Favorite Restaurant says NO to calories on the menu...

There is a Vegan Restaurant by campus I like to go to get some quick to eat before class or after the gym/class. They didn't have the calorie info either BUT they do have recipe book with all the stuff they make at the restaurant and some that I was able to buy from them. So i can just basically put in what they use from there. Very helpful.

Hey that's life, I've never seen calories on a menu in my part of the world and I've managed to lose weight while eating out pretty often, I think it's a good life skill to be able to make a "best guess" smart choice from the menu.

Honestly, any good chef isn't going to measure ingredients, but eyeballs everything anyway. Even the calorie counts you see for chains etc I wouldn't rely on as accurate as one cook can be heavy-handed on certain ingredients, etc.

My rule is that if I know I'm going to eat out that day, I try to save extra calories for the large amount I'm going to likely consume at the restaurant.

Only large chains are required to post their nutrition info. I live in AZ and have not tried Nourish yet. Pita Jungle posts theirs and I was surpised on how large the calories were in some of my simple dishes like their mahi mahi. I know wildflower posts their nutrition info and I can take a salad and minus out the things I am not eating such as the bread or the cheese.

But Pita Jungle is so delicious who cares? (I can only say that cuz I only get to eat there when I visit my family in Mesa and vacation days are cheat days for me)

And in regards to the thread topic - 1. yes, only restaurants with 20 or more locations are/will be required to provide nutritional info. 2. The law was originally going to go into effect by Mar 2011 but got pushed back to next year, so no restaurants could be reported at this time. 3. Testing the food and getting official FDA numbers is ridiculously expensive and that's one reason why there was even pushback at the 20 restaurant level, so really small places are highly unlikely to ever do it. 4. I'm not sure what Dr. Oz tested, but most of the studies I've read about testing restaurant dishes vs nutritionals supplied about 30% of the meals were off by hundreds of calories. Some restaurants have been forced to do new FDA testing to get new nutritionals published. Even stuff like ice cream servings from Coldstone and Baskin Robbins were wildly off. One article I read the average serving was 150% of the published serving size. (I.e. if it was a 4oz serving in the data you were getting 6oz). Great for value, horrid for calorie counting.

And through all of this typing, all I've been able to think about is Chompie's from my last AZ trip. lol

Seems to me the restaurant staff replying to your email was trying to divert attention from any negative concept about their establishment not providing nutrition information by making a blanket statement about other restaruants "gross miscalculation". There are standards for restaurants providing the information and should be taken as a general guideline. The absolute exact calories can rarely be measured with complete precision, but we can make reasonable choices and not go way above or below our calorie guideline when we have the information. If a restaurant does not have calories listed, I try to find listings for foods with similar values or seperate the ingredietns and look them up (i.e. half cup cream sauce, 1/2 cup egg noodles, 1/4 cup broccoli in a pasta dish).

YOUR LUCKY THEY PUT ANY NUTRITIONAL INFO ON THEIR MENU I LIVE IN ENGLAND AND HARDLY EVER SEE ANY INFO OTHER THAN VEGGIE SIGN . YOU JUST HAVE TO WORK IT OUT YOURSELF OR LET YOURSELF OFF FOR THE DAY...I DONT EAT ALL DAY IF GOING OUT LOL:blushing:

YOUR LUCKY THEY PUT ANY NUTRITIONAL INFO ON THEIR MENU I LIVE IN ENGLAND AND HARDLY EVER SEE ANY INFO OTHER THAN VEGGIE SIGN . YOU JUST HAVE TO WORK IT OUT YOURSELF OR LET YOURSELF OFF FOR THE DAY...I DONT EAT ALL DAY IF GOING OUT LOL:blushing:

I have to disagree with you on this one. I need more info as my husband is type1 diabetic and needs to know the CARB intake on everything.

I live in London and so far I've received favourable responses from various restaurants, including PIzza Express (excellent customer services), Greggs the Bakers, Carluccios, Harvesters Pubs. If its not on their menu, all you have to do is contact them and they have all the info at their fingertips and they have all been very happy to provide.

If you don't ask, you don't get........

Actually, it was my understanding that even small chains have to provide nutritional information on request if they put a nutritional claim on their label (like gluten free), so I would look into it further. Copying from: http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=5710e16ddccce6e8c0cfefe950452d1f&rgn=div8&view=text&node=21:2.0.1.1.2.1.1.7&idno=21

Title 21: Food and Drugs
PART 101—FOOD LABELING
Subpart A—General Provisions

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§ 101.10 Nutrition labeling of restaurant foods.

Nutrition labeling in accordance with §101.9 shall be provided upon request for any restaurant food or meal for which a nutrient content claim (as defined in §101.13 or in subpart D of this part) or a health claim (as defined in §101.14 and permitted by a regulation in subpart E of this part) is made, except that information on the nutrient amounts that are the basis for the claim (e.g., “low fat, this meal provides less than 10 grams of fat”) may serve as the functional equivalent of complete nutrition information as described in §101.9. Nutrient levels may be determined by nutrient data bases, cookbooks, or analyses or by other reasonable bases that provide assurance that the food or meal meets the nutrient requirements for the claim. Presentation of nutrition labeling may be in various forms, including those provided in §101.45 and other reasonable means.

[61 FR 40332, Aug. 2, 1996]

Gluten isn't a nutrient, it's an ingredient. If they were saying low fat, high protein, or low carbs the. They'd fall under this guideline. But with something like gluten free, vegetarian, or vegan, at most they would have to be able to provide an ingredients list.

I can understand your frustration, but they are correct. It is expensive to get all the calorie counts and they will not be accurate, as each dish is a little different each time. This is something everyone should keep in mind when logging foods from chain restaurants. They prepare a meal for inspection and get the calorie count to post on the website/menu. Then you have hundreds of cooks all over the country preparing that dish. It's just not going to be consistently the same.