If there’s one thing that I’ve seen a lot of people struggling with when it comes to eating out while following a keto diet, it’s Chinese restaurants.

There’s a lot of talk on the internet lately claiming that American-Chinese style food is simply impossible to eat while maintaining a state of ketosis. They reference fast food chains like Panda Express and casual dining like PF Chang’s, but fail to get into the nitty gritty of these menus.

While side dishes like rice and noodles are obviously big red flags when it comes to the keto diet, those aren’t the only types of foods that Chinese restaurants have to offer. In fact, there are lots of ways to hack a Chinese restaurant’s menu to get meals that fit your keto macro targets perfectly.

In this article, I’ll be doing a deep dive on Chinese restaurants in general, and will provide you a full guide on how to order low carb in a way that’s easy, keto-friendly, and most importantly delicious.

Quick Tips for Ordering Keto at a Chinese Restaurant

• Ask if they offer vegetable noodles or cauliflower rice

Now you won’t find this option everywhere, but a lot of newer and more modern Chinese restaurants have been known to have low carb friendly accommodations in the form of vegetable based noodles and cauliflower rice. They usually use carrot noodles or zucchini squash noodles in these instances, and they’re much lower in carbohydrates than the traditional Chinese soba or egg noodles.

If the restaurant has the vegetable noodles available, it’s usually a pretty easy request to make, considering all they have to do is peel the veggies length wise with a peeler or spiralizer, and then boil them as they would any other types of rice or noodles.

If they can’t make these accommodations however, check out the next tip below.

• Order stir fry without sauce, rice, or noodles

Chinese restaurants all have varying degrees of menu items, so it can be difficult to offer general tips that apply to each one. Some restaurants use home made sauces that aren’t very sugary, while others use ones that are extremely high in sugars, which are obviously bad when it comes to the keto diet.

A good rule of thumb to follow is to order dishes that don’t contain rice, noodles, or sauces. At first glance of a menu, it may seem like that’s impossible, since practically everything comes with rice or noodles.

But most restaurants are willing to help comply with dietary restrictions, and if you just ask for stir fry without rice, noodles, or sauce, you’re likely to get a low carb dish of fresh fried vegetables and meats of your choice.

Depending on where you go, you may want to also ask that the meal isn’t cooked with corn starch or tapioca flour, which are frequently used thickening agents.

If you find that they only have sugary soy sauce available for topping, hot sauce and vinegar are usually good low-carb options.

• Ask for fried egg to add flavor and fat to your meal

While they aren’t typically included in most menu items at most Chinese restaurants, you can easily ask to have a fried egg added to whatever dish you’re ordering to help bulk up the calories, flavor, and most importantly for the keto diet, the healthy fat content.

Fried egg can go great with meat and veggies, and is often served within different types of soups. However you may still want to steer clear of most types of soups, as they can be loaded with sugar and other thickening agents that can easily tip the scales on your meal’s net carb count.

• Tell your server about your dietary restrictions

This one is the simplest most effective strategy to take at any restaurant, but most people don’t think to try it because they worry it’ll be too cumbersome for the staff.

Restaurant’s are prepared for anything that can be thrown at them, and the ketogenic diet definitely isn’t the most restrictive diet out there that they’ve encountered.

Additionally, thanks to the ketogenic diet’s rising popularity, lots of restaurants are already starting to provide low carb options and ‘diet menus’ as alternatives to their primary offerings. I’ve even seen some Chinese restaurants with these diet menus just for people like us that are trying to be aware of our carb intake.

Even if your server isn’t familiar with the ketogenic diet, all you have to do is list the ingredients that you cannot eat on this diet, and they’ll be able to help you make the right choice for you.

Keto-Friendly Options at Chinese Restaurants

All of these options are some of my go-to choices while eating keto at Chinese restaurants. Of course you can order lots of other things outside these choices with the tips I’ve given above.

Some more general rules of thumb are to stick to clear soups because they’re less likely to have corn starch and thickeners, and always try to ask for steamed meat and veggies because you’re more likely to avoid frying and breading.

The best options for keto macros include:

• Roasted pork belly
• Peking roast duck
• Hainanese chicken
• Egg drop soup
• Mushu
• Egg Foo Yung

Another good tip to remember is that if you order take out, there are a lot of great sugar free sauces that you can add to your meals from home to help give it those East Asian inspired flavors, without the added net carbs.

For most Chinese food selections, I’m a big fan of the G. Hughes Teriyaki sauce or G. Hughes Orange Ginger Sauce. They’re both sweetened with sucralose, which can be a bit high on the glycemic index, but it has low net carb counts, and I’d say is fine in moderation for the keto diet.

Foods to Avoid at a Chinese Restaurant on Keto

When it comes to foods to avoid at a Chinese Restaurant while following a keto diet, there are quite a few that are complete no go’s:

• Rice (fried rice, steamed rice, brown or white)
• Noodles (chow mein, lo mein, chow fun, egg noodles)
• Wontons (deep fried and often breaded)
• Egg rolls (also fried and breaded)
• Sweet and sour sauce (high in sugar)
• Orange sauce (high in sugar)
• Oyster sauce
• Plum sauce
• Hoisin sauce
• Certain types of sugary soy sauces

One huge drawback of eating out at Chinese restaurants is that a lot of seemingly keto-friendly meals can have hidden net carbs. Some big meals that often have net carbs to look out for include:

• Soups & Sauces

Most of the thicker soups and sauces at Chinese restaurants are thickened with cornstarch. If you’re not familiar with cornstarch, just one tablespoon contains about 7 grams of net carbs.

In a restaurant sized serving of food with a thickened sauce, you’re likely to find around one or two tablespoons of cornstarch. While this won’t necessarily kick you out of ketosis, if you’re not paying close attention, those net carbs can definitely add up.

With soups like hot and sour soup, you’re likely to find about a table spoon of cornstarch per serving, which contains around 2 net carbs in total. Again, seemingly harmless, but if you’re combining soup with other dishes, you could be consuming way more carbs than you bargained for.

• Buffet Items

Buffet items are also frequently thickened with cornstarch, and can make it even more difficult to know what a genuine serving size is simply because it’s all you can eat. There’s no way to guarantee your net carb count in each plateful, and you’re definitely not going to be able to weigh each food you get on a food scale when eating out.

Additionally, most items that are usually on Chinese buffet menus tend to be deep fried and have a coating made from flour or tapioca flour, which definitely will add to your overall net carb count for that meal. When it comes to buffets, I’d recommend sticking to meat and veggies, and keeping portion sizes small.

• Breaded Meats

There’s a ton of meat options at Chinese restaurants that may seemingly be keto friendly, but are actually breaded and fried, making them a significant source of hidden net carbs.Cornstarch is frequently used to ‘velvet’ these meats before they are stir fried, and even though they may not look breaded when coming out, they still come with a thin layer of corn starch surrounding them.

While this thin layer is pretty small (but difficult to measure) in net carb counts, depending on how much meat you eat, you could be running the risk of getting knocked out of ketosis without even knowing it.

• Water Chestnuts

Water chestnuts are frequently served as a side dish in a lot of Chinese meals. They aren’t that bad on their own and in small quantities though. In fact, I recommend shredded water chestnuts as an alternative for grain side dishes like couscous and quinoa.

However if you’re not careful, they can add up. About half a cup of slices of water chestnut contains about 7 grams of carbohydrates in total.

Rules to Remember When Eating Out on Keto

• Aim for high fat content over high protein content

A key mistake of early keto dieters that I see time and time again is simply focusing too much on consuming lots of protein, and not putting enough effort toward getting enough healthy fats on the keto diet.

Lots of people will go all out on making every meal they get meat based as a way to ensure that they don’t have to consider any carbs, but they often forget how much more important the fat aspects of that meat are.

When you’re in a state of ketosis, your body is in a fat burning state, and inherently requires fat for fuel. That’s why it’s recommended to get roughly 70% of your total daily calories from sources of healthy fat, with a moderate amount of protein, and minimal carbohydrates.

By getting more fat over protein, your body will be a fat-burning machine.

• Balance out the rest of your meals

Probably the most important piece of advice to take away from this article should be this one.

Eating out at restaurants is perfectly fine in moderation, and if you’re keeping your net carb counts in check, you really shouldn’t have all that much to worry about.

However it’s easy to miss out on all the necessary nutritional information when you’re not making the food yourself. You might get a few too many net carbs, or you might get some pretty inflammatory ingredients in your order.

The best way to fight against these potential risks is by balancing out the rest of your meals with healthy options that fit your keto macro goals By balancing out the other meals of your day, you’re allowing your body to continue on with its fat burning process, rather than just eating bad food and starving it afterward.

• Watch out for deep fried foods

There can be a lot of issues with deep fried foods on the keto diet, for a few different reasons.

At a lot of restaurants, when foods are deep fried they’re usually coated with a sort of flour, which is usually very high in carbohydrates. Additionally, the oils that are used to deep fry in most restaurants include vegetable oil, soybean oil, and canola oil, all of which have been directly linked to increases in inflammation.

On the keto diet it’s important to avoid inflammation, because even if you’re keeping your carb count down, it can still actually risk you getting kicked out of ketosis altogether.

That’s why whenever I eat out, I always try to aim for grilled options over fried or deep fried.

In terms of Chinese menu items, you’ll definitely want to shy away from sides like egg rolls or wontons. (Though that cream cheese filling can be a great way to bulk up your fat count).

• Plan out your order in advance

This rule is especially important when you’re eating out at restaurants like Chinese restaurants.

There can be a lot of ways that you can go off course when eating out, but if you plan your meal ahead of time, and more importantly stick to it when it comes time to order, you’ll easily set yourself up for success.

I’ve found that most people that break keto early on simply didn’t have a plan of action in place. That’s why I like to utilize macro counting apps like Noom, which are designed to help keep me on track toward my goals.

• Don’t get discouraged

Lastly, it’s important not to get too discouraged if you accidentally slip up, consume too many net carbs or inflammatory foods, and get knocked out of ketosis.

Accidents happen, and all of your progress with keto doesn’t get automatically lost, despite what some people may tell you.

In fact, if your body’s had a chance to get used to being fat adapted, you’ll have an easier time getting back into ketosis much more quickly.

If you’re feeling discouraged and are in need of some inspiration, you can check out my recent guide on getting back into ketosis in 24 hours right here.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, eating out at Chinese restaurants while following the keto diet can be a little bit limiting, but it is by no means as possible.

As long as you know what kind of foods to look out for, what kind of foods are okay to have, and are open and communicative with your server when you arrive, you should be in great shape to have a healthy, keto-friendly meal out.

The biggest things to stay away from are always going to be rice, noodles, and sauces. As long as you keep that at the top of your mind, you won’t have any trouble figuring out a meal that’s both enjoyable, and safe for a low carb diet.

Do you have any favorite Chinese keto recipes or Chinese restaurant keto hacks? Drop them in the comments below! I’m always looking for more ways to improve keto experiences while eating out.