Applebee's 550-Calorie Menu
 

A friend and I went to Applebee's today for our weekly lunch and we both got a meal off their new 550-calorie menu. I'm pleased to say that the food is tasty. She got the Citrus Skewered Shrimp and I the Shrimp Diavolo Pasta. She couldn't eat the rice that came with the shrimp due to an onion allergy and they ignored the "no onions" request, so no reports on how the rice was. Her shrimp had a sweet, but not overly so, sauce and the serving is three skewers of five or six shrimp, so you're not getting a tiny serving in interest of saving calories. Her vegetables were well-cooked as well (with exception to the carrots; she said they were barely on this side of cooked).

The pasta was nice and spicy with plenty of shrimp. The portion size was just right and the pasta is whole-wheat for 2+health.

If anybody else tries the other items on the menu, let me know how they are!

i also had the citris grilled shrimp! it was so good! i did have the rice and it was good too! it came with 3 skewers of medium sized shrimp. i was pleasantly surprised. i was expecting 2 skewers! hoooray for applebees even though they won't disclose their nutrional menu to me! :mad:

:carrot:

I went and had the chicken portabello plate. I cant remember the correct name...

It was realllly good. I was very surprised! I will definitely be getting it again. My friend had the pasta and wasnt too impressed but I think it was mainly because of the whole wheat pasta which I can understand because you have to get used to it!

Has anyone had that yummy shrimp & spinach salad (but w/ chicken instead of shrimp)? It is soooooooo good but sadly it's over 800 cals! Boo! lol

I also had the shrimp skewers, rice, and steamed broccoli. I really enjoyed it. It was funny when the waitress put my meal down, DH looked at it, and said out loud "That's diet?!" We were eating our food and he wanted to try a shrimp. He really liked it. Then he wanted to taste the rice and ended up eating 2 more of my shrimp. He thought it was very tasty and wants to go back to order it for himself. Yes, he needs to get his own and stay away from mine. :devil: :D

They say the meals are under 550 calories, but how many calories are in them? It is concerning that they won't disclose this information.

I would suspect 549.5

:lol3:

Just a heads up...
http://cbs3.com/health/meal.restaura...2.1411135.html
and
http://www.abc2news.com/content/them...DjSe8dEIg.cspx (view "Comparison Chart")

boy is that discouraging! i've always thought the count could never be that accurate...but by that much! :( more exercise ahead just in case!!

We ended up going to Applebee's again tonight. I had the Grilled Dijon Chicken & Portebellos w/steamed veggies and red potatoes. It was very good. I had the Asiago Steak last week. I have tried 3 of their meals and my favorite is the Grilled Dijon Chicken & Portebellos. Here is another link I found, http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?p...ning_applebees

I don't know how accurate that is. For example, the dailyspark site says the Asiago Steak is total of 390 calories for 7 oz. steak and the rest of the meal. 3 ounces of sirloin steak contains 213 calories (acaloriecounter.com) in itself so that doesn't make a lot of sense. Maybe they have the portion sizes down incorrectly? I'd like to know why (I think I know) they won't reveal their nutritional info.

I'm pretty sure when any restaurant lists the size of a steak, they use the weight before cooking. Which adds up to about 350 calories for the steak... which makes the "under 550" fairly believable, but not so much the 390 that other site claims.

Yeah this is quite depressing. I must say that when something tastes too good to be true(because they put extra oil, cheese, sauce, et al) or if you're suprised by how large the portion is for the publish calories--fact is, your insticts are probably correct.

A report came out about some microwave meals too... published calories of like 300 and there being like 50% more calories in the tested meal. Granted, they'd only test one meal instead of a large sample--but I'd hate to be eating that one they tested and think it was 300 instead of the actual 450.

Hmmm. . .I know their website doesn't provide nutritional information, but I'm pretty sure the law in CA requires them to provide it at the point of service. Next time I'm in one, I'll see if they have a brochure.

The trouble is, sometimes the info provided is not independently laboratory tested.

I usually get a steak dinner when I go there. Steak, vegetables & a potato... yum, yum! :eating2: