Keto by Cuisine: What I Actually Order, From Italian to Thai

Here’s something unusual about this guide: a lot of it was tested with an actual blood glucose meter. When I had gestational diabetes, I had to measure my blood sugar more than four times a day, every day — and I still went to restaurants. So when I say a dish didn’t spike me, that’s not a vibe, that’s a reading. (I’m still one person, and your body is yours — but it’s a better starting point than guessing.)

So: cuisine by cuisine, what I actually order.

Italian

Easier than it looks, if you make peace with ignoring 80% of the menu.

• Caesar salad, no croutons — my default. Filling, and nobody blinks at the request.
• Burrata or mozzarella with tomatoes — half the reason to go to an Italian restaurant anyway.
• And if you really, really want pizza: eat the cheese and toppings off the top. I know. I’ve done it. I’m not proud, but I’m also not sorry.

Indian

I’ll be honest, I rarely have Indian food — but when I do (Dishoom is my favourite), the strategy is one word: tandoori. Tandoori dishes are grilled or oven-cooked protein, they taste wonderful, and they never pushed my blood sugar up when I was testing. Grilled paneer is another good one I’ve ordered.

The thing to be careful with is curries — you simply can’t tell from the menu whether flour or other thickeners went into the sauce. So my rule for Indian food is: stick to the grilled proteins and you’re on the safest ground in the building.

Turkish & Middle Eastern

The easy one — arguably the best cuisine for eating low carb out.

• Kebabs and mixed grill plates — the whole format is basically protein plus fire.
• Grilled vegetables — usually excellent, usually plentiful.
• Fattoush — lovely if you skip the fried bread pieces; get the dressing on the side, and make sure it’s the sharp vinegar one, not the sweet pomegranate molasses one.
• The heartbreak: hummus and baba ganoush aren’t really low carb. I’m tempted every single time. Stay strong with the grilled halloumi instead.

Japanese

Not hard to order — just hard to feel full. Sashimi is basically keto, and miso soup isn’t bad either. But sashimi doesn’t fill you up, so plan accordingly (order more than feels reasonable, or eat something before you go).

Two traps: those glossy seaweed salads usually have added sugar — yes, even though they’re “salads” — and teriyaki anything is off, because teriyaki sauce is essentially sweetened soy.

Thai

I love Thai food. Thai food does not love keto. Added sugar runs through almost everything — curries, sauces, dressings, even savoury-tasting dishes. My genuinely unglamorous move: eat the prawns or chicken out of the pad thai and leave the rest. If there’s a grilled meat option, take it. Otherwise, this is the cuisine where I most often just decide it’s not a keto night.

Chinese

Middle difficulty. Dishes like garlic chicken or beef with vegetables do usually have some starch in the sauce — but in the scheme of things they’re not bad, if you hold the line on the big stuff: no rice, no noodles, at all. The plate of protein and veg with a slightly thickened sauce is a compromise; the rice is a surrender.

Mexican

One of the easiest, especially Tex-Mex. Fajitas are practically a keto dish — chicken, beef or prawns with grilled peppers and onions — you just don’t touch the tortillas. Guacamole, cheese, soured cream: all fine, pile them on.

And at home I make lettuce tacos — crisp lettuce leaves standing in for tortillas. You rarely see them on menus outside Mexico, but they’re one of my favourite things to make.

Greek & Mediterranean

Barely needs a strategy — so much of it is naturally low carb, and it’s the easiest cuisine to recreate at home:

• Greek salad — tomato, cucumber, onion, feta — then add whatever protein you like: prawns, chicken, lamb.
• Grilled fish — order it out or make it at home.
• Halloumi — Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, whatever it is, it’s fried cheese and it’s carb-free. It appears in most of my answers for a reason.

Korean

Very good — and one I meter-tested thoroughly, because I ate a lot of Korean BBQ while pregnant. The BBQ format is ideal: meat you grill yourself, plus all the vegetables they bring — onions, mushrooms, leaves to wrap things in.

The free little appetisers (banchan) are mostly fine too, with one rule: taste first. If it’s not sweet and not a starch, it generally did OK on my readings. The sweet-glazed ones and anything battered, leave alone. Same logic for marinades — plain cuts over the sugary bulgogi-style ones when you can choose.

Spanish (tapas)

A quietly great one. I fill myself up on olives, cheese and jamón, then gambas (garlic prawns — essentially keto perfection) and chorizo. Bacalao with onions and garlic works really well too, and most places in Spain do a mixed salad with tuna that’s exactly what you want.

The one to refuse: tortilla española — it looks innocent, it’s mostly potato.

Vietnamese

I’ve done pho with no noodles. Is it boring? Yes. But you get the broth, the beef, the herbs, the lime — the whole Asian flavour hit — without the carbs, and sometimes that’s the entire point. Beyond that, I’ll be honest: most of the menu has carbs hiding in it (rice, noodles, rice paper, sweet sauces), so pho-minus-noodles is my one move here.

French

Better than you’d expect. Foie gras is basically fat — I couldn’t have it while pregnant, but on ordinary keto it’s a luxurious yes. There’s always steak, and most French restaurants (certainly in France) have a salade niçoise, which makes life easy. No baguette, obviously, however warm it arrives.

One caution: French cooking loves a creamy sauce, and you can never tell from the menu whether it’s thickened with flour or starch. Cream itself is fine — mystery-thickened sauce is a gamble. When in doubt, sauce on the side.

The pattern (again)

If you read my London restaurants guide, you’ll recognise the theme: grilled protein is the universal answer. Tandoori, kebab, fajita, sashimi, souvlaki — every cuisine has a corner where meat or fish meets fire without a sweet sauce getting involved. Find that corner and you can eat low carb anywhere.

Is there a cuisine I’ve missed that you always get stuck in? Tell me and I’ll test it — I have form on that.