliacs

The places on this page are in the lower town and the newer city around it, not up on the Castello hill. In the Marina, the old port quarter behind Via Roma, are Gelateria PeterPan, a mixed gelateria at Via Roma 1 on the harbour front, and Nerocarbone, a mixed grill and pizzeria on Piazza Costituzione below the Bastione di Saint Remy; Savory, a mixed restaurant, is on Via Sassari near the station, and La Lira, a mixed pizzeria and grill, is a few minutes west of the station on Viale la Plaia. In Stampace, on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Cavò Bistrot and Forma, both mixed kitchens with a gluten-free option, are a few minutes apart on foot, by our estimate. East of Castello, Likitta, a mixed café and crêperie that, a coeliac dining listing says, takes care over its gluten-free crêpes and gelato, is on Piazza Garibaldi in Villanova, and a little further on, in San Benedetto, is the entirely gluten-free address: Man.gia, a gluten-free kitchen, bakery and pizzeria on Via Ottone Bacaredda. Piga · Gluten Free Store, a gluten-free shop run by the Piga pharmacy, is further north on Via Liguria. The lower town is walkable: from the station on Piazza Matteotti it is about 10 minutes on foot to Piazza Costituzione, and about 10 more to Piazza Garibaldi, by our estimate. Castello is the climb: it sits on a limestone hill about 100 metres above the sea, and from Via Roma up to the Cathedral square is about 15 to 20 minutes on foot, uphill, by our estimate. The Comune lists the public lifts up to Castello as running, with reduced hours, so check on the day. The Poetto beach is out of the centre, a bus ride to the east.

A day that works (not a Sunday, when the market is closed): start in San Benedetto at the market, which trades in a temporary hall in Piazza Nazzari while its historic building is renovated, from 07:00. Man.gia, the entirely gluten-free kitchen and bakery, is about 10 minutes away on foot, by our estimate, for bread and pastries from its own lab; take something for later, and check its hours first (its older site on Via Mameli is temporarily closed, so go to Via Ottone Bacaredda). From Man.gia it is about 10 minutes on foot, uphill, to the Cittadella dei Musei and the National Archaeological Museum on the north side of Castello, by our estimate, next to the San Pancrazio tower (closed for restoration: see it from outside). Walk through Castello to the Cathedral, about 5 minutes, then past the Elephant Tower (temporarily closed) to the Bastione di Saint Remy and its terrace, about 5 minutes. Come down from the Bastione to Piazza Costituzione, where Nerocarbone is, and on into Villanova: Likitta on Piazza Garibaldi is about 10 minutes on foot, by our estimate, for a gluten-free crêpe or a cup of gelato (a mixed counter, so ask for the crêpe to be made on a clean surface or a separate iron, as its card says). For dinner, Man.gia is about 5 minutes from Likitta, for a pizza from its dedicated oven or fresh gluten-free pasta. Or eat at a mixed kitchen: Forma on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II for its gluten-free pasta, or Nerocarbone for grilled meat or a gluten-free pizza; there, say the sentence and ask how the gluten-free food is kept apart. On a sunny afternoon, swap the second half for the Poetto: CTM lines PF and PQ run from by the station along Via Roma and past Bonaria to the beach; buy your ticket before you board.

Across Italy, many places belong to the Italian coeliac association’s eating-out programme, Alimentazione Fuori Casa (AFC). AIC calls them «informati», informed: staff trained on coeliac disease, AIC’s rules for preparing gluten-free food, a signed agreement, and an in-depth visit from AIC at least once a year. It is not a certificate, and joining is voluntary: plenty of kitchens serve gluten-free food outside it. AIC Sardegna, the association’s Sardinian branch, was founded in Cagliari at the end of 2022 and speaks for about 8,000 coeliacs in Sardinia, on Ministry of Health figures. It says every AFC place receives an AFC window sticker each year to display, so look for the current year’s, and that AIC members can see the list of AFC places nearby in the AIC app. The cards on this page don’t mention AIC for any of these places; in a mixed kitchen an AFC sticker is a strong signal, not a guarantee. AIC advises booking ahead so the kitchen can get ready. When you book, say you have coeliac disease.

Sardinian cooking leans on durum wheat and semolina: pane carasau, fregola, malloreddus, culurgiones and seadas all contain gluten, so order them only where a gluten-free version is on the menu. For bread and fresh pasta without that worry, go to an entirely gluten-free kitchen: Man.gia makes its own gluten-free bread and fresh gluten-free pasta. In a mixed kitchen, ask about the pasta water, the fryer and the sauces. Say the sentence before ordering, every time, dedicated kitchen or not: «Sono celiaco/a», I have coeliac disease. For pizza or pasta, ask «La pizza o la pasta senza glutine la fate con impasto e pentola separati?» (is the gluten-free pizza or pasta made with a separate dough and pot?), and for anything fried, «Per il fritto, c’è una friggitrice dedicata al senza glutine?» (for fried food, is there a dedicated gluten-free fryer?). For a day on the Poetto or a trip out of town, carry your own food: stock up first at Piga · Gluten Free Store or at a pharmacy. For the rest of the island, see our Sardinia guide.