Ask a Madrileño what you have to eat in their city and, before the churros and before the cocido, they will say bocadillo de calamares. Fried squid, in a roll, standing up at a bar near Plaza Mayor. It costs a few euros and it is the most Madrid thing there is.
It is also, for a celiac, a sandwich with three separate ways to make you ill.
Why it is such a hard one
- The squid is battered — wheat flour, always, in the traditional version.
- It is deep fried in shared oil, alongside croquetas and everything else breaded that bar sells all day.
- It comes in a wheat roll. Obviously.
Three problems, one sandwich. Which is why most of us walk past those bars, look at the queue, and keep walking. A "gluten free" version needs a separate batter, a separate fryer and a gluten free roll — three things a normal bar has no reason to have.
Where you can eat one
Chocolatería 1902, a hundred metres from Puerta del Sol, makes a gluten free bocadillo de calamares — and they can, because of how the place is built.
The owner, Juan Gabriel, is a fifth-generation churrero and celiac himself. The gluten free food is made in a separate kitchen on another floor — not a separate pan in the same fryer, a different kitchen — and gluten free orders arrive on black plates, so you can see the separation from across the table. The venue holds a collaboration agreement with ACSG, Madrid's coeliac association, and the sticker is on the door.
We have eaten there around ten times as a family. The squid sandwich is excellent — not "excellent for a celiac", excellent.
They are, of course, better known for the gluten free churros, which come out of the same separate kitchen. Order both. You are on holiday.
One honest caveat: this is not a 100% gluten free venue. Regular squid and regular churros are fried there too. The safety comes from the separate kitchen, the trained staff and the association agreement — not from the absence of gluten in the building. If you only eat in fully dedicated kitchens, that is a completely reasonable line, and our Madrid list marks which places clear it.
What to ask anywhere else
If someone tells you another bar does a gluten free version, three questions settle it:
- “¿El rebozado es sin gluten?” — is the batter gluten free? (Necessary, nowhere near sufficient.)
- “¿Se fríe en aceite aparte?” — is it fried in separate oil? This is the one that matters. A gluten free batter in the shared fryer is not gluten free food.
- “¿El pan es sin gluten?” — is the roll gluten free? Ask whether it is toasted in a shared toaster while you are at it.
If the answer to the second one is vague, order something else. Our free celiac card asks all three in Spanish, and your phone can read it aloud over the noise of a Madrid bar — which is considerable.
The point
A bocadillo de calamares is not fine dining. It is a cheap sandwich eaten standing up, and that is exactly why it matters: the ordinary things are what celiac disease takes away. Not the tasting menus — the street food, the cone, the churro, the sandwich everyone else eats without thinking.
Getting one back, in the centre of Madrid, on a black plate, is worth the walk from Sol.
Every place on celiandgo shows who said it was safe, when, and how sure we are. This one we have eaten at ourselves, about ten times. We never sell safety levels or rankings. That's the deal.