I will be traveling to Dubai in October and staying for 10 days. I have Celiac Disease and must eat a Gluten Free diet. Gluten Free basically means I cannot eat anything containing wheat, oats, rye, or barley. I've been searching for information on Gluten Free shopping and restaurants but have found nothing so far. Is Dubai celiac friendly? If I simply go to a restaurant and explain my needs will they be understood? Any advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Maybe check with the local guides there. See if they've had clients with similar needs and any recommendations.
http://www.ourexplorer.com/Tour-Guide-Jasem+Zaiton.aspx

Well I am sure there are restaurants who can prepare Gluten Free diet, for example check this out:
Lime Tree Café
Venue: Jumeirah
Dubai
Tel: +971 4 349 8498 Taxi: Beach Road, near Jumeirah mosque
Cuisine: Cafe
Opening Hours:
7.30am-6pm daily

Lime Tree Café
Judging by the clientele on our visit, the Lime Tree Café’s Jumeirah Jane reputation is entirely justified. Nothing wrong with that, although after wading through our huge hearty breakfasts we wished we’d followed the JJ’s healthy dietary lead: fruit salad, muesli and lattes.


Our hearty cooked meals yielded mixed results. With clumps of scrambled egg and thick layers of warm smoked salmon sprawled across toasted ciabatta, my friend’s breakfast was intensely filling, overly salty, and, without any sauce, very dry. Something to counter the dryness and balance the saltiness – perhaps some fruit salad on the side – was needed.

The Lime Tree Café deserve some kudos for including a pot of baked beans in their cooked breakfast, while the chicken sausages – juicy and mightily plump – and the bright red beef bacon, were impressively authentic-tasting. The two fried eggs had been stretched to unpleasantly filmy proportions but the yolks still proved able dips to roughly-fashioned toast soldiers. Roast potatoes should be crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside, but the Lime Tree’s were squishy, dry and chewy. Throughout our meal, the refrigerated counter by the till was being stocked up with fantastic-looking sandwiches and salads and even at 8am we found it hard to resist the gluten-free chocolate cake. Lime Tree do these things with invention, flavour and subtlety but unfortunately we found their breakfast offerings a little flat.

You have to check with any restaurant that you want to take your meals if they have Gluten Free preparations.
Good luck.

hi from dubai!

restaurants aren't extremely specific-diet-friendly in Dubai (yet), but gluten free breads, etc. are available in supermarkets such as "Spinneys" but even more so, in the Organic Foods and Cafe (you can google for their website for locations)

There might be a handful of cafes that offer gluten-free foods, but in the past 10 years I do not recall any specific menus that mentioned this option.

Few restaurants, chefs or wait-staff know what gluten free means. Ask careful questions because culturally the staff will want to please you and say 'yes' to everything you ask, whether the items are gluten free or not.

You can get all kinds of cereal, bread, biscuits, cakes, pasta, sauces etc at The Organic Cafe http://www.organicfoodsandcafe.com/

Spinneys and Choitrams have a fair range, and western supermarkets like Carrefour carry some gf products. Some of the local markets also carry some products.

The Lime Tree Cafe in Jumeriah always has gf options in the cabinet.

Don't trust food labels produced in the middle east - there are no laws and no requirement to declare ingredients.

Do not trust locally milled flours and grains. While the original grains (eg rice, maize) may be gluten free, they are processed in the same mills that produce wheat and there is significant contamination.

Eating out is sometimes tricky, unless you go to the expensive restaurants but cooking for yourself at home is easy.
Good luck!

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply. Most of the 5 star hotels in Dubai have gluten free products available. I am currently working at Le Royal Meridien and we have a wide variety of gluten free pastas, breads and ready made snacks available. We also supply extensive training for our culinary staff to ensure that you get what you ask for without having to worry about cross contamination from gluten containing products. The Grosvenor House, our siter property, also has similar products and similarly trained associates.
Hope this helps and is not to late.