Gluten Free in Iceland

January 06, 2014

Yes!!!! We were lucky enough to see the Northern Lights :)

Gluten Free pizza at Rossopomodoro
Traveling as a coeliac is never easy. I have at least one breakdown where I cry on every trip I go on. Is it too much to ask to just want a nice meal? I don't think many people understand how difficult it is… expect the coeliac (me) and their spouse (in my case my most understanding husband!)

BUT, Iceland was one place where I did not have a breakdown. YAY! I prepared very well this trip. I packed pasta, Warburton's gluten free wraps and baguettes, Udi's Granola, Genius crumpets, a Sainsbury's pizza base, a few biscuits and I was ok! I survived. It doesn't help that I don't like much meat and not so mad about eggs. I know, I'm annoying. I feel like if I ate eggs, bacon and such breakfast at hotels wouldn't be too difficult.

Pasta at Ruby's Tuesday!
Icelandic people are extremely friendly. Especially those that work in restaurants. The first night, we went into a very cute little Italian restaurant called Rossopomodoro. I took a big chance and handed over my pizza base. I said please be careful of contamination, use foil if you place it anywhere, make sure there isn't flour around. Like I said I took a BIG chance, but for some reason I so wanted a pizza! They made me a lovely veggie pizza and I was ok!! I was so happy. The staff was so lovely and friendly as well.

The second night, we found a Ruby Tuesday. I'm a sucker for American chains wherever I go in the
world. We went there and the staff is also very friendly. I had brought my pasta along and explain to our waiter my issue. He went back and forth with the chef and said all the sauces on the menu have some sort of flour in it, so he suggested an option they had on their old menu and it was a lovely veggie pasta sauce. It was so wonderful! They really made sure it was ok and were so patient.  Also, both restaurants never charged full price for my dish since I provided both the pizza base and pasta.

Skyr yogurt! Couldn't get enough!! 
A few other things about being gluten free free in Iceland -- We went to a small grocery store in the city center called Bonus. I was mazed at how many gluten free items they had. Pasta to biscuits to bread.  We stayed at the Grand Hotel in Iceland which is lovely. For breakfast, they had an organic breakfast bar section which also included gluten free bread. I was a bit hesitant to try it since it was mixed in with the organic bread which wasn't gluten free. But it was nice because the hotel staff actually understood what gluten free was!

Everyone that had been to Iceland said Skyr yogurt is something you must try. So hubster and I were on a search. Luckily they had at our breakfast bar and it was delicious! I had that every morning. It is so healthy with so much protein. We actually brought some back to London with us. I even looked to see if there was a stockist in London, no luck :(

Another tip — we went on the Golden Circle tour one of our days, so we were out from 8am-6pm. So

Organic breakfast bar at Grand Hotel
that morning I brought a Warburton's baguette down to the breakfast and just made a veggie sandwich. I was really prepared, I even brought small ziploc bags. I was so excited for the tour, but knew I probably wouldn't find much to watt at our café shop.


I was determined not to food ruin my trip. I prepared and packed everything. And boy did we have such a great time! I would do anything to relive that weekend in Iceland. 

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