Dining Out: Steakhouse Cuisine
Restaurant-Specific Strategies
-- By SparkPeople
Characteristics:Steakhouses serve extra-large portions of hearty, filling heartland food without much spice or variety. Plain side dishes and a smaller number of sauces and toppings make it easier to control calories with smart choices and special preparation requests.
Common Ingredients:
Menus are dominated by meat, pastas, various potatoes slathered with gravy or toppings, and deep-fried appetizers. Vegetables are few and far between, except for potatoes, which are often fried in some form. Most offer salads, but many have only starch and pasta-based side dishes. Many restaurants are offering healthier chicken and fish alternatives.
Hidden Dangers:
- Steakhouse cheeseburgers can pack nearly 1,000 calories.
- Shrimp Scampi is often drowning in butter and packs nearly 1,000 calories.
- Fried Chicken has 910 calories and 54 grams of fat. To make it healthier, choose breast meat and remove the skin.
- Two Potato Skins can have almost 500 calories—before adding sour cream.
- Watch for these words:
- Breaded
- Crispy
- Country-Style (fried and smothered in gravy)
- Encrusted (coated and panfried)
- Bearnaise (sauce made with butter and egg yolks)
- Dijonaise (Dijon mustard and cream sauce)
- Jalapeno Poppers (2): 660 calories and 36g fat
- 6 Buffalo Wings with blue cheese dressing:1,000 calories, 68g fat
- 16-oz Porterhouse: 1,300 calories, 104g fat
- Au Gratin Potatoes: 400 calories, 22g fat
- BBQ Ribs: 1,680 calories
- Nachos: 800 calories
- Crab Cakes (2): 240 calories, 15g fat
Healthy Finds:
- Baked Potatoes are generally healthy—it’s the bacon, cheese, sour cream and butter that add most of the calories and fat. A plain spud has only 68 calories and NO fat.
- 6 Oysters on the half shell carry less than 150 calories.
- Most steakhouses offer steamed vegetables as a side dish. One cup can have less than 50 calories (if it’s not soaked in butter).
- Look for these words:
- Baked, steamed
- Blackened, grilled
- Broiled, charbroiled
- California-Style
- Roasted, rotisserie
- Brochette (meat, fish, poultry or veggies on a skewer)
- 5 peel and eat Shrimp: 114 calories, 1g fat
- BBQ Pork Chops: 400 calories, 25g fat
- Broiled Salmon: 353 calories, 21g fat
- Filet Mignon: 385 calories, 20g fat
- Steamed Broccoli: 50 calories, 0g fat
- Corn on the Cob with butter: 120 calories, 5g fat
The Big Tip:
Remember: one serving of steak is only about 3-4 ounces, or about the size of your open palm. Many steakhouse steaks are actually 3 or 4 servings!
Substitution Ideas:
| Try This |
Skip That |
| Manhattan clam chowder |
New England clam chowder |
| Peel & Eat shrimp |
Fried shrimp |
| Spinach salad |
Creamed spinach |
| Baked potato |
Mashed potatoes |
| Steamed lobster tail |
Crab cakes |
| Poached fish |
Fish 'n chips |
| Veggie burger |
Bacon cheeseburger |
| Sirloin or Tenderloin |
T-bone or Ribeye |
| Rice |
French fries |
| Garden salad (dressing on side) |
Caesar salad |
| Angel food cake |
Pie |
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