I might be going away for a weeks vacation soon.
Just wondering what restaurants serve Keto friendly food, and what do you typically get?
I know about salads, just wondering about other creative ideas. I guess breakfasts can be omelet, or meat+eggs. Cracker Barrell I know of, - thats a good one. Anything else like Cracker B?
(I am in NC.)
If I go to a mexican restaurant, I get a taco salad and avoid the chips. I go to taco bell and dump the taco filling out and toss the shells. I go to Jack in the Box and get a Double Jack without the bun. You can do these kinds of things in lots of restaurants. Substitute sliced tomatoes for the starches with breakfast items. Or order eggs and meat a la carte.
It’s not as hard as it sounds to stay keto and still eat out.
FWIW when ordering an omelet make sure they don’t put pancake batter in with the eggs. IHOP does this.
I love to go to Mexican restaurants (Tex-Mex)! I always order fajitas, usually beef, and just eat the meat, some of the veggies (onions and peppers), guacamole, sour cream and maybe some shredded cheese. It comes with tortillas, rice and beans, which gets eaten by the rest of my family.
Meat and veggies are served at about every restaurant.
Fast food I get my burgers without buns.
Mexican I do all the meats fajitas. The onion and peppers probably put me a little over on carbs for the day but I only eat mexican maybe once a month. Not going to get fat in one meal.
If you like BBQ, it’s good to ask for ribs, spare ribs over baby back, asking to hold the sauce.
If they serve brisket, ask for them to pull it from the fat cap so it’s good and fatty.
If you like Japanese, there’s sashimi dinner plates. At Hibachi, you can ask them to only cook your meat (steak/shrimp/lobster/scallops) in butter. Ignore the noodles/rice.
I go to Red Lobster. I get a pick 3 with shrimp scampi, sirloin and tilapia with broccoli and salad, no croutons, with ranch. No biscuits. Then I dip everything in the scampi butter.
I travel quite a bit! In fact heading to Chicago on Friday for business. I’ve been thinking about this he last few days. I’m a foodie so I love cooking and I cook every night for my family but now two meals lol… so We don’t go out much.
when I do, I either find a great steak house and get a nice fatty ribeye wih double broccoli or i get some sushi! If you like sushi. a lot of sushi restaurants have keto rolls with no rice wrapped in cucumber or soy paper or salmon also. I just try and stay away from the sauces. Some of the mayo base ones are good especially the spicey ones but I’ll just stick with soy and wasabi. BEWARE 99.9 percent of sushi restaurants use imitation crab in a lot of their rolls… and that stuff has carbs out the Hoo hooo! One wrong meal and your shut down for the day
BBQ Restaurants are easy: rack of ribs (ask for them dry, not wet with sauce), brisket and/or smoked wings. There’s pulled pork, but that seems dry to me without a lot of bbq sauce.
Mexican restaurant: get the fajitas and eat the plate without the tortilas, extra guacamole.
Olive Garden, salad with no croutons or other carby stuff & chicken picatta with a side of broccoli.
There are keto apps that find these things for you. You still have to be critical of what it says, but often it gives me great options I don’t have to worry about.
I would just say to be aware of the perils on a salad. I ordered a salad recently which looked wonderful on the menu but came liberally coated in balsamic vinegar and had raw peas scattered throughout it. It wasn’t very pleasant either but had to eat some because I was in company and didn’t want to come across as too neurotic. I shall always check in future.
If you go to a Teppanyaki style Japanese restaurant, get steak,sub the rice for veggies, and be sure to ask for all the fat trimmings from the other guests steaks. They usually trim it on the grill and throw it down the trash shoot. Last time I went, I essentially doubled my portion for free and had a tastier meal.
Enjoy fajitas at Mexican restaurants? Just skip the taco shell. Also check Meatloaf at Cracker Barrel, delicious but carbs bad.
are you saying that CB meatloaf is “carbs bad”, why? I think you can get greens on the side …
Meatloaf is traditionally made using bread crumbs as a binder, mixed into the ground meat. You can’t see it, but it’s there.
(When I make mine at home, I now use egg and some grated Parmesan.)
We’ve found some restaurants will substitute the tortillas, rice and beans with a salad.
I travel a lot for my job so end up eating out a lot these days.
You already have good suggestions for Mexican and BBQ.
Italian restaurants can be the hardest but like ladylyssa said - Olive Garden has the chicken picatta that is delicious and low carb. Other options at Italian - find a sausage plate, ask to sub veggies for the pasta side.
Pizza - scrape the topping off and leave a huge pile of “pizza bones” (crust). Watch out for sweet marinara sauces.
Mediterranean - lamb and other meats usually available. Hummas has a lot of fiber so not terrible, but hard to eat w/o pita bread to dip it in.
Indian - ditch the Naan bread and rice and enjoy the meats but go light on the sauces
Bottom line - you don’t have as much control eating out since you don’t know what ingredients the kitchen is using. Enjoy your vacation, do the best you can, and get back to strict keto or some fasting when you get back and you will be back on track!
There it is! 
