[Fox]

Someone else started a thread about The Cheesecake Factory and because I'm always curious I followed links to their calorie counts. I can't say I was surprised to see almost 10 different dishes with over 2000 calories in them or 200-300 grams of carbs but it still scares me!

So I'm wondering - what restaurants have you learned about that scare you? Share them here so we can all be informed!

On an aside another thing that scares me is that McDonald's has launched something called the "Mega Mac" in Japan and it's a Big Mac with double the meat - 4 burgers in that one sandwich! ugh

[Jennelle]

I had a salad once at Cracker Barrel that topped 1,500 calories and had 53 grams of fat.

Or how about the Bella Turkey Burger at Ruby Tuesday's? You'd think a turkey burger would be healthy. Not this one - 1,145 calories and 71 grams of fat.

Or how about a Quizno's large Classic Italian sandwich - 1,582 calories and 92 grams of fat

Or how about the Dos Equis Fish Tacos at On The Border - 2,100 calories and 130 grams of fat.

Or the topper: Outback's Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing - 2,900 calories and 182 grams of fat.

[MonteCristo]

Sonic - Used to be one of my favorite "snack" places. Came to find out their snacks have enough calories for a large meal

Chili's - I still love this place, but the nutritional info is scary.

[ICUwishing]

2nd vote for Ruby Tuesday. Not that EVERYTHING there is scary, but some of it just makes you go, "OMG!!!!"

[Fox]

Also I found at Romano's Macaroni Grill of the 57 menu items (including both lunch and dinner menus as well as dessert but not counting their salad menu) only 10 choices had less than 1000 calories (and even those were close with 800-900 calories)

Yes you heard me right, most of the lunch portions also have over 1000 calories.

The worst? Spaghetti and Meatball Dinner with 2430 calories. Even the Kid's menu mac & cheese has 1240 calories.

The best? Pollo Magro ("Skinny Chicken") comes in at 330 calories for the meal (with sides) and the Simple Salmon with sides comes in at 580.

[marbear24]

The Macaroni Grill… I new Alfredo Sauce was bad, but I wasn’t aware spaghetti and meatballs could have 1810 Calories and 54 grams of fat. It’s worse than the fettuccine Alfredo at 1220 calories and 53 grams of fat. Even if you’re not dieting- eeesh.

They’ve changed they’re site so you get to a page with nutritional options before clicking the link for the whole menu.

I love when reading the nutritional guide ruins my favorite foods :-/

[matt_H]

I once looked up the info for Unos (pizza chain). They have potato skins for an appetiser that are like more calories than you should have all day. The "individual" pizzas have serving sizes of 4 or 5 and when you do the math it is outrageously caloric. You can find some relatively healthy option there, but you have to do some research ahead of time.

[Mrs Snark]

Originally Posted by MonteCristo

Chili's - I still love this place, but the nutritional info is scary.

I sat with my husband at an Chili's in JFK airport so the nutritional info was on the menu. I was astounded. I had water with lemon. It didn't bother my husband tho, lol.

[marbear24]

Originally Posted by ICUwishing

2nd vote for Ruby Tuesday. Not that EVERYTHING there is scary, but some of it just makes you go, "OMG!!!!"

Hahaha. I took my mother, grandmother and aunt out to RT's for Mother’s Day one year. My best friend had a really really late night, and I woke him out of a hung over comma completely distraught over the eggplant parmesan. Literally saying, "OMG". We had eaten it the week before thinking it was the healthy options, since it was eggplant and all. He wasn’t happy with me, but my distress needed to be shared.

I think until you start really dieting, you’re not aware of the fact that things are only healthy when cooked certain ways. Like eggplant, for instance. Health class shouldn’t be about reproductions and drugs, they should look at actual health issues – like poor nutrition.

[Shannon in ATL]

Zaxby's was one of the reasons I started calorie counting in the first place...

My standard meal, lunch or dinner, was 5 chicken fingers, a basket of texas toast (3 pieces), tater chips, zax sauce, tongue torch sauce, sweet tea. 109 grams of fat, 1575 calories. Without the 48 ounce sweet tea. Or any dessert item I got from somewhere else. And I used to think I wasn't eating too badly, hey it was only 5 fingers after all!

They have an Asian Chicken salad now that is over 1500 calories for the salad I think...

[bnorah]

See that scares me because for mother's day I took mom out to eat to The Olive Garden. I almost don't want to think about all the calories we put down with the salad, breadsticks and our pasta entrees. Geez..

[Fox]

Originally Posted by MonteCristo

Chili's - I still love this place, but the nutritional info is scary.

Yup, I love Chili's too! A couple of years ago I used to go there regularly (once or twice a month) and I usually ordered either the Buffalo Chicken Salad (over 1000 calories), the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich (over 1600 calories) or the Chicken Club Tacos (over 1500 calories).

On a good note they came out with the "Guiltless Grill" menu that has 8 items that are all (except for one) under 420 calories (not including the veggie side). I've had the Guiltless Cedar Plank Tilapia and the Guiltless Carne Asada Steak and they were both really, really good! They are served with veggies that are just steamed and topped only with a little grated parmesan cheese so the sides don't really add that many calories either.

[marbear24]

Originally Posted by Fox

Also I found at Romano's Macaroni Grill of the 57 menu items (including both lunch and dinner menus as well as dessert but not counting their salad menu) only 10 choices had less than 1000 calories (and even those were close with 800-900 calories)

Yes you heard me right, most of the lunch portions also have over 1000 calories.

The worst? Spaghetti and Meatball Dinner with 2430 calories. Even the Kid's menu mac & cheese has 1240 calories.

The best? Pollo Magro ("Skinny Chicken") comes in at 330 calories for the meal (with sides) and the Simple Salmon with sides comes in at 580.

Fox-
We seemed to have posted at the same time about the same thing. I was surprised when I went to check their menu just now that the spaghetti info was lower than I remember it being. I remember it being what you posted, but it's now lower. Perhaps they've had complaints?

[dragonwoman64]

now starbucks lists all the calories for their pastries in the glass cases now. wow, sobering to see one snacky thing be almost 2 meals worth of calories.

[Fox]

Originally Posted by marbear24

Fox-
We seemed to have posted at the same time about the same thing. I was surprised when I went to check their menu just now that the spaghetti info was lower than I remember it being. I remember it being what you posted, but it's now lower. Perhaps they've had complaints?

actually the numbers that I got came right from their own site, what's the link for the menu you're looking at?

http://www.macaronigrill.com/Menu/Nu...tionalInfo.pdf

Just goes to show that we often look up nutrition info online but who really knows which ones are right? How accurate are they really? Is the company's info correct or is it more trustworthy to go to an independent site like calorielab.com? Nutrition really shouldn't be this difficult!

I remember going to Macaroni Grill only once about 3 years ago and I absolutely loved it, I even remember what I ordered - the Penne Rustica with a side salad and the Dessert Ravioli. When I do the math the whole meal came up to 2540 calories and that didn't include the multiple glasses of wine I had. And that was only 1 meal out of the day!!