Baked Sweet Potato - Plain at Colton's Steak House

Hmd500

I thought I was doing pretty good at lunch and ordered the sweet potato plain (no butter or anything else). According to Colton's website, their plain baked sweet potatoes are 461 calories. How can that be? A baked sweet potato from Logan's Roadhouse is listed around 180; Cracker Barrell, 190; a homemade baked sweet potato comes up at 160. Surely this has to be a mistake on their website, right?

Swiftdogs

A lot of restaurant sites only show their items as they intend to serve them, such as with butter. That's probably the case here.

editorgrrl

Many restaurants rub their potatoes (white or sweet) with oil before baking: http://www.copykat.com/2012/08/12/outback-steakhouse-baked-potato/

If the website says 461 calories, it's 461 calories. I often preplan my dinners out by visiting the restaurant's website beforehand.

Pamstimelines

I don't know for sure but I have been told that it is in the prep and cooking process. Added butter or oil etc. :ohwell:

lynn_glenmont

If it were me, and I was sure they hadn't added anything to the flesh (i.e., it definitely was a plain sweet potato) and I didn't eat the skin (which I don't on a sweet potato) so that any oil rubbed on the surface is a non-factor, and it wasn't some super-large mutant sweet potato, I would log it as a more normal sweet potato (maybe 200 calories, to give a little leeway over a standard large sweet potato at 160 cals in the USDA database). I mean, if the restaurant website said the sweet potato was 20 calories, you wouldn't accept that, would you?

editorgrrl

Plain movie popcorn (no butter) has way more calories than popcorn you air-pop at home. Why is this any different?

Restaurants put lots of fat & salt in most everything they serve. That's what makes the food so tasty.

lynn_glenmont

Plain movie popcorn (no butter) has way more calories than popcorn you air-pop at home. Why is this any different?

Restaurants put lots of fat & salt in most everything they serve. That's what makes the food so tasty.

Well, I haven't eaten at this particular restaurant, but at a lot of restaurants baked potatoes come to the table with their jackets undisturbed, so unless they're using syringes, I'm not sure how they would be getting fat inside (and salt is irrelevant to the current question, as it has no effect on calories). Even if they've split it open, I can't remember ever having the butter and/or sour cream (for a white potato) all mixed up inside with the flesh. On the rare occasions where they've already put the butter on, you could still see the pat, melting in a little pool. I think most diners would find it unappetizing to have the kitchen mushing up the inside of their baked potatoes (and restaurant kitchens do think about presentation) -- if they're going to do that, they take it out of the skin, pipe it on your plate, and call it pureed.

healthnewlife

look at the fat content. if it's high then you know they included butter

LolBroScience

look at the fat content. if it's high then you know they included butter

this.