chain restaurants that DO have nutrition guides

Panera bread! They have a great nutritional guide online and at the store (online is way better)

Chipotle and red robin.

Many have it available online, but not at their locations. Very annoying in my book. I want the information when I am ordering. I am all in favor of them being forced to put basic nutritional information on their menus.

I have an app on my phone that has tons of chain restaurants on it! Everything from Arby's to Buffalo Wild Wings to TGIFriday's and Waffle House! Great when I'm on the go...

I have an app on my phone that has tons of chain restaurants on it! Everything from Arby's to Buffalo Wild Wings to TGIFriday's and Waffle House! Great when I'm on the go...

What app is it? I so need that!

IHOP, Johnny Carinos, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Corner Bakery Cafe, CPK, Pei Wei, PF Chang's

I have an app on my phone that has tons of chain restaurants on it! Everything from Arby's to Buffalo Wild Wings to TGIFriday's and Waffle House! Great when I'm on the go...

What app is it? I so need that!

Me too! What's the name of it??

I need to get out of the stoneage and get a phone that can have an app and pay for the data pack. hahaha This would be so helpful for me!

O'Charleys has it in a binder in the back. If you ask the server can bring it out for you.

The law sasy the chain restaurants with more than 20 eateries need to post the nutrional value of their meals (on line or in their hard copy menu); however, this law is not being enforced in all the states.

Smaller restaurants or those with few locations do not need to post anything. So far..... But be aware that some restaurants (steak houses) register the WW point system in their menus, not the calories.

On the Border has a down-loadable PDF on nutrition. I used it to determine ahead of time what to order.
Sad- most dishes where over 1500 calories.

FYI - I contacted TGI Friday's recently to request their nutritional info and they replied that they do not publish any nutrition info other than the few items on the menu that have the calories by them. Any other nutritional info that is out there for Friday's is old and mostly left over from about five years ago when they had the lower cal menu options.

Tony Roma's also doesn't publish their info.

And the law mentioned above for places that serve the same food in 20 or more locations is actually a recent addition to the FDA's law about publishing nutritional info. It was originally supposed to be in effect my this month, but there was an extension granted, so some places will take longer to get the info available. But once it's officially in effect then it won't matter what state you're in, if a company has more than 20 locations they have to make the information available. This includes movie theater concession stands and convenience stores.

They're also working on a way to make vending machines have info available for the food that's being sold inside of it (only for large chain vendors, obviously smaller, independent vendors wouldn't be affected, just like with the other law).

Also, even if a restaurant doesn't have the nutritional info on the website, often if you contact them, they'll send it to you. Friday's and Tony Roma's are the only two places I've ever gotten "no's" from. Every place else very kindly and happily has sent me the info. Usually within a day or so. My iBooks app on my phone is mostly full of restaurant nutrition PDF's so I always have them accessible. (as well as having three different apps that are full of the info as well)

For almost half a year after I started MFP I refused to eat anywhere that didn't have info available because I didn't want to eat anything that I didn't have the exact info on. But the longer I've been on MFP and cooking, and eating out, the better I've gotten at being able to look up foods and estimate what calories are in what I'm eating, even if the exact info isn't available. and life is most definitely much more fun and nicer when you aren't limited to same little group of places to go with friends because you're too worried about the calories. We typically don't eat out just on our own, so it's usually with friends for occasions or events, so it's much nicer to not turn down invites to stuff like that simply out of caloric concern.

Kelsey's and Montanas have their nutritional info online as well

Great source right here...

onemorepound.com

calleja:
*LOL* i am sure it is not.. that's alot of brie!

wolfchild:
i just choose to not eat at the ones that don't provide nutritional info, not because i cannot figure it out for myself pretty decently (i do afterall go to individually owned restaurants that are not chain owned and manage to guesstimate the nutrition pretty well i think)

i simply choose to not visit the chains that don't provide the info because it is my way of 'casting a vote' so to speak *L*.. i think it is important that it be available from them so i won't patronize those places that want to keep it hidden. Just makes me feel like they don't want people to know how unhealthy their food is *L*

I'm not referring to large chains that don't publish their info. It's rare that I ever eat at those places anyway. But yes, I agree in not going to large chain restaurants that don't publish the info openly. So despite my enjoyment of Tony Roma's, I don't go there. Friday's I could take or leave, never really cared for it anyway.

The places I'm referring to are typically smaller, one or two (maybe a handful) of locations kind of places. The really awesome local joints that simply can't justify the outrageous expense of having their menu items analyzed by government systems. The ridiculous cost of the process is actually one of the reasons that the new law is only for places with 20 or more locations, because it's just not cost-worthy for places smaller than that to do it.

Also, if the hubby and I are actually going out to eat, it's probably going to be somewhere nice. Which not only means that it's likely a solo location, but they have menus that rotate with what's available fresh at that particular time in the area. Those types of places will never publish their info but I'm never going to stop eating there. I can't even fathom opting to go to Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill to get nasty, mass-produced "Italian food" over going to the local, family owned restaurant in our area, simply because the chains publish nutritional info and our local place doesn't.

That's the type of thing I'm talking about.

I have an app on my phone that has tons of chain restaurants on it! Everything from Arby's to Buffalo Wild Wings to TGIFriday's and Waffle House! Great when I'm on the go...

What app is it? I so need that!

Um... the name just says "Restaurant Nutrition" and it says Unified Lifestyle on the logo. I know it was free, so you can try to search the app store for it. I've had this phone for a year and I'm pretty sure I added this app at least nine months ago. Don't use it super often, but it comes in handy sometimes! Especially now that I care what I eat!!!!