Eating out · Burgers & frozen custard
Low FODMAP at Culver's
Culver's is more workable than most burger chains because the ButterBurger patties and grilled chicken are seasoned with just salt and pepper — no onion or garlic powder in the meat itself. The traps are everywhere else: buttered wheat buns, onion hiding in the "healthy" sides (green beans, coleslaw, gravy), onion-and-garlic Southern-style breading on anything crispy, and frozen custard that piles on lactose. Build around plain protein, plain fries or steamed broccoli, and you can leave with a meal that's genuinely lower in common trigger ingredients.
✅ Safest picks
ButterBurger Original
The fresh beef patty is seasoned with only salt and pepper — no onion or garlic — so the wheat bun and raw onion topping are the only FODMAP sources to strip out.
💬 Order it: Order it bunless (or ask if your location stocks the gluten-free bun), no onions, no signature sauces; lettuce, tomato, pickles, and bacon are all fine, and mustard beats HFCS-sweetened ketchup.
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
The whole chicken breast is grilled with just salt and pepper, avoiding the onion-garlic breading on the crispy version — the buttered brioche bun is the main wheat load.
💬 Order it: Ask for it bunless or on the gluten-free bun; keep lettuce, tomato, and dill pickles, a normal smear of mayo is fine, and skip any added onion.
Crinkle Cut Fries
Plain salted potato fries with no onion or garlic seasoning in the coating — the caveats are portion size and shared fryer oil with wheat-breaded items.
💬 Order it: Stick to a small, salt only — no cheddar cheese sauce and never the Chili Cheddar version, which adds beans, onion, and garlic on top.
Steamed Broccoli
Steamed plain to order with no onion, garlic, butter sauce, or breading — one of the only sides here with zero hidden alliums.
💬 Order it: Order it plain and skip the optional Wisconsin cheddar cheese sauce; keep it to roughly a cup per sitting since very large broccoli portions creep up in fructans.
Garden Fresco Salad with Grilled Chicken
Salt-and-pepper grilled chicken over lettuce, cucumber, grape tomatoes, and cheddar avoids onion, garlic, and most wheat once the croutons come off.
💬 Order it: No croutons, ask them to hold any red onion, keep the shredded cheddar (hard cheese is naturally low in lactose), and dress with an oil-and-vinegar style option instead of ranch or French.
⚠️ Skip these
Green Beans
Marketed as the light veggie side, but they're cooked with diced red onions and butter, so the onion is mixed through and can't be picked out.
Good to know
- •The beef patties and grilled chicken are seasoned with only salt and pepper, so any burger or grilled chicken item can be made low-trigger by going bunless — many locations also stock a gluten-free bun if you ask.
- •Onion hides in the 'healthy' sides: green beans are cooked with diced red onion, coleslaw contains dehydrated onion and garlic, and the gravy uses onion powder — plain fries or steamed broccoli are the reliable sides.
- •Skip the entire crispy/breaded line (crispy chicken, tenders, cheese curds, onion rings, butterfly shrimp): the Southern-style breading contains onion, garlic, and wheat, and everything shares the fryer oil.
- •Ketchup and the signature root beer are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup — mustard, dill pickles, and unsweetened iced tea or a diet soda swap in cleanly.
- •If you want custard anyway, order the smallest size, choose plain vanilla, and skip mix-ins and Concrete Mixers — the add-ins stack HFCS and extra dairy on an already lactose-heavy base.
- •Sauces are not your friend here: ranch, French, and most signature burger sauces bring garlic, onion, or HFCS — build flavor from bacon, pickles, mustard, and tomato instead.
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Scan a menu — freeMenus and recipes change; scores reflect typical preparations and published FODMAP research. Informational only — not medical advice. Always confirm ingredients with restaurant staff.