I have to eat out quite often for business and I've gotten pretty good at ordering mostly Paleo fare. I'm not so incredibly picky, but I typically order some protein and vegetables on the side. I do occasionally eat white rice when I'm in Asia and occasionally pasta when I'm in Italy, but in general I stick to Paleo as much as I can. I'm not in the US, so I think in a lot of ways it is easier for me to find things to eat. I generally don't ask them to leave out non-Paleo things, but I just don't eat them when they come. Everything in Germany is served with a Knödel and potatoes, but I just don't eat them.

When at a sushi place, I'll choose sashimi and a green salad with ginger dressing. Yummy! I even had the option of wheat free soy sauce yesterday

Once recently I went to IHOP (where I don't think I've been for 15 years) with a family member and thought, oh I'll just get an omlette. Looking at the menu I discovered they put pancake batter in their omlettes "to make them fluffier", so I told them I'm gluten intollerent (true and then again not totally true in the sense most think of...), and asked if they could make me an omlette without pancake batter. They did. You just can't be afraid to ask questions and ask for substitutions to eat the way you want to at restaurants At brunches I substitute sides of bacon for a lot of toast and pancakes

An Omelet made with PANCAKE BATTER?!?!? OH MY GAWD I can hear my grandfather saying "thats just wrong!"

I am fairly new to Paleo and have access to fabulous grass-fed beef and free range chicken and I just cannot make myself eat either outside of my house. Anyone else have that problem?? I either have to opt for vegetarian (which of course means I'm probably dealing with grains and such I won't eat either) or fish. Usually the fish.

Just pondering the fear I seem to have eating out!

The 80/20 rule applies.

We are 100% at home. When we dine out, we understand that:

- the animal products won't be grass fed;
- everything is likely to have ingredients that aren't primal/paleo.

Knowing that, we make our decisions to eat as healthily as we can under the circumstances. A lot of it is like Macphean said. But also we:

- Have a list of restaurants in (our small) town where we know we can eat healthily, and support them with our dollars. We don't even bother going to a grain/carb oriented restaurant (like Mexican) where getting a halfway decent meal is like pulling teeth;

- Simply ask them to sub the grain/starch with an extra side of veg;

- Oh, and tell the waiter first off not to bother with bringing bread, and if they don't have fresh fruit on the dessert menu, don't bother bringing that as well.

After that, we don't sweat the small stuff. Last night we were at our favorite restaurant and I tried the beef medallions. I had done everything like I've listed, but when my plate arrived, the mushrooms (which were mentioned on the menu) were in a cream sauce (which wasn't mentioned) - and obviously used flour to thicken. Do I send it back over a teaspoon of flour? Nah. Eat it - and remember it for next time.

Since I've gone paleo (including limiting dairy) eating out at restaurants is actually kind of a fun challenge.. usually I can ignore most of what's on the menu and if I look hard enough I can find something that is close enough.

Like the other night at a Mexican place the only options I had were steak and veggies.. or fish/shrimp in tomato sauce. I went for the fish/shrimp and it was great, I just didn't eat the rice it was served on top of.

I often ask for a substitute of a veggie like broccoli instead of potatoes and every restaurant I've tried this with lately has had no problem at all with that.

The other fun thing about restaurants now is as I eat my carefully chosen dish.. I look around at all the fat folks I know chowing down on the bread, rice, and fried foods.. and it makes me feel a little well.. superior intelligence wise lol. So gives me an ego boost (which I then keep to myself of course.)

I ordered the big "apple" salad and had them add chicken, then add chicken again. It was a monster meal.

Love the double order of chicken on top of the salad. Most places these days will do it (and not kill you with the price). Add avocado or guac and you can go easy on or even skip the poor quality salad dressing they likely serve.

I'm so not picky which is useful. I tend to stick with steak and salad, or Nando's in the UK, chicken, salad and olives. Nom.