Restaurant Shame List

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  • JJs25th
    JJs25th Posts: 204 Member
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    I know my biggest problem has become the sodium count. Most restaruant food has just way too much salt! And many of them won;t tell you the sodium count even if they do tell you the calories. Esepcially since my Doc told me to get my daily sodium down to less than 1500 mg PER DAY. Can some one tell me how you get 2000 mg of sodium in a green salad with a very small chicken breast on it? And yes -- I do not eat the salad dressing.

    I would add: The Greene Turtle...a recent trip found no meals with a sodium count below 1200. (They took the Ahi Tuna meals off the menu in my area.)
  • cmwhited6204
    cmwhited6204 Posts: 210 Member
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    Applebee's
    Texas Roadhouse
    Friendly's

    I mostly eat at non-chain restaurants and I never know the calorie counts at those!

    You are mistaken about Applebees. They have many weight watchers entrees that have lower calories and many under 500.
  • nascarted10
    nascarted10 Posts: 300 Member
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    So I think they are all terrible because to stay in business that is what the public expects - large portions, lower cost, and high calorie stuff. After all, more is better right! I have come to the conclusion that you need to go out to eat and take 1/2 of it and get a to go box right away. However my all time favorite is to take somone special out to eat and split the meal. Romamtic as well as lower calories. If you are really lucky, maybe you can work those calories off after you eat (or as we put it on this site - take a long shower with plenty of hot water after the meal)
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
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    I think now that the majority of companies publish their nutritional information the shame is less on the companies and more on the people who either make decisions without looking at the nutritional menu, or look at the menu and decide they don't really care. Yes, a few years ago saying "eat this healthy and fresh salad" when it's loaded until it's worth 1000 calories of crap was shameful on the parts of the restaurants seeing as there wasn't much healthy about that, but now we're educated and they're not saying it's a better alternative therefore I find the onus on the consumer not the company.
  • ahlani
    ahlani Posts: 25 Member
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    I haven't been it probably years, but I always get breakfast.. pancakes, eggs, toast, hash browns, mmmm .. they have the BEST breakfast!!

    Darn yea! It's hard to behave myself when eating there because those hash browns are a dangerous temptation for me, I love them! I think it may be a decent place if you're doing a low carb diet though, they have a steak and egg breakfast that my mate really enjoys.
  • stephdg89
    stephdg89 Posts: 37
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    I really don't eat out anymore. Not to brag, but I'm a pretty fabulous cook, so my food tastes better than nasty restaurant food and is a million times healthier... We used to really love cheesecake factory and tgi fridays. The last couple times I went to cheesecake I got very sick bc the food must be cooked in 10 lbs of butter and grease. My stomach just couldn't handle it- I'm not used to eating like that. Not to mention it tasted like crap. Same with Fridays, and really anywhere else. It all tastes like crap to me now because I know what REAL food should taste like when it's fresh and it's not deep fried and coated with butter, oil and salt. But I feel like people should know what they are getting into when they eat out. What do they expect ya know?
  • cmwhited6204
    cmwhited6204 Posts: 210 Member
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    So I think they are all terrible because to stay in business that is what the public expects - large portions, lower cost, and high calorie stuff. After all, more is better right! I have come to the conclusion that you need to go out to eat and take 1/2 of it and get a to go box right away. However my all time favorite is to take somone special out to eat and split the meal. Romamtic as well as lower calories. If you are really lucky, maybe you can work those calories off after you eat (or as we put it on this site - take a long shower with plenty of hot water after the meal)

    Wow, pick me pick me!!!
  • JLWesterlund
    JLWesterlund Posts: 23 Member
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    Famous Dave's BBQ - the "normal" menu is outrageously bad BUT they have a "Citrus Grill" menu that entices you with smaller portion sizes and side dishes under 100 calories, which is great but they don't tell you for example, the Salmon plate is only 600 calories and the Sodium is over 2200!!!! What is in Salmon and broccoli that warrants 2200mg of Sodium --- it is Criminal.
  • Aperture_Science
    Aperture_Science Posts: 840 Member
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    Well it looks like there is a gap in the market for a Healthy restaurant brand if anyone has got the skills, capital, and guts to go for it.
  • Aperene
    Aperene Posts: 9 Member
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    After doing MFP for 3 weeks, i was watching everything I at and being very careful. Once I felt like I had made a good habit of things, I decided to look at the online nutritional content of my fav foods @ restaurants. I was appalled at what I was so used to eating.

    For example.....my fav burger @ Friday's is 1300+ cals all by itself without the fries and honey mustard I normally would have gotten.. ....AND the sodium was almost 2 full days worth (4,000+) all by itself!

    Even my second fav food there was 1100 cals, and a day and a half's worth of sodium

    It turned me off going to Friday's for anything. :(
  • mmeddleton
    mmeddleton Posts: 100 Member
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    I found the Restaurants Points Calculator app at the iPhone app store. It lists the calories, total and saturated fat, fiber, protein, carbs and sodium for each menu item for 250 chain restaurants. It was $1.99 at the app store and I found it to be very helpful.
  • jezzi16
    jezzi16 Posts: 128 Member
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    Chipolte is my goto when I want to eat out for low cal, No sour cream or guac and you can save a ton of calories right there,

    I get tacos. FYI you don't have to get three. I get two and it is plenty filling.


    I take my daughter to freindlys a couple times a year as a treat and I will order the 1/2 turkey sandwich and 1/2 salad which I tink was like 500 calores.
  • jcstanton
    jcstanton Posts: 1,849 Member
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    Is there one here on MFP or anywhere else? I think we need one. I'm thinking a list of chain restaurants that should be publicly shamed (and their CEO's potentially Flogged) for their uncanny ability to take seemingly healthy foods and make them calorie laden, fat gorged dining enigmas from hell. If anyone else is interested, here's a few that I'd nominate for that list early on:

    Chili's - By far the most hideous minefield of a menu. Almost all their meals are well over 1000 calories and many exceed 2000.
    California Pizza Kitchen - I think there's like two meals below 1000 calories
    Qdoba - I love Qdoba but seriously how do you turn a chicken burrito into an 1100 calorie entre

    Thoughts? Do you disagree? Is this the lamest topic ever?

    Arby's Market Fresh Sandwiches and Salads. I was shocked to find out that their chicken salad sandwich, which isn't THAT large a sandwich, is over 600cals! Two slices of multi-grain bread, leaf lettuce, and about a 1/4 cup of chicken salad (chicken, mayo, grapes, pecans, and celery)=600+ calories?! Seriously?! What the crap are they adding to it? COME ON!
  • jcstanton
    jcstanton Posts: 1,849 Member
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    Well it looks like there is a gap in the market for a Healthy restaurant brand if anyone has got the skills, capital, and guts to go for it.

    I was thinking the same thing. I've got the guts and the skills, but no capital. LOL :ohwell:
  • stephdg89
    stephdg89 Posts: 37
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    Is there one here on MFP or anywhere else? I think we need one. I'm thinking a list of chain restaurants that should be publicly shamed (and their CEO's potentially Flogged) for their uncanny ability to take seemingly healthy foods and make them calorie laden, fat gorged dining enigmas from hell. If anyone else is interested, here's a few that I'd nominate for that list early on:

    Chili's - By far the most hideous minefield of a menu. Almost all their meals are well over 1000 calories and many exceed 2000.
    California Pizza Kitchen - I think there's like two meals below 1000 calories
    Qdoba - I love Qdoba but seriously how do you turn a chicken burrito into an 1100 calorie entre

    Thoughts? Do you disagree? Is this the lamest topic ever?

    Arby's Market Fresh Sandwiches and Salads. I was shocked to find out that their chicken salad sandwich, which isn't THAT large a sandwich, is over 600cals! Two slices of multi-grain bread, leaf lettuce, and about a 1/4 cup of chicken salad (chicken, mayo, grapes, pecans, and celery)=600+ calories?! Seriously?! What the crap are they adding to it? COME ON!

    I'm guessing at least 200 or so cals in the bread, and of course full fat mayo which prob plugs in 200 cals or so then chicken at minimum 100 cals, then all the other ingredients... we have chicken salad at home too, but I use fat free mayo (sparingly) and low calorie bread. And it's not a very regular meal. Once every month or two.
  • Hellbent_Heidi
    Hellbent_Heidi Posts: 3,669 Member
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    Its probably been mentioned, but the Olive Garden 'free' salad is pretty ridiculous, and they don't TELL you that you can get lower fat dressing with it...

    Everything else on their menu is horrific, but I know a lot of people who think they're doing good by "filling up on salad first" so they eat less pasta. They're always shocked when I tell them to go look at the nutritional content of that thing.

    ALL restaurants belong in the hall of shame for the sodium content though!
  • SeaChele77
    SeaChele77 Posts: 1,103 Member
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    I agree!!!

    Buffalo Wild Wings - nothing under 900 calories. :(

    Its really scary to think you're being good by ordering a salad or chicken sandwich and then realize its 600+ calories!
  • jcstanton
    jcstanton Posts: 1,849 Member
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    Is there one here on MFP or anywhere else? I think we need one. I'm thinking a list of chain restaurants that should be publicly shamed (and their CEO's potentially Flogged) for their uncanny ability to take seemingly healthy foods and make them calorie laden, fat gorged dining enigmas from hell. If anyone else is interested, here's a few that I'd nominate for that list early on:

    Chili's - By far the most hideous minefield of a menu. Almost all their meals are well over 1000 calories and many exceed 2000.
    California Pizza Kitchen - I think there's like two meals below 1000 calories
    Qdoba - I love Qdoba but seriously how do you turn a chicken burrito into an 1100 calorie entre

    Thoughts? Do you disagree? Is this the lamest topic ever?

    Arby's Market Fresh Sandwiches and Salads. I was shocked to find out that their chicken salad sandwich, which isn't THAT large a sandwich, is over 600cals! Two slices of multi-grain bread, leaf lettuce, and about a 1/4 cup of chicken salad (chicken, mayo, grapes, pecans, and celery)=600+ calories?! Seriously?! What the crap are they adding to it? COME ON!

    I'm guessing at least 200 or so cals in the bread, and of course full fat mayo which prob plugs in 200 cals or so then chicken at minimum 100 cals, then all the other ingredients... we have chicken salad at home too, but I use fat free mayo (sparingly) and low calorie bread. And it's not a very regular meal. Once every month or two.

    Yeah, I know that now that I am more educated on restaurant food and all the crap they add to it. They used "wholesome" ingredients, but if they're going to advertise it that way, it wouldn't have cost them anymore to use a lower calorie bread (thinner slices, too) and fat free or lowfat mayo, and it would taste just as good that way. I haven't bought any of their sandwiches since then and that was more than two years ago.
  • aprilh0909
    aprilh0909 Posts: 10 Member
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    Chipotle. We just happened upon the stats. Yea, everybody knows sour cream and the tortilla is terrible. You're looking at 700-1500 calories. You're in good shape if you stick with lettuce, a few beans, corn and salsa. You think ordering something called a "vegetarial burrito bowl" would be ok? No. They slap guacamole on as a "freebie" which will cost you later.

    One spot that does well is Potbelly. The TKY on wheat no cheese or mayo and lots of lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes? You're looking at about 300 calories. For eating something someone else prepares, that's pretty good. Just don't order the PB&J. Frightening.
  • poshcouture
    poshcouture Posts: 610
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    Pappasitos! Fajitas aren't that bad really...until they serve you with the garlic butter. It's all oh-vah from that point on!

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