Low Carb Meals That Most Restaurants Offer

Many restaurants offer meals that are considered low carb-friendly or will gladly modify a meal to fit into your menu. Whether a chain, local restaurant or a fast food joint, there are options for low carbers.

Popular Choices
Many restaurants offer chicken with green beans and side salads. This is a good choice but avoid breaded chicken. Most restaurants also offer tasty omelets. Just skip the hash browns and toast and have steamed vegetables or salad greens instead. If you go with steak, ask if it has added sugar. Restaurants that offer salad bars are usually low carb-friendly. You can have grilled lamb chops with salad on the side. If you love seafood, many seafood restaurants offer grilled shrimp, grilled lobster, crab legs, and shrimp scampi.

Chicken wings, grilled chicken, chicken strips, Buffalo wings, and char grilled chicken are also popular choices. Many restaurants offer chicken, steak, and chops. Chicken fillet or steak with steamed vegetables is a great choice for your lunch menu. Many restaurants offer this option. Some restaurants offer popular meals such as carved roast turkey, baked fish, carved salmon and ham, hot wings, and taco meat. Other options are baked chicken, roast beef, beef patties, and more.

Low carb-friendly salads are also offered by many restaurants, for example, cob salad, Caesar salad, and others. Any salad that includes a protein source is a good choice (luncheon meat, cheese, etc.) Spring greens and tossed green salad, for example, are good options.  Opt for salads with low carb dressings with no added sugar. Choose dressings such as raspberry vinaigrette, creamy Italian dressing, salsa, and blue cheese dressing. Caesar dressing is very low in carbs (less than 1 gram per portion) while blue cheese contains about 2.5 grams.

The Salad Bar

While many restaurants offer diet-friendly options, avoid sugary and starchy foods such as pancakes, French toast, French fries, and hash browns. The salad bar is your best bet, and some restaurants and chains offer the option to build your own salad. You choose from spring mix, iceberg, and Romaine lettuce and different toppings, including protein sources such as tofu, turkey chicken breast, and ham. Other toppings include artichoke hearts, blue cheese crumbles, and feta, parmesan, and shredded cheese. Many chains offer a large selection of toppings for your salad, including oranges, green bell peppers, sliced egg, pineapple, dried cranberries, mushrooms, olives, and bacon bits. Basically, you choose your base, toppings, filling, and dressing. Some restaurants even offer homemade coleslaw. There are classic choices as well, for example, house salad with cream, coleslaw, sweet corn,  celery, tomatoes, cucumber, roast ham, and lettuce. The Italian salad is a great choice – a combination of celery, roast pepper, sun dried tomatoes, cucumber, olives, mozzarella, pesto, and of course, extra virgin olive oil. Or you can build your own salad and order cheese and bacon, spicy chicken breast, grilled salmon steak, or anything else that fits into a carbohydrate-controlled menu. Be careful with the dressings, toppings, and sauces because many contain hidden sugar and other carbohydrates.

Greek, Japanese, and Other Restaurants

While it is not difficult to pick a meal or salad in many Western-style restaurants, if you are going Japanese, for example, you may want to pass on meals that contain rice. Opt for fish and miso soup. Greek restaurants are an excellent choice for people on a low carb diet. You can have Greek salad, pan fried goat cheese, cucumber, yogurt, and garlic dip, garlic prawns, deep fried calamari, and other meals, salads, and appetizers that are diet-friendly.

Resources:

Low Carb Eating Out: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/low-carb-restaurant-orders

Low Carb Recipes: http://www.lowcarbfoods.org/low-carb-recipes.php

Dining Out Tips: http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/4586/low-carb-tips-for-dining-out

 

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