quick restaurant options

[emilyedna]

Since starting LC in January, I've amassed a small list of fast restaurant options that work really well for me.

Jason's Deli has a great salad bar, and you can order grilled chicken (or other meat) on the side for $1.49 extra. It is kind of pricey, but I usually order just one trip to the salad bar, which you can do (depending on your location) if another person in your party orders a sandwich or entree. That shaves $3 off the cost.

Boston Market serves chicken dinner type food. I always order a piece of chicken with a side of green beans and creamed spinach. I eat the spinach sparingly, kind of as a condiment instead of a side dish.

Panera has good salads, too. I like the Thai Chopped Salad, but it does have some crunchies on it that you have to ask them to hold, and I am not sure about the carbs in the peanut dressing. The Chicken Caesar is probably best for Atkins Induction. I've ordered extra chicken on both at times when I've been very hungry.

Chipotle is also a good option. I can get a nice fresh salad topped with meat, cheese, and sour cream. I usually hold the salsa and either get guacamole or use some Tabasco. I never feel like I am getting less of a meal than the other people at my table.

Then there's the emergency fast food - ordering a sandwich and just eating the filling. I don't like doing this, but it works in a pinch. I have only had to do this once since I started the diet, and it was a little awkward. I would rather pack a lunch or eat in advance than pick apart a fast food sandwich.

I am working on finding more options, but these are my standbys. My town is home to two types of restaurants: Chains and old diners. So it's somewhat limited. I used to live in a place with lots of different types of restaurants, mostly locally owned. I miss that. But there is something to be said for being able to identify the chains that can help you get a good meal when you're too busy to cook.

I'm hoping that others will chime in with their standbys too, and that maybe I'll get some good ideas for new places to add to my very small list.
:)

[AmberNic]

I love Mongolian Grills! There is one that has to go for 6 bucks and you can pile it on! You pick the meat and veggies you want and they cook it right there for you! :)

[DaddioM]

Pizza Hut garlic and parmesan wings! Yum..

Any chicken caeser salad (minus the croutons)

chicken pasta primevera (minus the pasta) assuming they use real cream for the alfredo sauce. I get it as a soup at my local Italian place.. mushrooms, asparagus, chicken, in alfredo sauce.. yum.

Fajita's as a salad.. fajita meat, cheese, & guac over a bed of lettuce.

Other things? Anyone?

[AmberNic]

KFC Double Down ( do they still have those? )
Burger King has a really good Chicken Salad with yummy ranch
Taco Salad with sour cream and guac.
Carl's Jr. has the option of making their burger lc
Red Robin has the lc burger option as well
Little Caesars has wings to go that are zero carb
Izzys Pizza has a great buffet with yummy salad bar
Outback has some great wings and lots of other choices
Red Lobster has wonderful choices as well
Jack n the box Grilled Chicken strips

[LStump]

Beware of Outback's wings.. They are pretty carb heavy. I think it's in the seasoning they use. Maybe they can be ordered naked??

Hooters has great wings! They also have great steamed shrimp (best cooked shrimp I've ever had anywhere. It is NEVER EVER overcooked) and good raw oysters.

Not sure if anyone else likes it, but when I lived closer to a Sushi shop and I could go into work later, I'd pick up a thing of sashimi for lunch.

[Equinox]

T.G.I. Friday's, most burgers are low carb friendly, just hold the fries, buns and remember to ask for dressing on the substitute salad.

Also their steaks are usually quite tender. I love the one with just "Maison butter" (-house butter) on, not sure what's in the sauces some of the others come with, but the veggies (hold the potato obviously) are usually all safe ones.

Hard Rock Café, ditto on the burgers, the spare ribs might be too carby, only had them once, but oh my God the fajita platter... (- tortillas) I think they use low fat sour cream, at least here, but the guacamole is *real, fresh and gorgeous*...

That's it for the American ones I frequent, anyway.

Oh, I forgot Subway. Any other place you can make your own salad, obviously, too.

[jillybean7]

I hate to cook, and my husband doesn't cook, so we seriously eat out at least 6 days a week (I did cook at home on Monday night!). I also eat out for lunch quite a bit. Don't ask me about my sodium consumption...

Chipotle: get a bowl of meat (I prefer chicken), cheese, sour cream, mild salsa, and sometimes guacamole.
We frequent our local steakhouse because, well, it's 5 minutes from our house. I opt for:

entree salad of greens topped with roasted chicken, bacon cheese, and buttermilk herb dressing
grilled pork chops with brown butter sauce, side salad (lettuce, cheese, bacon, and buttermilk herb dressing), side of broccoli (this lasts 2 meals for me)
Tuesdays are "Lucky 13" promo night, so $13 for an 8oz prime rib with side salad and broccoli (I easily get 2 meals out of this)

Ditto similar to the above for any steak place. If there isn't a low-carb slad dressing I like (and I don't care for ranch on salads, so it happens a lot), then I order thousand island on the side and also a side of mayo. I mix them together so I'm using the mayo as an extender and end up using less of the thousand island. I'll also do this with honey mustanrd, but thousand island tends to be lower in sugar than honey mustard to begin with.
I personally don't care for buffalo sauce, but I'll get wings from any place that has them without breading and offers other low-carb sauce options, like the Pizza Hut garlic parmesan already mentioned.
Chick-fil-a: even though it's not on the menu, you can order a large cup of their chicken salad. Also, their 8-piece chicken nuggets has 11g total carbs (1g of which is fiber, so 10g net carbs) if that fits into your day. They also have a grilled chicken club (chicken, bacon, and cheese) that I eat with no bun, side of mayo.
Ruby Tuesday: salad bar, any protein entree (fish, steak, chicken - be mindful of sweet sauces or breading, of course) with sides of broccoli and mashed cauliflower (I LOVE that they have mashed cauliflower!)
Brazilian steak houses: meat, meat, and more meat!
Panera: their Asian sesame chicken salad is made with low-sugar dressing. I just order it with no crispy wonton strips and usually with extra chicken.
Thai place: I order a meat and vegetable entree, and they always serve the rice on the side, so I ignore it. I make sure to order a spicy (not sweet) sauce, usually something with chili and basil.
KFC: Double Down or pieces of their grilled chicken with side of ranch.
Various other fast food places: double cheeseburger, no bun, side of mayo. Grilled chicken club, no bun, side of mayo or ranch. Hot dog, no bun, little bit of ketchup (or ketchup mixed with mayo).
Red Robin: bunless burger or bowl of french onion soup, no bread/croutons (I don't eat all the actual onions at the botom of the bowl, just the broth and the cheesy deliciousness on top!).
And there's always the good old stand-by of a chicken caesar salad without croutons :)

[emilyedna]

Wow, great suggestions. I hadn't tried Red Robin because I thought I would be reduced to picking at a patty, but those meal options look great. My family will be glad to add that to the rotation.

Nice to know about the Pizza Hut wings, too. My company often orders from Pizza Hut, and it's nice to know that there is something on the menu I can have. (I had just been sitting out those lunches while everyone had pizza.)

A couple more:

Another good place I went to recently was Longhorn Steakhouse. It isn't fast, but it does have a nice selection of LC sides to go with a meat entree.

On the Border has good fajitas, which you can order minus tortillas. And, much to my delight, a Skinny Margarita that supposedly contains 90 calories and just one carb.

[thickgirl]

Some really great ideas in the thread! Thank you! :)

[MicheleK]

I can't say it enough...if you live in an area that has Cracker Barrel - Go there. They have an entire menu that caters to LC lifestyles. I LOVE THEM

Cracker Barrel's Low Carb Menu (http://www.crackerbarrel.com/menu-dinnerlowcarb.cfm?doc_id=904)

[Elizellen]

In UK a lot of independant family run kind of cafes offer an "all day breakfast", of fried eggs, bacon, grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms plus things like hash browns, chips (fries), toast, fried bread etc. So ordering one of those with an extra egg instead of the hash browns/chips/bread fits the bill and is usually a cheap Atkins meal that can be ordered any time of day.

Sometimes I even take my own flax bread or revolution rolls with me to indulge in a bacon sandwich!

I haven't visited the USA but imagine your diners would offer a similar option?

[hysteria]

Red Robins also has pretty good wings, imho :)

Another favorite now is Buffalo Wild Wings - we even buy their sauce now to make our wings at home :)

TGI Fridays used to have decent LC food - they've taken it off our local menu, but they are happy to personalize your order

I'm trying to get my husband to go to Famous Daves - local BBQ place...might be a little carby if you go the bbq route...but they also do dry rubs - and I am craving the brisket like mad!

Also discovered Korean BBQ's - kind of like Brazillian steakhouses - but so much cheaper! You can pick all the meat you want - pork, chicken, beef - and they come to the table and cook it in front of you. The all-u-can eat buffet we used to go to was only $14 for lunch and I NEVER needed dinner later :) Of course, Annandale, VA = little Korea - it's awesome!

[abbykitty]

Re the wings, you always have to ask if they're breaded. I was under the impression that pizza hut wings are breaded.

On the sushi front, I always get salmon or tuna sushimi, I try to get rolls without rice. Some places have no problem doing it, others get all offended when you ask. When they act that way I walk out and never come back. Oftentimes they will have something on the menu that I can tailor into a bowl dish. My fav is tuna tower no rice. It's tuna with spicy mayo, crab salad (I always ask for and pay extra to have it real crab instead of krab with a k), avocado, sometimes cuke, sometimes jalapeno. yummy yummy yummy. Soy has some carbs but other than that it's super lc friendly. My fav meal.

At italian restaurants I can split a pizza with my dh and eat only the toppings or I get italian sausage and/or meatballs with sauce and mozz cheese (yes, meatballs usually have breadcrumbs so that's not the best), or I get the tomato mozz salad (yes balsamic should be avoided but yum) or I get a chicken dish and ask them no flour or breading. My fav is chicken carchofi. It's chicken, artichoke and mushroom swimming in a sauce made from butter, cream and red sauce. yum. What else. . . Some will have an eggplant dish that's not breaded, fried eggplant with ricotta and mozz and red sauce.

For breakfast I either get eggs over easy with ham steak or an omelet with lots of veggies, ham and cheese.

Other go tos everwhere are cheese burger no bun salad on side, taco salad no shell or chips, tortilla soup no chips, fajitas not rice, beans or tortillas, chef or grilled chicken salad, and so on and so on.

At one of my fav bars I literally order loaded cheese fries hold the fries. It's a plate of melted cheese with bacon, green onions and jalapenos and you take the fork full of melted yumminess and dip it in ranch. They think I'm completely nuts but whatever. They also have a beanless chili that I get with onions and cheese.

Can you tell I eat out a lot? Last night I had a shrimp cocktail and a wedge salad (blue cheese crumbles, bacon and tomato with blue cheese dressing). Yum.

I've honestly never been to a restaurant I haven't been able to eat at.

[jillybean7]

I'm trying to get my husband to go to Famous Daves - local BBQ place...might be a little carby if you go the bbq route...but they also do dry rubs - and I am craving the brisket like mad!
I can't handle Famous Dave's - too hard to pass up those cornbread muffins (YUM!). Plus, I'm a big baby when it comes to jalapeno, and they don't offer sides that are both low in carbs AND jalapeno free. But, when I'm not low-carbing, we do go there sometimes, and I ask for butter for my cornbread and get a second cornbread muffin instead of the corn on the cob they serve with most entrees :)

BTW, I'm also in NoVA. We go to a Brazilian steakhouse in Woodbridge called Charbroil Grill for about $20 per person (I think it's slightly more on weekends, but we usually go during the week) - endless rounds of meat to the table plus a salad bar and side dishes.

If I were in Annandlae, I'd be at Silverado! :)

[jillybean7]

Re the wings, you always have to ask if they're breaded. I was under the impression that pizza hut wings are breaded.
Pizza Hut actually offers both breaded ("crispy") and unbreaded wings ("traditional") :)

[rapiddash]

I love Mongolian Grills! There is one that has to go for 6 bucks and you can pile it on! You pick the meat and veggies you want and they cook it right there for you! :)

Best place ever!

[abbykitty]

Pizza Hut actually offers both breaded ("crispy") and unbreaded wings ("traditional") :)

Good to know! Seems like in the 2004 ish time frame they only had breaded. Could be wrong but now I'll try it again. Thanks!

Thought of another one. For Thai I get tom kha gai (chicken coconut soup) - good idea to specify don't add sugar. Some places add sugar but that's the only bad ingredient in my opinion, it's basically chicken broth, coconut milk, lime or lemon juice, lemongrass and veggies. I also get red curry, same idea, the only bad ingredient would be if they happen to add sugar but sugar is not necessary, it's yummy without.

[Robin120]

japanese:
sashimi
miso soup
oshitaki (sp?)- the boiled spinach and soy sauce appetizer :)

chinese:
egg foo young- skip the sauce
mooshu- skip pancakes/sauce
steamed shrimp and veggies (I like the black bean sauce)

italian:
at nice places, I go for a fish dish
at pizza places, I like to get a calzone and just eat the inside

diner:
omelets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mexican:
either fajita fillings
or ceviche- yum!
there is also usually a great seafood/broth type of soup

tapas:
i love tapas- we usually get some mix of
olive plate
cheese plate
shrimp/garlic
some sort of eggplant or spinach side
another fish/seafood dish

also, salads, (veggy for me) burger minus the bun, etc...

our favorite are crab places, esp in summer ;)