Thanks, all. My doctor's office is very strict and I have a list of what I can have, and if it's not on there, I can't have it. They specifically said no soup, because you can't tell what's in it (cream, potatoes, thickeners). Good idea on the applesauce and cottage cheese though. I probably won't know where we're going until the day of, so I can't even plan in advance!

My doctor allows caffeine but I was never much of a caffeine addict anyway. I used to have one cup of coffee in the morning and occasionally a hot tea. I gave up the coffee and don't miss it a bit.

Pasta is out because I'm also gluten free (so basically I can't eat anything lol) but the flaky white fish is a great idea! Thanks!

Oh I also made a lunch date with a friend for Saturday, at our fav sushi place. She knows all about the surgery and it's SO much less pressure! Whew!

Overall, it was...fine. Just...fine.

After spending 20 min trying to park, then another 10 hiking back to the restaurant from the parking space, I obviously was late. So I got the last seat left, next to the loudmouth nosy person I was really hoping to avoid. The waitress was confused by my order of "just the fish" and suggested adding broccoli or asparagus, which I declined. When the food came, everyone else in the group got descriptions, "Sir, here are your pork chops with mashed sweet potatoes" and "Ma'am here is your medium steak with pomme frittes", but my plate of sad fish was just dropped in front of me with no ceremony at all. I imagined the waiter was saying to himself "here's your whatever lady".

The fish was...fine. A little too much pepper, but cooked nicely. I'm sure with the veggies and sauce it would have been fantastic. But the best word I can come up with is fine, which was disappointing for my first time eating out in MONTHS. It was a whole fillet, which is more than I can eat, so I ate about 2 oz of it VERY SLOWLY and was done. The loudmouth nosy woman next to me of course started asking questions about the diet and all the details. I told her it was a custom diet worked up with my doctor and changed the subject. It was very loud in the restaurant (why are they always so loud??) and between the woman next to me and the guy across from me stuffing his face with pork chops, I couldn't really talk to anyone. Then I realized the other problem I had not considered - when I'm done with my 2 oz of fish and waiting for everyone else, I have nothing else to do but look around. I can't even sip water, and thought it would be rude to be playing on my phone, so it was a little awkward.

The very nice waitress was worried that she'd gotten the order wrong or I wasn't happy because I'd eaten so little. I told her all problems were my own and no reflection on the restaurant, thank you very much. I think that 2 oz of fish was about $18, so I'm glad the company was paying.

After a while some people cleared out and then I had a lovely conversation with a guy down the table about WWII, so that was fun.

My boss is taking us to the same restaurant for lunch tomorrow, sigh. But at least everyone there will know about the surgery so it won't be so weird. I'm planning on having a side dish of veggies.

On Saturday I had lunch with a friend and we went to a sushi place. I had a little plate of 3 pieces of sashimi and it was PERFECT. Eating out is possible!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I picked a terrible time of year to do this as everyone wants to go out and eat, there's loads of food in the office, etc. So far I've done really well and stuck to the menu from the doctor.
Sadly my doctor specifically said soups are out, especially creamy ones as they contain cream/high fat dairy (super strict doctor!).
It's hard to explain why you brought a protein shake to a fancy restaurant when no one knows you had surgery. I'm also so sick of the shakes I could happily throw them all out the window! Only 4 days of shakes left, but who's counting?