Bob Evans is a popular restaurant chain known for its home-style cooking and comfort food. While their menu may not be inherently keto-friendly, there are still options available for those following a keto plan.
Eating low carb at Bob Evans is possible whether you’re looking for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The safest options are a classic breakfast, steak and eggs, or grilled chicken with broccoli. With a little customization, there are, however, tons of other keto Bob Evans options.
While we always recommend preparing your own food to avoid sneaky traps that mess with your ratios, here is a full guide for staying keto at Bob Evans when you’re in a pinch.
Tips For Ordering Low Carb at Bob Evans
Low-carb dieters need to be extra careful when ordering at Bob Evans. Forgetting to customize your meal could result in a disastrous stomach ache or being kicked out of ketosis.
Keep in mind that eating low-carb is not always the same as eating a strict keto diet.
If you find yourself in need of a meal at Bob Evans, then we recommend trying to make it for breakfast where you can get some eggs, bacon, and Bob Evans sausage.
Here are the top lowest carb dishes that you can order at Bob Evans, based on the nutritional information:
- The Farmers Choice – Double Meat Farmer with sausage links (<1 grams carbs)
- The Farmers Choice- Fruitful Farmer with sausage (2 grams carbs)
- The Farmers Choice original with sausage (0 grams carbs)
- Sirloin steak and farm fresh eggs (<1 gram of carbs)
- Build your own omelet with cheese (0 grams carbs)
- Chicken cobb salad (6 grams net carbs)
It seems like all of the dishes at Bob Evans come with a biscuit or some equally starchy carb on the side, so you’ll need to be careful when picking these out.
Follow these tips to keep it low-carb at Bob Evans.
#1. Go here for breakfast if you can
Bob Evans is open from 6 AM until 9 PM every day. As we mentioned above, your best bet is to go there for breakfast because you can get farm fresh eggs or create your own omelet.
If you make it here for breakfast, then build your own omelet with spinach, cheese, bell peppers, onions, or mushrooms. Ask for a side of meat such as bacon, sausage, or ham in place of toast and hash browns.
If you’re eating low-carb, then you can enjoy a side of fresh fruit with your meal. But if you’re keto, then you’ll want to skip out on the fruit and stick with meat instead.
Note: Some restaurants add milk to their eggs and omelets to make them fluffier, so be sure to order your omelet without this to keep the carbs and sugar down.
#2. Order an individual plate
If you visit Bob Evans with your family or friends, then you might be tempted to get a big plate for everyone to share.
This might save you a few bucks, but you won’t be able to customize your meal as much and you could accidentally eat something you shouldn’t. Always order an individual plate at Bob Evans so that you can choose the preparation and sides you want.
Specifically, you’ll want to make sure your meat is grilled and not fried, and your sides are as low-carb as possible. You’ll also want to make sure your plate doesn’t come covered in gravy or sugar-laden sauces.
#3. Check out the dinner bell plates
Bob Evans currently offers dinner bell plates for under $8. Most of these meals are smaller portions of the entrees that they offer on the normal menu, which is a great way to practice portion control and consume few calories and carbs. Plus, you’ll save money while you’re at it!
Go with the grilled chicken breast with a double order of steamed broccoli and hold the mashed potatoes and gravy. You can also get a smaller portion of the turkey, steak, or ham dinners.
What To Order at Bob Evans For Every Meal
We’ve looked over every dish on the menu at Bob Evans and put it into one of two categories.
The first list contains safe foods that you can eat on a low-carb or ketogenic diet. The second list includes foods that you should avoid.
Be sure to follow the directions when ordering to make sure you avoid any hidden sugar or traps that could kick you out of ketosis or leave you with a terrible stomach ache from eating something you shouldn’t.
Here are the best low-carb foods to eat at Bob Evans and how to order them:
Breakfast
- Double meat farmers choice breakfast (hold the hash browns, grits, fries, pancakes, and French toast)
- Everything breakfast (hold the hollandaise sauce, hash browns, and biscuits)
- The rise and shine (order this without the hash browns, grits, fries and bread; ask for double meat)
- Classic breakfast (hold the French toast and pancakes)
- Sirloin steak and farm fresh eggs (hold the hash browns, grits, fries, and bread)
- Sunshine skillet (hold the gravy, fries, and biscuits)
- Border scramble omelet (hold the fries, ranch sauce, and bread; choose bacon, ham or sausage as your side dish)
- Western omelet (hold the bread and hash browns)
- Goat cheese veggie omelet (hold the hash browns)
- Early bird (hold the biscuits)
- Sunrise value menu breakfast (hold the hash browns, grits, fries, and biscuits)
- The whole hog (hold the hotcake, French toast, hash browns and fries)
- The big egg breakfast (hold the hash browns, biscuit, and fries)
- Three meat and cheese omelet (hold the hash browns and fries; ask for tomato slices instead)
Burgers and sandwiches
Order all sandwiches and burgers without the bun and sauce; ask for a side house salad without croutons made with oil and vinegar in place of fries:
- Bacon cheeseburger
- Steakhouse burger (no A1 sauce)
- Handcrafted deli turkey sandwich (no mayo)
- Slow roasted pot roast (only order this sandwich if the pot roast is dry and has not been slow cooked in sauce; do not order if it contains sauce)
- Shaved ham and swiss melt (hold the caramelized onions)
Salads
For all salads, hold the bread that accompanies each dish:
- Cranberry pecan chicken salad (hold the cranberries; ask for oil and vinegar instead of Italian dressing)
Dinner entrees
- Herb-rubbed turkey and dressing (hold the gravy, bread, and cranberry relish; order a side house salad with oil and vinegar dressing and steamed broccoli as your sides)
- Grilled to perfection chicken (order this without the bread; get steamed broccoli and a side salad with oil and vinegar dressing as your two sides)
- Grilled salmon (order this without bread; get steamed broccoli and a side salad with oil and vinegar dressing as your two sides)
- Salmon with tomato salsa (get steamed broccoli and a side salad with oil and vinegar dressing as your two sides)
- USDA Choice Sirloin (hold the bread; ask for steamed broccoli and a side house salad with oil and vinegar dressing as your two sides)
- Sirloin and shrimp (only order this dish if you can get the shrimp grilled and not fried; ask for steamed broccoli and a side house salad with oil and vinegar as your two sides)
- Savor-sized herb-rubbed turkey and dressing (ask for no gravy, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes or bread; get steamed broccoli and a side house salad with oil and vinegar instead)
- Slow-roast turkey and dressing (order this with dressing, gravy, relish and biscuit; ask for steamed broccoli and a farmhouse side salad with no croutons and ranch dressing as your two sides)
Dinner Bell Plates
- Smaller portion turkey and dressing (hold the dressing, relish, mashed potatoes and gravy; ask for steamed broccoli instead)
- Grilled chicken breast (hold the mashed potatoes and gravy; ask for double steamed broccoli instead)
- Mushroom and onion chop steak (hold the mashed potatoes and gravy as well as the sauce on the steak; get double steamed broccoli instead)
- Hickory smoked ham steaks (hold the mashed potatoes and gravy)
Family meals
- Slow-roasted turkey and dressing (hold the dressing and gravy, cranberry relish, and bread; order steamed broccoli and a side salad with oil and vinegar as your side dishes)
- Grilled chicken breasts (hold the sauce and bread; order steamed broccoli and a side salad with oil and vinegar as your side dishes)
Foods To Avoid at Bob Evans
The following foods made our “do not eat” list because they contain added sauces or gravy, or are too hard to order low-carb. We recommend going with one of the dishes on our safe list instead.
Breakfast:
- Sriracha bacon biscuit bowl
- Sausage gravy biscuit bowl
- Salsa scramble biscuit bowl
- Fruitful farmer (you could order this without the French toast, fruit, hash browns, grits and fries; or you could just order meat and eggs)
- Farmer’s choice breakfast (you could order this without the hash browns, grits, fries, pancakes, and French toast; or you could just order meat and eggs)
- Pot roast hash (we recommend staying away from the pot roast as the meat was probably slow-cooked in sauce and cannot be ordered dry)
- The homestead breakfast (you could order this without the sausage gravy, bread, hash browns, grits and fries, or you could just order meat and eggs)
- Ham biscuit benedict (you could order this without the biscuits, hash browns or fries, but we are unsure of what ingredients are in the hollandaise sauce at Bob Evans. We recommend making your own hollandaise sauce at home to ensure you’re getting a low-carb sauce)
- Country fried steak and farm fresh eggs (get the sirloin steak and eggs dish instead, which is grilled and not fried)
- Biscuits and gravy
- All foods from the griddle, including all pancakes, waffles, and French toast dishes
- Country biscuit breakfast
- Golden cornmeal mush
Lunch:
- Wildfire chicken salad (you could order this without the corn, tortilla strips, ranch dressing, and wildfire sauce, or you could just order a grilled chicken salad)
- Hand breaded fried chicken
- Honey butter chicken and biscuit
- Avoid all soups
Dinner:
- Fork-tender pot roast (this dish would be OK to order if the pot roast has not been cooked in sauce; if it has, do not order or try to customize)
- Homestyle bone-in fried chicken (order the grilled chicken instead)
- Homestyle fried chicken tenders
- Potato crusted flounder
- Great Alaskan cod
- Bob Evans wildfire meatloaf
- Down-home country fried steak
- Savor-size chicken and noodles deep dish dinner
- Heartland pot pie
- Chicken and noodles deep dish dinner
- Fork tender pot roast
- Lemon pepper sole filets (these would be OK to order if you can get them grilled and not breaded; hold the rolls and ask for broccoli as your side)
Family meals:
- Meatloaf
- Slow-roasted pot roast (only order this dish if the meat has not been slow-roasted in sauce)
- Chicken and noodles deep dish dinner
- Country fried steak
- Homestyle fried chicken tenders
Conclusion
Eating at home is always your best option because it allows you to control what and how much you eat. Ordering the wrong dish at Bob Evans could kick you out of ketosis and sabotage weeks or months worth of hard work that it took you to get there.
If you find yourself a Bob Evans, try to order breakfast. You can customize your own omelet using meat, cheese, and low-carb veggies. Almost all of the dishes at Bob Evans come with bread or biscuits, so you’ll want to hold the starchy sides.
The best lunch or dinner options include a roasted turkey dinner minus the gravy and paired with steamed broccoli. You’ll want to watch out for the words “glazed” and “crispy” and stay far away from their bakery section!
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