How do I know what to order at a restaurant when I'm pregnant?
Eating out while pregnant means reading every line of a menu for raw, rare, unpasteurised and undercooked. Avo reads it for you: one photo, and each dish is sorted with its reason.
Why menus are harder than plates
The risk is in the description, not the name
A Caesar salad is fine until the dressing is made with raw egg. A steak is fine at medium-well and not at rare. The detail that matters is in small italic text under the dish name.
You cannot search twenty dishes at a table
Looking up every dish on a phone while everyone waits is why so many people give up and order the chicken. The question needs answering for the whole menu at once.
The kitchen may not know the pregnancy rules
Asking whether the mozzarella is pasteurised or the hollandaise is made with raw yolk often gets a shrug. The menu scan tells you which questions are worth asking before you order.
How Scan Menu works
Photograph the menu
One photo of the page, or several for a long menu. Avo reads the dish names and their descriptions, including the ingredients and cooking terms that change a verdict.
Best Picks for You
The dishes that are both safe and useful for pregnancy, with why: grilled salmon for protein and DHA, a lasagne for protein and calcium. The picks lean towards the nutrients your trimester needs.
Better to Skip
The dishes with a pregnancy risk and the reason, such as a steak ordered rare, so you can either skip it or ask for it cooked through. The list is a prompt for the conversation with the kitchen, not a ban.
Before and after the restaurant
अक्सर पूछे जाने वाले प्रश्न
Is there an app that checks a restaurant menu for pregnancy?
Yes. Avo Pregnancy's Scan Menu photographs the menu and sorts the dishes into Best Picks for You and Better to Skip, each with a reason. It reads the dish descriptions, so cooking terms such as rare, raw or unpasteurised change the result.
What foods should I avoid when eating out while pregnant?
The usual suspects: rare or raw meat, raw or undercooked eggs in dressings and desserts, raw fish and shellfish, unpasteurised cheese and cold deli meats, and high-mercury fish. The country you are in changes some of these; our eating out guide sets out the rules.
Can the menu scan see how a dish is cooked?
It can read what the menu says, which is usually how the dish is normally served. It cannot see the kitchen. When a dish depends on how it is cooked, Avo says so, so you can ask for the steak well done or the eggs cooked through.
Does it work on menus in other languages?
Avo reads printed menus and explains the result in the language the app runs in. A handwritten specials board photographs less reliably than a printed menu, so check anything it could not read.
What does 'Best Picks for You' mean?
The dishes with no pregnancy flag in their description that also help with the nutrients your trimester needs, such as iron, protein, calcium and DHA. They are suggestions to order from, not a guarantee about the kitchen.
Is the menu scan free?
Avo Pregnancy is free to download with a limited number of free scans, and a menu scan counts as one. Premium, at $29.99 a year or $3.99 a week in the US, unlocks unlimited scans.