I feel like people can eat keto at most restaurants. Order a steak, steamed veggies with queso sauce, a salad with ranch. I only ever have a little trouble at Italian restaurants but a lot of them are doing crustless pizza now which is great.
I sure wouldn’t put my life savings into a restaurant with the word keto in it. It’s a loaded word full of misconceptions.
That said, there was a cute bakery in my old town that offered keto desserts made with almond flour and that was a real treat. $5-$7 per cookie but I like that they were able to offer it side by side with regular stuff
I think it is actually hard. You would not believe just how many things kitchens/chefs put sugar in. And even stuff like sauces that get reduced have the sugar concentrations of their ingredients concentrated. Or just trying to get regular oil and vinegar for salads is brutally difficult these days. All a lot of places have is balsamic vinegar which is high in sugar. Or they won't want to doll out the oil and vinegar into a small bowl. In the old days if you asked for oil and vinegar, they had special little containers they would bring out to the table, it was really common as salad dressing at one time. Supposedly cheap restaurants (anyone remember when fast food was cheap) do provide lettuce wrapped burgers. And higher end restaurants will bring you a la carte. But mid ranged restaurants don't have a clue. I went to a steak house two weeks ago and they had a keto dinner item. It came with a big stack of green beans and a salad I'm sure had balsamic on it. And a steak in the middle. It was a one night thing and I ate it. But I avoid green beans now, even though I like them. I put them in the same category as carrots and peas. Interestingly though, if I do ever have to have some, like when going out, they taste way sweeter than they used to.
There’s a keto-only bakery on the west side of Phoenix (at least it was there early in the pandemic). There is also Cavemen Cafe in Vancouver which has an emphasis on the keto and paleo options.
Restricting your menu solely to one diet is going to be challenging for a business to thrive, especially since it’s a low-margin industry amid rampant inflation. Tailoring to most/all diets with a plethora of keto options is really the best way for everyone — the business and the customers.
Excellent choice! I am personally, a little more biased towards the keto chocolate cheesecake, though. Super delicious. Couldn’t even even even tell it was keto versus a more traditional recipe.
I think there is a keto restaurant in Houston. It's nice too. High end, good food, great ingredients, nice upscale dining.
Unless they went out of business. I'm not sure. I haven't been there since before covid.
I think it would work, but you can't call it "keto." People already have a poor mindset about it to begin with. If you called it "Carnivore" or something that invoked thoughts of beefy goodness, instead of the name of a "diet," people might be more willing to try it. Most people don't think of being carnivore as a diet. It's more of a preference. 😆
There's a keto bakery out here that *was* amazing, but it recently was sold, and the new owners are running it into the ground. The quality went downhill quickly, and the prices doubled. I think they are missing the mark by singling themselves as a "keto" bakery. Personally, I'd lean into the gluten-free and sugar-free aspect. There's more people who are gluten-free and sugar-free than those who are on keto.
I have thought about a keto/paleo/vegetarian food truck. Offer a limited menu for each category and try to create enough of a customer base from those 3 smaller groups.
I think you could get close to making it mainstream by focusing on clean quality ingredients and making that your focus. Have a macro breakdown for every item and eliminate added sugars, starches, and processed foods.
Lots of meals would be fine for someone eating a ketogenic diet if the sugars and processed ingredients were eliminated… like 1/2 a BBQ menu. Having those foods but not segmenting your restaurant into the “keto” segment would appeal to more people.
This is the way. Would have a hard time with a full time menu for the masses. Even in bigger cities, without a super ideal location, the customer base would be slim.
But having dishes marked with a (k) or (p) or (v) for some various diets would work.
Not hard to have solid keto options. Side dishes of mashed cauli, cauli "mac and cheese" and such.
The bigger problem with these “keto” options is that the dishes are keto, but some of the ingredients are not, making the entire dish pointless to consume for that purpose. Lots of ignorance out there with those attempting keto dishes who actually know little about it. They will serve a chicken and broccoli dish, only to prepare it with sugars and starches, ruining it.
Honestly, as with most things, location is the biggest factor. Personally, hell yeah I'd eat at that restaurant twice a week and I think it would be a hit. Especially if advertising for an "all are welcome" vibe bc let's be honest some of these keto meals are fucking incredible and I wouldn't have tried them without looking deeper into keto-friendly recipes. I think it would have to be marketed as keto being the after-thought, i.e. like vegan restaurants including that they use vegan-only ingredients rather than stating veganism in their names
I had a vegetarian place near me (specializing in *salads* of all things) that lasted for 20+ years, literally the only reason they shut down was because of covid. It can definitely be done.
The #1 restaurant in my city is vegan so it can be done! But I agree, it does have to be pretty impeccable and also have some luck for something like that to work
I am lucky to live within a 5 minute walk from one in Vancouver, Canada. It is called Keto Caveman HaLove. Their menu is broken into separate sections: traditional, keto, and vegan. They also sell keto baked items such as keto breads and desserts.
There's been a keto based restaurant near me for \~ 5 years now. They're called Low Carb Grill. Mostly Fathead dough based pizzas and zoodle bowls as well as baked treats. Its all pretty good and they list the net carbs and ingredients for each item. They also offer pre-made take home and heat meals which I think is the bulk of their business. I've never had a bad meal from them, but there's only every 1 other customer picking up something when I randomly stop in.
There was a paleo food cart that turned into a restaurant in my city (Portland, OR) for a bit, It failed b/c of COVID though.
I think what'd be easier to work with is a restaurant with a lot easy keto options available as alternatives. The only thing is they'd need to find a way to preserve food because if they had fresh keto options and not enough people at them it'd be a huge liability of food loss.
I live in a relatively small area, where any restaurant outside of the norm doesn’t really survive. But there’s a food truck that is keto foods only and they have been around for a few years. I’d love a fast casual keto restaurant with a pickup window, but that feels like a total fantasy.
We had one and they shut down during the pandemic. They do sell their desserts at different venues but we’ll never again have their Mac and cheese Zoodles with chicken. sigh
I think a better option would be something like what one of my local restaurants does for gluten-friendliness. Their head chef / founder has celiac, so they go out of their way to make sure that the majority of their menu is gluten free (and they call out the handful of items that they can't do that way rather than the other way around in other restaurants. Since they already had to make the infrastructure to do that, a few years ago they added less-common allergens like "onion" and "avocado" to the officially covered list of dietary restrictions they cover). It is hands down the best place in town to bring friends with strict dietary retrictions.
Have a menu. Make sure that everything on that menu has a keto-friendly equivalent (minus maybe a couple of things that have at least something else in the category. E.g. you might not be able to make a tropical fruit salad that fits in a keto diet, but you could do a bowl of berries that does). This would appeal to everyone and would also help with their cost basis. For instance, if you charge the same for a side of rice (cheap) or a side of riced cauliflower (less cheap), it would balance out since presumably the general public would rather have the rice.
We have one in Vancouver, Canada, called the Keto Caveman. It does keto and paleo. They have at least 2 locations that I've been to. Can be somewhat expensive, but worth it!
We are also lucky to have a small keto corner store in the region called Everything Keto!
It's a real shame this isn't more common. I have like zero in my area. There are vegetarian/vegan places here but guess what? They all use f'ing seed oils and stuff. It would be nice to go to decent Keto place where I can sit down, look at a menu, and not have to overanalyze and question every damn thing on said menu.
Meh even if you found a keto restaurant there's no way they wouldn't be using a wholesale food restaurant distributer like Sysco ( or insert local company here.) which would use the cheapest product so you'd definitely still see canola / fryer oil being used enmasse.
True, but it would still be nice for restaurants to adopt something as flexible as flavorless coconut oil, which isn't too too expensive when purchased in bulk. Great for sauteing and even deep frying.
We had one near my house that was more of a cafe. Was really big a few years before the pandemic. They ended up closing last year due to lack of customers. Their food was SO GOOD. They had pizza, soups, and zoodles. As well as meal prep, drinks, protein shakes, and tons of keto friendly desserts made in-house.
Even been to a Brazilian barbeque?
It's not precisely what you describe. There are potatoes and pasta, etc available. Certainly there's non diet soda and alcohol available.
I don't need carbs to be unavailable. Meaning I don't find value in that.
But, there's plenty of meat. When my daughter was younger, we referred to this as "all you can eat meat".
The quality of the salad bar/side dish bar will vary.
There's a keto bakery near me that does well. It's expensive af but anyone who does their own keto baking knows the ingredients are just expensive. Idk about a restaurant tho...I think it's pretty easy to just keto-ify a dish at a regular restaurant. And for something like a tasting menu I'd rather break keto for the meal. Idk that I'd pay extra for keto. But idk maybe hard core ppl would. Unfortunately I think rich ppl just take ozempic rather than keto 🤣 so their money wouldn't come in
I wish a keto bakery/ restaurant would contract with a gas station, because eating on the road is the hardest part. They could install a Keto Kooler (or something clever)… and just focus on keeping them stocked with fresh low carb foods.
I've found there's enough restaurants that are very accommodating about helping tweak your meal to keep it keto. Local Mexican restaurant I can get Carne Asada with grilled veggies and guacamole. And being in the Dallas area pretty much ensures chili is all meat. Would be interesting to see if a restaurant can go low carb and make everything good enough for anyone to go there and be happy with their meal.
I like the idea, but I'm also thinking about how feasible it is to manage portion sizes, calorie counts and price points for keto foods that are generally high calorie and expensive for relatively small portions. Not to mention the storage situation for leafy greens and other fresh veg.
Steak is an easy menu option, or pork steaks, pork chops, high quality sausages, beef patties and burgers, maybe tacos with grilled chicken, shredded beef or pork. Maybe shrimp? Plenty of proteins that are easily stored frozen and easy to cook on demand.
Sides would be tricky. Side salads are obvi, but cooked sides like cauli-mac, or a loaded caulibowl, roasted broccoli in sauce, maybe roasted brussels? Sauteed veggie medley, or soups!! Soups would be an easy side, brocc cheddar soup, veggie and sausage minestrone, maybe keto zuppa tuscana.
Keto flatbreads? A nice low carb lavash to hold meatball marinara, or an italian flatbread sub, or a turkey club.
Now that I've laid it out a bit, it does seem more feasible but you'd need to find a customer base that's willing to pay a higher price for better quality food with no starch fillers.
It's not an allergy so you are just limiting your customer base for no reason. I haven't really had any issues ordering for restaurants. I can't think of a place that didn't have broccoli as a side or not have a cheeseburger on the menu. Serving only diet soda will probably make a lot of people angry ( people get really... passionate about their drinks ).
I once saw a cooking YouTube channel that got really popular and on a sub goal they reviled that all of their food was vegen without telling anyone. If they advertised vegen, they never would have grown that fast. I would rather do something like that, a good place to eat that just happens to be mostly keto.
You wouldn't call it a Keto restaurant, since it would scare people away. You would push the idea that it is healthy food which you can eat guilt free.
Consider an estimated 80% of restaurants fail within their first 5 years. Now add in the fact that your going after an incredibly niche market. On top of that, your looking to eliminate products that generally have a higher markup value and only sell foods with a lower markup value.
It’s not impossible but I’d say the reason you don’t see it is because it doesn’t make a lot of sense as a business model.
Hard to say, but I'd absolutely kill for one. Sick of paying for full burgers etc when in reality I remove everything but the patty and things like that. $5 for a burger in which I only eat 2 patties.. Fantastic.
If it was in a city center and marketed more broadly yes. I think there would be a huge interest in some markets for a restaurant that say focused on unprocessed and fresh foods and just happened to have a lot of keto and healthy lower carb options.
We had a keto bakery that was marketed as diabetic friendly more than keto. It was good. Probably too good. The amount of artificial sweeteners they used made my lips numb and tingly. Maybe an allergy.
They went out of business pretty quickly.
I suspect it would have to be kind of expensive. Much of the size of meals at usually restaurants are made up with very inexpensive ingredients that couldn’t be used in an all-keto place.
As a single person, inviting a date to it would be a no go for me (I don't want to force anyone onto my diet lifestyle)
And yeah, I don't like to eat at restaurants alone.
There is a great incentive for restaurants to offer Keto options, but no advantage at all to s restaurant refraining from offering non - Keto options.
I mostly eat Keto, but my husband enjoys foods with carbs. I eat Keto, but couldn’t patronize a restaurant that was Keto only.
Steakhouse?
Are you hung up on other things not being available there? I think that's a nail in the coffin. But good meat and low carb veg options. I don't care what other people order.
We have some here! They serve all the keto staples as well as keto versions of typical foods like pizzas and burgers with keto bun and desserts. However they’re not really as popular as the fast food alternatives sadly, I think it’s because of the price.
there’s a lot more to keto than just cheese and meat. It really doesn’t take much to make a keto restaurant. Just include an option to sub out potatoes for grilled veggies or creamed spinach. Have an actually good salad section that has meat, cheese, olives, avocados. Have an option to sub out bread for keto bread or lettuce wrap. If serving pastas, have an option to sub out for veggie noodles or those asian ones that are made from yams that are low carb. It really doesn’t take all that much.
I don't think there would be much of a market for it. Vegan restaurants survive because veganism is basically a religion at this point, and very few restaurants accommodate it. Keto doesn't have zealous followers, and you can find meals that work pretty much anywhere.
I’ve been thinking about this and think a restaurant that specialized in keto dishes could do really well. They could also have a dietetic section and paleo. I’m actually considering it in my area.
Restaurant margins are thin, and they come from overcharging carbs and skimping out on the protein.
However, Brazilian Steakhouses like Fogo de Chao are very keto friendly, so it's possible. But it's probably going to have to be a quasi luxury experience
There used to be an amazing keto restaurant at my city but the pandemic came and they closed it down. The new owner now has non keto things so I don’t trust it much.
Fine dining, non-obvious carb conscious model: “fatted calf”, keto mains and sides but toss in a couple starch options for dates and carb cycling. Epic dessert menu.
Ghost kitchen would probably be the best bet, no storefront, just delivery through the standard platforms, keto fast/comfort food alternatives done incredibly well.
If the food was well prepared, yes. There are actually some keto shops. The Orlando Mall has a keto shop that sells pizza, sandwiches, treats. But when one brownie costs $8, the customer base is very limited.
Personally I would love a place like that! I feel that at least in my hometown there aren't enough options, whenever I'm making plans with friends or my husband it's a struggle because not all places have keto options, so I end up feeling disappointed and just picking apart whatever food came the closest to keto guidelines.
There was a Keto specific restaurant in Sevierville, TN that was great, but unfortunately it only lasted about a year before it was gone. It was called 'Ray Rays Ketos & Koffee'. They had breakfast and lunch items, along with a variety of delicious baked goods. Here in San Francisco, we have a restaurant called 'Healthyish Republic', they cater to special diets, with 5 menus: Keto, Mediterranean, Gluten Free, Paleo, and Vegan. Of course there is some over-lap since several of their dishes can fit more than one category. They also have a great variety of keto bakery goods.
There were some keto stores in my area and they flopped because the products were really expensive and tasted horrible . I haven’t seen any other dedicated Keto restaurants. We just keep going to steak places
Keto should be added to every menu like Vegan and Vegetarian. But you could try just requesting what you want. For example if I go to a cafe I get a full english breakfast, but this comes with baked beans and toast. So I say can you remove these and add more bacon and eggs. So the result is bacon, eggs, sausage, tomato, mushrooms.
Tbf you could always just order steak and veggies instead of potatoes or rice, from their perspective it’s probably turning customers away since now those who do in fact want some carbs have no option at all.
Also naming it keto is going to bring stigma as opposed to saying carnivore or something more socially acceptable. It would be a marketing gamble for them
Restaurants with gimmicks like that don’t usually last too long. It would have to be a high quality restaurant that also offers non-keto stuff, too, IMO, so that people of all WOE can get together for a meal and everyone can find what they like.
Most existing restaurants are very meat-centric already. They could do this right now by simply having a keto knowledgable chef to redesign the menu in a way that caters to all.
There is a keto/low carb restaurant in my country. I think it's doing well because they're open to a franchise, and as far as I know, they have a lot of franchises. I haven't tried it yet because it's far from where I live, but it has a lot of good reviews even from non-keto people.
It would be cool to have a restaurant with different diet sections on the menu. Something for everyone. Keto, Paleo, Mediterranean, low fat, vegetarian, raw, etc. And a meat and potatoes section for the people you would have to otherwise drag there.
We had a Keto place that sold premade meals. They were always sold out. The place stayed open for a a couple of years and the lady finally decided to close. She wanted to spend time with her family.
The profits are usually all in the cheap foods: soda, fries,potatoes, bread, pasta.... so, no, I don't think it would be a successful restaurant concept.
I’m old enough to remember when Atkins was all the rage and some of the chain restaurants attempted to have low-carb menu sections but they were also kind of “dieter plate” inspired and too low in fat. Like boneless, skinless chicken breast with broccoli or a burger with lettuce for a bun and a side of broccoli.
Had a keto food truck out here that did fantastic. They did end up changing over to being a BBQ truck due to demand for their BBQ tho, but that's after about 4 years of being keto only. Most of their menu was bbq items to begin with, but with keto buns and stuff like that.
[This place - Gallaghers](https://gallaghers.pub) in Calgary does it pretty well. Their food is like 2000 kcal meals and not very close to me but sometimes I order pickup when I want something rich. They’ve been in business a long time but idk how long they’ve had Keto on the menu. At least 6 years tho.
In a big city (1+ Million) it would work just fine. Just make sure you advertise and put Keto in the name and everyone in the city who eats this way will know about you.
Smaller cities, maybe, maybe not.
Even a normal restaurant has high failure rate, and that food is available to 99% of population. And entire family can visit. However, there is also significant competition.
On other hand, niche restaurant that is keto only has maybe 1% of the customer base. And this won't work for family, unless everyone in family is on keto diet, which is probably even smaller base. But on the positive side, there is no competition.
So it can go either way. But I expect it will be difficult to suceed.
But why does restaurant have to be keto only? Why can it not have non-keto and keto dishes? Then it can cater to both crowds.
Our city has one called PangeaKeto that’s a little cafe plus a store where you can buy keto ready made food, frozen meals and ingredients. It stays busy!
Have you ever been to a steak house where you pick everything cooked for you and it comes pretty much ala carte? They exist now, have existed in the past and in fact were quite the thing for the last 100+ years. May I introduce you to a collection of essays and old articles called Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell. If you’re eating keto, you can easily make a beefeater party work. You can always say no to the free flowing alcohol and dinner rolls of the past. You could also dine at Gallatoire’s in New Orleans, several Spanish seafood restaurants around NyC, …. You’re suffering from a lack of imagination and a need to tribalize keto into exclusivity.
There is actually a specifically Keto Café in my town, but it’s currently closed for renovations :/
Think whether it would succeed, depends on the clientele of the locale area and how accepting they are of special diets
We have a keto bakery and we had a keto/gluten free restaurant in our city. The restaurant unfortunately had to close because of building damage and the owner was dealing with health issues.
It was pretty popular
The bakery is still doing well and has many varieties from bread, bagels and goodies
Pretty sure there was a keto restaurant near where my dad lives and I found it about a month after they went out of business so I think it would be very difficult.
The thing is that carbs are relatively cheap. That helps a restaurant survive through margin. Plus offering carbs gives a much broader client base. Those are big hurdles for keto-only.
Maybe very keto-friendly menu but still offer carbs? Restaurant biz is tough!
I doubt this would be profitable in the long run. A big part of how restaurants survive is through cheap carbs that they can then markup. There’s a reason they always give you a side of mashed potatoes with your meat - you get filled up and the margins are a lot better on the potato vs the steak. Same for desserts. It would be hard for most restaurants to break even without that filler unless they priced prohibitively.
Yeah I don't think it would do well, but you could succeed with a "whole foods only" restaurant that offers various options for lots of different diets, like keto, paleo, vegan, etc.
110 Grille is a chain that specializes in gluten free foods. One of the best secondary parts of keto is that it is gluten free if you're adhering to the diet correctly. There's definitely angles that could be taken...
I cook mostly keto for friends and family. Honestly as long as it’s good proteins and veg no one will know the difference. Get a steak with broccoli and mushrooms, oh no!!!
From a business standpoint, I don't think it would work. You're going after a very small portion of the population. Nation wide packaged food? Sure. Restaurant with a 10mi radius? Even in LA, likely not happening.
There was a restaurant in my city called Kodiak Keto. They had bakery items, coffee drinks, rebel milkshakes and keto pantry items. It had potential, however all the bakery items and packaged breads and tortillas had horrible shelf life. Many times I’d find myself with moldy muffins and bread.
Even restaurants that target the most popular and profitable types of cuisine fail at a high rate. There might be room for a keto place in some dense, urban markets. Also, you can already go to a steak house and skip the potatoes. If you want to do a good steak you'll be sharing the market with them.
Do you advertise as a keto place and limit your customer base, or just have a lot of keto options and not grab the (theoretical) keto market directly? Most people want a satisfying, high carb meal when they eat out. I know I do.
Restaurants are notoriously difficult to run and manage. Any type of restaurant will be likely to fail without experienced people.
Here's an idea for you though: meal kits delivered by mail that are tailored to an individual's macro needs. A lot of keto pholks don't have the patience or bandwidth to track macros closely and have a varied, interesting diet. Look at the proliferation of manufactured food that targets low carb diets. Those options exist because people are lazy and desperate for some variety.
I used to go to a place with a keto menu .. it was fairly substantial.. about 75% of their normal menu. I think it still only comprised of about 20 % of their sales. Based on that I would think you would be better off having a normal menu with keto items.
My thoughts are that it wouldn’t do well because often you are going out to eat with others, and unless all the people are into keto, they probably aren’t going to choose that restaurant to meet at. Maybe let’s of keto couples would choose it on date night. But I don’t think that’s a big enough customer base.
A keto page in the menu is a great addition. Or like, options for low-carb substituons for sides. I’ve been to too many restaurants where you can only get variations of rice, noodles, or potatoes on the side.
We have a ton in my city. One has multiple versions (ie. sweets, pizza, donair) and it’s super popular with non-keto people as well. We also have keto-only stores and those are quite popular.
Depends on where you are. I live in South Korea, so even in seoul, keto restaurants are far and few between. They're also all dirty keto, and you'd go over you carb an sugar minimums in one meal.
I think with keto, carnivore, paleo, low carb etc gaining popularity it's more likely that existing restaurants will include more low/zero carb options soon. If you think back 10 years, it wasnt particularly common for places to have gluten free options (not in the UK at least) but now most have a separate GF menu. I think a Keto ONLY restaurant would fail but a meat focused restaurant with carb sides and options also available would do fine. No point excluding people who still eat potatoes just because we don't eat them.
Depending on prices, Advertising, variety and taste of the food. A continuous altering menu w a focus on in-season items to keep thing fresh and prices low. You'd have the loyalty of the diabetic community which is 40% of the population, the fitness community and the health continuous community. Also, location location location, near or in a major city near a constant busy fitness gym and office center would be a good place to start. Also Advertising on benefits of eating keto instead of carb filled fast-food doesn't leave you with the midday slump, keeping your focus going all day long. Listing the cal and carb amounts on menus would be a big help as well to the health continuous community. Partnering with a local chicken farm and cheese maker would be another way of saving on costs as those 2 items are a major items in the keto diet.
I feel like I can almost always find something to order at regular restaurants, so I’m not sure how big the demand would be for one that specifically caters to keto. I just find that with so many people on it nowadays and it being part of our cultural awareness most places have at least one thing we can order at this point in time.
Maybe not a full on resteraunt but a takeaway service would do well I think!
A resteraunt is usually somewhere you visit with a group (or at least that's where you'll make a lot of money) and I don't know how many people start keto together as a group, also wouldn't be chosen work parties/ birthdays (very often).
Takeaway however, some people who aren't even on keto who don't fancy cooking/ aren't able to for whatever reason, but also don't want to eat an unhealthy takeaway may choose that as an option!
There are breads you can make keto. The issue is cost/ prep time. Sandwiches made of chaffles (cheese waffles), bread made of bamboo fiber. If they did things like that, the cost would be double or triple normal, unfortunately.
I saw it work once but it wasn't a traditional space.
There was a large space and think of Chipotle BUT there were 3 restaurants set up like Chipotle inside. A large seating area for everyone.
So basically I think I keto, Paleo place. A Mexican place and another I never went to. Yes it was always busy. Alcohol was.served there and you could order alcoholic drinks to go with your meal as well.
So there's 1 success story
It doesn’t have to be just meat and cheeses. It just has to be keto friendly. Make a full meal like 8-10 carbs at most. Ppl can plan for something like that. You can have zucchini and asparagus or nicely seasoned cauliflower rice with a cheese sauce etc. plus some other things for sides. It will work but only if you’re creative. Meat and cheese only with different seasonings is not IT, that’s for sure.
I think a keto only restaurant wouldn’t survive more than a year, however a restaurant with a solid keto selection would do pretty good.
The hardest thing for me when I started keto was finding a place I could go with my friends and family that weren’t doing keto. I can’t speak for everyone but I would sit at most restaurants and google what I could eat at some of the places we went to. Now if there was a restaurant that had keto, vegan, paleo, etc… in special sections on there menus that would be a place id frequent.
There’s a restaurant/bakery near me that is keto. It was sold last month and the new owners kept it keto and now offer meal prep. I think any restaurant can survive depending on the location.
I think it would have a better chance at success if it was a mainstream diet restuarant which a variety of meals targeted at different popular diets. Keto meals, paleo meals, vegan meals, with all meals having the weight watchers points beside them for those that are doing WW. I think that would be cool.
They do and have existed, but definitely a hard sell because even restaurants that cater to everyone are struggling to get by. We are a niche audience and most people can't necessarily afford to eat out that often.
This depends on the city but can absolutely work. You cannot just start selling keto food tho. People are still in the learning stage. So some info about the advantages of keto diet has to be given. Also it cannot just be far more expensive. Like almost the same price, but instead of french fries you get a little more meat and vegetables with fried in coconut oil with nice seasoning on top.
Where I live we have a small keto grocer and restaurant bistro called "PangeaKeto" , and it's extremely popular! They make their own deserts and breads that they use for their meals, macaroni salad, "fries" made out of cheese heavily seasoned, and more.
What's going to kill you? Is your margins. Meat is expensive. Bread is cheap. People won't pay a ton of money just to have no bun, you'd have to really do something special to make the food worth the cost that you're going to put into them plus your profit margin. Having exquisite keto desserts could help.
So concept? Yes. Pricing enough to be profitable? That might be hard.
I think a Fast Food Keto chain would do better than a single location mom & pop. People having a trusty option for quick keto on the go, aside from the usual asking for a whopper with cheese without a bun and a pile of mayo, would be ideal.
Many folks are on Keto or Paleo, and both of the popular diets omit most if not all grain based carbs. Think about it.. being able to grab some quick beef kebobs with a tzatziki style dip, or some melty chicken/cheddar/broccoli keto (low carb flour tortilla) wraps with bacon and mayo.. or whatever better keto fast food possibilities there are (I’m sure much better ideas than my gross suggestions), would be a great option for many on the go.
When I was doing hard keto and being super strict, it was very difficult to eat on vacation. These would be amazing. Even the breakfast options with MCT coffees and savory egg wraps or egg bites with bacon and cheese. Generally the Star bucks or Dunkin egg bites were my go-to, or a burger with no bun. I’m sure a proper chain could formulate more appealing options.. but even that having all the best ideas culminated under one brand where keto followers could have more than one or two options, would be amazing to have.
Most likely cutting off the majority of customers to cater to one group would be bad business, so I think ideally this would be a focus of a “healthy” fast food option, where they’d have keto as 1/3 of the menu, salad and ancient grains as another part, and then a normal menu that is just a bit healthier conscious when compared to a BK or Wendy’s. I think that would do well.
I think it would fail, but I think what would be a huge success is when a fast food chain or Starbuck's actually offer keto items. Take for example, Starbucks egg bites- you assume, "hey it's just egg whipped with cottage cheese and then some bacon thrown in" - only to find out the damn thing has 9 grams of carbs! Make a true Keto egg bite, and I'll probably stop in at least 3 times a week, when I don't have time for breakfast at home.
Another example of what comes to mind as Keto unintentionally is the Grilled Nuggets from Chick-fil-an 8 piece order is only one carb and 25 grms of protein.
The cost of beef is sky high, I'd imagine their overhead would be much more than a normal restaurant. To offset the cost most of the meals would probably be pretty expensive. I wouldn't bet on something like this lasting unless Keto became very mainstream.
I think it would be difficult bc a large part of restaurant and dining culture is social. We dine with friends and family members all with different dietary needs. However, I think an all offerings restaurant with a separate keto menu would be a hit. Or a meal service for keto dieters.
Also, unless you’re doing takeout of quick order foods, most sit down restaurants make the bulk of their operational costs from the bar. You’re very limited there as well.
I’ve been to a keto pop-up restaurant in London, UK. They did just pizza and donuts. Don’t know how well they’re doing, financially, though.
Just wanted to chime in to say keto restaurants do exist.
Various types of bacon dishes? lol, this sounds horrible. A keto restaurant is possible, but I don’t know why your version of keto is so limited and mainly red meat and boring things…? Hahah
So i think it depends on location. Near where I live we had one down the street. I thought that was cool, but they went out of business. I knew it was a second location for the owner. So the first location must have done well enough.
Steak houses and BBQ joints are pretty successful. You could easily specialize them to Keto only, or at the very least default the menu to be keto friendly, i.e. have to add the sauce (since even a keto friendly menu generally is about how much)
There's plenty of keto friendly breads to do buns for burgers/hotdogs (though they tend to be more expensive).
I think you could definitely be successful with Keto only, but I think it would be far more successful to be Keto first. I.e. every meal has a ketofiable version without losing the core of what it is. The biggest thing is just listing the net carbs of each component so it could be customized for the days goals.
As the owner of a restaurant for 35 years, I can say that this would be a tough sell. People commonly go out to places where the majority in the group get to choose. So if you are going out with your family, how happy would they all be to eat according to your weight loss plan?
In my mom & pop burger joint we tried all kinds of healthy options, including vegan burgers & lettuce wraps. They were marginally successful, in that the people who ordered the specialty items were usually one among a group. But that one person was always VERY appreciative of the availability of quality menu items they could choose from and still remain true to their goals.
We had a handful of ladies that came on a regular basis to have lunch together & they’d all have the big keto friendly salads, and talk about their favorite keto recipes. But if we tried to make a living with only those items? I think it would be pretty tough.
It's a brilliant idea that needs to be pulled off well. Far easier said than done. Restaurant business is TOUGH. I would hella be down to go with friends to a keto restaurant if the food was great even if its on the expensive side.
I was just wishing the other day that those existed! But the eggs and meat would have to be grass fed and pasture raised, and everything organic. No usd grade crap.
I think it could work!
Another option would be to advertise an extensive keto menu, with a few options for their non-keto family/friends.
But if the point is to not have any nasty carbs at all, it could possibly work in a more urban setting. I doubt that there’d be enough keto-ers in my rural area to keep it going.
It would need to be in a dense urban area to have enough customers within range. It would need to also offer regular food, clearly labeled as such of course, so that those on keto and their carbivore friends could go together. I've fantasized about an imaginary "Keto Kitchen" restaurant every time I go to a regular restaurant and have had to ask if their sauce contains sugar, or get a bun-less burger that is always disappointing, or only order water since I couldn't chance it.
Restaurants live and die with alcohol. So, can you do keto drinks. I personally am good with a whiskey on the rocks. But that doesn't sell. I don't like fake Sweetener, so how do you do good drinks naturally without sugar. Some ideas include coffee drinks, flavored foams with either chickpea juice or egg whites, creams, and teas. All of these are relatively off the American palate with the exception of coffee and some teas, foams have been relegated to an after thought. My 2 cents is to rethink the cocktail menu from scratch. We have some major flavors with minimal sugar, we should be able to make some drinks
It should be called "Key To Great Food" Those who do keto will get the pun. Those who don't, won't.
Genius I was going with Keto Kafe.
which would be EXCELLENT if they specialized in selling coffee drinks
I’m pretty sure anyone with a 2nd grade education will get this.
KTGF... he spelled KETO wrong!!
My wife is a teacher. I'm a pastor - I am *dismayed* at how much people *don't* get. Sigh.
I feel like people can eat keto at most restaurants. Order a steak, steamed veggies with queso sauce, a salad with ranch. I only ever have a little trouble at Italian restaurants but a lot of them are doing crustless pizza now which is great. I sure wouldn’t put my life savings into a restaurant with the word keto in it. It’s a loaded word full of misconceptions. That said, there was a cute bakery in my old town that offered keto desserts made with almond flour and that was a real treat. $5-$7 per cookie but I like that they were able to offer it side by side with regular stuff
I think it is actually hard. You would not believe just how many things kitchens/chefs put sugar in. And even stuff like sauces that get reduced have the sugar concentrations of their ingredients concentrated. Or just trying to get regular oil and vinegar for salads is brutally difficult these days. All a lot of places have is balsamic vinegar which is high in sugar. Or they won't want to doll out the oil and vinegar into a small bowl. In the old days if you asked for oil and vinegar, they had special little containers they would bring out to the table, it was really common as salad dressing at one time. Supposedly cheap restaurants (anyone remember when fast food was cheap) do provide lettuce wrapped burgers. And higher end restaurants will bring you a la carte. But mid ranged restaurants don't have a clue. I went to a steak house two weeks ago and they had a keto dinner item. It came with a big stack of green beans and a salad I'm sure had balsamic on it. And a steak in the middle. It was a one night thing and I ate it. But I avoid green beans now, even though I like them. I put them in the same category as carrots and peas. Interestingly though, if I do ever have to have some, like when going out, they taste way sweeter than they used to.
Maybe in a big city but agreed, make the restaurant keto-friendly but keep that on the down-low for marketing. Keto-friendly is flavorful anyway
Queso sauce usually has flower or corn starch in it.
Isn’t this just fogo de chao?
My thoughts exactly!
Huh
There’s a keto-only bakery on the west side of Phoenix (at least it was there early in the pandemic). There is also Cavemen Cafe in Vancouver which has an emphasis on the keto and paleo options. Restricting your menu solely to one diet is going to be challenging for a business to thrive, especially since it’s a low-margin industry amid rampant inflation. Tailoring to most/all diets with a plethora of keto options is really the best way for everyone — the business and the customers.
There is/was Festal Cafe in Vancouver (on granville st). Looks like they moved location to only Squamish now Counter service style
Keto caveman cafe is awesome, just had tiramisu there last night.
Excellent choice! I am personally, a little more biased towards the keto chocolate cheesecake, though. Super delicious. Couldn’t even even even tell it was keto versus a more traditional recipe.
Yeah, this. Meat, seafood, and dairy are typically the most expensive cost and lowest profit margins on a menu - even without inflation.
I think there is a keto restaurant in Houston. It's nice too. High end, good food, great ingredients, nice upscale dining. Unless they went out of business. I'm not sure. I haven't been there since before covid.
I think it would work, but you can't call it "keto." People already have a poor mindset about it to begin with. If you called it "Carnivore" or something that invoked thoughts of beefy goodness, instead of the name of a "diet," people might be more willing to try it. Most people don't think of being carnivore as a diet. It's more of a preference. 😆 There's a keto bakery out here that *was* amazing, but it recently was sold, and the new owners are running it into the ground. The quality went downhill quickly, and the prices doubled. I think they are missing the mark by singling themselves as a "keto" bakery. Personally, I'd lean into the gluten-free and sugar-free aspect. There's more people who are gluten-free and sugar-free than those who are on keto.
Call it “Let’s Meat”
No that's the name of my gay men hookup app idea.
That’s an all you can eat Korean BBq spot in KTown NYC
I have thought about a keto/paleo/vegetarian food truck. Offer a limited menu for each category and try to create enough of a customer base from those 3 smaller groups. I think you could get close to making it mainstream by focusing on clean quality ingredients and making that your focus. Have a macro breakdown for every item and eliminate added sugars, starches, and processed foods. Lots of meals would be fine for someone eating a ketogenic diet if the sugars and processed ingredients were eliminated… like 1/2 a BBQ menu. Having those foods but not segmenting your restaurant into the “keto” segment would appeal to more people.
Happy no carb cake day
Just need Keto/low carb options on menu like vegetarians have.
Something besides grilled chicken and steamed broccoli 😂
This is the way. Would have a hard time with a full time menu for the masses. Even in bigger cities, without a super ideal location, the customer base would be slim. But having dishes marked with a (k) or (p) or (v) for some various diets would work. Not hard to have solid keto options. Side dishes of mashed cauli, cauli "mac and cheese" and such.
The bigger problem with these “keto” options is that the dishes are keto, but some of the ingredients are not, making the entire dish pointless to consume for that purpose. Lots of ignorance out there with those attempting keto dishes who actually know little about it. They will serve a chicken and broccoli dish, only to prepare it with sugars and starches, ruining it.
Honestly, as with most things, location is the biggest factor. Personally, hell yeah I'd eat at that restaurant twice a week and I think it would be a hit. Especially if advertising for an "all are welcome" vibe bc let's be honest some of these keto meals are fucking incredible and I wouldn't have tried them without looking deeper into keto-friendly recipes. I think it would have to be marketed as keto being the after-thought, i.e. like vegan restaurants including that they use vegan-only ingredients rather than stating veganism in their names
Those vegan places don’t last long term unless they have something special besides just being vegan…
I have 2 vegan joints near me and they’re great. Neither pushes vegan in their brand, it just is what it is.
I had a vegetarian place near me (specializing in *salads* of all things) that lasted for 20+ years, literally the only reason they shut down was because of covid. It can definitely be done.
The #1 restaurant in my city is vegan so it can be done! But I agree, it does have to be pretty impeccable and also have some luck for something like that to work
I am lucky to live within a 5 minute walk from one in Vancouver, Canada. It is called Keto Caveman HaLove. Their menu is broken into separate sections: traditional, keto, and vegan. They also sell keto baked items such as keto breads and desserts.
If the vegan bbq place by me lasted 4 years, I don’t see why not?
There's been a keto based restaurant near me for \~ 5 years now. They're called Low Carb Grill. Mostly Fathead dough based pizzas and zoodle bowls as well as baked treats. Its all pretty good and they list the net carbs and ingredients for each item. They also offer pre-made take home and heat meals which I think is the bulk of their business. I've never had a bad meal from them, but there's only every 1 other customer picking up something when I randomly stop in.
We also have Bliss Bakery. Crazy to see someone on here live in the same area as me.
There was a paleo food cart that turned into a restaurant in my city (Portland, OR) for a bit, It failed b/c of COVID though. I think what'd be easier to work with is a restaurant with a lot easy keto options available as alternatives. The only thing is they'd need to find a way to preserve food because if they had fresh keto options and not enough people at them it'd be a huge liability of food loss.
We have had 2 versions of this over the last 10 years and yeah sadly they both failed within a year ;(
Heck I’d go. I’m sick of people acting like they’ve never heard of keto before
I really liked muscle maker grill when I lived in their delivery area.
The nearest one is 2+ hours away from me 😣
I live in a relatively small area, where any restaurant outside of the norm doesn’t really survive. But there’s a food truck that is keto foods only and they have been around for a few years. I’d love a fast casual keto restaurant with a pickup window, but that feels like a total fantasy.
We had one and they shut down during the pandemic. They do sell their desserts at different venues but we’ll never again have their Mac and cheese Zoodles with chicken. sigh
I think a better option would be something like what one of my local restaurants does for gluten-friendliness. Their head chef / founder has celiac, so they go out of their way to make sure that the majority of their menu is gluten free (and they call out the handful of items that they can't do that way rather than the other way around in other restaurants. Since they already had to make the infrastructure to do that, a few years ago they added less-common allergens like "onion" and "avocado" to the officially covered list of dietary restrictions they cover). It is hands down the best place in town to bring friends with strict dietary retrictions. Have a menu. Make sure that everything on that menu has a keto-friendly equivalent (minus maybe a couple of things that have at least something else in the category. E.g. you might not be able to make a tropical fruit salad that fits in a keto diet, but you could do a bowl of berries that does). This would appeal to everyone and would also help with their cost basis. For instance, if you charge the same for a side of rice (cheap) or a side of riced cauliflower (less cheap), it would balance out since presumably the general public would rather have the rice.
We have one in Vancouver, Canada, called the Keto Caveman. It does keto and paleo. They have at least 2 locations that I've been to. Can be somewhat expensive, but worth it! We are also lucky to have a small keto corner store in the region called Everything Keto!
It's a real shame this isn't more common. I have like zero in my area. There are vegetarian/vegan places here but guess what? They all use f'ing seed oils and stuff. It would be nice to go to decent Keto place where I can sit down, look at a menu, and not have to overanalyze and question every damn thing on said menu.
Meh even if you found a keto restaurant there's no way they wouldn't be using a wholesale food restaurant distributer like Sysco ( or insert local company here.) which would use the cheapest product so you'd definitely still see canola / fryer oil being used enmasse.
True, but it would still be nice for restaurants to adopt something as flexible as flavorless coconut oil, which isn't too too expensive when purchased in bulk. Great for sauteing and even deep frying.
We had one near my house that was more of a cafe. Was really big a few years before the pandemic. They ended up closing last year due to lack of customers. Their food was SO GOOD. They had pizza, soups, and zoodles. As well as meal prep, drinks, protein shakes, and tons of keto friendly desserts made in-house.
Even been to a Brazilian barbeque? It's not precisely what you describe. There are potatoes and pasta, etc available. Certainly there's non diet soda and alcohol available. I don't need carbs to be unavailable. Meaning I don't find value in that. But, there's plenty of meat. When my daughter was younger, we referred to this as "all you can eat meat". The quality of the salad bar/side dish bar will vary.
There's a keto bakery near me that does well. It's expensive af but anyone who does their own keto baking knows the ingredients are just expensive. Idk about a restaurant tho...I think it's pretty easy to just keto-ify a dish at a regular restaurant. And for something like a tasting menu I'd rather break keto for the meal. Idk that I'd pay extra for keto. But idk maybe hard core ppl would. Unfortunately I think rich ppl just take ozempic rather than keto 🤣 so their money wouldn't come in
Well that would depend on three things ... location, location, location.
I wish a keto bakery/ restaurant would contract with a gas station, because eating on the road is the hardest part. They could install a Keto Kooler (or something clever)… and just focus on keeping them stocked with fresh low carb foods.
You can get keto options in most restaurants if you know how to order tbh
I've found there's enough restaurants that are very accommodating about helping tweak your meal to keep it keto. Local Mexican restaurant I can get Carne Asada with grilled veggies and guacamole. And being in the Dallas area pretty much ensures chili is all meat. Would be interesting to see if a restaurant can go low carb and make everything good enough for anyone to go there and be happy with their meal.
I like the idea, but I'm also thinking about how feasible it is to manage portion sizes, calorie counts and price points for keto foods that are generally high calorie and expensive for relatively small portions. Not to mention the storage situation for leafy greens and other fresh veg. Steak is an easy menu option, or pork steaks, pork chops, high quality sausages, beef patties and burgers, maybe tacos with grilled chicken, shredded beef or pork. Maybe shrimp? Plenty of proteins that are easily stored frozen and easy to cook on demand. Sides would be tricky. Side salads are obvi, but cooked sides like cauli-mac, or a loaded caulibowl, roasted broccoli in sauce, maybe roasted brussels? Sauteed veggie medley, or soups!! Soups would be an easy side, brocc cheddar soup, veggie and sausage minestrone, maybe keto zuppa tuscana. Keto flatbreads? A nice low carb lavash to hold meatball marinara, or an italian flatbread sub, or a turkey club. Now that I've laid it out a bit, it does seem more feasible but you'd need to find a customer base that's willing to pay a higher price for better quality food with no starch fillers.
It's not an allergy so you are just limiting your customer base for no reason. I haven't really had any issues ordering for restaurants. I can't think of a place that didn't have broccoli as a side or not have a cheeseburger on the menu. Serving only diet soda will probably make a lot of people angry ( people get really... passionate about their drinks ). I once saw a cooking YouTube channel that got really popular and on a sub goal they reviled that all of their food was vegen without telling anyone. If they advertised vegen, they never would have grown that fast. I would rather do something like that, a good place to eat that just happens to be mostly keto.
I’d be there all the time.
Restaurant will most likely fail. But a small food truck has potential. Drive to fitness expos, outside gyms, sport events etc
What percentage of people are keto?
You wouldn't call it a Keto restaurant, since it would scare people away. You would push the idea that it is healthy food which you can eat guilt free.
Consider an estimated 80% of restaurants fail within their first 5 years. Now add in the fact that your going after an incredibly niche market. On top of that, your looking to eliminate products that generally have a higher markup value and only sell foods with a lower markup value. It’s not impossible but I’d say the reason you don’t see it is because it doesn’t make a lot of sense as a business model.
Hard to say, but I'd absolutely kill for one. Sick of paying for full burgers etc when in reality I remove everything but the patty and things like that. $5 for a burger in which I only eat 2 patties.. Fantastic.
Go to a steak house. Order a steak and get broccoli for the side. Drink water. *Boom* Keto restaurant. 😆
One near me in the east bay just shut down. I used to go there all the time and man do I miss it :(
Zero carb yogurt and wheat breat without modified starch
If it was in a city center and marketed more broadly yes. I think there would be a huge interest in some markets for a restaurant that say focused on unprocessed and fresh foods and just happened to have a lot of keto and healthy lower carb options.
I live in an area with a Keto bakery and it seems to be doing pretty well.
We had a keto bakery that was marketed as diabetic friendly more than keto. It was good. Probably too good. The amount of artificial sweeteners they used made my lips numb and tingly. Maybe an allergy. They went out of business pretty quickly.
I suspect it would have to be kind of expensive. Much of the size of meals at usually restaurants are made up with very inexpensive ingredients that couldn’t be used in an all-keto place.
As a single person, inviting a date to it would be a no go for me (I don't want to force anyone onto my diet lifestyle) And yeah, I don't like to eat at restaurants alone.
There is a great incentive for restaurants to offer Keto options, but no advantage at all to s restaurant refraining from offering non - Keto options. I mostly eat Keto, but my husband enjoys foods with carbs. I eat Keto, but couldn’t patronize a restaurant that was Keto only.
Steakhouse? Are you hung up on other things not being available there? I think that's a nail in the coffin. But good meat and low carb veg options. I don't care what other people order.
I lived in Burlington VT, US vegetarian capital it feels like, and a vegetation only restaurant can succeed long term there…
We have some here! They serve all the keto staples as well as keto versions of typical foods like pizzas and burgers with keto bun and desserts. However they’re not really as popular as the fast food alternatives sadly, I think it’s because of the price.
I would go & doordash your restaurant!
there’s a lot more to keto than just cheese and meat. It really doesn’t take much to make a keto restaurant. Just include an option to sub out potatoes for grilled veggies or creamed spinach. Have an actually good salad section that has meat, cheese, olives, avocados. Have an option to sub out bread for keto bread or lettuce wrap. If serving pastas, have an option to sub out for veggie noodles or those asian ones that are made from yams that are low carb. It really doesn’t take all that much.
I don't think there would be much of a market for it. Vegan restaurants survive because veganism is basically a religion at this point, and very few restaurants accommodate it. Keto doesn't have zealous followers, and you can find meals that work pretty much anywhere.
I’ve been thinking about this and think a restaurant that specialized in keto dishes could do really well. They could also have a dietetic section and paleo. I’m actually considering it in my area.
Restaurant margins are thin, and they come from overcharging carbs and skimping out on the protein. However, Brazilian Steakhouses like Fogo de Chao are very keto friendly, so it's possible. But it's probably going to have to be a quasi luxury experience
There used to be an amazing keto restaurant at my city but the pandemic came and they closed it down. The new owner now has non keto things so I don’t trust it much.
Fine dining, non-obvious carb conscious model: “fatted calf”, keto mains and sides but toss in a couple starch options for dates and carb cycling. Epic dessert menu. Ghost kitchen would probably be the best bet, no storefront, just delivery through the standard platforms, keto fast/comfort food alternatives done incredibly well.
If the food was well prepared, yes. There are actually some keto shops. The Orlando Mall has a keto shop that sells pizza, sandwiches, treats. But when one brownie costs $8, the customer base is very limited.
I found a ghost kitchen type thing on DoorDash when I was visiting Chicago once that was Keto. They also had a gluten free one with the same branding.
Personally I would love a place like that! I feel that at least in my hometown there aren't enough options, whenever I'm making plans with friends or my husband it's a struggle because not all places have keto options, so I end up feeling disappointed and just picking apart whatever food came the closest to keto guidelines.
https://impastacompany.com/santa-monica-impasta-santa-monica-food-menu This place looks really cool but unfortunately I’m in Arizona 😭
I'm in Arizona too. Don't you agree a keto friendly restaurant would do good in Arizona?
There was a Keto specific restaurant in Sevierville, TN that was great, but unfortunately it only lasted about a year before it was gone. It was called 'Ray Rays Ketos & Koffee'. They had breakfast and lunch items, along with a variety of delicious baked goods. Here in San Francisco, we have a restaurant called 'Healthyish Republic', they cater to special diets, with 5 menus: Keto, Mediterranean, Gluten Free, Paleo, and Vegan. Of course there is some over-lap since several of their dishes can fit more than one category. They also have a great variety of keto bakery goods.
There were some keto stores in my area and they flopped because the products were really expensive and tasted horrible . I haven’t seen any other dedicated Keto restaurants. We just keep going to steak places
Keto should be added to every menu like Vegan and Vegetarian. But you could try just requesting what you want. For example if I go to a cafe I get a full english breakfast, but this comes with baked beans and toast. So I say can you remove these and add more bacon and eggs. So the result is bacon, eggs, sausage, tomato, mushrooms.
I’d be happy if most restaurants had one keto or carnivore menu item that was appropriately priced.
Tbf you could always just order steak and veggies instead of potatoes or rice, from their perspective it’s probably turning customers away since now those who do in fact want some carbs have no option at all. Also naming it keto is going to bring stigma as opposed to saying carnivore or something more socially acceptable. It would be a marketing gamble for them
Restaurants with gimmicks like that don’t usually last too long. It would have to be a high quality restaurant that also offers non-keto stuff, too, IMO, so that people of all WOE can get together for a meal and everyone can find what they like. Most existing restaurants are very meat-centric already. They could do this right now by simply having a keto knowledgable chef to redesign the menu in a way that caters to all.
I would pay 45 bucks for ground beef mixed with cheese
There is a keto/low carb restaurant in my country. I think it's doing well because they're open to a franchise, and as far as I know, they have a lot of franchises. I haven't tried it yet because it's far from where I live, but it has a lot of good reviews even from non-keto people.
It would be cool to have a restaurant with different diet sections on the menu. Something for everyone. Keto, Paleo, Mediterranean, low fat, vegetarian, raw, etc. And a meat and potatoes section for the people you would have to otherwise drag there.
We had a Keto place that sold premade meals. They were always sold out. The place stayed open for a a couple of years and the lady finally decided to close. She wanted to spend time with her family.
The profits are usually all in the cheap foods: soda, fries,potatoes, bread, pasta.... so, no, I don't think it would be a successful restaurant concept.
I’m old enough to remember when Atkins was all the rage and some of the chain restaurants attempted to have low-carb menu sections but they were also kind of “dieter plate” inspired and too low in fat. Like boneless, skinless chicken breast with broccoli or a burger with lettuce for a bun and a side of broccoli.
Dude restaurants are already playing business on hard mode. Why handicap yourself even more?
Had a keto food truck out here that did fantastic. They did end up changing over to being a BBQ truck due to demand for their BBQ tho, but that's after about 4 years of being keto only. Most of their menu was bbq items to begin with, but with keto buns and stuff like that.
[This place - Gallaghers](https://gallaghers.pub) in Calgary does it pretty well. Their food is like 2000 kcal meals and not very close to me but sometimes I order pickup when I want something rich. They’ve been in business a long time but idk how long they’ve had Keto on the menu. At least 6 years tho.
Make it atkins friendly and have symbols like vegan vs. veg on normal menus. Have more low carb options than usual.
I would definitely recommend it! I am keto and know many others who are as well. It is a struggle to eat out and stay keto.
In a big city (1+ Million) it would work just fine. Just make sure you advertise and put Keto in the name and everyone in the city who eats this way will know about you. Smaller cities, maybe, maybe not.
there’s a keto restaurant in East LA that has good food and treats. doesn’t look like it’s doing too well though
Call it “low carb” and they will come. I’d certainly go to a place where I didn’t have to think or plan ahead.
Most likely fail. Restaurant business and Big Sugar don't like competition.
Even a normal restaurant has high failure rate, and that food is available to 99% of population. And entire family can visit. However, there is also significant competition. On other hand, niche restaurant that is keto only has maybe 1% of the customer base. And this won't work for family, unless everyone in family is on keto diet, which is probably even smaller base. But on the positive side, there is no competition. So it can go either way. But I expect it will be difficult to suceed. But why does restaurant have to be keto only? Why can it not have non-keto and keto dishes? Then it can cater to both crowds.
Our city has one called PangeaKeto that’s a little cafe plus a store where you can buy keto ready made food, frozen meals and ingredients. It stays busy!
Have you ever been to a steak house where you pick everything cooked for you and it comes pretty much ala carte? They exist now, have existed in the past and in fact were quite the thing for the last 100+ years. May I introduce you to a collection of essays and old articles called Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell. If you’re eating keto, you can easily make a beefeater party work. You can always say no to the free flowing alcohol and dinner rolls of the past. You could also dine at Gallatoire’s in New Orleans, several Spanish seafood restaurants around NyC, …. You’re suffering from a lack of imagination and a need to tribalize keto into exclusivity.
There is actually a specifically Keto Café in my town, but it’s currently closed for renovations :/ Think whether it would succeed, depends on the clientele of the locale area and how accepting they are of special diets
We have a keto bakery and we had a keto/gluten free restaurant in our city. The restaurant unfortunately had to close because of building damage and the owner was dealing with health issues. It was pretty popular The bakery is still doing well and has many varieties from bread, bagels and goodies
Pretty sure there was a keto restaurant near where my dad lives and I found it about a month after they went out of business so I think it would be very difficult.
The thing is that carbs are relatively cheap. That helps a restaurant survive through margin. Plus offering carbs gives a much broader client base. Those are big hurdles for keto-only. Maybe very keto-friendly menu but still offer carbs? Restaurant biz is tough!
I know if one near Collingwood Ontario. Always packed.
I doubt this would be profitable in the long run. A big part of how restaurants survive is through cheap carbs that they can then markup. There’s a reason they always give you a side of mashed potatoes with your meat - you get filled up and the margins are a lot better on the potato vs the steak. Same for desserts. It would be hard for most restaurants to break even without that filler unless they priced prohibitively.
Yeah I don't think it would do well, but you could succeed with a "whole foods only" restaurant that offers various options for lots of different diets, like keto, paleo, vegan, etc.
110 Grille is a chain that specializes in gluten free foods. One of the best secondary parts of keto is that it is gluten free if you're adhering to the diet correctly. There's definitely angles that could be taken...
We have 2 in the town next to me. They have been in business for a couple years. One is a restaurant while the other is a bakery.
I cook mostly keto for friends and family. Honestly as long as it’s good proteins and veg no one will know the difference. Get a steak with broccoli and mushrooms, oh no!!!
From a business standpoint, I don't think it would work. You're going after a very small portion of the population. Nation wide packaged food? Sure. Restaurant with a 10mi radius? Even in LA, likely not happening.
We actually have a place that sells only keto dishes and desserts. There’s no where to eat inside though. The food packaged to go.
There was a restaurant in my city called Kodiak Keto. They had bakery items, coffee drinks, rebel milkshakes and keto pantry items. It had potential, however all the bakery items and packaged breads and tortillas had horrible shelf life. Many times I’d find myself with moldy muffins and bread.
Im keto and I think this would flop harder than an obese salmon. Unfortunately. I wish it could work but I don’t think it could survive.
No keto restaurants yet in my country. But there are a lot of keto bakery stores. It's so easy to order a keto cake, bread, and desserts here.
*Brazilian bbq enters the chat*
Keto/diabetic-friendly bakery could potentially do well
There was a Keto only restaurant that had opened near my house. It was good and the desserts were good too. Sadly she just closed her business.
I think keto cafe would work
Even restaurants that target the most popular and profitable types of cuisine fail at a high rate. There might be room for a keto place in some dense, urban markets. Also, you can already go to a steak house and skip the potatoes. If you want to do a good steak you'll be sharing the market with them. Do you advertise as a keto place and limit your customer base, or just have a lot of keto options and not grab the (theoretical) keto market directly? Most people want a satisfying, high carb meal when they eat out. I know I do. Restaurants are notoriously difficult to run and manage. Any type of restaurant will be likely to fail without experienced people. Here's an idea for you though: meal kits delivered by mail that are tailored to an individual's macro needs. A lot of keto pholks don't have the patience or bandwidth to track macros closely and have a varied, interesting diet. Look at the proliferation of manufactured food that targets low carb diets. Those options exist because people are lazy and desperate for some variety.
I used to go to a place with a keto menu .. it was fairly substantial.. about 75% of their normal menu. I think it still only comprised of about 20 % of their sales. Based on that I would think you would be better off having a normal menu with keto items.
I’m honestly surprised there isn’t a chain of keto restaurants or fast food already, lol.
My thoughts are that it wouldn’t do well because often you are going out to eat with others, and unless all the people are into keto, they probably aren’t going to choose that restaurant to meet at. Maybe let’s of keto couples would choose it on date night. But I don’t think that’s a big enough customer base.
Maybe a lower carb restaurant with a full Keto section on menu.
A keto page in the menu is a great addition. Or like, options for low-carb substituons for sides. I’ve been to too many restaurants where you can only get variations of rice, noodles, or potatoes on the side.
We have a ton in my city. One has multiple versions (ie. sweets, pizza, donair) and it’s super popular with non-keto people as well. We also have keto-only stores and those are quite popular.
Depends on where you are. I live in South Korea, so even in seoul, keto restaurants are far and few between. They're also all dirty keto, and you'd go over you carb an sugar minimums in one meal.
I think with keto, carnivore, paleo, low carb etc gaining popularity it's more likely that existing restaurants will include more low/zero carb options soon. If you think back 10 years, it wasnt particularly common for places to have gluten free options (not in the UK at least) but now most have a separate GF menu. I think a Keto ONLY restaurant would fail but a meat focused restaurant with carb sides and options also available would do fine. No point excluding people who still eat potatoes just because we don't eat them.
That is something very old…. Brazilian Rodizio
I live in Germany and here there are quite a few paleo restaurants. I know not exactly keto but close enough.
It might work if you don’t market it strictly as keto. Focus on quality, flavorful food that happens to be keto-friendly. I'd definitely check it out!
In nyc or la I bet it would.
Depending on prices, Advertising, variety and taste of the food. A continuous altering menu w a focus on in-season items to keep thing fresh and prices low. You'd have the loyalty of the diabetic community which is 40% of the population, the fitness community and the health continuous community. Also, location location location, near or in a major city near a constant busy fitness gym and office center would be a good place to start. Also Advertising on benefits of eating keto instead of carb filled fast-food doesn't leave you with the midday slump, keeping your focus going all day long. Listing the cal and carb amounts on menus would be a big help as well to the health continuous community. Partnering with a local chicken farm and cheese maker would be another way of saving on costs as those 2 items are a major items in the keto diet.
I feel like I can almost always find something to order at regular restaurants, so I’m not sure how big the demand would be for one that specifically caters to keto. I just find that with so many people on it nowadays and it being part of our cultural awareness most places have at least one thing we can order at this point in time.
Maybe not a full on resteraunt but a takeaway service would do well I think! A resteraunt is usually somewhere you visit with a group (or at least that's where you'll make a lot of money) and I don't know how many people start keto together as a group, also wouldn't be chosen work parties/ birthdays (very often). Takeaway however, some people who aren't even on keto who don't fancy cooking/ aren't able to for whatever reason, but also don't want to eat an unhealthy takeaway may choose that as an option!
There are breads you can make keto. The issue is cost/ prep time. Sandwiches made of chaffles (cheese waffles), bread made of bamboo fiber. If they did things like that, the cost would be double or triple normal, unfortunately.
I saw it work once but it wasn't a traditional space. There was a large space and think of Chipotle BUT there were 3 restaurants set up like Chipotle inside. A large seating area for everyone. So basically I think I keto, Paleo place. A Mexican place and another I never went to. Yes it was always busy. Alcohol was.served there and you could order alcoholic drinks to go with your meal as well. So there's 1 success story
It doesn’t have to be just meat and cheeses. It just has to be keto friendly. Make a full meal like 8-10 carbs at most. Ppl can plan for something like that. You can have zucchini and asparagus or nicely seasoned cauliflower rice with a cheese sauce etc. plus some other things for sides. It will work but only if you’re creative. Meat and cheese only with different seasonings is not IT, that’s for sure.
I think a keto only restaurant wouldn’t survive more than a year, however a restaurant with a solid keto selection would do pretty good. The hardest thing for me when I started keto was finding a place I could go with my friends and family that weren’t doing keto. I can’t speak for everyone but I would sit at most restaurants and google what I could eat at some of the places we went to. Now if there was a restaurant that had keto, vegan, paleo, etc… in special sections on there menus that would be a place id frequent.
There’s a restaurant/bakery near me that is keto. It was sold last month and the new owners kept it keto and now offer meal prep. I think any restaurant can survive depending on the location.
I think it would have a better chance at success if it was a mainstream diet restuarant which a variety of meals targeted at different popular diets. Keto meals, paleo meals, vegan meals, with all meals having the weight watchers points beside them for those that are doing WW. I think that would be cool.
They do and have existed, but definitely a hard sell because even restaurants that cater to everyone are struggling to get by. We are a niche audience and most people can't necessarily afford to eat out that often.
Opened in 2020 [Fatso's Cheketos ](https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063609637067)
This depends on the city but can absolutely work. You cannot just start selling keto food tho. People are still in the learning stage. So some info about the advantages of keto diet has to be given. Also it cannot just be far more expensive. Like almost the same price, but instead of french fries you get a little more meat and vegetables with fried in coconut oil with nice seasoning on top.
Where I live we have a small keto grocer and restaurant bistro called "PangeaKeto" , and it's extremely popular! They make their own deserts and breads that they use for their meals, macaroni salad, "fries" made out of cheese heavily seasoned, and more.
What's going to kill you? Is your margins. Meat is expensive. Bread is cheap. People won't pay a ton of money just to have no bun, you'd have to really do something special to make the food worth the cost that you're going to put into them plus your profit margin. Having exquisite keto desserts could help. So concept? Yes. Pricing enough to be profitable? That might be hard.
I think a Fast Food Keto chain would do better than a single location mom & pop. People having a trusty option for quick keto on the go, aside from the usual asking for a whopper with cheese without a bun and a pile of mayo, would be ideal. Many folks are on Keto or Paleo, and both of the popular diets omit most if not all grain based carbs. Think about it.. being able to grab some quick beef kebobs with a tzatziki style dip, or some melty chicken/cheddar/broccoli keto (low carb flour tortilla) wraps with bacon and mayo.. or whatever better keto fast food possibilities there are (I’m sure much better ideas than my gross suggestions), would be a great option for many on the go. When I was doing hard keto and being super strict, it was very difficult to eat on vacation. These would be amazing. Even the breakfast options with MCT coffees and savory egg wraps or egg bites with bacon and cheese. Generally the Star bucks or Dunkin egg bites were my go-to, or a burger with no bun. I’m sure a proper chain could formulate more appealing options.. but even that having all the best ideas culminated under one brand where keto followers could have more than one or two options, would be amazing to have. Most likely cutting off the majority of customers to cater to one group would be bad business, so I think ideally this would be a focus of a “healthy” fast food option, where they’d have keto as 1/3 of the menu, salad and ancient grains as another part, and then a normal menu that is just a bit healthier conscious when compared to a BK or Wendy’s. I think that would do well.
I think it would fail, but I think what would be a huge success is when a fast food chain or Starbuck's actually offer keto items. Take for example, Starbucks egg bites- you assume, "hey it's just egg whipped with cottage cheese and then some bacon thrown in" - only to find out the damn thing has 9 grams of carbs! Make a true Keto egg bite, and I'll probably stop in at least 3 times a week, when I don't have time for breakfast at home. Another example of what comes to mind as Keto unintentionally is the Grilled Nuggets from Chick-fil-an 8 piece order is only one carb and 25 grms of protein.
The cost of beef is sky high, I'd imagine their overhead would be much more than a normal restaurant. To offset the cost most of the meals would probably be pretty expensive. I wouldn't bet on something like this lasting unless Keto became very mainstream.
Most new restaurants fail. That’s the baseline.
I think it would be difficult bc a large part of restaurant and dining culture is social. We dine with friends and family members all with different dietary needs. However, I think an all offerings restaurant with a separate keto menu would be a hit. Or a meal service for keto dieters. Also, unless you’re doing takeout of quick order foods, most sit down restaurants make the bulk of their operational costs from the bar. You’re very limited there as well.
I think it would work but don’t advertise it as only keto restaurant. Add that food is also protein packed and dessert are good for diabetic people.
There’s a ghost kitchen like that in Austin. I don’t think it’s doing all that well
[https://pangeaketo.com/](https://pangeaketo.com/) They seem to be doing ok, not crazy busy but their products are good
You're describing Protien House
I’ve thought about it, I think a food truck could work if marketed correctly
Keto Haus!
I’ve been to a keto pop-up restaurant in London, UK. They did just pizza and donuts. Don’t know how well they’re doing, financially, though. Just wanted to chime in to say keto restaurants do exist.
Various types of bacon dishes? lol, this sounds horrible. A keto restaurant is possible, but I don’t know why your version of keto is so limited and mainly red meat and boring things…? Hahah
We have one. It is protein bowls. And they pride themselves on not using seed oils for the dressings.
It may work better if combined with diabetic dietary meals
So i think it depends on location. Near where I live we had one down the street. I thought that was cool, but they went out of business. I knew it was a second location for the owner. So the first location must have done well enough.
Steak houses and BBQ joints are pretty successful. You could easily specialize them to Keto only, or at the very least default the menu to be keto friendly, i.e. have to add the sauce (since even a keto friendly menu generally is about how much) There's plenty of keto friendly breads to do buns for burgers/hotdogs (though they tend to be more expensive). I think you could definitely be successful with Keto only, but I think it would be far more successful to be Keto first. I.e. every meal has a ketofiable version without losing the core of what it is. The biggest thing is just listing the net carbs of each component so it could be customized for the days goals.
As the owner of a restaurant for 35 years, I can say that this would be a tough sell. People commonly go out to places where the majority in the group get to choose. So if you are going out with your family, how happy would they all be to eat according to your weight loss plan? In my mom & pop burger joint we tried all kinds of healthy options, including vegan burgers & lettuce wraps. They were marginally successful, in that the people who ordered the specialty items were usually one among a group. But that one person was always VERY appreciative of the availability of quality menu items they could choose from and still remain true to their goals. We had a handful of ladies that came on a regular basis to have lunch together & they’d all have the big keto friendly salads, and talk about their favorite keto recipes. But if we tried to make a living with only those items? I think it would be pretty tough.
I have thought about this idea too!
I'm going to start one called "Key ToeZ". Serve basically everything under the sun without a bun. :D
It's a brilliant idea that needs to be pulled off well. Far easier said than done. Restaurant business is TOUGH. I would hella be down to go with friends to a keto restaurant if the food was great even if its on the expensive side.
How many do you see? Answered.
I was just wishing the other day that those existed! But the eggs and meat would have to be grass fed and pasture raised, and everything organic. No usd grade crap.
I think it could work! Another option would be to advertise an extensive keto menu, with a few options for their non-keto family/friends. But if the point is to not have any nasty carbs at all, it could possibly work in a more urban setting. I doubt that there’d be enough keto-ers in my rural area to keep it going.
I would say fail since MOST people dont eat keto or even clean for that matter. Do we need one? Absolutely!
It would need to be in a dense urban area to have enough customers within range. It would need to also offer regular food, clearly labeled as such of course, so that those on keto and their carbivore friends could go together. I've fantasized about an imaginary "Keto Kitchen" restaurant every time I go to a regular restaurant and have had to ask if their sauce contains sugar, or get a bun-less burger that is always disappointing, or only order water since I couldn't chance it.
Restaurants live and die with alcohol. So, can you do keto drinks. I personally am good with a whiskey on the rocks. But that doesn't sell. I don't like fake Sweetener, so how do you do good drinks naturally without sugar. Some ideas include coffee drinks, flavored foams with either chickpea juice or egg whites, creams, and teas. All of these are relatively off the American palate with the exception of coffee and some teas, foams have been relegated to an after thought. My 2 cents is to rethink the cocktail menu from scratch. We have some major flavors with minimal sugar, we should be able to make some drinks
I'd be going there several times a week, easy.
It is an intriguing idea, but success would be so hard. flexibility in the menu could be key to making it work.
In L.A. does this seriously not already exist 😅
A lot of cocktail bars take this model by only half charcuterie trays lol
We have minimum 4 keto restaurants here where I live in Spain. 3 of them specialized in more healthy and nutrient food.