We went to Claim Jumper sometime last year, it wasn't my choice but it had a vegetarian option. I had their veggie burger (no cheese, no mayo) with the salad bar. The So Cal Claim Jumpers have a salad bar which is decent.
For me, it normally isn't viable for me as a vegetarian to go to many regular restaurants because what I usually get isn't usually worth the price. As odd as it seems, some of the best and cheapest meals I've had are at steak houses (again, not my choice). I don't think they know how to price a 'meal of sides' and usually my meal will cost $3-$5 while other people pay $20.
Anyway, I guess in part that I'm lucky because I have to special order almost every meal in most regular restaurants because everything is so buttery, cheese laden, etc that it is easy to avoid the high calorie surprises.
Lord, I've eaten the beef stew. Surely that 1300 includes the bread bowl (which I knew better than to eat!). Jason likes Claim Jumper so we go a lot. I usually get the BBQ chicken salad with the ranch and BBQ sauce on the side (I also pick off most of the tortilla strips, I like a few for crunch). It's pretty good, I guess it's about 500 calories.
When I realized how much fat, sodium and calories were in red lobster's ultimate fondue - that was certainly a moment of horror - esp considering i used that as an appetizer, shoved the cheese inside their biscuits and still got an "ultimate feast" entree - and finished all of it off!! a well over 3000 calorie meal.
My friend took me to the Macaroni Grill for the first time. I thought my eggplant parmesan would be 600, maybe 800 calories. Nawww, it was over 1200 calories, and 31 grams of saturated fat!
I rarely go out anymore - not specifically because of this, but that doesn't help. Restaurants are just too pricey for what you get. Since I rarely go out (less than once a month), I get what I want and don't worry about it. I've been maintaining for 5yrs + this way. However, it's amazing how crappy these foods are and half of em aren't even that good. If I am going to spend 2000 cals on a meal it had better be AWESOME.
My husband is always telling me he eats better when he goes out to eat - my comment is always that 'home food' is RARELY as calorific as 'out' food - no matter how much you try - make the greasiest burger at home and it's STILL not 1500 calories so they MUST be injecting the food with lard and corn syrup =) =)..
One of my many surprises was Panera. Went there during my weight loss period with a friend, ordered the asiago roast beef sandwich. It was good, but... it turned out to be 700 calories, with 127 g of carbs, 27 g of fat, and only 3 g of protein (but I think that has to be a typo). That put me at close to 1200 calories for the day and it was only lunch!
Contrast that with a 6-inch roast beef sandwich at Subway--where I can pick my own vegetables: 310 calories, 46 g carbs, 40 g fat. And you know what? I like the Subway version better anyway!
If you take the crummy smoked cheese off the Panera sandwich, you drop by maybe 110 calories... but still...
I recently read that some restaurants add sugar to the "kids meals" to make sure the kids like it. They even add extra sugar to the pizza dough for the kids meals...
Macaroni Grill has changed their menu from a few years ago.
Angie and I were there not long ago and I ordered the Shrimp Portofino, like I usually do when we go there. It was a smaller version that the one in the past had....it had 560 calories I think ....the old one had well over 1,000 if I remember right....
Honestly, since I started eating better, I am usually less than impressed with restaurants, this was even prior to me becoming vegetarian. I remember the thing I liked most about Macaroni Grill was the bread and thought the entrees were subpar. Olive Garden? Tastes like hospital cafeteria food. Red Lobster? A pile of salt on subpar food (that includes the biscuits which I wasn't impressed with). Applebees - maybe if you like bland, overcooked food, etc, etc.
Of course I do go out to eat but the places I eat out aren't chains where the food is precooked, frozen and ready to be reheated at a restaurant. The only chain I really liked was Red Robin although I thought it was overpriced.
I find restaurants to be tough not only because I think it's easy for me to be fooled by what's lower calories, but also because I look at restaurants as being a treat, so I want to order what looks good to me rather than what might be better for me calorie wise. the double whammy! I love a good cobb salad; it's not something I'm likely to make at home.
I'd love to see a forum of restaurant eating tips here. Definitely an area I could use help with.
Got one for ya! It's been a long time since we've been to a restaurant, but the last time we went with his family they chose Mimi's Cafe. I went online to check up on calories/fat, etc prior to us going and was appalled at the Reuben sandwich... cals: 2015, fat: 138, cals from fat: 1241, sodium: 3798, and the list goes on. So needless to say I got something off their lean menu and it was delicious. However, when we were all deciding what to eat, I ask my husband's mom what she was getting. She said she wasn't sure if she should get one of two things (one being the reuben). Now I know she's not watching her weight, but I couldn't let her walk into that one blindfolded. I told her how many cals, fat, etc were in it and she was disgusted and sad. Said it was one of her favorite things there. Now she can't bring herself to ordering it.
My biggest issue is that the food is often not even that good. I will happily go way over my calories on an amazing meal being prepared with love...not often, but if it's a special occasion, I will not be counting the calories at a fine restaurant. And I'm OK with that. But 3000 calories on mediocre food? Atrocious.
Good catch, BillBlueEyes! It's actually 40 CALS from fat--4.5 g of fat. Wow, even better!
Amanda, yeah, have you ever been to Mendocino? Nice restaurant there, Cafe Beaujolais. The food is phenomenal, but that's because it's truly high-end cuisine, not because they drown everything in fat.
I eat out regularly, and find that many of the hidden calories in sandwiches and salads can be easily dealt with. That Asiago roast beef at Panera? Take off the cheese AND the horseradish mayo. I bet that ditches 200-300 calories. I prefer the smoked turkey breast sandwich though, no mayo!
Salads: dressing on the side and no cheese/croutons.
Ordering a burger? Order the bun "naked" and they won't put butter on it...
Of course, then more and more you are left with what I cook at home!! Ah well... sometimes lunch with friends is worth it.
But as we've seen, many many meals have loads of calories that are hard to "spot" and hard to take out!! Those are the ones I worry about.
