Traveling through!

(Josh S) #1

Hello! My wife Megan and I are traveling to the UK for two weeks in August. We’re looking to stay keto for the majority of the trip(though we’re foodies and willing to cheat a little towards the end for something truly special). I wanted to see if you guys had any recommendations?

We’re still planning our route, but (very)roughly we’re starting in Dover, making our way to Cardiff, up through Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia(maybe over to Pembrokeshire Coast if we can fit it), up towards Edinburgh, mostly the western side of Scotland from there including some islands, then making our way back down hitting Bamburgh and if we can find a reason to go through Sheffield that would be cool since it’s my family name. We haven’t really found a compelling reason to go through London; we’re not really big city people. We’re certainly open to it though, and I’m sure there’s some great food to be had at least!

We’ll be staying mostly in AirBNB’s I think, so we’ll likely have some kitchen access if we have to use it, but we don’t really prefer to do dishes on vacation either :wink:

So basically any great restaurants, suggestions for easy on the go meals, where to buy things like a ginormous bag of macadamia nuts, ideas of what else we could carry with us without it going bad in the car, or even suggestions on sights that can’t be missed or roads less traveled.

Anything would be appreciated!

Thanks!
-Josh S

(Rob) #2

Follow the Dining out on Keto rules - e.g.

Lots of online resources to find restaurants (Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.), plus ask the locals/ABnB hosts, etc. There is some basic regional cuisine in the UK but many things are different names for the same stewed/fried/baked goods and many local classics will be carb-heavy. You will discover even more names for sandwiches and bread products than you ever thought possible! :thinking:

Aldi or Lidl are the low-price leaders for keto grocery supplies and snack stuff and are largely interchangeable. Their most basic ranges are pretty basic but their mid-range and nicer stuff is very nice and much cheaper than other supermarkets. There are Costco’s etc. but not sure if a US membership gets you in? You’ll find a lot of keto things are much cheaper in the UK than the US. I am always shocked at the prices I pay for meat, olives, cheese, nuts, etc. in the US vs. when I go back to the UK.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

Fat is very popular in Scotland—the deep-fried pizza was invented in Glasgow, in fact—but so are carbs. Even haggis is half oats.

In fact, the typically British foods I remember best from my year in London are all carb-based (Yorkshire pudding, crumpets with butter and honey, scones with clotted cream, beans on toast, chips from under the arches at Victoria Station, crisps, Carr’s digestives & water biscuits, Bakewell tart, Christmas pud, the cream slice at Patisserie Valerie, Cadbury chocolate from the vending machines in the Tube), except perhaps for steak-and-kidney pie (assuming one doesn’t eat the crust!). People don’t generally travel to Britain for the cuisine.

But assuming you can cook for yourselves, you should be able to find good meats and cheeses at the local shops. You certainly won’t starve if you want to stay keto!

(Josh S) #4

Yea I know all of the staples are carb heavy, but I was hoping there are at least some decent steaks to be had or something, right? Can’t be worse than the US… Right? I hope…

I’m going to have to ask if my US Costco membership will work there, cause that probably is the best bet for car food. We just got Lidl over here, so I’ll check them out too.

Thanks guys

#5

Hi, I’m sure you’ll have a great time exploring the UK and hopefully the weather will be kind to you in August??? Suggest you do pack a light rain jacket just in case :smile:

Lots of pubs/restaurants do great steaks, burgers, fish etc and are very happy to accommodate any requests (such as replacing buns/potatoes for extra salad or veggies ). Don’t be afraid to ask! Lots of keto food can be purchased from UK supermarkets. To add to the ones already mentioned: Sainsburys, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose. You can go onto their sites online to see what they sell. Also do try markets in whatever area you happen to be in to support the local communities who often sell their own local vegetables etc.

Couple of sites to look at in advance to get a flavour of places to visit are as follows:
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ and http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

Have a fabulous time here and don’t forget to take lots of pics :smile:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

And a sweater, too. I was in London on Christmas one year, and it was 55° F and rainy. Went back in July a couple of years later, and it was 55° and rainy! The good thing about British weather is that, if you don’t like it, all you have to do is wait five minutes. :open_umbrella:

#7

Have a great time. I’m from the UK (though live in Australia). I think you’ll be fine - plenty of steak restaurants, burger places etc. Also, most pubs do great Sunday roasts - meat and veg (obviously don’t partake in the delicious Yorkshire puddings or roast potatoes😳). Just order how you would at home and be specific!!! You can always play the ‘diabetic card’ if the restaurant won’t accommodate. You’ll be able to get eggs and bacon for breakfast very easily. Just beware of sausage as most have a carby filler like ground rice.
As the others says, in terms of supermarkets, the main chains are Sainsbury’s, Tesco’s, Asda, Waitrose, Lidl and Aldi. Those last two are often great places to stock up on cheaper cold meats and cheese. If you happen to be passing through Canterbury (and you should - it’s awesome!) let me know and I can give you some good restaurants to try.

(Ken) #8

You can be fairly flexible with Carb intake. The whole point being not to fill up, then overcompensate glycogen. You can eat the tasty English carbs, such as YP (why would you not try it?) but just not chronically. Myself, I’d just eat them every other day, (If I wanted to) that way there’s little chance of completely filling up glycogen. You’ll drop it quickly when you get home.

#9

Yeah, I’d probably have the YPs too, tbh. Too delicious!!!

#10

Farmers markets are getting quite common in the UK, so you’ll be able to get a good selection of cheese & meats there. In most towns there’ll be health food stores where you can buy nuts, Holland & Barrett is a common one, but I use Grape Tree- it’s much cheaper ( https://www.grapetree.co.uk/store-locator/
Like others have said, there’s lots of carveries where you can a good roast, & there’s always steaks & burgers, plus usually fish on any pub menu. A UK member also posted on here about just having toppings in his local Pizza Hut, & there’s plenty of well known fast food chains in any town… Cooked breakfast out will be easy for bacon & egg. Lunches on the go not so easy, burgers obviously, but lunches tend to be more sandwiches here, lots of ready made salads available to go now, just watch the dressings!
PS- you’ll need more than a light rain jacket in Wales, summer or not!!
As for where to travel, if you have time for a day in Bath, not too far out your route, it’s beautiful, & the Pembrokeshire coast is lovely. Also the Lake District on your way north is lovely (Ullswater is my favourite lake, but again you’ll need coats!) The Isle Of Skye is stunning, but is apparently getting really busy with tourists, there was loads on the news about the roads clogging up… Yorkshire on your way back down is lovely, Whitby, Robin Hoods bay- the fish & chips will call you there though!
Hope you have a great time!

(bulkbiker) #11

You can do keto Indian food in any curry house… either a dry tikka dish or a mixed grill I would accompany that with a veg dish like eggplant (brinjal) or spinach (saag) dish just tell them you don’t want rice or poppadums.
Chinese cuisine I always go for crispy duck without the pancakes or sauce.
Almost everywhere will do a steak (most pubs anyway) the quality of the meat and cooking may be slightly suspect (although most should be fine)and it will almost always come with fries but these can usually be replaced by salad or something less carby. Chat to the wait staff and you’ll find you can probably get substitutions for most things in most places.
Every pub will do a burger (apart from the top end gastro pubs maybe) and like in the US there are MaccyD’s and Burger Kings all over the place.
I usually shop for food at Waitrose because I find their quality is usually good. Their extra large ready to eat avocados are usually great after a day to ripen (yes I know they are supposed to be ready to eat!). ALso there are quite a few branches in some of the service stations which are good for cold meats and cheese for snacking en route. There are also higher end food shops called Marks and Spencer Food Halls at service stations too also useful for keto snacks.
I’m based on the south coast so not really much on your route so can’t make any specific recommendations.
Hope that helps a bit.
Oh yes our food labelling is different too so you’ll will find that all foods are labelled as carbs/fats/protein per 100g rather than per serving. This might or might not make it easier to identify stuff you want to eat.

(Rob) #12

And carbs are NET - fiber already subtracted.

100g = about 3.5oz

You will find chain pub food for the most part very disappointing - about equivalent to poor diner food or ihop/denny’s standard (but without the pancakes/breakfast carbage) so ask around for the local gastro-pub (there usually is one). The carvery chain pubs are better as already noted.

I second the Lake District (on your way to Scotland), the land of Wordsworth’s poetry, Bath (for the Georgian elegance, and Roman remains), and Robin Hood’s Bay - the Santorini of Yorkshire (as recently featured in The Phantom Thread, where he picks up his muse). If you can, get the Yorkshire puddings that are slices cut from a larger pie sized one rather than the individual ones that are dry (and what you’ve probably had as a ‘popover’) so you get crispy tops and soggy unctuous bottoms. :yum:

Oh, I almost forgot - my (no longer) guilty pleasure is to have a decent doner kebab :stuffed_flatbread: - a fatty mixture of beef and lamb mince moulded into an ‘elephant leg’ cooked on a rotating vertical spit against half a square meter of burners, and carved off with a coroner’s bone saw :hocho:! Oh, the drama, the dripping fatty goodness. :yum: Comes with salad veggies and sauces (some carbs). Just order without the pita bread (extra salad) and eat out of the box. It will be similar to a Gyros in the US. The good ones I call daylight kebabs (you don’t mind seeing what you are eating), the bad (but oh so good) ones are night-time kebabs - you don’t want to examine too closely but they are the best for soaking up too much beer and reducing the next morning’s hangover. Can lead to the classic, 'bab hand - where you wake up mostly clothed, disoriented with a strange greasy orange residue on your hand that could only come from eating a night-time kebab, of which you have no clear memory… or is that just me? :flushed: :beer:

#13

Just you…

(bulkbiker) #14

Oh yeah forgot about that one…

(mags) #15

Hi. Hope you have a wonderful time in our little country :blush:. I’m Welsh and definitely recommend the pembrokeshire/cardigan coastline. It’s been a beautiful spring day today and I took my elderly mother on a trip to pembrokeshire for fish and chips by the sea. I had battered fish and fed the batter and chips to the birds… feeling very virtuous! Cardiff has a viva Brazil which offers a huge range of unlimited meats that you can tuck into. I agree about the lake district being beautiful but a word of warning about the west of Scotland. Utterly beautiful but if flying critters bite you, you will need very strong repellant. The midges are huge and ravenous.

(mags) #16

And belly pork is very popular on pub menus

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #17

Danny Bhoy, the Indo-Scottish comic, has thoughtfully provided a visitor’s guide to Scotland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFubsxHTApw.

(David) #18

Spot on with the night - time kebabs. You took me back to Manchester University in the 1990s. A night out followed by a kebab to take home, eaten in bed, with leftovers discovered at the foot of the bed the next morning after a sudden and mysterious succumbing to sleep. That chilli sauce though…

#19

If you go to London, check out Burrell Market near London Bridge station. Basically a farmers market on steroids, so much wonderful meat, fish and produce, and great street food for not too much money. You’ll be able to find something tasty to eat, for sure.

(Rob) #20

I’m seriously surprised that nobody has mentioned Nando’s as a restaurant option yet! (https://www.nandos.co.uk/) Flame grilled Peri-peri Chicken and a great option if you fancy something quick and simple. I usually go for chicken wings and a side of Halloumi Fries just avoid the sauces and you’ll be fine. There are restaurants throughout the UK in most major towns and out of town shopping centres.