Are most restaurant facts accurate?

I suspect that they are a good guide... but I treat every food or exercise entry as an estimate anyway, so it doesn't worry me.

I also live in a part of the world where the only "restaurants" that provide nutritional info are things I don't (or rarely) eat anyway - like McDonalds or Dominos so I haven't had much chance to check them out.

For a real restaurant that has a chef preparing food, I would expect a reasonable variance for human error or human change, whereas I would expect McDonalds to be pretty accurate as it's food is pretty standardised.

For a real restaurant that has a chef preparing food, I would expect a reasonable variance for human error or human change, whereas I would expect McDonalds to be pretty accurate as it's food is pretty standardised.

This. If you want to cut calories or ensure that number is pretty accurate, ask for the dish to be made "dry." This will cut out the possible error when cooking with excess grease and oils.

I have read articles that the "low" calorie items tend to be under estimated and the very high calorie items tend to be overestimated -- and like someone else said, something like mcdonalds is going to be pretty damn close.

The steak is steak and they actually do give you very close to the weight it says because its a cost control thing for them (probably not PERFECTLY but you know) so its just as accurate as you buying steak at the store and cooking it yousrelf.