Harvester restaurants are often workable for me in UK - menu lists meat/fish, sauce, and potato/rice choices separately so you can mix and match them.  Meal also includes a trip to the salad cart where you select what items you want.

Went on Sunday and had steak (which came with peas and tomato) with rice and salad. The steak wasn't the best one I've ever had but it was acceptable and the meal worked ok and I had no repercussions from it.  It meant I was able to share in the meal out with friends.  The salad cart included pineapple so a a bowl of pineapple for dessert was a possibility.....

I live in a city whose Main Attraction for leisure activity is: Restaurants.

I also get great ideas from studying menus.

I ate out yesterday.
I had Seafood Pasta (one Superfood seafood, one Avoid: Scallops and Rock Shrimp): The sauce was Red Pepper Cream. Incredibly rich. Very, very filling. That sauce was interesting. Many variations possible. In my own kitchen, I'd have made it spicier. I settled for a very generous grinding of peppercorns.

I'm looking at the options for the poll, and I didn't answer, because



Sometimes (usually) I order what's most compliant and make no "fuss".

Occasionally I ask for something unusual and am happy when the restaurant can flexibly help me to be more compliant.

But, then, sometimes I order outside the lines entirely, usually when the cuisine-type is harder to work with.


I just don't have a "hard-and-fast" policy about restaurant-ordering. There are so many variables!

I usually find something on the menu that is the most compliant and then attempt to exchange something that is more desirable for any avoids.  I make it as good as I can and enjoy it.  If I have a little discomfort from the meal later, I remember the enjoyment of the time with friends and tolerate it.  Most of the time, I don't feel significantly worse for it.

Tonight's Chinese dinner had some bennies, but a couple of avoids.
I frankly didn't enjoy the Big Avoid: The tempura jalapeno contained minced shrimp...

I had a catfish dish (they call it sole -- but it's not), and an eggplant dish, and mixed vegetables, with a small serving of brown rice of which I didn't eat more than a heaping tablespoon.

And a Heineken.

OK, I went for the ginger ice cream for dessert.  

So it's kind of a mix, there. I think the BTD pushes me to always try a restaurant's lamb dishes, maybe scallop dishes, fish dishes, eggplant dishes, FIRST. Depending on cuisine, of course.

Quoted from Cenedra

Even though it might sound weird, I usally do not need any dressing with my salad

A few years ago I thought I couldn't eat a salad without at least some dressing on it. When salt and vinegar really began to bother me I got very weary of trying to come up with a dressing in restaurants that I could tolerate. Finally, I just decided I didn't need a dressing, and I have not used one since. Now, people look at me with amazement as I obviously enjoy a salad without salt or dressing --- the same way I used to look at my friends who didn't use dressings!! I felt so sorry for them. Not anymore!

O such a good question! I did wonder about you lot, how you adapt to eating out, it is a bit stressful sometimes, isn't it?

the patient look on your partner's or friend's face, the other people asking why you are dieting as you are obviously needing to put on weight then trying to explain what the BTD is when they just feel sorry for you, the fact that this is the 3rd restaurant we have visited in the night, as the two first only served Avoids plus promised a night of IBS!

So my principle is I try to stick as much as possible to the BTD but if I have to include one or 2 Avoid items then so be it. I'd rather do this then stay home and become a lonely weirdo!

Strangely enought I always feel a bit satisfied about myself after the dinner, as I have achieved a kind of a balance, rather then throw every resolution out of the window as soon as I opened the Menu, and over-indulged in everything I shouldn't have, like when I was 20 and eveything worked perfectly in the body!  

I don't feel full if I eat a salad without dressing. I need some fat in the meal or I simply won't feel satisfied afterwards. I can only handle "no dressing on my salad" if I'm getting plenty of fat elsewhere in the meal.

We are eating out less often now than we used to. We got burned out on the couple of places we went to so often that they don't appeal anymore.  One place we like is a new (to us) Vietnamese restaurant where I can usually find something not only compliant but truly delicious, not a compromise.  I'm not always sure the sauces are 100% compliant - and I know the peanut sauce is not - but the bulk of the meal is often superfoods for me.  Same with Thai cuisine, but I'm really enjoying the flavors of Vietnamese lately.

Ruthie, you would like Vietnamese cuisine - they use lettuce leaves as wraps often.  I want to do that more at home, too.

Quoted from O in Virginia

We are eating out less often now than we used to. We got burned out on the couple of places we went to so often that they don't appeal anymore.  One place we like is a new (to us) Vietnamese restaurant where I can usually find something not only compliant but truly delicious, not a compromise.  I'm not always sure the sauces are 100% compliant - and I know the peanut sauce is not - but the bulk of the meal is often superfoods for me.  Same with Thai cuisine, but I'm really enjoying the flavors of Vietnamese lately.

Ruthie, you would like Vietnamese cuisine - they use lettuce leaves as wraps often.  I want to do that more at home, too.

I love Vietnamese food.
OinV: You went to that cool bistro during holiday season, where you had rabbit, and linked me to the menu. That place was awesome. That rabbit - as YOU described it - really put my imagination in gear.  

Quoted from san j

I love Vietnamese food.
OinV: You went to that cool bistro during holiday season, where you had rabbit, and linked me to the menu. That place was awesome. That rabbit - as YOU described it - really put my imagination in gear.  

That was really good - though the cabbage and apples were avoids.  We don't eat there often, but it's a treat when we do.  

Anywhere you can find rabbit well prepared, go for it.
(Same with venison, for me.)
These are such treats.

I love venison.  The restaurant with the rabbit had venison on the menu the Christmas before, but when we got there they had run out.  I was sooo disappointed!  I've never cooked venison myself, but I'd like to give it a try sometime.

I eat whatever I want. If I'm going to cheat, I'm going to do it right.

I voted "anything I want" because I don't go to resturants that often anymore, and when I do, all bets are off. It may take a few days to feel right again with hyper-compliance, but life is too short...

If I had really bad reactions to non-compliant foods, I certainly would avoid them at resturants too. When beginning this diet, I forced my will to be very compliant, knowing I could easily slide down a slippery slope (I'm a foodie). Surprisingly, I've managed to break myself of that danger-- my will is so much stronger than it ever was before-- and heavy foods don't appeal to me as much these days.  Savory and flavorful, yes. Just not so heavy, and blessedly, the non-compliant stuff is just not as appealing as it once was. The body learns.

Generally, I order according to my blood type when I go out. I just naturally gravitate to the salmon and the lamb - unless I'm really in the mood for a beef or bison steak. And, yes, if there's bunny or venison on the menu, I'm all over it.
But sometimes there are guests, say, or friends who want to go to a Dungeness Crab place - or to try something very specific, and on those occasions I'll go for that (I think I've eaten crab 4 times during the past 8 years!)

Today I ordered what I thought was going to be a Filet of Salmon sandwich at a favorite comfort food hangout I've been to many times. It was a ground salmon patty with some kind of binder in it - breading sort of thing - and served on focaccia - bread, bread, bread - but, worse, the salmon wasn't Pacific Northwest, and it tasted ( ) farmed. Bummer. I scarfed down the salad and french fries. First bad meal at an awesome spot.
Shoulda gone with my usual there: A great hamburger.