Hey everybody! So my boyfriend and I basically revolve around my healthy eating style. He ALWAYS lets me choose the restaurant so that I can eat low calorie items. Next weekend is birthday though and for once he wants to choose where we go. His 2 choices for me were Fogo de Chao (a brazilian steakhouse) or Melting Pot (fondue). OY!!! Which is the lesser of 2 evils???

I am not familiar with either one, but I think the steakhouse may be more diet friendly.

Oh this is so difficult!!! To be 100% honest, I would go to the Melting Pot, just because for me fondue equals romance. Of course calories, there are way up. Fogo de Chao is a better option diet-wise as you can order your steak and ask to keep the sauce (if there is a sauce) separately. You can substitute the fries with rice. So it really depends what you wanna do.

Mind you, I am a person who rarely eats out and when I do, I try not to deal with calories way too much because going out is rare.

Well, there is something exotically attractive about "brazillian steak", so that's my vote. At least you don't get a big vat of cheese to dip it in, either!

Really, though, it sounds yummy. Go with the steak.

I've been to the Melting Pot and it is NOT diet friendly! You easily go over what you planned on eating. The sauces for the main course are OK, but the sauces for appetizers and desserts will hit you hard. I'd go with the Brazillian place. They have to have salads, or at least something that you can make healthy (ask for veggies instead of the potato or something)!

I love love both fondue and brazillian steakhouses. Fondue is definately NOT deit friendly. The brazillian steakhouses I've been to are kinda like an all you can eat meat buffet. There usually is a salad bar, but the main point is to select as many different kinds of meat and eat as much as you can. I would recomed the steakhouse, but be warned they will continue to bring food to the table right up to the very end... I don't know if you've checked out their web site but here's a link http://www.fogodechao.com/dining.htm

Hey there,
I go to Fogo and other similar places pretty frequently, and they are renowned for their salad bar. Fogo is essentially a big high end buffet, so you can pick and choose exactly what you want and make a really healthy meal if you can resist all the temptations.
Basically the meal consists of the salad bar and a rotation of waiters that come around to the tables with different types of meats, so you have 100% control over what you eat.
Have fun and get your money's worth!!

I love both fondue and Fogo de Chao...
With fondue, the cheese and chocolate fondue can really do a damage... you could go for the meat fondue cooked on the meat´s juice, it has a lot less calories (not sure they have that option at the place you mentioned) and in any case staying away of the cheese and chocolate fondue could be torture...

Fogo de Chao is one of my favourite brazilian churrascarias (I´m brazilian so I´ve been to a few), there are a lot of lean options, such as chicken breast, and not so fat cuts of beef and they cook the meat in its own fat, which reduces the number of calories by a good amount ... but you can´t leave the restaurant without trying a "picanha" , if you remove the fat, it´s not so bad in terms of calories and still super delicious... the trouble there is controlling the food intake as food will keep coming unless you ask them to stop...

i'd go to melting pot, but fogo is probably better diet wise!

Steak house!

I think either one is ok. The steak house would be easier because you just order a salad or whatever and they bring it and that is it. There is no chance you will get tempted by a delicious vat of cheese in front of you.

But if you do have self control... melting pot is always a fun time. And they bring out a plate of veggies and small pieces of bread and a few other things that are good for you by themselves, just skip the cheese. The main course is lean meats and the sauce is diet friendly. Dessert should be avoided tho. I don't think there is anything good about that (well except for the taste!) Good luck!

oh I just read some other posts about the steak house and it looks like both are going to be trouble. I would say whichever you pick, it will be hard but think of how proud you will be when you resist! When my BF and I go out I take a serving of fiber (the stuff for old people) before I go. Extra fiber is supposed draw water to your stomach and it makes me feel full. Maybe it will for you too.

omg sooo good! In college I studied abroad in Rio (really partied abroad... who are we kidding?) and ate pichanha with tons of farofa (essentially flour that soaks up flavor really well... pure carbs) whenever I could afford it... and my jeans got tighter and tighter.