Does anyone have solutions for counting calories when going out to eat, particularly when at a non-chain restaurant? I've eaten at Thai, Ethiopian, and Lebanese restaurants in the past week (my parents are in town) and it's basically impossible to know how many calories I've consumed.

Yes, one can google certain dishes online, but there's no way to know how much oil the kitchen uses, how big a portion size is, etc etc. My strategy has been to be very very active throughout the day, and try to keep calories during the day low, but I invariably end up eating a *lot* at dinner so I'm not entirely how sure this is working.

Any thoughts?

It can be hard, but I try to estimate the portion size by cups if I can find it online - it's not exact, but at least I can eyeball that I'm eating two cups of noodles or whatever. Obviously this won't work with everything though!

I use MyFitnessPal, and generally I just search through dishes that seem similar to what I ate and choose an option that has one of the higher calorie counts to account for the extra oil/butter that was probably used. I'd rather overestimate than underestimate!

I search for a similar dish if I can. Otherwise unless I order something I KNOW is low in calories (grilled chicken and veggies for example) I will just eat half the meal. I think it's the safest and surefire way to make sure you don't go overboard.

Yup, I would just search for a similar dish to find the calorie count, and keep the calories during the rest of the day low (though not so low that you are going to over-eat at dinner because you're so hungry!). Use the parents in town as an excuse to take them sight seeing, go on walks so that you can talk, etc. Be really active. Also drink lots of water.

You could also probably ask to get half your meal boxed to take home, either leave half on your plate, or ask them to box it before they bring it to you... most places will do this, and I've done it before. Toss it in the freezer, and pull it out sometime later and it's a fun treat as well!

I tend to stick with dishes that are common/basic and the calorie counts will be easy to find online. Even with an ethnic meal, I'd to for some sort of grilled meat and bread or rice or veggies, which would be easy to estimate.

Alternatively I'll search for the same meal in an ethnic chain restaurant and just use the highest calorie count I can find for that meal as an estimate for my non-chain restaurant meal.