Gluten-Free Toronto: dedicated bakeries, butter tarts and gluten-free restaurants, for celiacs

Toronto is big, and the places on this page are spread across it. Downtown, Senla on Richmond St W is about 5 minutes on foot from Nathan Phillips Square and about 10 from the Art Gallery of Ontario, and Tartistry’s shop is inside the Distillery District, about 15 minutes on foot from St. Lawrence Market. West of Spadina, Bunner’s Bakeshop is on Augusta Ave in Kensington Market, and Almond Butterfly’s bistro on Dundas St W is about 10 minutes on foot from Kensington Market; its bakeshop is on Harbord St. Further west, Gluten free by l’Artisan and FAVE Gluten-Free face each other across Bloor St W, about 30 minutes on foot from Kensington Market; Pho Concept 100% Gluten-Free Eatery on St Clair Ave W is about 25 minutes on foot from Casa Loma, and Colombian Street Food is on Dupont St. For the rest, plan the subway, a streetcar, a bus or a car, not a walk: Sprouty in Leslieville (Gerrard St E, about 45 minutes on foot from the Distillery District) and GEMARO Bakery + Kitchen on Main St in the east; Riz Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen on Yonge St and bloomer’s Bayview Village in North York, about 10 and 14 km north of Union Station in a straight line; and in Etobicoke, Gud Daae Gluten Free Sandwiches and Hotcakes and Asters Patisserie on Lake Shore Blvd W, about 5 minutes on foot from each other, with the Athletes Kitchen pick-up on Jutland Rd, about 25 minutes on foot from Kipling Station. The waterfront core is walkable: the CN Tower, Ripley’s Aquarium, Harbourfront Centre and Union Station are all within about 10 minutes on foot of each other, and the Hockey Hall of Fame is about 10 minutes from St. Lawrence Market. All walking times and distances here are our estimate from the map.

A day that works: start at St. Lawrence Market, whose South Market opens at 9am from Tuesday to Friday, 7am on Saturday and 10am on Sunday, and is closed on Mondays; we haven’t checked the food at its stalls. Walk about 15 minutes east to the Distillery District, where Tartistry, entirely gluten-free in its own words, opens at 11am: a butter tart, and a savoury tart if you want lunch. Walk back west to the Hockey Hall of Fame (about 25 minutes on foot; daily 10am to 5pm outside the summer) and on to the CN Tower (about 15 minutes), which allows your own food, so a tart or two can come with you. Dinner is about 15 minutes on foot from the tower at Senla, whose whole kitchen is gluten-free in its own words: book a table on its site, and on Fridays and Saturdays go by the earlier closing time it gives, 9:30pm. Another day, go west: the Art Gallery of Ontario opens at 10:30am (closed on Mondays), and Kensington Market is about 10 minutes on foot from it, with Bunner’s Bakeshop on Augusta Ave. For lunch or dinner, Almond Butterfly’s bistro on Dundas St W, 100% gluten-free in its own words, is open every day from 9am to 9:30pm on its site. It has a bar with beer, wine and ciders, so ask which beers are gluten-free.

In Canada, a food may not be labelled, sold or advertised as gluten-free if it contains any gluten protein from wheat, oats, barley, rye, triticale or their hybrids: that is section B.24.018 of the Food and Drug Regulations, enforced by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The regulation itself names no number; Health Canada’s position is that gluten below 20 ppm in gluten-free foods would protect the health of the vast majority of people with coeliac disease. The law does not require a dedicated facility, so a gluten-free label is a claim about the product, not about the factory. Regular oats can’t be labelled gluten-free, only specially produced gluten-free oats, and a beer brewed from barley, wheat, rye, oats or triticale can’t be labelled gluten-free either, even if it was processed to remove gluten. On packs, the trademark of Celiac Canada (the Canadian Celiac Association) stands for the Global Standard Gluten-Free, a gluten-control system for manufacturers: final products tested below 20 ppm, and no gluten-containing ingredients added on purpose, not even ones processed to remove gluten. That is a product mark. Celiac Canada runs no restaurant programme (its food-service guidelines are for hospitals and care homes), so a gluten-free line on a menu is the restaurant’s own word. Whatever the label or the menu says, say you have coeliac disease every time, at the entirely gluten-free places too: “celiac” is the word staff in Canada know.

Some of Toronto’s best-known food is wheat: the peameal bacon sandwich on a bun, and the Ontario butter tart in its pastry shell. Fries are the classic trap, because many kitchens fry them in the same oil as breaded food: ask about the fryer every time, and ask whether there is malt, beer or soy sauce in sauces and batters. A gluten-free item on a mixed menu is not a gluten-free kitchen: Colombian Street Food marks its gluten-free items one by one, so buy only what is marked and ask about the fryer for anything fried, and bloomer’s makes its regular donuts in the same bakery, so ask how the gluten-free mini donuts are cooked. Several of the entirely gluten-free places keep short or unusual hours: FAVE Gluten-Free opens on Wednesdays and Saturdays only, Sprouty takes only pre-orders and afternoon high tea bookings for now, Riz is closed on Tuesdays, and Pho Concept gives no hours on its site, so call first. We haven’t checked a Toronto hotel kitchen ourselves: when you book, ask about gluten-free breakfast and pick a room with a fridge. The bakeries on this page are the places to stock up, and Athletes Kitchen, entirely gluten-free in its own words, cooks meals for delivery or pick-up on set days.