Transitioning into a keto diet can be tough at first, but you don’t have to give up everything you once loved! Contrary to popular belief, there’s actually a variety of keto-friendly options at Starbucks, which makes being keto on the go, or keto while traveling in unfamiliar cities a breeze.

Starbucks is obviously a well known giant when it comes to the coffee and breakfast world. With over 29,000 locations worldwide, it’s almost impossible to avoid from the largest metropolitan cities to the smallest rural towns. Despite all of their ubiquity, the company prides itself on being able to meet almost all dietary restrictions in one way or another – with great low carb options for all of us keto people.

While of course you won’t be able to enjoy those carbohydrate-rich snacks like bagels and english muffin sandwiches, there’s still plenty of healthy, low carb meals and snacks that you can enjoy in both in moderation and whenever your heart desires.

In this guide, I’ll break down some of my favorite food options (and food hacks) for eating at Starbucks without breaking your ketosis streak. I’ll be diving into full meal options as well as snacks, and will offer bonus tips on how I like to hack my way through my Starbucks visits. Let’s start things off with the most important meal of the day – breakfast.

Keto-Friendly Starbucks Breakfast Options

Egg Bites

By far, the best keto-friendly breakfast item that I’ve found from Starbucks is the Sous Vide Egg Bites. In particular, the Bacon and Gruyere Egg Bites only have 9 grams of net carbs, making them the perfect keto-friendly breakfast snack. With sous-vide style prepared eggs, bacon, and gruyere and Monterey jack cheese, they also pack a powerful protein punch of 19 grams, and have 14 grams of healthy fat.

The Egg White & Red Pepper sous vide egg bites also can work as a low carb grab-and-go meal because they come with 13 grams of protein only a net 13 grams of carbs. These also come with Monterey jack cheese, along with spinach fire-roasted peppers that add a whole lot of flavor.

The only type of egg bites to steer clear of are the Chicken Chorizo Tortilla egg bites, which while full of protein, are made from flour tortilla chips, which have way too many carbs to justify on the keto diet.

If you want to go the extra mile to really make these egg bites keto friendly, you can also request Starbucks’ original Avocado Spread to add some healthy fat at only 5g of carbs and only 90 total calories per container.

Breakfast Sandwiches

I know what you’re thinking, “how can breakfast sandwiches work on keto? Those english muffins are full of carbs”. But fret not, there’s one simple hack I’ve found that lets me enjoy these meals and stay in ketosis. All you have to do is order the sandwich of your choice, and ditch the bun before you eat it! You can still enjoy those eggs, cheese, and meat, without having to worry about excess carbs. While it might be a little messier without the bread, your body will thank you. I personally prefer the Reduced-Fat Turkey Bacon & Cage Free Egg White Breakfast Sandwich, which is one of the healthier options even with the bread.

Yogurt

Unfortunately most of Starbucks’ parfaits are high in sugar and carbohydrates, as they often come with fruit and mixed granola. However, they do offer one of my favorite grab and go snacks – Siggi’s Yogurt. While it’s on the higher side when it comes to carbohydrates (14 grams total), if you’re in a pinch and can afford the extra grams, this yogurt is a great morning snack to get you a lot of protein (15g) without many calories (110).

Keto-Friendly Lunch and Dinner Options

While breakfast options are usually the thing people worry about most when it comes to the keto diet, lunch and dinner options can be frustrating to come by in their own right. Fortunately, Starbucks has some killer options that cater to our low carb needs. Let’s break down some of my personal favorites.

Protein Boxes

Starbucks’ protein boxes are a total life saver for me. They’re versatile and tasty, and while sometimes they can come with carbs on the side, they aren’t cooked in a way that makes it hard to just discard those unwanted starches. The most keto-friendly protein boxes include:

• Cheese & Fruit Protein Box (34 grams of carbs – remove the grain crackers and keep the cheese and grapes)
• Chicken BLT Protein Box (58 grams of carbs – remove the bread and ranch, and keep the veggies, meat and cheese)
• Eggs & Cheese Protein Box (40 grams of carbs – remove the multigrain muelsi bread and honey peanut butter, and keep the eggs, cheese, and grapes)
• Farmers Market Protein Box (29 grams of carbs – remove the seeded crackers and sweet apple slices, and keep the Genoa salami, the aged white cheddar, the fresh snap peas, and rosemary almonds)

Now these may be a little messy, especially when taking the sandwiches apart, but they come with great, protein-rich snacks and are an easy way to curb hunger without going into ketosis. Next, let’s dive into Starbucks’ salads.

Salads

• Cauliflower Tabbouleh Side Salad (7 grams of carbs)

This side salad is by far the most keto-friendly one that is available on the menu. It comes with hopped parsley, mint, tomato, riced cauliflower, cucumber and tangy lemon juice. All of that is then placed onto a fresh arugula that makes for a refreshing, yet peppery bite. At only 7 grams of carbohydrates and 130 calories, it’s a great deal.

• Cage Free Eggs & Seasoned Grains Side Salad (33 grams of carbs)

This one’s obviously a little more complicated, but it is hackable nonetheless. After scooping out the herbed brown rice kernels, you’ll be left with two cage-free hard boiled eggs, fresh baby spinach, and oven roasted tomatoes that make for a great low carb lunch or dinner.

• Garden Greens and Shaved Parmesan Side Salad (9 grams of carbs)

This one is another favorite, and requires no picking apart or pulling – it comes keto friendly as is. With the Garden Greens and Shaved Parmesan Side Salad, you’ll get greens consisting of flavorful raddichio and snap peas served with a zesty lemon vinaigrette, topped with a nice helping of carb-free parmesan cheese.

• Grilled Chicken and Cauliflower Tabbouleh Salad (15 grams of carbs)

This salad is a little on the heavier side when it comes to its amount of carbs, but can still be made even more keto-friendly. It comes with a fresh leafy green base, along with protein-rich grilled white chicken breast, cauliflower tabbouleh, olives, roasted red peppers, feta and lemon, all with a red wine vinaigrette. Taking out the olives, and keeping the tabbouleh and red wine vinaigrette on the side is an effective way to keep the carbs down for this salad.

Keto-Friendly Starbucks Snack Options

Starbucks may be a little limiting when it comes to low carb friendly baked goods and hot meals, but where they lack in meal options, they make up for with a wide variety of snacks. I’ll break down some of the favorites that I used to fight off cravings below.

Almonds and Other Nuts

I’m a huge fan of Starbucks’ Squirrel Classc Almonds. They’re kettle cooked and are just seasoned with a pinch of salt, making them a tasty, but keto-friendly fix. In total, they only have 8 grams of carbohydrates, and 5 of those are from dietary fiber. They also come with 9 grams of protein and 23 grams of saturated fat, with only 260 calories per serving.

The other almond options at Starbucks are unfortunately mixed with fruit and granola, making them much less keto friendly, but there are other low carb snacks that are available too.

Meats & Cheese

If you can show up at the right time, Starbucks has a stellar selection of different types of meat and cheeses that make great on the go snacks. Some of my favorites include:

• Creminelli Sopressata Monterey Jack Snack Tray (0 carbs!)
• Country Archer – Hickory Smoked Turkey Jerky (5 grams of carbs)
• Country Archer – Original Beef Jerky (5 grams of carbs)
• Moon Cheese – Chedder (1 gram of carbs)
• Babybel Mini Cheese Snack (o carbs!)
• String Cheese (1 gram of carbs)

Popcorn and Chips

These seem almost antithetical to the thought of a low carb diet, but Starbucks actually comes with some surprisingly tasty and keto-friendly popcorn and chip items. Some of my favorites include:

• Hippie Snacks – Sesame Snap Coconut Clusters (8 grams of carbs)
• Hippeas – Far Out Fajita (14 grams of carbs)
• Hippeas – White Cheddar (14 grams of carbs)
• POP! – Sunflower Oil & Sea Salt (17 grams of carbs – a little bit on the heavier side)
• Rhythm Super Foods Kale Chips – Sea Salt (8 grams of carbs)

While some of these are a little heavy on the carbs, they can be great snacks when you’re in a pinch. Unfortunately, I had to leave out the bar options, because most just don’t make the grade. While some Kind Bars are as low as 18 grams of carbohydrates, they’re way too small to make that kind of carb level worth it.

If you’d like to check out the rest of these snacks’ nutrition breakdowns, click here.

Conclusion

While there’s no perfect way to get that ideal blend of convenience, price, and keto-friendly selection, Starbucks is definitely one of my highest rated restaurants for their low carb offerings and hackable dishes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks on the go. If you have any different types of Starbucks keto life hacks that you’ve come across, I’d love to hear them! Feel free to leave a comment, and stick around for my next Starbucks deep dive on my favorite low carb drinks, and tips to staying caffeinated while in ketosis, without forgoing taste.