Savor Scout › Eating out with a restriction › paleo
Eating out on a paleo diet
Paleo — meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, without grains, legumes, dairy or refined sugar — is easy at grill and seafood restaurants and harder almost everywhere else, because grains and dairy are in so many sauces.
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What actually goes wrong
The main obstacles are the hidden ones. Sauces and gravies are thickened with flour; marinades contain soy sauce (a legume) and sugar; butter and cream finish many dishes; fried food is breaded. A grilled steak can arrive with a butter-based sauce poured over.
Cooking fats are a second issue. Many restaurants fry and sauté in seed oils, which strict paleo avoids. Asking for olive oil or butter (if you include it) is possible at most made-to-order kitchens.
Sides are usually built on grains or legumes — rice, bread, beans, pasta. Swapping for vegetables or salad is the standard move.
What to ask, and how
- Grilled, with no sauce or butter — The simplest order.
- Swap the starch for vegetables — Or a salad.
- Is there flour in the sauce? — Most gravies and many sauces.
- Is the marinade made with soy or sugar? — Common at Asian and barbecue restaurants.
- Olive oil and lemon on the salad — Instead of a bought-in dressing.
Which cuisines make this easier
- Easier — Steakhouses and grills, Brazilian churrascaria, seafood restaurants, Greek and Levantine grills (skipping pita and hummus), Peruvian ceviche and grilled meats, Korean barbecue (with marinades checked).
- Harder — Italian, Mexican beyond grilled plates, Chinese, Indian (legumes, rice and dairy are central), bakeries, brunch spots and sandwich shops.
How Savor Scout helps
Paleo works as a search term, but describing the food — grilled protein, vegetable sides, no grains — reads menus more reliably.
What this does not do. Cooking fats and thickeners are not listed on menus. Asking for a plainly grilled dish solves most of it.
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Cuisines worth reading up on
steak, seafood, Brazilian food, Greek food
Situations where this comes up: what to eat after a workout, where to eat when you're trying to eat healthy, where to take a client to dinner.