Restaurant portions
Replies
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Kimmotion5783 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »I have generally found that the "finer" the dining experience, the more reasonable the portion sizes are. Places that are putting more thought into their food are often more particular about plating and less likely to try to impress a diner with a huge portion. They want it to look good, not huge (not that the two are mutually exclusive).
There are exceptions, but this has been my experience.
Because they're a fine-dining establishment, they are going for quality of the food over quantity. This may be something to consider. Thank you!
Doesn't necessarily have to be "fine dining." One of my favorite local restaurants here is Farm and Table...they aren't fancy per sei...somewhere between casual and fine. They have their own working farm next to the restaurant property which is where much of their food comes from and they source the rest from other local farms in the state. Their portions are neither what I would consider large or small...basically the same as I would give myself at home. They are a bit pricey, but their food is always super fresh and well prepared. We don't eat out all that often, so we don't mind paying a bit more for top shelf quality.
Their brunch is the best because the chefs use a lot of what was remaining from the previous evenings meal and do a lot of unique things...I like the duck omelette.1 -
If you think US restaurant portions are over sized, it's nothing compared to your average lunch place in Latin America. I swear they put an entire bag of rice on your place just to start.
@MikePTY - I laughed when I read this! I lived in Colombia briefly - I’ve never had so much rice! ☺️
Hmmm interesting. I noticed when I was in mexico (cozumel) they gave such tiny portions of rice and beans compared to what you get at a mexican restaurant here in the US. (I noticed the same thing at two separate restaurants while I was there)
Interesting! I’ll have to eyeball the rice portion at our local Mexican place in west village! It’s on! ☺️ (I don’t eat rice anymore - I’ll peek at the other tables lol)
In Bogota, my food was always swimming in a vat of tasty rice though!
I'm in Panama, which used to be a part of Colombia, and the food traditions between the two countries are very similar, so it could be just our type of thing. But when I order rice with lunch I swear they give me like 6 cups of cooked rice. It's crazy.1 -
I don't typically like chains. I'll pick a local restaurant every time if I have the choice (even if logging is a real pain)... and no, typically the portions are not insane (except the protein portion, for some reason... I don't need a 10oz steak or two breasts of chicken!).
I mean, heck, even a (relatively) standard meal at a chain is maybe 1400 calories (if you don't have dessert, then all bets are off). Honestly... I can fit that in... pretty easily, in fact. I just have to make a bit more of an effort that day to get my 10,000 steps... (but yes I probably won't get a deficit that day, so it's maybe a 2x a month thing).
Desserts though... yeah no. And I had to laugh at the 'that cookie was worth 4 cookies and I couldn't possibly eat the whole thing'. I'd have no problem eating 4 cookies... or 5 or 8. The calories of dessert are just completely insane, and you bet I won't waste calories on it unless it's a really good place.0 -
I think paying for quality, not quantity is important. My boyfriend and I like to eat out and we've spent over 500$ on a meal that we both finished most of, leaving behind a lot of the dessert. The food was amazing though.
Typical date night ranges from 100-250 for the two of us. It's never a chain restaurant. The only one we had leftovers from was Duck Duck Goat.
Regular eating out is about 30-60 for the two of us. It's typically a chain restaurant. I always have leftovers, unless I just order an appetizer and eat some of his. It's usually leftover fries, rice, bread, potato, pasta and about half the meat.
This is just to show the typical correlation between price and the amount of stuff that is extra on our plates.
I also dislike large portions in restaurant because I think it's a waste and encourages overeating. I typically look for tapas/small plates type restaurants. Or, restaurants with an extensive appetizer/starter selection. I love to share food. We can order a few starters for us to share. And then he can still get an entree if he wants.
But, eating in a fine dining restaurant doesn't always have to be very expensive. A chicken dish is usually around 27 dollars. A starter soup is usually around 10 and an additional appetizer is 12. Split that between 2 people is plenty of food and is a quality meal for under 60, including tip. I'd rather have that once a week than 3 other meals out that are crummy food for 20$.2 -
They sure didn’t seem so huge in the past. It has a lot to do with the fact that we simply know better than to wolf down such
huge portions. I don’t think the portions changed, just my perception of what constitutes a lot of food.
And I agree they can keep the fancy stuff with the pretty little decorative plates in the kitchen...and no I don’t want kiwi on my salad !0 -
We used to have weekly meeting at the Claim Jumper.
They serve the biggest portions I have ever seen.
The 6 layer mother load chocolate cake weighed in around 4 pounds and has 3410 calories per slice.
6 or 7 of us would eat 1 slice.
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/PNZZEGCsShfvfJ5Oi2WRAA/o.jpg1 -
Cotton Patch has a “lighter” section of their menu. The portions are reasonable and calorie counts in the 500-700 calories range for an entrée. It’s home style cooking at a low price.0
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Kimmotion5783 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »I have generally found that the "finer" the dining experience, the more reasonable the portion sizes are. Places that are putting more thought into their food are often more particular about plating and less likely to try to impress a diner with a huge portion. They want it to look good, not huge (not that the two are mutually exclusive).
There are exceptions, but this has been my experience.
Because they're a fine-dining establishment, they are going for quality of the food over quantity. This may be something to consider. Thank you!
Yep. I don’t have a refined palate so that’s all lost in me. I’m actually happy about that. Don’t care for restaurants in general.
It might just be where I live or the particular restaurants that I've been to around here but I never think the food at these "fine dining" places are that great. They just seem to put a lot of effort and money into their "ambiance" and plating, and extra table service and crap like that, when I really DGAF about any of that, I just want good food lol. If I'm paying a ton of money to eat somewhere, I feel like the food should be out of this world delicious, and I'm always pretty disappointed.
The best burrito I've had came from a restaurant inside a gas station.
This isn't really relevant to the OP, sorry.
Sheetz FTW.2 -
We used to have weekly meeting at the Claim Jumper.
They serve the biggest portions I have ever seen.
The 6 layer mother load chocolate cake weighed in around 4 pounds and has 3410 calories per slice.
6 or 7 of us would eat 1 slice.
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/PNZZEGCsShfvfJ5Oi2WRAA/o.jpg
Claim Jumper served me the single most ridiculous sandwich I've ever ordered. It was a vegetable sandwich with avocado, I can't remember the name. Anyway, this thing easily had two whole avocados on it. And it was meant to be served with cheese and mayo (which I had held on my order)! I love avocado, but it seemed like a lot even to me.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »We used to have weekly meeting at the Claim Jumper.
They serve the biggest portions I have ever seen.
The 6 layer mother load chocolate cake weighed in around 4 pounds and has 3410 calories per slice.
6 or 7 of us would eat 1 slice.
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/PNZZEGCsShfvfJ5Oi2WRAA/o.jpg
Claim Jumper served me the single most ridiculous sandwich I've ever ordered. It was a vegetable sandwich with avocado, I can't remember the name. Anyway, this thing easily had two whole avocados on it. And it was meant to be served with cheese and mayo (which I had held on my order)! I love avocado, but it seemed like a lot even to me.
@janejellyroll @ACDodd
What the heck is Claim Jumper? Googling.
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janejellyroll wrote: »We used to have weekly meeting at the Claim Jumper.
They serve the biggest portions I have ever seen.
The 6 layer mother load chocolate cake weighed in around 4 pounds and has 3410 calories per slice.
6 or 7 of us would eat 1 slice.
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/PNZZEGCsShfvfJ5Oi2WRAA/o.jpg
Claim Jumper served me the single most ridiculous sandwich I've ever ordered. It was a vegetable sandwich with avocado, I can't remember the name. Anyway, this thing easily had two whole avocados on it. And it was meant to be served with cheese and mayo (which I had held on my order)! I love avocado, but it seemed like a lot even to me.
@janejellyroll @ACDodd
What the heck is Claim Jumper? Googling.
It's a casual restaurant chain. They're mostly known for their enormous portions.2 -
@janejellyroll I am intrigued! ESP with double avocado loljanejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »We used to have weekly meeting at the Claim Jumper.
They serve the biggest portions I have ever seen.
The 6 layer mother load chocolate cake weighed in around 4 pounds and has 3410 calories per slice.
6 or 7 of us would eat 1 slice.
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/PNZZEGCsShfvfJ5Oi2WRAA/o.jpg
Claim Jumper served me the single most ridiculous sandwich I've ever ordered. It was a vegetable sandwich with avocado, I can't remember the name. Anyway, this thing easily had two whole avocados on it. And it was meant to be served with cheese and mayo (which I had held on my order)! I love avocado, but it seemed like a lot even to me.
@janejellyroll @ACDodd
What the heck is Claim Jumper? Googling.
It's a casual restaurant chain. They're mostly known for their enormous portions.
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Yes restaurant portions are very large so when I go out I ask them to bring a to go container so as soon as they bring the food out I can put half or more of it away and only eat what I need at the time.0
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It must depend on the restaurant.
Whenever we are overseas, I’ve had people mention large portion sizes in the US. I’ve always thought that was an over generalization.
At least in my experience- the restaurants I frequent here in NYC do smaller portions.Kimmotion5783 wrote: »Just wondering: has anyone else noticed how ridiculously oversized restaurant portions are?
Ever since I've started losing weight, it has become increasingly obvious to me how grossly disproportionate the sizes are. It's like 3 servings in one, if not more. The other day, I split a chocolate chunk cookie from Barnes and Noble with someone because I knew I wouldn't eat the entire thing myself as it was too big for me- it was like four cookies in one.
My question is this: have you been to a restaurant where the portion sizes are a bit more reasonable?
Hi MG! Greetings from Long Island! I love NYC and would be interested to know what restaurants offer smaller portions? I'd like to check them out. What are your recommendations?0 -
All good points made, thanks everyone for the insightful input. Maybe it just depends on where you go. What prompted this post was a recent restaurant trip where my friends and I easily split one dessert between the three of us. To me, that's just an insane portion size. Basically three portions in "one". We had ordered chocolate cake, the one slice they came out with I'm sure was a third of the entire cake itself. You should have seen this ridiculous portion of cake. Then this friday, I'm going for Italian food with the same friends. Now that I'm close to my mini weight goal, I'm looking for ways to still enjoy a night out at a restaurant. It's hard.2
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Kimmotion5783 wrote: »All good points made, thanks everyone for the insightful input. Maybe it just depends on where you go. What prompted this post was a recent restaurant trip where my friends and I easily split one dessert between the three of us.
Sounds like Harold's Deli.... Been there once. Got a sandwich and it came with a side of 6 slices of bread. Had to have been over a pound of meat on the sandwich.
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Kimmotion5783 wrote: »It must depend on the restaurant.
Whenever we are overseas, I’ve had people mention large portion sizes in the US. I’ve always thought that was an over generalization.
At least in my experience- the restaurants I frequent here in NYC do smaller portions.Kimmotion5783 wrote: »Just wondering: has anyone else noticed how ridiculously oversized restaurant portions are?
Ever since I've started losing weight, it has become increasingly obvious to me how grossly disproportionate the sizes are. It's like 3 servings in one, if not more. The other day, I split a chocolate chunk cookie from Barnes and Noble with someone because I knew I wouldn't eat the entire thing myself as it was too big for me- it was like four cookies in one.
My question is this: have you been to a restaurant where the portion sizes are a bit more reasonable?
Hi MG! Greetings from Long Island! I love NYC and would be interested to know what restaurants offer smaller portions? I'd like to check them out. What are your recommendations?
@Kimmotion5783 - some of my fav restaurants that we frequent at least a few times per month:
Sant Ambroeus on Madison UES
UVA UES
Sushi Nakazawa -west village
The Clam - west village
Waverly - west village
Mr Chow - Tribeca
Locanda Verde - Tribeca
I’ve never had gigantic portions at the above and never needed a to go box.
Typing that I’m now walking to Mr. Chow. no rice please.
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@Kimmotion5783
Ps - I also think it depends on the place but also what one is ordering. Instead of a sundae - 1 scoop of gelato is good!
Ever been to Serendipity 3 on the UES? They are all shareable - but they offer single scoops too.
I had a sugar free mousse at my fav neighborhood place recently - it was so tiny I was like - that’s 2 spoonfuls! But it was good just to just have a taste. So reading this thread was interesting to me as I rarely see epic portions. But I also haven’t been to Katz’s deli recently. ☺️
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Kimmotion5783 wrote: »All good points made, thanks everyone for the insightful input. Maybe it just depends on where you go. What prompted this post was a recent restaurant trip where my friends and I easily split one dessert between the three of us. To me, that's just an insane portion size. Basically three portions in "one". We had ordered chocolate cake, the one slice they came out with I'm sure was a third of the entire cake itself. You should have seen this ridiculous portion of cake. Then this friday, I'm going for Italian food with the same friends. Now that I'm close to my mini weight goal, I'm looking for ways to still enjoy a night out at a restaurant. It's hard.
Normally I don't eat dessert at restaurants, but we always do for family birthdays celebrated out, and we always split them because we are usually fairly full from the meal, but it doesn't feel like a birthday meal w/o dessert.
Like other posters have said, I find the portions at upscale restaurants much more reasonably sized.
There's a cheap Italian restaurant near us with huge portions of terrible food that I was only willing to patronize once. They've been in business for over 50 years. My favorite upscale Italian restaurant with small portions just went out of business
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kshama2001 wrote: »Kimmotion5783 wrote: »All good points made, thanks everyone for the insightful input. Maybe it just depends on where you go. What prompted this post was a recent restaurant trip where my friends and I easily split one dessert between the three of us. To me, that's just an insane portion size. Basically three portions in "one". We had ordered chocolate cake, the one slice they came out with I'm sure was a third of the entire cake itself. You should have seen this ridiculous portion of cake. Then this friday, I'm going for Italian food with the same friends. Now that I'm close to my mini weight goal, I'm looking for ways to still enjoy a night out at a restaurant. It's hard.
Normally I don't eat dessert at restaurants, but we always do for family birthdays celebrated out, and we always split them because we are usually fairly full from the meal, but it doesn't feel like a birthday meal w/o dessert.
Like other posters have said, I find the portions at upscale restaurants much more reasonably sized.
There's a cheap Italian restaurant near us with huge portions of terrible food that I was only willing to patronize once. They've been in business for over 50 years. My favorite upscale Italian restaurant with small portions just went out of business
@kshama2001 - noticed you were from Boston! ever been to Rino’s in Eastie? Those are the biggest portions I have ever seen. Hands down.0 -
@ mg07030
Member
How is Serendipity? It looks nice. Maybe I'll try it next time I'm in the city. It looks similar to Alice's Tea Cup.0 -
Just googled Claim Jumper..... Yikes!!! Those portion sizes!
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My colleagues from other countries are always flabbergasted with US portion sizes when we go out to lunch.0
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I went to the cheese cake factory last night and got the Cajun chicken little meal... it was so many chicken tenders i'll probably be eating leftovers for the next week unless my husband takes some to work. And the cheese cake I got was 1450 calories alone (my birthday so I splurged) , I could only eat 1/4 of it even though it wasn't a big slice.0
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Kimmotion5783 wrote: »@ mg07030
Member
How is Serendipity? It looks nice. Maybe I'll try it next time I'm in the city. It looks similar to Alice's Tea Cup.
@Kimmotion5783
Serendipity3 is cool. There are items that are large portions and ones that are small. Some are meant to share. Ask for the minis. It’s cute for date night or special occasions.
It’s pretty inside. When I eat ice cream - I like Il Laboratorio del gelato downtown.1 -
I have to think back to when my favorite meals was a chillie cheese-a-plenty from the beacon drive in. Huge bun, two beef patties, chillie, cheese and you couldn't see it. It was buried under a mound of french fries and onion rings.0
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@mg07030 : I really have to try it next time I'm in the city, it sounds wonderful. I saw some pictures of it online- it looks good!0
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