Booking our trip to Stavanger less than 36 hours before the plane departed didn’t really give me a great deal of time to research gluten options there. However, having visited Norway as a gluten free traveller before, I was confident I’d be relatively OK. In fact, it turned out much better than OK…

McDonalds

The Golden Arches offer gluten free buns in Norway (and all over Scandinavia). Whilst this is clearly not a gourmet option, it offers a safe choice for the gluten free diner. One of the blogs I’d managed to read before setting off was this by itsgottobeglutenfree. On approaching the counter and asking if they had gluten free buns I received the same response, as if to say “durr, of course we do, you fool” In fact this was repeated everywhere else we went, eating gluten free in Norway just seems so ordinary.

Norway is not cheap to eat out in so this provided both a quick and inexpensive lunch option and the kids tried their first Happy Meal. (Hoping that is a memory they don’t keep reminding me of!).

Egon

We ate at this Norwegian chain several times, mainly due to it being the only place in town being open on New Year’s Eve (odd). The decor was a bit TGI Fridays-esque but it had plenty of gluten free options including this pizza.

And importantly when a glass of average quality wine costs well over a tenner, gluten free beer!

After too much McD’s and pizza, I could only face a Cobb salad. Complete with gluten free bread, simply switched from regular bread and not attracting an additional charge. That’s a gluten free beer to the left too.

Dolly Dimple’s

Dolly Dimple’s are a chain of pizza restaurants found all over Norway. They offer regular and gluten free pizzas. One interesting service from Dolly’s is that they can deliver to your hotel, instead of room service. In our case, they came right to our hotel door complete with card reader for the payment.

The menu online was in Norwegian but did have pictures and quick use of a translation app I figured out what the toppings were.

I choose ham and mushroom with extra tomato slices. (That’s another gluten free beer on the table).

I enjoyed this pizza but the base is not like a regular Italian pizza base. The texture is more springy and thicker. If you’ve ever tried a McDonald’s gluten free burger bun in Scandinavia, it’s a bit like that. Not unpleasant, just different. I don’t have a problem with codex wheat starch but I know some Coeliacs do. Many of the Scandinavian gluten free goods (e.g., Fria) contain it, so if this is an issue for you, then you might want to check.

Bolgen & Moi, Norwegian Petroleum museum, Stavanger

Enjoyed lunch here of this salmon salaad with a great view of Stavanger’s harbour from the pier of the oil museum. Normally offers gluten free bread but the bakery was closed over New Year so none available on my visit.