Best restaurants to eat at that our still somewhat healthy?

Olive Garden Salad & Apricot Chicken Dinner
O'Charley;s Sesame Tilapia over Rice & Veggies... big enough to split
Bob Evans Potato Crusted Haddock Dinner with baked potato and broccoli

I always check out restaurant menus/websites before traveling to give me options.

I like Applebees because of their Weight Watchers and selection of under 550 cals meals. Most of them are pretty tasty and good size portions that leave you full but not stuffed.

Mediterranean restaurants - Greek/Turkish etc usually have a lot of healthy salads, grilled fish, chicken, olives, hummus etc. I love those kinds.

Bob Evans has tons of low fat/low cal options and the info is in the menu...also I try to go with mediterranean frequently for eating out

I'm of the opinion that almost any restaurant can be reasonably healthy. It's not the restaurant, but rather the choices you make and how much you eat.

When I travel, I deliberately look for non-chain restaurants. I figure if I want to go to Applebees, I can do that home. In the process I've found some great local treasures. For example, a couple of years ago a friend and I found this great hole-in-a- wall diner. I was able to get an egg white omelette and a slice of light wheat bread toasted, no butter, and a cup of fresh seasonal fruit. Most places will honor special requests within reason. You don't have to eat a meal exactly as described on the menu. But you do have to speak up for yourself.

I went to Ruby Tuesday's the other night. They have healthy options on the menu and the calorie count included, 300-500. I was really surprised to see they have spaghetti squash and grilled zucchini for side dishes and there salad bar is really nice too.

I agree with the people who say Ruby Tuesdays....my husband is a steak and potatoes guy and I like "healthy". We can both go there and get something we both like...big fan of the spaghetti squash marinara. I usualy end up just getting sides at any resturant but it works!!

I actually feel quite the opposite of a lot of posters...that if you eat out a lot, it is veerryy hard to lose. Now i'm sure most people don't eat out as much as we did, we ate out probably 4 nights a week, lunches out, some breakfast..ya, pretty much out LOL, so that is extreme. But I do think that the nutritional values they print for you are done up in a lab with someone measuring precisely. In actuality, the chef is following the "recipe" but you can't tell me he stops to make sure there is only 1 tbsp of oil on the gril or 2 oz of salad dressing. If that was the case, the salad i made at home with 2 oz of dressing would taste as wet and delicious as this one LOL.I think that the calorie variences are hundreds, not just a few! I haven't worked in the restaurant biz in many years, so if anyone knows that they are that precise, please say so! I would love to know that they are.

I usually try to make a healthy choice, take a look and guestimate at quantity and content and when logging, compare a few nutritional values and pick one that is on the higher cal side as i'd rather overestimate and think i ate more than i actually did. I know if i order a salad, i can get all non veg toppings on the side, which makes it easier to know what i'm eating without worrying about hidden oil and things. I also find that turkey and veggie burgers tend to be pretty high in cals :-(. I think some safer choices are non-cream soups (minestrone, for instance), salads with toppings and dressing on the side, grilled/steamed/roasted veggies and fish, lean meats, etc.

I think one of the better tactics in eating out might be to try to choose pretty healthfully to begin with, keep water or tea as the drink and keep the bread basket off the table,, and then use the ol "put half in a to go box or have them take it away" method. I'd feel pretty safe doing that. Note: I have not mastered this LOL

Personally I find Ruby Tuesday's food pretty oversalted and try to limit my sodium intake, but they do have a great salad bar!!