The results:
Olive Garden:
Lasagna Classico. 1,060 calories “It’s like eating a BK Quad Stacker from Burger King, which has four beef patties, four slices of cheese, and eight strips of bacon.”
Five Cheese Ziti al Forno. 1,190 “You might as well just order two McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with Cheese or two Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizzas.”
Romano’s Macaroni Grill:
Spaghetti & Meatballs with meat sauce. “The following nutrition numbers are not typos: Romano?s rendition of this classic dish provides more than an entire day’s calories (2,430) and nearly three days worth of saturated fat–an astonishing 57 grams. If you like meat, you could eat two Macaroni Grill Tuscan Rib-Eye steak dinners and inflict less damage. Or you could eat six Quarter Pounders for the same effect on your waistline.“
Forgive us, we love picturing a normal everyday person trying to eat 6 Quarter Pounders at a restaurant like it wasn’t insane behavior. Picture it. It’s funny.
A 3,000-Calorie Dinner? Belly-ssimo! [CSPI]
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@Eilonwynn: i was hoping someone would make this point…that’s what i do if/when i find myself at Olive Garden. bring on the breadsticks and pack up the rest, please.
(oh, and hi, i’m new to Consumerist, but not Gawker/Wonkette – is cursing not allowed on Consumerist? ‘sh*t’, ‘effin’ etc.)
@camille_javal: Yes, this. Caloric content on the menu is an excellent solution – maybe someday, in an ideal world, it will make restaurants emphasize healthy cooking or face lost business.
That said, I can’t remember the last time I’ve finished my portion at a restaurant. I should start asking the server to bring me a to-go box when I order.
And there are good slow cooker recipes out there, you just need to look. Some models also have timers so you can start the cooker, say, 6 hours before you get home. I’m one-half of a DINK and I use mine all the time.
@BigNutty:
I agree that people have the right to choose. THe video seems to be merely educational. Basically they are reminding people that pasta is HIGH in calories and meat sauces are tasty due to high amounts of fat.
Fettuccine Alfredo is made of cream with some cheese thrown in. Pesto is comprised of olive oil and a tiny bit of leaves.
Most traditional recipes are that way. I have an old kitchen banner that says food is to be made with lots of lard and lots of love.
Cooking at home isn’t automatically better, it’s a challenge to make healthy food that tastes good. That’s why people eat out.
@fileunder: No the consumerist isn’t a ‘real’ gawker blog. Swearing, sexual references and violence do not go over well here.
Nationalism, racism(against those from other countries), criticism of the president don’t get you in much trouble here.
@fileunder: It’s allowed. We just try to be classier than those other fucking blogs.
*sigh*.. I guess I have start taking it easy on my favorite pasta meals.
@rptrcub: Congrats on the loss. I too am relearning how to eat properly after 36 years of piss poor eating. I was borderline diabetic and reached a max of 273. I started changing my eating habits late August and as of today I am down to 247. I wouldn’t call what I am doing to lose the weight dieting as it is more of a life change than anything.
Less Fat (73g or less for me), more chicken, extremely limited amounts of fried food and more exercise and the pounds come off. I still eat stuff I want but I make much better choices.
I think the biggest problem with Pasta is the processed flour that goes into it. whole grain pasta is good for you, but bleached flour pasta is not.
Hopefully white winter wheat will put an end to enriched flour. My dad and I planted 300 acres this season. The flour white wheat makes tastes the same as bleached flour, but has all the nutrition of whole wheat flour.
@meghannmarco:
I was just about to answer fileunder’s question when I saw your response. I am laughing my damn head off.
Nobody flag Meghann, OK? We can’t ban the editors.
@Techguy1138: @meghannmarco:
ok, thanks. i’ll sit and wait for the talking cock.
Meghann rules!
Why would people think that all of this Italian food is really healthy? I mean, all of my Italian relatives would smother every food item in lard, especially those nice fried meatballs, mmmm.
Did anyone else enjoy the first words of this video as much as I did? “Nothing’s more American than Italian dishes such as…”
…
Do words mean anything, anymore? To anyone?
The thing about those Italian chain restaurants is that most of them give you WAY too much food on your plate. It’s obscene. Cut your portion in half before you start eating, and take the uneaten half home for tomorrow’s dinner.
The funniest part of this is that people associate the Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill with Italian food.
The Olive Garden is literally a thaw and serve restaurant. As a New Yorker, I always get a chuckle when some rube family is on a plane talking about the amazing, authentic Italian meal from the Olive Garden.
@GLATER: I thought the same. When I think of “American” food, I think of hot dogs and cheeseburgers.
Watching that plate of spaghetti and meatballs I could only think that I could do it so much better at home, and make just enough for me and me only.
Next up on ESPN2/Food Network: The competitive eating sports federataion arrives at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for the Macaroni Grill/Olive Garden ALL PASTA EAT-OUT! Will Joey Chestnut add one more notch on his belt after winning the Hotdog and Hamburger competitions? FIND OUT!
99 times out of 100, when we go out to eat, we bring back at least half, and eat that over the next couple of days. In the case of pasta places, as much as 2/3 might come back for later.
In one extreme case, I ordered some tortellini from a local mom and pop Italian eatery, and I got that night’s dinner plus a full week’s worth of lunches out of it.
If you do this, you can actually come out ahead of the game, but you have to be willing to eat leftovers.
@kc2idf: True true. Leftovers do eventually get boring and/or moldy. I just wish there was local authentic Italian where I live (Georgia).
And thanks, everyone, for the kudos on the great drop.
Okay, I kinda disagree about downsizing portions. I like large portions–the more bang for my buck the better. The reason? I know going in I am going to have leftovers so I portion or I will split a meal with a friend and save money. Yesterday, I bought a burrito at Chipotle. It’s huge. I cut it up into three meals–lunch, dinner, and still have some left over today. When I get a personal pan pizza, I always cut it in half so I get more a slice for the next day for lunch. Faijitas? It lasts me two more meals beyond the original dinner. It’s hard to do for some foods like salads (so I order dressing on side to keep the other side from getting soggy) but overall I like big portions cause I know I won’t have to cook later that day or the next. I do cook at home which is cheaper and healthier but when I eat out I want to be able to stock up for the price of one meal.
@phelander:
Errr not sure who cooks at your house, but eating out ALWAYS tastes better…
What it comes down to is that the cost of the ingredients that the restaurants use is small compared to the other costs involved (rent, utilities, employee pay) so it makes financial sense for the places to raise prices and then make the portions huge to justify the prices. It has no effect on the fixed costs to put twice as much food on the plate, but doubling the price makes it much more likely to turn a profit. On top of that the employees are trained to make you feel guilty if you want to split one of their giant meals.
@BigNutty: I think the problem is a lot of people really don’t realize how many calories are in the foods they eat. Most people probably eat a plate of spaghetti and meatballs thinking it has 700-800 calories when it really has 2400 or more. I agree, people are responsible for their own health, but they need to know what they’re really eating to make good choices.
@MrEvil: You just totally blew my mind. There’s such a thing as whole wheat flour with the same taste as bleached white flour? That. Is. Amazing. Is there any place a person can buy such flour? I live in the midwest, so the baking goods aisle contains thirty brands and varieties of bleached flour with one token brand of whole wheat flour.
If you go to Macaroni Grill’s website, click the menu tab, and then click the nutritional information link under the map of the US, the fat count listed in the spaghetti with meat sauce actually has 128 grams of fat. Most of that list is rather shocking.