Eating at a restaurant is a wonderful way to engage with peers and the culture around you, but if you are on a keto diet, restaurant food can present difficulties. Restaurants often serve meals with bread or starchy vegetables, which adds a lot of carbs to your plate that do not benefit the keto diet restrictions. In addition, it is also common that sauces used at restaurants (whose ingredients may be unclear) add additional sugars and other carbohydrates that may not be planned for.
That being said, if you know what to look for, you can provide yourself with choices for most diets from any restaurant menu. As long as you manage your portions and look for the desired balance in your meals, restaurants can remain a wonderful and healthy experience. For the keto diet specifically, use the following tips and tricks to keep yourself on track. Read these additional articles if you are on the reduced calorie, gluten free, or organic diets (link them).
- Check out the menu ahead of time
When you just start out, a new diet can be hard to stick to. If this is a worry for you, look at any restaurant menu online ahead of time to plan your order before you arrive. That way, you won’t feel any pressure to make a decision quickly and end up with choices that you may not have preferred (aka choices that do not stay within the bounds of your diet).
- Eliminate starches from your order
Ask the server to take out any bread, pasta, rice, or potatoes from your entree, or order a-la-carte to exclude them. Want a burger? Get lettuce instead of a bun. Does your chicken come with rice or potatoes? Substitute them for vegetables or a side salad. If the restaurant gives you trouble with substitutions, simply ask for the meal without those starchy sides. If you worry about your friends or the restaurant staff giving you trouble for your specifications–don’t. Your health always comes first, so trust your judgement and stick to your guns to get the meal you want.
- Add healthy fats to your order
While you avoid carbohydrates in your meal, seek out healthy fats. At any chance, ask for extra butter (make sure it’s real butter) to melt over your food, olive oil to drench your salads or veggies, or creamy/cheesy sauces to add flavor to your meat choice (as long as they aren’t thickened with sugar or flour). You can also ask that your meat, eggs, or veggies are cooked in butter, ask for extra creamy sauce, cheese, or avocado, or ask for an appetizer of nuts/seeds and cheese to fill up on healthy fats.
Be sure that any sauces or condiments you choose are fatty/oily like bearnaise sauce or mayonnaise, and not sugary like ketchup or BBQ sauce. Check out this sauces and condiments comparison to see what might work best for your keto meal.
- Change your perception of dessert
Avoiding sugar when you love dessert can seem difficult. However, if you make a few tweaks to the way you view dessert, low-carb dessert can be just as satisfying. For example, many restaurants have great cheese, meat, nut, or olive platters that can be a great communal dessert paired with a nice coffee or tea. Or, you can ask for a cup of berries and whipped heavy cream (but avoid blueberries, and be sure to eat the berries in small quantities to remain in ketosis). To keep it simple, you could also opt for a cup of coffee with some heavy cream or butter added, and that could satisfy your craving and add a little extra fat if you were still feeling a bit hungry after your meal.
- Think about building a dish instead of eliminating items
If it’s difficult for you to stick to asking your server to eliminate items from a dish, or if you simply prefer to look at your meal a different way, you can ask to build your own dish instead of trying to trim existing dishes on the menu. The majority of restaurants should be able to accommodate this, unless you are dining somewhere particularly fancy with set menus or chef’s preferences (no substitutions/alterations). Essentially, you start with a base protein that’s prepared without frills (like chicken, steak tips, or fish grilled without sauce), and a non-starchy vegetable (like leafy greens/kale, cauliflower/broccoli, zucchini, brussel sprouts, or asparagus). Then you can add on healthy fats (like cheese, avocado, nuts and seeds, olive oil, butter, or eggs).
- Pick the right restaurant
There are many different styles of restaurant that can accommodate keto diet restrictions, but you will want to make sure you or your friends pick a place that works! Here are some examples of restaurant categories and the type of meal you can get from each:
Breakfast joints: This may be one of the easiest meals to customize, as you can essentially load up on eggs, which can be prepared in a variety of ways to keep things interesting! Steak and eggs, veggie omelette, eggs any style with a side of bacon or sausage — you name it! Simply avoid any of the grains or sugar-heavy breakfast options like oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, etc, and stick to your egg dishes with meats, veggies, and avocado for a great keto start to the day.
Steakhouses: These restaurants also make it easy for a keto dieter, as you can easily choose a meat entree with a non-starchy vegetable side for a hearty keto meal. Just be sure to swap your fries or potatoes for a vegetable or salad, and don’t participate in the bread baskets or burger buns. Also stay away from the sugary condiments like ketchup and BBQ sauce, and opt for dijon mustard or mayonnaise instead.
Burger joints or Delis: The main thing to remember here is to order your meal without the bread. Ask for big lettuce leaves instead to act as your sandwich ends, or eat the fixings of your burger or sandwich with a knife and fork. Remember to be aware of any sauces or condiments added to the meal, and choose healthy fat options over sugary flavor additives. For an extra helping of healthy fats, ask for a fried egg or sliced avocado to top off your burger — yum!
Salads: In general, salads are a great meal choice to avoid carbohydrates. However, many places that offer specialized salads sneak in sugary dressings or toppings, or add a bunch of croutons. Be aware of what toppings come on your salad, and opt for a salad with lots of fatty toppings like a cobb salad (meats, cheeses, egg, and veggies) while avoiding toppings like tortilla strips, breaded meats, beans, corn, or sugary fruits.
Choose a dressing with an olive oil base, or maybe add your own olive oil, vinegar, and kosher salt dressing mixture. Green goddess dressing is also a great choice! If you choose a creamy dressing, find out what ingredients are included to make sure there aren’t too many sugars added in.
Italian restaurants: You may think it’s impossible to eat Italian on a keto diet, but many people don’t realize that Italian restaurants offer a number of non-pasta dishes! Chicken or fish entrees are commonly on the menu, and many Italian places have also begun to offer vegetable pastas. The sauce is the best part of a pasta dish — ask for your favorite meat or alfredo sauce to pour over your chicken, fish, or vegetables!
Mexican food: Instead of indulging in the chips and salsa, order some sliced cucumbers or celery to enjoy with the pre-meal salsa or guacamole. For your meal, order a burrito or taco as a bowl, omitting the tortilla, rice, and beans and going heavy on the meat and cheese, or get that wonderful fresh ceviche with extra avocado!
Sushi and Japanese: Surprisingly, sushi restaurants can be a great place for a keto meal. Simply ask for any rice to be replaced with cucumber or greens, making your favorite sushi roll or hand roll a keto-friendly option. Go for the fresh fish rolls instead of tempera options, or get sashimi and pickles over a bed of greens as an alternative to the traditional chirashi bowl. Choose rolls with real fish — skip the imitation crab meat and avoid the saucy rolls.
For a Japanese restaurant that offers non-sushi dishes, stick to the meats and veggies, leaving out any rice or pasta. Don’t forget to make sure your sauces have minimal sugar, or just stick to a little bit of soy sauce to play it safe.
Vietnamese and Thai: Dishes at these restaurants almost all contain rice or noodles, so seek out the seafood/meats, soup (without the noodles), or curries (without the side of rice). Larb, shrimp, or stir fried vegetables in lettuce cups can also be a great option as long as they don’t add sugar to the sauces.
Pizza and Wings: Go for a cauliflower crust and a pizza loaded with meats, non-starchy veggies like mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, olives, or artichokes, and olive oil drizzle. If that pizza doesn’t get your attention, order chicken wings (no breading), and choose low sugar sauces or naked wings with celery sticks (carrots are sugary, so only eat a few if you want carrot sticks).
Eating healthy and reducing your caloric intake does not rule out the ability to eat at a restaurant. If you prepare yourself with the knowledge of what works for your diet, make savvy substitutions and prioritize your health needs in your choices, you can find meals at almost any restaurant that would rival the ones you make for yourself at home. To read more about diets, check out this diet comparison article. Or you can read about specific diets in these gluten free, Kcal, and organic diet articles.