Today is my son's birthday and he chose a local ribs restaurant for his birthday meal. They do not post nutritional information online but do have the menu. It is going to be hard to find something not loaded with fat and calories. I am considering having the steamed peel and eat shrimp and a baked potato. Here is a link to the menu. Do you see anything else on the menu that would be within 600 calories?

Thank you, everyone!

Good lord! All their seafood is fried! (I was looking to see if they had some baked fish - you could probably ask)

The peel and eat shrimp is an excellent idea. They also have a 7 oz Teriyaki steak - if you cut it back to about 5 oz, that would be a reasonable option, too. Do they have any veggie sides other than salad? I see they have fried zuchini? Maybe ask them to steam some zuchini? If you do the baked potatoe - get the fixin's on the side so you can control how much goes on top.

Sometimes when I go out to eat - I get whatever meal I want, but then only eat 1/4 to 1/2 of it. If I do burgers - I always cut them in half. If I do a pasta dish at an italian place, I do 1/4 to 1/3. I would say for that place, I would probably count 1/3 of a meal as a serving size.

The terayaki chicken sandwich or the bbq sandwich sounds pretty healthy. A couple of the wraps also seem good. I'm not sure they would be within 600 calories (probably a tad more) but they would be better than some of the other options that come with cheese and/ or high fat dressings.

Wow! That is a tough place! I think your decision is a great one. Sounds yummy too, I love shrimp. The menu also says that Thursday's are all you can eat crab legs, and that includes a salad. So you could do about 1/2 a pound or a pound of those without butter.

The only other option I saw was the grilled chicken or grilled teriyaki chicken sandwich (has pineapple on it too), you could get it without the bun to save calories.

If you do a sandwich or wrap = just watch out for any cheeses, bacon, dressings, mayo... those are the things that pack a punch.

I would personally go with the veggie or grilled chicken breast wrap with no sauce and a side sald with a lite dressing or the grilled chicken breast with a side salad I personally stay away from potatoes they are loaded with calories.

I'd get the Carolina salad, hold the croutons, with grilled chicken on top, dressing on the side. Vegis and a lean protein are always my go-to meal choice.

Is it the most exciting choice? No, but it's the healthiest and I'm generally happy with anything that I don't have to cook or clean-up after.

^^^Ditto^^

Could I get more food, tastier food and consume less calories if I were to eat at home? Yup. But sometimes you can't.

I agree with the Robins. The peel and eat shrimp would be a good plan too, maybe get a salad with it (no cheese, bacon or croutons.)

I'll vote for the Peel and Eat Shrimp and veggie only salad. I think the "peel" part of peel and eat will slow things down some while at the table. The slower we eat the more satisfying the meal tends to be.

I think that sometimes restaurants use marinades for the chicken in wraps and sandwiches that makes it tender and delicious but full of fats, sugars and sodium.

You probably already went, but I think you made a great choice with the shrimp and potato. I enjoyed looking at the menu and trying to figure out the best choices -- that place looks like a minefield! hahaha I probably would have gone with the grilled teriyaki chicken or the carolina bbq platter (packing 1/2 of that one to go). Surely they had some kind of steamed or grilled veggie -- didn't see the sides on the menu.

So I hope you come back and tell us how it went!

Shrimp sounds like a good choice. Hooray for online menus! Have a GREAT bday celebration.

what did you end up going with?

I would go with a burger, or a steak (and eat half), with veggies or salad on the side. Or maybe the pulled pork, with veggies.

Thank you, everyone!

It turned out that I was not even very hungry when we got there. I just ordered a side of grilled vegetables and my son gave me some of his huge steak. I think that it was 3 to 4 ounces. I was happy and felt like I did fine calorie wise.