How to estimate the calories in a restaurant meal?

nykismile
nykismile Posts: 198
in Food and Nutrition
What do you do when you're at a restaurant and you don't know the nutrition info? I've been googling the place but I've had no luck.

It's a chain place called Charm Thai and I get the same meal every time. It's called "Tofu Royal" and it's comprised mainly of vegetables, but it comes with tofu and brown rice and everything has an oily feel to it. I have no idea how many calories it can be since I don't know how much oil they're using.

What do you do when in a similar situation?

Replies

  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,059 Member
    I recreate the recipe as best as I can based on the food database, or find something comparable in the database.
  • meridianova
    meridianova Posts: 438 Member
    if the restaurant's nutritional information isn't listed anywhere, then try doing a google search on the food itself. rather than using the name "tofu royal", do a search of "thai food tofu veggies brown rice". some restaurant somewhere probably has a very similar dish, and it may show up on other food databases (MFP foods will show up on a google search).

    your other choices would be to ask the restaurant if they have the nutritional info on their dishes, or to order something else.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Find something comparable in the database and do the best you can. You can count on most anything at a restaurant being about double the recommended serving size and anywhere between 800 - 1200 calories on average unless they specifically have a low calorie menu. It is for this reason that I eat out very rarely and it's a special kind of treat for me when I do. My wife and I often split and entree.
  • soopaang
    soopaang Posts: 27 Member
    If it seems oily it probably is. Ask for the sauce on the side so you can control it because that is most likely where the unknown cals are. You can always look up rice, veggies and tofu easily.
  • nykismile
    nykismile Posts: 198
    Okay, thank you guys!
  • jbee27
    jbee27 Posts: 356 Member
    Find something comparable in the database and do the best you can. You can count on most anything at a restaurant being about double the recommended serving size and anywhere between 800 - 1200 calories on average unless they specifically have a low calorie menu. It is for this reason that I eat out very rarely and it's a special kind of treat for me when I do. My wife and I often split and entree.

    This is what I usually end up doing. I find something that looks comparable in the database, or I try to sort out the ingredients individually and guess at portion sizing the best I can.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Google Tofu Royal --- whatever comes up is probably close.

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