Restaurant Pancakes?

Luke_rabbit
Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Does the nutrition information that a restaurant provides include butter and syrup?
In my case, I am interested in Original Pancake House. The small order (3?) of buckwheat pancakes is listed as 670 calories. When I got it before, I would use just a tiny amount of the provided butter and ask for sugar free syrup (~20 cal vs 200 for regular syrup). I'm trying to guesstimate the calories in my version.

Replies

  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    I think it's for just the pancakes.
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    Okay, thanks. Guess that's a never restaurant! Even in maintenance, that would be about half of my daily calories. I'll have to look into buying buckwheat mix to make for myself at home (my spouse doesn't like it).
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Read the nutrition info carefully. When we make pancakes at home, its milk and mix. But oil and butter are often added in restaurant pancakes and it would be very easy to have 300 calories of oil in the mix for 3 pancakes.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    boldknee wrote: »
    Okay, thanks. Guess that's a never restaurant! Even in maintenance, that would be about half of my daily calories. I'll have to look into buying buckwheat mix to make for myself at home (my spouse doesn't like it).

    You can just use buckwheat flour as you would use regular all-purpose flour in most pancake recipes. No need to buy a special mix. I'd start with substituting half the AP flour for buckwheat and see how you like it. You can use all buckwheat flour, but your pancakes will be denser, so I'd try half buckwheat first.

    If you're not eating gluten, you can do half buckwheat and half a lighter gluten free flour, like rice or almond. (Buckwheat is not actually wheat, and is naturally gluten free.)

    If you're baking something that needs to rise more, like cakes or breads, that would be trickier to incorporate buckwheat flour. Pancakes are a good place to start :)
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    Now that I am actually in maintenance, I went to this restaurant and ordered the small portion buckwheat pancakes.

    So, let's try to figure it out!

    From the menu:

    Full serving (6 pancakes) = 970 calories
    Half serving (3 pancakes)= 690 calories

    Clearly it is NOT just the pancakes or a half portion would be half the calories of the full. Right?

    Possibly they are using the same amount of butter and syrup for each portion, which would make the difference (970-690) the calories for the 3 additional pancakes. That would make each pancake a bit under 100 calories. Could that be reasonable?

    That would make a menu half order approximately:

    pancakes (3) = 300 calories
    syrup = 200 calories
    whipped butter = 200 calories

    And, for my version:

    pancakes (3) = 300 calories
    sugar free syrup = 20 calories
    1/4 of whipped butter = 50 calories

    Total = 370 calories

    Does this make sense?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,935 Member
    No, I would guess those pancakes to be 200 calories a piece without syrup or additional butter. They are big at Original Pancake House (are you in Seattle, or somewhere else?) Regardless, they are 6" pancakes, and 200 calories for a buckwheat pancake, dry, seems about right.

    You're not going there often, though, right? Make your best guess and let it go.
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    edited February 2020
    cmriverside wrote: »
    No, I would guess those pancakes to be 200 calories a piece without syrup or additional butter. They are big at Original Pancake House (are you in Seattle, or somewhere else?) Regardless, they are 6" pancakes, and 200 calories for a buckwheat pancake, dry, seems about right.

    You're not going there often, though, right? Make your best guess and let it go.

    So you think their menu calorie info is that far off? If the pancakes are 200 calories each, the full serving would have to be 600 more than the half rather than less than 300 more.

    Original Pancake House is all over the country!

    And I only eat out once a week, so most places get one to two times a year.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,935 Member
    ..or they make smaller pancakes for the full stack? I don't know, honestly. I haven't had a pancake in years, and no way I'd use sugar free syrup, so I'm thinking easily 800 calories for a three stack in my world.

    No idea! But I'm glad you are having them!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,935 Member
    edited February 2020
    I mean, a smallish piece of regular bread is 80 calories. The wheat and the (buttermilk or milk and oil/egg and sugar) mixed in...


    No idea. :lol:
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    bold_rabbit wrote: »
    Okay, thanks. Guess that's a never restaurant! Even in maintenance, that would be about half of my daily calories. I'll have to look into buying buckwheat mix to make for myself at home (my spouse doesn't like it).

    Occasional indulgences don't cause weight gain. I go out to brunch for New Mexican once every couple of months. My entrees are easily 1500-2000 calories which is half to over half of my maintenance calories. It's never been an issue. You gain weight when you're consistently consuming excess calories...in the short run, your body strives for homeostasis.

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