Best Gluten-Free Restaurants and Cafes in Hong Kong

If you've just been diagnosed with coeliac disease or you've finally decided that the brain fog after a plate of char siu rice isn't worth it anymore, you're probably scrolling through your phone wondering if Hong Kong, a city built on wheat-heavy Cantonese classics, can actually feed you. The short answer is yes, and the long answer is what this guide is for. I've spent the last decade eating my way through the gluten heavy parts of this city and the pockets of wheat free dining in Hong Kong that most guidebooks never bother to look for. Whether you are hunting down dedicated coeliac friendly Hong Kong kitchens or just need a safe place for a flat white on a Sunday morning in Sheung Wan, here is everything I have learned the hard way.

1. Grassroots Pantry in Sheung Wan

You will find Grassroots Pantry on a quiet stretch of Staunton Street, tucked above the herbal tea shops and the dai pai dong stalls that still do the city's best garlic prawns. The dining room is small, warm wood, lots of plants, the kind of place where the owner, Peggy, will remember your name after two visits. I came here the week I was told to give up wheat, and I nearly cried into a plate of their millet and quinoa risotto because I had not eaten a proper bowl of comfort food in months.

The whole menu is plant based, and almost everything can be made gluten free if you flag it. The Korean kimchi pancakes get a rice flour swap that actually works, the banana blossom "fish" and chips is better than it has any right to be, and the daily curry is always labelled. They bake their own bread with a buckwheat and psyllium blend that I have literally ordered by the loaf on more than one occasion.

Local Insider Tip: "Skip the lunch rush at 12.30 if you can. Sit at the two-seat table by the window on the left side, it stays quieter, and Peggy will swing by with the off-menu turmeric shot she's been tinkering with."

The one honest complaint I have is that the space gets very warm on a July afternoon when Staunton Street turns into a wind tunnel. They do not have proper air conditioning, just a couple of wall fans, so plan accordingly. Otherwise this is one of the best gluten free restaurants in Hong Kong for a long, slow lunch with a friend who needs convincing that plant based eating is not punishment.

2. Nood Food in Central

Nood Food sits on Wellington Street, right in the middle of the ladder-streets that climb up from Central towards Hollywood Road, and it is the kind of place you walk past twenty times before you ever notice it because the sign is so small. They make 100 percent gluten free noodles in house, from scratch, using a blend of rice and tapioca flours that genuinely fools people into thinking they are eating regular wheat noodles. I dragged a skeptical Cantonese friend here last month and she asked for the recipe before the bowl was empty.

The dan dan noodles are the headline dish, properly spicy, properly numbing from the Sichuan peppercorn, and the broth has that long-simmered depth you usually only get at noodle houses that have been going since the seventies. The wonton soup uses those same rice noodles as a wrapper alternative, and it works. The pork and prawn fillings are still made the old way, with ginger, sesame oil, and a generous hand of white pepper.

Local Insider Tip: "Order the dan dan as 'extra spicy, Hong Kong style' and ask for a side of their house-made chilli oil. They will give you a small dish of the batch Peggy's mother makes at home in Yuen Long, which is the good stuff, not the jarred version that comes out during lunch service."

The space is tiny, maybe eighteen seats, and they do not take reservations for groups under four. If you are coming on a Friday night, get there before 7pm or you will be queueing down the stairs with the office crowd from IFC. Pricing sits in the HKD 120 to 180 range for a main, which is fair for the quality and the fact that every single noodle is wheat free.

3. Treehouse in Sai Ying Pun

Treehouse is on High Street, the part of Sai Ying Pun that still has wet market stalls selling live chicken and old men playing Chinese chess under the awnings. It started as a yoga studio with a side cafe, then the cafe sort of took over, and now it is one of the most quietly excellent gluten free cafes Hong Kong has to offer. The whole menu is marked with clear coeliac icons, the staff actually understand cross-contamination, and the head chef used to cook at a Michelin starred place in Wan Chai before she had her daughter and pivoted to something slower.

The smoothie bowls are a tourist favourite for a reason, the açaí version is good, the dragon fruit and pitaya one is better, and they blend in house made granola that is oat free and nut free, which is the part most people don't realise until they ask. The lunch menu changes weekly but the chickpea pancake with smoked salmon and dill yoghurt is a recurring favourite. Coffee comes from a small roaster in Kennedy Town, and they do a single origin pour over that rotates every two weeks.

Local Insider Tip: "Get the window seat on the second floor around 9am on a Saturday. The morning light comes in sideways and you can watch the trams rattle up and down the hill, and the barista, Marco, will let you try whichever single origin he is dialing in that day if you ask nicely."

The Wi-Fi is genuinely terrible past the first three tables. If you are coming to work, ask for the bench seat in the back corner, where they have wired a separate router. The washroom is up a narrow spiral staircase, so if you have mobility issues, the ground floor counter is where you want to be. It is also one of the few places in Hong Kong where children are actively welcome, with a little book nook and crayons, which is rare in a city that tends to treat families with under fives as a minor inconvenience.

4. Baked by Francis in Kennedy Town

Baked by Francis is run by a former pastry chef at the Mandarin Oriental who quit her corporate pastry job to open a tiny shop on New Praya, Kennedy Town, right across the harbour from the cargo terminals of Stonecutters Island. Everything in the glass case is gluten free, every single item, and she still uses French butter, Valrhona chocolate, and a rice flour blend she spent two years perfecting. I came here the morning after my gluten challenge test and ate two pain au chocolat in a row while staring at the container ships, and I have been a regular ever since.

The kouign amann is the showpiece, caramelised to within an inch of its life, flaking apart in that particular buttery way that usually requires wheat to achieve. The canelés are also exceptional, with that burnt-sugar crust and custardy middle that Bordeaux bakeries would respect. On weekends she does a lemon olive oil cake that gets snapped up fast, and the almond croissants have a small, devoted following of French expats who live up the hill in Sai Kung.

Local Insider Tip: "Get there at 10.30am on a Saturday. Everything from Friday is gone, the Saturday bakes are out, and you can grab a coffee from the place next door, Knockbox, and sit on the bench outside the ferry pier. The 11.30 ferry to Cheung Chau is a glorious way to burn off the sugar."

The shop closes by 4pm most days and is fully closed on Mondays. They do not take card for orders under HKD 100, and there is no seating inside, just a small ledge by the window. Pricing is higher than your average bakery, with canelés at HKD 38 each and croissants at HKD 48, but the quality is what you would pay in Paris for a fraction of the portion size.

5. Mama Temple in Wan Chai

Mama Temple is on Ship Street, in the old Wan Chai that most visitors never see because they are too busy shopping along the Hennessy Road side of the MTR. The owners are a husband and wife team from Sichuan who ran a noodle shop in Chengdu for fifteen years before moving to Hong Kong in 2018. The whole menu is gluten free by default, which is rare for a Cantonese-leaning city, and they use a rice noodle that they import from a family producer in Sichuan.

The dan dan mien is the one to order, with the house chilli oil that arrives in a tiny dish and burns in the best possible way. The mapo tofu is made with a fermented black bean and doubanjiang that is naturally wheat free, and they will tell you so on the menu, which is the kind of transparency you want from a serious coeliac friendly Hong Kong kitchen. The wontons are hand folded each morning and arrive in a clear, pork-based broth that tastes like it has been simmering since dawn.

Local Insider Tip: "Sit at the bar along the kitchen side, not the street side. The cooks will hand you things that aren't on the menu, like the off-cut fried chilli fish snack they only make for regulars, and the chef's wife, Mama Chen herself, will come out and check if the spice level is right."

Service can get seriously backed up during the 1pm lunch crush, when the office workers from Pacific Place flood in. If you can, eat at 11.30am or after 2pm. They are also one of the few places that does a proper gluten free Chinese New Year pudding if you order ahead in January, which is the kind of thing that makes living wheat free in this city feel less lonely.

6. Cotton Tree Terrace in Causeway Bay

Cotton Tree Terrace is on the ground floor of an old walk-up on Cotton Tree Drive, looking out at the car park of the Hong Kong Cricket Club, which is one of the stranger views in the city. It started as a pop-up at a yoga studio in Repulse Bay, then graduated to this permanent spot in 2021. The whole concept is wellness-leaning Hong Kong comfort food, and they take the gluten free thing seriously enough that they have a separate prep area, separate fryers, and a manager whose only job is to walk coeliac customers through the menu.

The brunch menu is the main draw, with a gluten free version of the classic Hong Kong-style French toast that is made with a coconut flour and egg batter, dusted in desiccated coconut, and served with mango and condensed milk. The eggs benedict comes on a sweet potato rosti instead of an English muffin, which is better in my opinion because it holds up to the hollandaise. The salads are also excellent, particularly the roast chicken and pomelo version that nods to the yusheng tradition of Lunar New Year.

Local Insider Tip: "Order the French toast and ask for it to come with the Vietnamese coffee on the side. The kitchen does not usually pair them but the bitterness of the coffee cuts the sweetness of the condensed milk in a way that feels like it was designed to be."

The downside is the location. Causeway Bay traffic is awful, and parking on Cotton Tree Drive is essentially impossible between noon and 6pm. Take the MTR to Causeway Bay, exit C, and walk through the SOGO underpass. It is also busier than it should be on weekends, so weekdays are easier. The prices sit in the HKD 150 to 220 range for a main, which is on the higher side for Hong Kong, but the portions are generous and the sourcing is genuinely good.

7. Teakha in Sheung Wan (and their second spot in Sai Ying Pun)

Teakha started as a single shop on Tai Ping Shan Street in Sheung Wan, perched on the slope that runs down towards the antique shops of Hollywood Road. They have since opened a second location on Third Street in Sai Ying Pun. The whole concept is tea and simple food, and almost everything on the menu is naturally gluten free, or can be made so with a substitution. They source tea leaves directly from small farms in Taiwan, and the owner, Nina, used to work in documentary film production before deciding that tea was her real calling.

The scones are the main reason coeliacs come here. They use a rice and almond flour blend that produces something genuinely close to a proper British scone, served warm with clotted cream from a Jersey cow dairy in the New Territories and a strawberry rose jam that is the house specialty. The matcha cheesecake is also gluten free, made with a cashew and coconut base, and it is one of the most photogenic things in the city, which is why every other table will have a tourist with a phone held overhead.

Local Insider Tip: "Order the oolong scone with the high mountain Taiwanese oolong they keep in the brown ceramic jar behind the counter. It is not on the menu, you have to ask for it, and they will brew it at the table for you in a small clay teapot. It is one of the best cups of tea in the city."

The Tai Ping Shan location is on a steep hill, so if you have bad knees, take a taxi up from the Sheung Wan MTR. The Sai Ying Pun location is more accessible, with a flat entrance and more seating. Both close at 7pm most days, and both are closed on Tuesdays. It is the kind of place where you will end up staying longer than you planned, and that is exactly the point.

8. Po Ho in Wan Chai (the street food counter)

Po Ho is not a restaurant. It is a small counter on the corner of Tai Yuen Street and Po Ho Street, in the wet market that runs through the back of Wan Chai. The woman who runs it, Auntie Wong, has been selling rice noodle rolls, or cheung fun, from this exact spot for thirty-one years, and the whole operation is naturally gluten free because Cantonese rice rolls have always been made from rice flour. Most of the tourists never find it because they are too busy in the more polished Wan Chai spots, but the locals know.

The plain rice roll with sweet soy sauce is the test of any cheung fun shop, and Auntie Wong's passes with flying colours. The rice is soft, slippery, with that particular translucent quality that only comes from a properly rested batter. The shrimp and peanut version is a Wan Chai classic that most other shops have phased out, and the curry fish ball skewer on the side is the kind of thing you eat standing up, in the humid afternoon, with a paper napkin, and it costs about twelve Hong Kong dollars for the lot.

Local Insider Tip: "Get there before noon, ideally around 10.30am. The breakfast crowd clears out by 11am, Auntie Wong stops steaming new rolls around 1pm, and by 2pm she has packed up and gone home. Bring cash, small notes, and a willingness to point at what you want, because her English is limited but the food does not need translation."

The only real complaint is that the seating is two plastic stools wedged against the wall of the fish stall next door, and there is no shade. Come in winter or on a cloudy day, otherwise you will be sweating before your second bite. It is also not a place for anyone with severe shellfish allergies, as the whole market cross contaminates constantly. For a clean, basic, authentic wheat free dining Hong Kong experience that costs almost nothing, though, this is the real thing.

9. Greenhouse by Ruilin in Sheung Wan (newer, more upscale)

Greenhouse by Ruilin opened in late 2023 on Bonham Strand, in the part of Sheung Wan that still has the original granite steps and the old printing houses from the 1950s. The chef, Ruilin, trained at a two-Michelin star restaurant in Shanghai before moving to Hong Kong, and she designed the entire menu around Chinese ingredients that happen to be naturally gluten free. There is no dedicated coeliac protocol here, but every dish is labelled, the staff ask before they serve, and the kitchen is small enough that the chef can walk out and explain any dish personally.

The highlights include a smoked chicken and wild mushroom claypot that tastes like a proper Hong Kong dai pai dong dish but without the soy sauce that usually contains wheat. The steamed egg with sea urchin and Chinese wine is luxurious and simple. The dessert, a black sesame and osmanthus pudding, is the kind of plate that makes you wish every restaurant cared this much about texture. The wine list is serious and the sake selection is one of the best in the city.

Local Insider Tip: "Book the four-seat counter at the back. You will watch the chefs work, the head chef, Ruilin, will usually come out and explain each course, and you can ask her to swap the regular soy for tamari or coconut aminos on any dish. It is the most interactive seat in the house."

It is not cheap. Set menus start at HKD 680 per person for six courses, and the wine pairing adds another HKD 380. For a special occasion, though, this is the kind of place that makes wheat free eating feel like a privilege rather than a compromise. The space is also very narrow, so if you are claustrophobic, ask for the window table in advance.

10. The Mixing Bowl in Tai Hang

The Mixing Bowl sits on a quiet corner of Tai Hang, the old neighbourhood behind Causeway Bay that most Hong Kongers know for its Mid-Autumn fire dragon dance. The cafe is run by a New Zealand expat named Sarah who moved to Hong Kong in 2019, opened a gluten free baking business from her kitchen in Tin Hau, and then graduated to this shop in 2022. The whole cafe is 100 percent gluten free, and Sarah bakes everything on site, from the bread to the cakes to the cookies.

The bacon and egg pie is the breakfast dish of choice for regulars, with a shortcrust pastry made from a blend of sorghum, rice, and tapioca flours that flakes properly. The lunch menu leans towards Kiwi comfort food, with a green curry that is genuinely good, a chicken and leek pie that is better than the British version, and a rotating quiche that always sells out by 2pm. The coffee is from a small roaster in Wan Chai, and they do a flat white that I have not had better anywhere in the city.

Local Insider Tip: "Order the bacon and egg pie on a Tuesday. It is when the pork delivery arrives from a small farm in the New Territories, the bacon is freshest, and Sarah bakes the morning batch around 9am. Pair it with the long black, not the flat white, because the coffee shines through the pastry fat better that way."

The only real issue is that the cafe is small, with maybe ten tables, and the surrounding streets have almost no parking. Take a taxi and ask to be dropped at the Tai Hang fire dragon museum, then walk two minutes uphill. The cafe is also closed on Sundays, which is a slightly odd choice, but it means the rest of the week the regulars get to have the place to themselves.

When to Go and What to Know in Hong Kong

The best time to visit most of these spots is between October and early December, when the humidity drops, the typhoon season has passed, and the Christmas crowds have not yet arrived. The summer months, June to