[BabyFatGone]

I love Panera Bread. They have a really nice salads, soups, and sandwiches that are not that high in calories.

[KLK]

Aside from small local restaurants and such, I'd say the healthiest and best (in terms of taste) chain food place is Panera Bread. I love to get one of their vegetarian soups and then the big Greek salad or the Mediterranean sandwich.

[mrs dorson]

i go to sizzlers for the salad bar. and we have a place called taco del mar. then make your stuff right in front of you and are good about subsituting things. i usualy get the shredded chicken on corn tortillas taco and black beans for the side. you control what they put on top. i get cheese (tiny bit), lettuce and pico de gallo. fills me up and it is yummo!

[nelie]

Chipotle - I get a bowl with no rice, veggies, black beans, salsa, lots of lettuce.
Baja Fresh - Order a plate of beans with veggies and lettuce, add on salsa at their salsa bar.
Local chinese places - We have a few really good healthy focused chinese places. They use less oil, offer a lot of steamed entrees and focus on good ingredients.
Panera - I usually get a soup (either veggie or black bean) and half a veggie sandwich, no cheese.
Mongolian BBQ - Choose lots of veggies, some tofu, low calorie sauces. They also offer brown rice but I usually skip the rice.

[Darkblue]

Taco Bueno--chicken soft tacos, black beans
Cracker Barrel--salad bar, baked chicken or fish, veggies
Chili's--the "guiltless grill" selections
Olive Garden--Venetian Apricot chicken, lunch size claims to be 330 calories
Subway
Panera Bread

[KLK]

Speaking of this... the mayor of NYC has now decreed that restaurants (esp chain restaurants) in the city have to display the calorie count of the foods on their menus for all to see... so you walk into, say, Starbucks, and on the menu the calories are written. I haven't been to a McDonalds in about a year and a half, but it'd be interesting to see what's written on the menu... 900Cals., 1050 cals...

[midwife]

Originally Posted by PhotoChick

I've found that at just about any restaurant you can ask for a plain grilled chicken breast and steamed veggies or a plain baked potato.

However, for me, I don't see the point of going out to eat to pay a lot of money (cause you usually have to pay regular entree prices) to get something that I can make at home. I figure if I'm going to eat at a restaurant, then I'm going to splurge a little and just make it up elsewhere.

That's just me, though. YMMV and all that jazz.

.

Further evidence that PhotoChick and I were separated at birth. I agree 100%.

[FB]

Red Lobster is okay for a chain. I convince my husband a live lobster (sans butter) is the only acceptable item. Yum! I skip the biscuits, cheese on the salads and ask for the veggies to be steamed plain.
At McDonald's I go with the Asian Chicken Salad without their dressing, almonds or croutons.
More often we dine local independent restaurants which tend to be more helpful for a health conscious diner.

I see people mentioning Panera? I thought Panera salads and sandwiches were evil with fat grams and often way high in calories? Has something changed? I'll check out their website. I do miss some menu items, like the greek salad or a wonderful turkey sandwich. I go with chicken noodle soup or french onion soup w/o cheese and croutons when I occasionally visit. It's hard because they're a block from my house.

[LindseyLouWho]

Caroline, you mentioned the apple bran muffins from Cracker Barrel... is it true? Are they really low cal? If so, that would make my day since I love them but I figured those huge honkin' things must be just about as bad for me as the huge muffins at Starbucks!

[Shy Moment]

I think the 6 grams of fat or less offerings at subway are great, as long as you make it a salad. There are to many carbs in their bread.