Secrets of the Restaurant Industry

This doesn't surprise me in the least! What makes one go back to a restaurant...GOOD TASTING FOOD!

So this explains why the food tastes SO GOOD sometimes or should I say most of the time!

This really annoys me, why can't people just be honest? I guess this is the result of chasing after money - another disease not spoken enough about.

We don't even know sometimes how the food is even prepared (e.g. microwaved) and if you do ask the waiter/waitress, you can't be blamed for not believing them!

I know, someone will say just don't eat out!

We truly live in a different world!

Ok I'll stop the sermon!

i'm not surprised either. the bottom line is that a chef really doesn't take into regard how many calories are in a dish, they know what they are supposed to cook. lots of butter, cream, and oil. at least at a sit down restaurant, the food looks remotely close to what is on the menu, which is much more than i could say for most fast food change if not all. i believe the calorie contant is also determined by the huge portions here in america when dining out. i have always found that the best tasting food and the healthiest always comes from my two hands out of my own kitchen.

I'm not in favor of forcing restaurants to reveal their calorie and fat gram counts because, for goodness sakes, if you can't figure out that a GIANT omelet with a huge mound of potatoes has a heck of a lot of calories and fat, you've obviously got bigger problems. I'd like to meet some of these people who assume that Applebees is a healthy place to eat.

I do wonder where they got the 1335/35 numbers from, as the Daily Plate lists the omelet feast at 915/72.

I haven't eaten out in over a year due to celiac disease, I can't eat gluten from wheat, rye, barley, etc. and it's in most everything prepared in restaurants. At first I missed the 'flavors' of foods and the ease of having someone else cook for me.

Now, I don't miss the tastes of the foods and am eating far healthier at home, preparing my own food. It disgusts me to know that people are eating those Hardee's breakfast burritos and the other crap. All it's doing to them is bringing them closer to an early death.

I know how to choose in a restaurant and can never finish a WHOLE entree. A fast food entree-- much easier and doesn't fill me up. Maybe that's just me. And in the fast food entree are they including sides like in the restaurant entree?

I think nutritional info should be provided by big restaurants (A little tough on family restaurants) -- but the market should determine that not the government. Demand it. Go where it's available.

I love eating at home (because I love cooking) but occasionally I like going out. I normally order off the "light" menus (which normally have a more reasonable portion size anyhow), and I always substitute where it's needed.

If there's legislation that force fast food restaurants to provide nutritional information and ingredients list, then the same should be done for SOME "slow-food" restaurants. Particularly, those such as Olive Garden and TGI Fridays which prepare their food in a factory, and only "rethermalize" it before serving to the customer. Since the food is processed, prepared in one location and standardized, they should be held to the same regulations as any other fast food.

I agree that I like to know the cal/fat content of restaurant meals -- but I do appreciate that this isn't always easy or possible for the restaurant.

And there has to be some onus on the consumer to make sensible choices. You can't go too horribly wrong with a salad (if you ask for dressing on the side), or grilled fish and new potatoes, etc.

JD Wetherspoons (a UK pub chain) have a very useful nutritional calculator at: http://www.rfbrookes.co.uk/Web/FoodFacts/FoodFacts.nsf/PopUpForm?OpenFrameSet which I use to guess-timate the calories in similar meals (eg. "burger and chips") at other pubs.

Ali

I'm also not surprised, but I also really don't care. I *know* restaurant food, for the most part, is high in calories, costs more than food made at home, and not as healthy. We eat out rarely - maybe once a month at a "sit-down" restaurant - and part of the reason is so when we do eat out, I can eat *anything* I want. The last time we did, I had a steak (only the second steak I've eaten in 4+ years), fries, spinach dip, soda, mayo (for the fries), and then shared a big dessert with my sons. Total calories and fat? I don't want to know. But if I do it once a month, if that, I don't think it's really going to hurt much. And, it ended up being about the only meal for the day, because I was so full from eating so much!

Now, for people who eat out *all the time* I can see where they'd want this info, but I also can't figure out why they don't save the money and calories and cook at home!

Kailash said:
sing, since they claim that "90% of their meals are prepared by hand." Men's Health reported that the Outback's Aussie[...]

This is why I'd prefer to eat out at a mom&pop Italian restaurant, where you know everything is fresh. Sure it's still high-caloric, but w/o all those trans-fats and other bad chemicals.

I agree with you, Fitness Fanatic. Is there any real difference between "fast food" and "chain restaurants" other than the atmosphere and service? I remember coming across the "nutritional information" for Chili's awesome blossom fried onion thingy once, and I just about keeled over from reading it, never mind eating it - something like 2700 calories and over 200 grams of fat. Check out the link below for some other scary menu items - even the ones they say are not too bad don't really appeal to me either.

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-wdeducation&msg=1715.1&ctx=0

OMG... Outback has the same food attrocity called "The Bloomin' Onion". Sure, it's meant to be shared by a party of 5, but how often is it scarfed down by a morbidly obese couple?

I watch a lot of shows on the Food Network and that's why I barely ever eat out. This one show goes inside diners and shows how they make all their food. This guy at one diner put-and I'm not exaggerating-a POUND of butter into an omelette pan before pouring in the eggs. The eggs were literally submerged in butter. He poured some of the butter out, then filled the omelette with a crapload of cheese, diced bacon, and some green onions. If you can't figure out that a dish like that has close to 2000 calories, you're dumb.

Also, most chefs use real cream in everything, real butter and lots of it, and they add lots of hidden calories to innocent-looking dishes. I suppose if you don't eat out a whole lot, it's not too bad, but if you are eating at restaurants more than 2 or 3 times a week, you can seriously gain a lot of weight by doing it.

One of my favorite eat-out things is sushi, so I don't feel so bad when I'm trying to lose weight that there are sooo many restaurants I should stay away from. It cheers me right up to think I can eat my fill and not have to suffer any (inappropriate) guilt later. Yes, I could go almost anyplace and just order a salad, but would my feeble willpower and hormone-driven hunger pangs ever follow through? No. So I thank God for sushi rolls!!

Anyone else have some restaurant suggestions that let you enjoy eating without blowing your eating plan??

Spectra said:
I watch a lot of shows on the Food Network and that's why I barely ever eat out. This one show goes inside diners and shows how they make all their food. This guy at one diner put-and I'm not exaggerating-a POUND of butter into an omelette pan before pouring in the eggs. The eggs were literally submerged in butter. He poured some of the butter [...]

Lumberjacks need that kind of breakfast. We're a nation of lumberjacks - keep that mantra.

Oddly enough this showed up in the UK men's health (or maybe it was the US one considering the UK doesn't have half of these restaurants) about 6 months ago, exactly the same article.

Anyway, something they did not mention is that the omelettes at ihop are not no-carb or even low carb as one would think. They add pancake batter to the scrambled eggs. I found this out the hard way 3 years ago when I ate there and it knocked me out of ketosis, I asked the next time I was there about and learned about the pancake batter. They didn't know how much, they said it "depended on the cook", lol. But it generally took 20-30g of sugar to get me out of ketosis.

To me the difference is that at the chain restaurant, they might give me an 800 calorie meal, but I'll only eat half of it and save the rest for the next day, effectively making it two 400 calorie meals. The 522 calories of fast food I will eat all at once.

Ali said:
You can't go too horribly wrong with a salad (if you ask for dressing on the side)

You'd be surprised. Ruby Tuesdays does list their Nutritional Info online. The Carolina Chicken Salad is 1024 calories, and 72 grams of fat. You are better off ordering one of their steaks, which all have far fewer calories, and a ton less fat!

I'd think that when most of us say salad we are probably thinking of all-veggie salads, with dressing on the side. Not ones full of chicken strips that were breaded and made a side trip to the deep fryer! But you have a good point, EmmBee, I think there are still many who see the word salad and think it's good for them, without taking into account the contents.

I don't think I'd even feel comfortable eating half of what they're calling an 800 calorie meal. Depending on the cook and how creative he's feeling about butter, cream, or whatever that day, it might really be a 1000 or 1500 calorie meal.

Your point about steak is a good one, I really like ordering steak sometimes when I'm out because I hardly ever have it at home, and I figure a small portion, lean cut, steamed veggies on the side is a lot safer bet than the choices where a lot of the calories can hide.

When I DO eat out, I really piss off the cooking staff because I order everything differently than how they would normally make it. If I get a salad, I ask them to hold the cheese and any croutons or crouton-like things, hold any bacon that comes on it, and get the dressing on the side. Also, if the salad comes with chicken, I always get it grilled. Chinese restaurants are actually pretty good...all of them that I've ever gone to offer an order of steamed mixed veggies with NO OIL or butter or anything. I usually eat them with just a bit of rice and it's really good.

Oh, one more thing: Never order soup at a restaurant, especially one that's kind of a low-quality joint. Most places make huge vats of soup and keep it around a couple of days. It doesn't stay hot enough all the time to kill bacteria, so it becomes a breeding ground for food-poisoning-causing germs. Especially seafood soups like clam chowder. I've known a couple of people that have gotten food poisoning from restaurant clam chowder.

The numbers are shocking! I’m all for MAKING restaurants provide nutritional information. There are a lot of hidden calories that a lot of restaurants goers don’t realize. I would have underestimated the fresh toast sticks if I didn’t know how it was prepared.

Because of the obesity epidemic there’s a health issue with not providing nutritional information since the current lifestyle IS to go out and eat. I know it’s a choice, but is it really for most? Most families are dual-income and meal preparation is extra labor to ones’ already laborious life.

It shouldn’t be too difficult for restaurants to figure out calorie and fat content. I do it all the time with my personal recipes. I just plug it the ingredients into one of many calorie calculator on the Internet.

I find it interesting that meals that are prepared by hand don't have to show the nutritional information. Or maybe they just choose not to because they are prepared by hand.

This reminds of my mother's banana bread--growing up she would make it for us kids and it was like crack cocaine, I could never get enough. Recently I got the original recipe and made my own for the first time. I couldn't believe the endless cups of sugar and crisco!!!!!

Making your own food and being conscience of the caloric and nutritional content is one thing. Eating someone else's food is quite another, and restaurants just want you to be satisfied! Just add sugar and fat.