← All foods / Restaurants / Applebee's

Applebee's Tartar Sauce

High histamine

Tartar sauce is high in histamine, driven mainly by the dill pickle relish and mustard flour.

Most of this is cooked to order, which is the best case for histamine. Even so, a restaurant kitchen preps ahead and holds things warm through a service, so freshness varies more than it would at home. The rating above comes from the chain's published ingredients. If a dish is borderline for you, asking how it is prepared tells you more than the menu does.

Tartar sauce is a soybean-oil base mixed with dill pickle relish, egg yolk, vinegar, mustard flour, and onion.

  • Pickled relish leads — the dill pickle relish is pickled, which is why it runs high and sets the tone for the whole sauce.

  • Mustard adds to it — the mustard flour is also a high driver, and the soybean oil sits at moderate, so the sauce stays up even without the relish.

A fresh, unfermented condiment is the gentler pick here.

This rating comes from Applebee's own published ingredient statement, read on August 11, 2026. Restaurant recipes vary by location and change over time, so always check the current listing: source 1, source 2. How we rate foods →

Applebee's Tartar Sauce and Applebee's are trademarks of their respective owners. This page is an independent histamine reference and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the brand.

Try Histamine Tracker

Finally understand your histamine reactions. Scan meals with your camera, log symptoms naturally, and see daily insights based on YOUR patterns. Try free for 7 days.

Learn more

Foods With High Histamine Levels Why Freshness Matters More Than Food Lists Why Leftovers Can Trigger Histamine Symptoms What Are Histamine Liberators?

For educational purposes only. Not medical advice. Consult a healthcare professional for personal guidance.

References

  1. SIGHI Food Compatibility List — SIGHI (2026)
  2. Histamine and histamine intolerance — Maintz & Novak (2007)
  3. Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art — Comas-Basté et al. (2020)
  4. Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? — Sánchez-Pérez et al. (2021)
  5. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond — Jochum (2024)
  6. Guideline on management of suspected adverse reactions to ingested histamine — Reese et al. (2021)