Eating out · Indian
Low FODMAP at Indian Restaurants
Indian restaurant cooking runs on a bulk-simmered onion-garlic-tomato masala base that underlies almost every curry on the menu, so the gravy — not the protein — is the real hazard. Wheat concentrates in the bread basket (naan, roti, paratha), lactose in the cream-and-butter finishes (makhani, korma, malai) and lassi, and legumes headline dal and chana dishes. Your reliable lane is dry tandoor-grilled items with plain basmati rice, or fermented South Indian rice-lentil dishes in modest portions.
✅ Safest picks
Tandoori Chicken
Clay-oven chicken in a spiced yogurt marinade with no gravy — most of the marinade (and its modest garlic-ginger paste) chars off or drips away in the tandoor, leaving spice-rubbed meat rather than an onion-garlic sauce.
💬 Order it: Order it dry with plain steamed basmati rice, ask them to hold the raw onion-ring garnish, and skip the mint chutney (often blended with onion or garlic). Squeeze the lemon wedge instead.
Chicken Tikka (dry skewer, not tikka masala)
Boneless tandoor skewers served sauce-free — the marinade carries a small garlic dose but nothing like the masala gravy. The single most important word is 'dry': tikka masala is the same meat drowned in onion-garlic-cream sauce.
💬 Order it: Say 'chicken tikka, dry, no sauce' so the kitchen doesn't ladle gravy over it. Pair with plain basmati, not naan. Fish tikka or grilled jhinga (shrimp) work the same way.
Plain Dosa
A thin crepe of fermented rice and urad dal batter — fermentation reduces the fermentable load and the crepe is mostly rice, so the actual lentil dose per serving is small.
💬 Order it: Order plain, not masala dosa — the potato filling is heavy on onion. Dip in coconut chutney rather than sambar (a lentil-onion-garlic stew), and check the batter isn't padded with wheat flour.
Idli with coconut chutney
Steamed cakes of the same fermented rice-and-urad-dal batter as dosa — bland, grease-free, and among the gentlest things on an Indian menu when kept to two or three pieces.
💬 Order it: Stick to 2-3 idli per sitting to keep the lentil portion small, use coconut chutney, and skip the sambar it usually arrives with.
Paneer Tikka (dry)
Fresh paneer is a low-lactose cheese, and the dry tandoor skewer with capsicum keeps it out of the creamy onion-garlic gravies most paneer dishes swim in.
💬 Order it: Ask for it dry and hold any onion chunks on the skewer (capsicum and paneer only). Avoid paneer tikka masala, shahi paneer, or paneer butter masala — same cheese, high-FODMAP sauce.
Steamed Basmati Rice with grilled fish or seekh-style meats (confirmed onion-free)
Plain basmati is the safest thing in the building, and simply grilled fish or meat over it is the lowest-trigger plate an Indian kitchen can produce — provided the kebab mince wasn't blended with onion.
💬 Order it: Ask whether the kebab mince contains onion (seekh kebab usually does — if so, switch to fish tikka). Confirm the rice is plain steamed, not pilau/jeera rice fried in an onion base.
⚠️ Skip these
Good to know
- •Ask if there's a Jain menu or a 'no onion, no garlic' preparation — Jain and fasting customers request this routinely, so many Indian kitchens can genuinely accommodate it, often seasoning with asafoetida (hing) and whole spices instead.
- •The dry tandoor section plus plain basmati rice is your formula. Curry gravies are built from a masala base cooked in bulk before service, so 'no onion' usually cannot be removed from a curry — pick dishes that never touch the gravy pot.
- •Ask which items are made to order versus ladled from a pre-made gravy base; only made-to-order dishes can actually be modified.
- •Choose rice over the bread basket — naan, roti, paratha, and bhatura are all wheat, and papadum is lentil flour, so it isn't the safer swap it appears to be.
- •Watch the drinks and sides: mango lassi combines lactose with mango's excess fructose, raita is a bowl of yogurt, and pilau/jeera or biryani rice is typically fried on an onion base — plain steamed basmati is the one to name explicitly.
- •Whole spices, fresh ginger, chili, turmeric, cumin, and coriander are all fine — heat and spice are not the issue, so don't feel forced into bland; it's the aromatics base and the cream finish that carry the FODMAPs.
At a different restaurant? Photograph any menu and get every dish ranked in seconds.
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.