Unfortunately, I had a terrible experience here as a celiac last weekend. It primarily has to do with the behavior of one particular waiter.
I was in Berlin for one day, coming from Hamburg to see a friend from the US with several other people. Of course I searched ahead of time for somewhere to go with gluten free options, but my friend told me in the bus that when she had tried to call Dai Ragazzi for a reservation, she found out they had closed. So she suggested Cielo di Berlino, which I remembered also seeing when I was searching myself, so I agreed.
When I found the restaurant, I did see that the restaurant was featuring very prominently gluten free pizza, also writing that it was for people with celiac or allergies. It is usually nice to see that places offering gluten free options have at least heard of celiac. However, in this case I believe I was wrong to conclude from that that the staff was informed about the condition.
When I placed my order, I told the waiter clearly that I was celiac, pausing as I usually do to give them a chance to show some sign of recognition or to ask what that is if they do not know. I get a nod, so far, so good. So I ask for the buckwheat pizza crust, and the pizza type "Zicke". Then the waiter smirks. I ask him what's wrong, he waves me off. I ask if I pronounced it oddly (we had just had a chuckle about my french friend saying "Bräuse" instead of "Brause"). Only then do I get the response: No, it's just that you say you want to order glutenfree pizza, then choose an option with salami, which has gluten in it...
So just to be very clear: This waiter realized I had ordered something with gluten in it, chose not to say anything until I asked him twice about it, and apparently even found it amusing.
I found this completely unacceptable, and blew up at him, saying that he should obviously *tell* me this, since in fact not all salami has gluten in it (I had become very accustomed to ordering italian types with "senza glutine" printed on the front, and had really just not thought about the possibility). Furthermore, if someone was recently diagnosed, they may not even be aware of this "hidden" source of gluten at all. The owner came over later and apologized (although the waiter himself never did).
In the end I am very torn about this place, because on the one hand, I do believe from what the owner told me, that they are very conscious of things like cross contamination, and bake their GF pizzas on a separate tray, have the cooks watch what they are touching, etc. However, I do also believe that part of such a process needs to be educating the staff both about which options are actually GF, as well as teaching them to inform rather than ridicule their guests who need such options (or perhaps not hiring someone who would ridicule their guests in the first place?). For example, one examplary place in Germany with gluten free options is the Kartoffelhaus in Freiburg. While it is not a completely gluten free restaurant, one needs only to tell the waiter that one has celiac, and you are handed the gluten free menu and a note is placed on your order that it is for a celiac. This shows several things that were apparently missing here: First, that the staff is trained about the meaning of celiac; second, that the restaurant and cooks have taken the time to actually determine which of their dishes and ingredients are actually GF; and third, it reassures the customer that care will be taken in the kitchen to avoid cross contamination. At cielo di berlino, I believe only the third point was true. While I would like to encourage more gluten free options to be offered, I had such an overwhelmingly negative experience here with that waiter that I would not feel comfortable coming back. read more