Dietary and Allergy Guide
No-Pork Chinese Food
Avoiding pork in Chinese restaurants requires checking not only obvious pork dishes, but also lard, broth, dumpling fillings, sausage, ham, char siu, and mixed meat items.
Overview
Avoiding pork in Chinese restaurants requires checking not only obvious pork dishes, but also lard, broth, dumpling fillings, sausage, ham, char siu, and mixed meat items. This page is a practical restaurant-ordering guide. It helps identify common risk points, lower-risk starting points, and useful questions to ask before ordering.
Better starting points
- Vegetable and tofu dishes if sauces are acceptable
- Seafood if acceptable and not cooked with pork products
- Beef or chicken dishes only if no pork broth, lard, or mixed meat is used
- Plain rice
- Restaurants familiar with halal or no-pork requests
What to watch for
- Char siu
- Roast pork
- Pork dumplings
- Wontons
- Sausage
- Ham
- Lard
- Pork broth
- Mixed meatballs
- Fried rice with roast pork
Questions to ask
- Does this contain pork, lard, ham, sausage, or pork broth?
- Are the dumplings made with pork?
- Is the wok or oil shared with pork?
- Can this be made without pork products?
Useful phrase
我不吃猪肉。请不要放猪肉、猪油、火腿、香肠或猪肉汤。
A phrase can help communication, but it cannot verify ingredients, labels, shared equipment, or kitchen practice by itself.
Ordering strategy
Keep the order simple. Prefer dishes with fewer sauces and fewer mixed ingredients. Mention the restriction before asking for dish recommendations. When the restriction is medically important, ask about preparation, not only ingredients.