Don’t let enjoying a lunch or dinner out at a restaurant ruin your healthy eating goals. Follow my easy tips for how to eat healthy at restaurants to see how eating out healthy is possible and delicious!
One of the most difficult things I’ve found when trying to follow a healthy lifestyle is eating out at restaurants. When you work so hard at home to follow healthy eating guidelines, eating at a restaurant can feel like a step backwards. At restaurants, you can say goodbye to knowing everything that goes into your food and, most likely, to avoiding unhealthy ingredients, like butter, salt, and lots of saturated fats.
You could say, “Well, I just wont eat out, then.” But, realistically, that’s just not gonna happen. Eating at restaurants is fun and social and new.
The good news is that it’s still totally possible to eat at restaurants AND be healthy – you just need a few tricks up your sleeve so you can be prepared to make good, healthy choices.
Here are my best tips for how to eat healthy at restaurants. Trust me, it’s possible – let me show you how!
11 Tips For Healthy Eating At Restaurants
1. Scan the menu.
Look for key words on the menu that are giveaways for what to avoid. Here are some examples of the most common culprits:
- pan-fried
- crispy
- dipped
- scalloped
- breaded
- cream
- alfredo
Dishes with these words tend to have a lot of hidden fat and salt. Instead, look for menu items with words from the following list:
- grilled
- steamed
- baked
- roasted
- braised
- broiled
- seared
2. Eat some meat.
Meat has a ton of protein and, when lean, is a great idea to order. When ordering meat, pick leaner cuts of beef (great options include flank steak, skirt steak, tenderloin, sirloin, or filet mignon).
When in doubt, chicken is another great high protein, low fat option, particularly chicken breast.
Eating meat will help you to feel full and satisfied without having to fill up on empty carbs, like pasta or bread.
3. Ask to double or triple the vegetables.
Let’s be real. Often, a side of vegetables in a restaurant is really more of a garnish, not a real serving. When ordering, ask for double or triple the normal serving of veggies, and offer to pay extra (more often than not, you won’t even be charged). You could also look to the Sides portion of the menu to see what options the restaurant has available.
A big problem with veggies is that they get cooked in a ton of butter so make sure to ask that the vegetables NOT be cooked in butter when you order them. This is an easy way to escape unneeded fat and calories.
4. Go ethnic.
When it comes to ethnic food, some options (like Japanese, Thai, Greek, and Indian restaurants) are easier to eat healthier than others (like Mexican, Chinese, or Italian restaurants). While you can successfully eat healthy in any restaurant, the main reason why it’s easier for the first options is because they feature grilled meats, less pastas and/or noodles, and other non-fried options.
This doesn’t mean you should totally avoid the other types of restaurants. Just know it may be a little trickier to find what you’re looking for which means your options will be limited.
5. Ask about preparation.
Truth: Chefs are trained to use lots of butter and salt to heighten flavors. Duh, right? It tastes good. They do this because, if you add butter or salt on most anything, it tastes better which makes the customer happy which means more business in the future. They’re not there for your health. They’re there to feed you tasty food.
If you’re concerned about the butter or salt in your food, don’t be afraid to ask your server how the food is prepared. If you find out what you want is actually loaded with oil or butter, either ask for it to be prepared differently or choose something else.
6. Don’t be afraid to ask.
Along the same lines as the previous tip, I highly recommend that you ask the waiter/waitress questions about how the food is prepared if you’re not clear. You’ll only know for sure what’s in your food if you ask. This can literally mean a difference of hundreds of calories and tons of unnecessary fat.
Is it uncomfortable? A little at first, but it’s your responsibility to know what you’re putting into your body and your waiter’s responsibility to know what goes into the food they’re serving. The more you ask, the easier it gets, I promise!
7. Look for these desserts.
Desserts are a fun part of eating out at restaurants and can be a huge bummer if you’re trying to eat healthy. If you want to splurge on a dessert, you do have some options. My favorite thing to do is to order one dessert for the table. That way, you don’t eat the entire dessert and feel totally awful. Instead, you enjoy a few bites and satisfy your sweet tooth. If you’d rather not share, another great idea is to ask your waiter for a simple dish of berries or a fruit sorbet.
8. Box it early.
Did you know restaurants often serve two to three times what you actually need for a normal serving? Next time, ask to box half your entrée BEFORE it ever even gets to the table. This will save you money and calories. It may sound weird, but it makes tons of sense. You can also split an entrée with another person, if you’d prefer.
9. Skip the fancy pants drinks.
If you must order an alcoholic drink, try to avoid margaritas, piña coladas, and other exotic mixed drinks. They include sugary add-ins that add tons of calories and processed sugars and flavors.
Instead, order a glass of wine, a light beer, a vodka and tonic, or a simple martini. These options will be better for your healthy eating goals, especially if you choose not to drink that often.
10. Order fish.
Fish is a great option, as long as it’s not fried. You can order seafood in tons of different ways—steamed, blackened, baked, broiled, sautéed, or grilled. My favorite is grilled.
Just like with meat, fish allows you to enjoy protein, fill up on real food, and avoid foods loaded in carbs and unhealthy fats. While it may be a bit pricier, it’s often a great option on the menu, especially if it’s fresh fish.
11. Drink water throughout the meal.
Try your best to get used to drinking water as your main beverage. Drinking water will slow you down from eating your food too fast, which will help you enjoy the food more, and it will allow your brain to get the message form your stomach that you’re full so you don’t overeat before your plate is already empty.
You can ask for a slice of lemon, if plain water is too boring. To ease into just having water, you can also wait to order a different beverage until after you’ve finsihed your first glass of water.
How To Eat Healthy At Restaurants
What To Order To Eat Healthy At Restaurants
Eating out and wanting to pick something healthy off the menu? Here are my favorite go-to menu items for specific types of restaurants so you know you’re making a healthy choice.
- minestrone
- pasta fagioli
- house salad
- caesar salad
- fresh fish or seafood that is cooked in olive oil
- choose red sauces, like cacciatore or marsala
- tom yum soup
- curry with tofu, veggies, or chicken
- fish with veggies
- summer rolls
- beef and broccoli
- satay
- ceviche
- guacamole (without many tortilla chips)
- black beans
- grilled fish
- fajitas (without many tortillas)
- choose corn tortillas over flour tortillas
- burrito bowl
- taco salad (without the taco shell)
- sushi and sashimi
- edamame
- miso soup
- grilled seafood
- ginger salad
- teriyaki chicken or salmon (with sauce on the side)
- beef and broccoli (or chicken and broccoli)
- brown rice instead of white rice
- mixed vegetables
- moo goo gai pan
- schezuan eggplant
- kung pao chicken (not fried)
- Buddha’s delight
Now, all you need to do is use these tips the next time you go out to eat. The more you use them, the better you’ll get at spotting healthy versus unhealthy options and it will feel more and more natural. The bottom line is it’s possible to make good choices and have control over your food – even at restaurants.
Did I miss anything? What’s your best tip for how to eat healthy at restaurants? Share in the comments below!
Good news!
I've got your dinners covered this week
- Get my FREE 5-Day Meal Plan plus...
- Organized grocery list to save time and money
- Helpful cooking tips and tricks
- Free videos on forming better cooking skills
- Kitchen conversion and substitution charts
I like the tip you left about asking for double or triple the vegetables and how I should ask to not have them covered in something like butter. My wife and I are looking for healthy alternatives to many of the fast food restaurants around that serve very greasy food. We like to feel good after eating out so finding a healthy restaurant is very important to us.
It sure was nice that I came across this article because I learned that restaurants actually service two to three times that normal serving and so it is good for a person to ask that half the entree is boxed if they’re on a diet. I will surely give that a try because a friend of mine is inviting me to eat at a restaurant this weekend. I want to know what I can do so as to now ruin my diet, and this tip is by far the most helpful. Thank you!
There are nearly 200,000 “table side” restaurants in the United States today, a number that continues to grow. But like fast-food outlets, these dining establishments can be ticking time bombs when it comes to nutritional health. Government surveys find that the food you typically eat when you’re not home is nutritionally worse in every way than the food you eat at home.
Nearly all the chains have added healthier options to their menus—if you know how to look for them. You can also rely on these tips to help making eating out a healthier treat.
1. Ask for it your way. Dining out is no time to be a meek consumer, notes Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and coauthor of the book Restaurant Confidential. “You need to be an assertive consumer by asking for changes on the menu,” he says. For instance, if an item is fried, ask for it grilled. If it comes with french fries, ask for a side of veggies instead. Ask for a smaller portion of the meat and a larger portion of the salad; for salad instead of coleslaw; baked potato instead of fried. “Just assume you can have the food prepared the way you want it,” says Dr. Jacobson. “Very often, the restaurant will cooperate.”
2. Ask to “triple the vegetables, please.” Often a side of vegetables in a restaurant is really like garnish—a carrot and a forkful of squash. When ordering, ask for three or four times the normal serving of veggies, and offer to pay extra. “I’ve never been charged,” says dietitian Jeff Novick, R.D., director of nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Aventura, Florida. “And I’ve never been disappointed. I get full, not fat.”
3. Ask how the food was prepared; don’t go by the menu. For instance, cholesterol-free does not mean fat-free; the dish could still be filled with calorie-dense oil. Neither does “lite” necessarily mean light in calories or fat.
4. Order from the “healthy, light, low fat” entrées on the menu. Most chains will even list the calories and nutritional content of such foods. Applebee’s, for instance, offers approved Weight Watchers options, Bennigan’s has its Health Club entrées (which it will serve in half portions), and Ruby Tuesday lists the nutritional information for its entire menu.
5. Beware of the low-carb options. Restaurant chains have jumped on the low-carb bandwagon, offering numerous low-carb options on their menu. But low-carb doesn’t mean low-cal. For instance, at Ruby Tuesday the Low-Carb New Orleans Seafood packs 710 calories and 42 grams of fat—ouch! A much better bet—the Low Carb Veggie Platter—leaves you with just 297 calories and 16 grams of fat.
6. Ask to box half your entrée before it ever gets to the table. Or split an entrée with your dining partner. A CSPI survey found that restaurants often serve two to three times more than food labels list as a serving.
CONTENT CONTINUES BELOW AD
7. Try double appetizers. If there is a nice selection of seafood- and vegetable-based appetizers, consider skipping the entrée and having two appetizers for your meal. Often, that is more than enough food to fill you up.
8. Order a salad before ordering anything else on the menu. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University found that volunteers who ate a big veggie salad before the main course ate fewer calories overall than those who didn’t have a first-course salad, notes Novick.
9. But remember: Salads shouldn’t be fatty. This is a vegetable course—keep it tasty but healthy. That means avoiding anything in a creamy sauce (coleslaw, pasta salads, and potato salads), and skipping the bacon bits and fried noodles. Instead, load up on the raw vegetables, treat yourself to a few well-drained marinated vegetables (artichoke hearts, red peppers, or mushrooms), and for a change, add in some fruit or nuts. Indeed, fruits such as mango, kiwi, cantaloupe, and pear are often the secret ingredient in four-star salads.
10. Watch the add-ons to vegetable salads. Even salads that are mostly raw vegetables are a problem if they’re loaded with cheese and meats. Take the typical Caesar salad in most restaurants (the one topped with chicken or shrimp as well as plenty of cheese and mayo in the dressing). Add in the fried croutons and the calories add up to a whopping 560, with 36 grams of fat, 6 of them saturated. Italian antipasto salads also are a health challenge, with all their salami, spicy ham, and cheese. Get the salad, but ask for vegetables only.
11. Do the fork dip. The best way to combine salad dressing with salad? Get your dressing on the side, in a small bowl. Dip your empty fork into the dressing, then skewer a forkful of salad. You’ll be surprised at how this tastes just right, and how little dressing you’ll use. Plus, your lettuce won’t wilt and drown in a sea of oil.
12. Check the menu before you leave home. Most chains post their menus on their Web sites. For instance, Ruby Tuesday’s Smart Eating menu tells you the restaurant only uses canola oil and even provides nutritional information on its salad bar. You can decide before you ever hit the hostess stand what you’re going to order. Conversely, if you don’t see anything that’s healthy, pick another restaurant.
13. Read between the lines. Any menu description that uses the words creamy, breaded, crisp, sauced, or stuffed is likely loaded with hidden fats—much of it saturated or even trans fats. Other “beware of” words include: buttery, sautéed, pan-fried, au gratin, Thermidor, Newburg, Parmesan, cheese sauce, scalloped, and au lait, à la mode, or au fromage (with milk, ice cream, or cheese).
14. Ask the waiter to skip the bread basket. If you must have something to munch on while you wait for your order, ask for a plate of raw vegetables or some breadsticks.
15. Skip the fancy drinks. If you must order an alcoholic drink, forget the margaritas, piña coladas, and other exotic mixed drinks. They include sugary additions that only add calories. Opt instead for a glass of wine, a light beer, a vodka and tonic or a simple martini (without the chocolate liquor, sour green apple schnapps, or triple sec).
CONTENT CONTINUES BELOW AD
16. Top a baked potato with veggies from the salad bar. Or ask if they have salsa—the ultimate potato topper, both in terms of flavor and health. Just avoid the butter and sour cream.
17. Order fish. Just make sure it’s not fried. When the CSPI evaluated food served at seafood chains and independent restaurants, researchers found low-fat and low-sodium options abounded. Plus, you can order seafood so many different ways—steamed, baked, broiled, sautéed, blackened, or grilled. Nix any sauces, or ask for them on the side.
18. Drink water throughout the meal. It will slow you down, help you enjoy the food more, and let the message get to your brain that you’re full—before your plate is empty.
19. Always dress up to go out. Even if it’s just a regular family restaurant. If you view eating out as an event or a treat, rather than a way to get an everyday dinner, you won’t eat out as often. And that’s good from both a health and a cost standpoint.
20. Skip the dessert. You can always have some sorbet or even a small piece of chocolate at home. That is much better healthwise than the Triple Chocolate Meltdown or a mountain of ice cream topped by a second mountain of whipped cream.
These are all great tips! Giving in to your unhealthy cravings is okay in moderation. I really like the portion control chart. Measuring is really inconvenient sometimes but this guide makes everything easier.
I’ve read so many amazing things about your article! I enjoyed reading it. Really it such an informative post. Our family enjoys eating out. I want to become healthy and it only can happen by eating healthy food. Thanks for sharing the nice blog.
I’ve read so many amazing things about your article! I enjoyed reading it. Really it such an informative post. Our family enjoys eating out. I want to become healthy and it only can happen by eating healthy food. Thanks for sharing the nice blog.
I do like how you mentioned that it may seem harder to eat healthy at some restaurants, but you can get some fresh fish cooked in olive oil, red sauces, salads, Pasta Fagioli, and minestrone from Italian restaurants to quench your health needs. That is perfect as my family is pleading me to go out for an Italian style dinner later. Trying to be healthy is quite a hard work so I’m glad they have some options for me. Thanks!
Surely, your suggestion of getting used drinking water as the main beverage will help me out a lot. Like you said, water will help me by slowing down my eating pace and allowing me to enjoy the food more. I will take note of that because my brother and I were planning to eat at a pizza restaurant next week on his birthday. I’m following a strict diet, but I don’t want to let him down either. So on that day, I’ll take it easy, but I’ll still eat pizza with him. Thanks for the tips. I could really use them.
It was really nice how you said that one way to eat healthy at a restaurant was by asking the server to box half of the entree before it even gets to the table. That’s a really nice thing to be aware of, especially since we’re planning to eat out next week. We’ve been eating a lot in Chinese restaurants and Italian restaurants, now I have this craving for Meditteranean cuisine, but I want to remain fit while giving in to my cravings. Thanks.
I’m so glad you liked that tip! Best of luck on your dining adventures!
I found it extremely interesting that you mentioned how there are usually certain words within the description on an entree that will give away it’s unhealthiness. My older brother is looking to find a quality breakfast diner that he can go to before work since he prefers eating out for breakfast. I think I will talk to him about paying attention to works like “pan-fried”, “cream”, and “baked” to keep a healthy diet.
Absolutely — diners can be tricky that way. If all else fails, order eggs and protein 🙂
Thanks for these tips for eating healthier at restaurants. I actually didn’t know that eating seafood could actually be a good option. You went over some different ways that it can be ordered, and I’m interested to learn more about what these are and how they can affect the taste of the fish.
Awesome – I’m so glad these tips helped you to learn something new about fish!!
It makes sense that eating slow and drinking a bit of water would help you keep from overeating. Doing some research on the places to eat in your are could give you a good idea or portion sizes as well so you can keep in mind how big the meal will be in general. I don’t think that it would make sense to go to a buffet when you only want a salad so knowing where you are going and what they serve will help you make those healthy choices.
Absolutely – plus buffets make you feel like you SHOULD eat more, which is not very helpful at all.
Great tips. I would follow your suggestions and try to do stuffs like you do. You are a life savor for me.
xoxo
I really liked all the suggestions the article has about eating healthy when going out to restaurants. I especially liked the suggestion to consider splitting a meal or saving extra food for another serving another day instead of trying to eat the entire thing. My wife and I are trying to eat healthier, but going out to eat is an easy and fun way for us to spend time together. We’ll be sure to keep these tips in mind going forward!
Yay, so glad I can be of help to you and your wife, John!
Eating at restaurants is one of my family’s favorite activities to do together. We really enjoy experiencing new things together including new food. I didn’t occur to me to ask the server to double or triple the amount of vegetables that are in the dish to create a more nutritious meal. I’ll have to remember that next time we go out.
Perfect – I hope that helps you to eat healthy, Tomas!
In your article, you stated that often, a side of vegetables in a restaurant is really like a garnish, not a real serving and when ordering, ask for double or triple the normal serving of veggies, and offer to pay extra. My wife and I have been going on a strict diet lately but we really want to go out to eat for date night. I wonder if there are certain ways that healthy restaurants prepare their food that is different from other places.
They’ll def focus on lowering the amount of unnecessary fats and salts needed and will allow for more options that are not fried. That makes it much easier to choose fresh, whole options 🙂
I’m going on a trip and want to still be able to eat healthy at places. Thanks for the advice about how you can ask for double or triple the vegetables. I’ll have to follow your advice and also make sure to get whole wheat bread instead of white.
Yay, good luck!!
I love eating out and discovering new and exciting restaurants. It can be hard to continue my search for the best when I am trying to eat healthy. These tips are great and I will put them to use. I especially like how you suggest to ask tor more vegetables. I’ll do that next time instead of taking the side of fries! Thanks!
Woohoo! So glad you liked the ideas – good luck!!
I had no idea that fish was a healthier food to get at restaurants. Fish is so delicious it is a little more expensive typically but if it is healthier I should just get it. Salmon is my favorite kind of fish and most nice places usually provide that. What meat is next healthiest if there is no fish option?
So glad to share that info with you 🙂 Next healthiest would likely be a boneless, skinless chicken breast or a lean cut of steak — but it really is more dependent on how it is prepared than the cut of meat.
This is some great information, and I appreciate your point that Indian restaurants are easier to eat healthy at. One of my New Year’s resolutions this year involves eating healthier, but my husband and I like to go out to eat a few times a month. I’ll definitely look into going to Indian restaurants more frequently so it’s easy to pick nutritious dishes. Thanks for the great post!
Awesome, I’m so glad you found this post helpful, Lillian. Best of luck eating healthier! 🙂
I really like these suggestions. I try to avoid bread too If a waiter says they will bring bread I try to tell them not too before I change my mind, I like these ideas.
YES, that’s a great idea and one I didn’t even think to add to the list but is a super easy way to remove those extra un-needed foods even from reaching your table. Also – no chips is another one 🙂 Thanks for sharing!