A gluten free menu in Varna starts with one number: 46 of the 71 dishes on the Mr. Baba menu carry no marking for allergen number 1, cereals containing gluten. That is close to two thirds of the galleon's kitchen open to a guest with coeliac disease or gluten intolerance, with nothing adapted specially. The remaining 25 dishes do contain gluten and are marked as such, dish by dish, rather than with a blanket note at the bottom of the page.
What follows is where that number comes from, what the law actually requires a restaurant to tell you about allergens, which sections of the menu are the safest choice, and which traps are invisible in the name of a dish. At the end there is a short list of the questions worth asking your waiter before you order.
How many dishes on the Mr. Baba menu are gluten free
On the Mr. Baba menu 46 of 71 dishes carry no allergen 1 marking, and the distribution across sections is far from even. The table below is counted directly from the summer 2026 menu and shows where there is genuine choice and where there is almost none.
| Menu section | No allergen 1 marking | Dishes in total |
|---|---|---|
| Seafood | 12 | 13 |
| Salads | 8 | 10 |
| Sides | 6 | 6 |
| Fish | 5 | 7 |
| Cold meze | 4 | 9 |
| Vegetarian | 3 | 3 |
| Pasta and risotto | 3 | 5 |
| Soups | 2 | 3 |
| Children's menu | 2 | 3 |
| Desserts | 1 | 2 |
| Meat | 0 | 10 |
The meat section is the only one where all ten dishes carry allergen 1, because of the breading, the soy and barbecue sauces and the sides that come with them. The opposite holds for the sides and the vegetarian section, where not a single dish is marked with gluten at all.
What "gluten free" means in law, and why a restaurant rarely claims it
The claim "gluten free" is a legally defined number, not a description. Under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 828/2014 of 30 July 2014, applicable from 20 July 2016, a food may be labelled "gluten free" only when its gluten content does not exceed 20 mg/kg. The separate claim "very low gluten" is permitted up to 100 mg/kg and covers products made from specially processed wheat, rye, barley or oats.
This is where the difference in wording comes from, and you will meet it in almost any venue that runs a single kitchen. A dish with no gluten containing ingredient is not the same thing as a certified gluten free dish, because one kitchen means shared surfaces, shared utensils and often shared frying oil. So our menu states which allergens a dish contains rather than promising a value below 20 mg/kg that no restaurant kitchen measures on the spot. The honest wording is more useful to you than the reassuring one.
Is a restaurant in Varna required to declare allergens
Yes, declaring allergens is mandatory, and the obligation comes from European law. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011, applicable since 13 December 2014, requires food businesses including catering establishments to provide information on the 14 allergens listed in Annex II, also when food is sold non-prepacked. In Bulgaria the national measures under Article 44 of that regulation were adopted through the Ordinance on the provision of food information to consumers (Council of Ministers Decree No 97 of 19 March 2021, State Gazette issue 25 of 26 March 2021, in force from 10 April 2021).
The law requires the information to be available and accessible before you order, but it does not prescribe a single format. That is why one venue prints numbers next to every dish, another keeps a folder at the bar, and a third relies on the waiter telling you. We chose the first option: the numbers sit on the dish's own line and the legend of all fourteen allergens closes the menu. The list runs: 1 cereals containing gluten, 2 crustaceans, 3 eggs, 4 fish, 5 peanuts, 6 soybeans, 7 milk and dairy, 8 nuts, 9 celery, 10 mustard, 11 sesame seeds, 12 sulphur dioxide and sulphites, 13 lupin, 14 molluscs.
Which dishes are the safest choice with gluten intolerance
The safest choice with gluten intolerance is fish and seafood cooked on the griddle or the grill, together with the sides that go alongside. In the seafood section 12 of 13 dishes carry no allergen 1 marking: the plain mussels and the mussels with thyme and garlic, the grilled octopus and the Mediterranean octopus, the griddled squid with capers and lemon, the tiger prawn tails, the courgettes on the griddle with cheese and mint. The one exception in the section gives itself away in its own name: the breaded squid.
The trap is rarely the fish itself. It is the breading, the breadcrumbs, the sauces and the shared frying oil. That is why the turbot in garlic olive oil and the horse mackerel carry allergen 1, while the barramundi fillet, the griddled sturgeon and the bonito fillet with rosemary do not. If you also want to know where the fish itself comes from, read how we pick the produce behind the seasonal summer menu.
What to ask before you order
Questions asked before ordering do more work than reading the menu, because they cover cross contamination, which no menu marks anywhere. The Bulgarian coeliac association, Асоциация Цьолиакия България, advises on its "eating out" page to ask about hidden gluten in sauces, breadcrumbs, croutons, stock cubes, mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup, and about frying oil that is also used for breaded products.
For a fish restaurant the practical list is short:
- Are breaded dishes fried in the same oil as the chips served as a side?
- Is the sauce for this dish thickened with flour?
- Are there breadcrumbs or croutons in the salad that are not written into the description?
- Can the dish be prepared on a separate surface with clean utensils?
- Does bread or flatbread arrive on the same plate as the dish?
The simplest route is still a call ahead on +359 896 505 050, every day between 12:00 and 24:00. Tell us what you avoid when you book the table and the kitchen will know before you sit down.
Are there gluten free options for children and vegetarians
The children's menu and the vegetarian section are the two places where the choice is most predictable. On the children's menu two of the three dishes carry no allergen 1 marking, the chicken fillet with cucumber and chips and the white fish fillet with cucumber and chips, both at 7.99 €. The third, the linguine in rose tomato sauce, contains gluten. This matters, because according to the systematic review by Singh and co-authors published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2018, coeliac disease is more common in children than in adults: 0.9% against 0.5% for biopsy confirmed diagnosis.
The vegetarian section is the only one where all three dishes pass without allergen 1: the celeriac steak with herb salad at 8.69 €, the risotto with sweet potato and spinach at 8.99 €, and the caramelised parsnip with honey, walnuts and blue cheese at 10.99 €. Watch the combinations, though: the celeriac steak carries allergens 9 and 11, celery and sesame. More on how we work with families is in our piece on being a restaurant for children in Varna.
What about the other allergens, not just gluten
Gluten is not the most widespread allergen on our menu. Milk and dairy appear in 31 of the 71 dishes, gluten in 25, fish in 16, molluscs in 13, nuts in 12, soybeans in 10, crustaceans in 6, sesame in 5, eggs in 3, and celery and mustard in 2 each. Three of the fourteen allergens appear in no dish at all on the summer menu: peanuts, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and lupin.
In a fish restaurant that distribution makes sense, but it is worth saying plainly: if your allergy is to fish, crustaceans or molluscs, it weighs more heavily than gluten here, because those three allergens together appear in 35 dishes. For cases like that the kitchen works to order, and with a larger group the cleanest way to handle it is through a catering offer, where the menu is built together with you and includes vegetarian, vegan and allergy adapted dishes.
From our kitchen
The galleon on Kraybrezhna Aleya has been anchored there since 2005 and holds five rooms across three levels for around 280 seats, but the kitchen is a single one. That is exactly why we do not write "gluten free menu" on the door. A shared kitchen means shared surfaces, and a certified claim under Regulation 828/2014 requires testing done in a laboratory, not between two orders on a Friday night.
What we do instead is duller and more dependable. The allergen numbers sit on every dish in the menu rather than in a general footnote. In the cold meze we keep cod liver served with gluten free bread at 11.88 €. When a guest warns us in advance we change the board and the utensils and leave the bread off the plate, and the waiter goes back to the kitchen to check the sauce rather than answering from memory. The sea terrace and the upper deck run from May to October, and that is where the question comes up most often, because the evenings are long and the tables are family ones. We answer it the same way every time, whoever is asking.
Frequently asked questions
Does Mr. Baba have a certified gluten free menu?
No. The menu marks allergens by number on every dish and 46 of the 71 dishes carry no allergen 1 marking, but that is not a certified "gluten free" claim within the meaning of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 828/2014, because the kitchen is shared and we do not measure content below 20 mg/kg on site.
Does a restaurant have to tell me which allergens a dish contains?
Yes. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires catering establishments to provide information on the 14 allergens in Annex II, including for non-prepacked food. The law does not prescribe an exact format, so the information may sit in the menu, in a separate folder, or come from the waiter, but it has to be accessible before you order.
Which dishes should I choose if I have coeliac disease?
The safest are the griddled and grilled dishes in the seafood section, the sides, and the vegetarian section, where no dish is marked with gluten. Avoid anything breaded and the whole meat section, in which all ten dishes carry allergen 1.
Can you prepare a dish without gluten to order?
Tell us in advance and the kitchen will work with separate utensils and surfaces, leave off the bread and check the sauce. For catering the menu is built entirely with you, including vegetarian, vegan and allergy adapted dishes, with at least two weeks' notice.
Tell us before you sit down
Eating gluten free in Varna comes down to two things: a menu that tells the truth dish by dish, and a kitchen warned in time. The first is already on the table, 46 of 71 dishes with no allergen 1 marking and a number on every line. The second depends on one sentence at the moment you book.
Read through the menu with its allergen numbers at your leisure, then book a table and tell us what you avoid. A call to +359 896 505 050 between 12:00 and 24:00 does the same job.