A big Daisy thank you to our amazing Keto Café families for pooling together their Top Tips for eating out when your child is on the ketogenic diet.   For quick and easy referencing, we’ve highlighted some key words and products. 

All venue recommendations from Keto Cafe families are correct at the time of going to press, but as we all know things do change from time, so always double-check in advance of making a booking.   Read, digest, ponder and enjoy!    Bon appetite! 

Julie
"We go to our local pub who are fantastic and cook everything from scratch.  I pre-order my daughter’s meal 48hrs in advance. She has olives to start or cucumber sticks with full fat mayo. Main course is salmon, beef burger etc with curly fries (30g spiralised potato made specially for her!) and low carb veg or salad, served with mayo, hollandaise or cheese sauce (made with double cream & cheese). I bring a keto brownie for dessert and they plate it up with double cream and a couple of strawberry slices. A carton of Ketocal makes up the rest of the fat. The pub even did a takeaway for her birthday in June! I find a discussion in advance with a restaurant goes a long way!"

Isabel
“I've recently assembled a "keto food kit" which I take everywhere. It contains K.Yo, Ketocal, mayo sachets, nut butter sachets, olives.”

Amy
“I took those little scales everywhere!!!  H ate a lot of expensive steak in restaurants! I found a few great places that became our ‘go to’. Nando’s always worked well…  and a carvery - I’d often take my own keto cheese sauce to pour over his veg.  We even did McDonalds with his own low carb bun and just added the beef patty.”

Sarah
“Going for lunch with friends today - don't know which pub yet so I can't check the menu. I'm confident I can get either a cheese ploughman's, egg and gammon or a roast for my girl which I'll weigh out and add bits from my picnic bag containing Cheesies, K.Yo, blueberries and some Curators Pork Puffs as necessary.  If not, she'll have the strangest lunch ever!  Keto won't stop us!”

Julie
“Our dietitian said 'leave the scales at home' so we do! (We’ve been on keto for almost 7 years).  If it's a local pub/restaurant I often go and book a table in person. That gives me the opportunity to explain the diet and see if they're willing to accommodate. Otherwise, I take mayo/butter and often a keto brownie or similar with clotted cream for dessert.  We ate out last week at one of the Loungers restaurants and our daughter had lamb kofta, avocado and halloumi!  She also went to Nando’s with her snooker club and had chicken thighs, halloumi and avocado.  Usually we go for chicken, halloumi and salad, plain options usually work best and choose off the kids menu or extras if possible to get a smaller portion!  We used to take a carton of Ketocal to top up the fat or a tub of K.Yo but she has K.Vita now which gives a good dose of fat!”

Kim
“When eating out we take his keto food with us every time. We’re lucky he eats the Ketocare bolognese and chicken pouches - hot or cold.  I bulk cook, so when we go on holiday in our caravan etc we take a travel freezer, it looks like a cool box and plugs into the vehicle.”

Melissa
“I always just pack my son a keto lunch and tell the server that he’s on a special medical diet so we will be feeding him. It saves us money, especially as he used to throw pub food on the floor! And no restaurant/pub has ever minded!”

Gina
“We mix ketchup and mayo with MCT oil, then pick keto friendly food. How he eats that sauce I will never know, but he really likes it!”

Sarah
“We had an impromptu dinner at Wetherspoons yesterday. We were given the wrong Pepsi for my daughter but luckily my husband tasted it and noticed. They were very apologetic and brought another one which was diet.  She then ate kids' ham, egg and chips with a side salad and we ate her chips. Normally I ask for salad instead of chips for her but ordered off the app because she was STARVING and getting very loud so it was quicker to do it this way. The boys wanted pud but we didn't have our usual stash of K.Yo as we weren't expecting to eat out so she had a salad 'pudding" (with extra mayo to try to keep any reaction to the high sugar ingested earlier to a minimum) while the boys ate cookie dough yummies! She loved it! Phew!”

Hayley
“We go for a roast with no gravy so we can pick give the meat, and free vegetables and measure the counted veg and take some mayo with us or we go for a fry up and just give the egg, bacon and mushrooms and take our own Livlife bread and butter to make a sandwich”

Melissa
“Toby Carvery is a favourite of ours.  My son loves it.  He has the meat and fills his plate up with veggies. We avoid the gravy and sauces but he's not a huge gravy fan anyway.”

Sarah
“We managed a trip to Pizza Express today.  My son had the bolognese minus the pasta and a K.Yo pud for dessert. The staff kindly plated it up and served it with a couple of strawberries.”

Sarah
“We went to our local Wetherspoons pub for lunch today with my daughter’s picnic. I asked whether it would be possible next time to choose the ham egg and chips without chips with extra egg and ham, because my daughter is on a specialist diet for her epilepsy. Epilepsy seemed to be the key word... they said they'd be more than happy to swap chips for another egg/ham on her plate. I look forward to returning without a picnic so she can eat alongside the rest of us and I don't have to pre-prepare! I'm also pretty impressed that a big pub chain could do it. I'd expected a typical local smaller pub to be able to accommodate us but I'm quite surprised and delighted that Wetherspoons will too.”

Vanessa
“I take food with me mostly as never know what to expect. Except in summer hols when we went for seafood platter. My daughter had the squid and mussels in butter. Garlic mayo & pot of butter.  I took her keto flaxbread from home. (I weigh the carbs for dessert: she likes strawberries or raspberries to take out) and I take BabyBel cheeses just in case.”

Charlotte
“Our first Keto meal out at Pizza Express, today!  Rang ahead beforehand and asked if they would cook my son’s keto pizza if we brought one along and they really were more than happy to oblige. It came out with all the other food and he was oblivious to the difference. We also took a keto chocolate brownie for his dessert. One happy boy!  Feeling really accomplished and loving that we can still manage a lovely meal out with our family”

Melissa
“We always just bring my son’s whole meal in a lunch bag and explain to the server that he’s on a special medical diet for his epilepsy; we’ve never had any problems!”

Sarah
“We managed a trip to Pizza Express today.  My son had the bolognese minus the pasta and a K.Yo pud for dessert. The staff kindly plated it up and served it with a couple of strawberries.”