8 Scariest Restaurant Meals
8. #8: WORST FISH MEAL: Culver's North Atlantic Cod Filet Meal (3 pieces)
Frying anything is a bad idea, but frying fish is a debasement of one of nature's purest foods. Why ruin what could be a protein-packed, muscle-building meal by sticking it in a vat of bubbling oil? But Culver's doesn't stop with its battered and oiled cod filets; it ups the risk to your waistline and overall well-being by adding heaping helpings of the default sides of cole slaw, fries, tartar sauce, and a dinner roll. We challenge more restaurants to do what's right with fish: Buy it fresh, cook it with minimal flourishes, and let diners enjoy the simple beauty of a lean, well-cooked meal. Until Culver's takes up the challenge, order the roasted chicken sandwich and tomato soup instead—or go to a different restaurant.
Eat This Instead!
Flame Roasted Chicken Sandwich with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
7. #7: WORST BURGER: Chili's Jalapeno Smokehouse Bacon Burger with Ranch
The average burger-and-fry combo at Chili's packs 1,786 calories—about 85 percent of your daily allotment if you're an active female and more than two-thirds an active male's allowance. That's a heavy price to pay for a staple the average American consumes up to 150 times a year. Of course, this tricked-out number takes the havoc to a new high. Laced with more bells and whistles than a Michael Bay blockbuster (tortilla strips, bacon, Cheddar, mayo, and jalapeno-ranch dressing), this burger punishes partakers with more than 2 days' worth of saturated fat and as much sodium as you'd find in 6 pounds of McDonald's french fries.
AVOID THESE FAT TRAPS: Research has shown that skinny people maintain lean bellies by developing healthy routines and avoiding bad habits. Harness the flab-fighting power of science to get thin by recognizing The 20 Habits That Make You Fat!
Eat This Instead!
Margarita Grilled Chicken
6. #6: WORST PIZZA: Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Deep Dish Pizza (individual)
Chicagoans beam with pride when claiming rights to the deep dish pizza, as if the invention of one of the world's most dangerous foods is a source of civic satisfaction. The problem starts, of course, with the crust, which is bathed in oil, rich in refined carbohydrates, and about three times thicker than a normal pizza so it can support the onslaught of toppings it invariably houses. Tack on oozing layers of mozzarella, Romano, and sausage (the "classic" topping of choice), and you have an individual pizza with more calories than you'd cosume if you took down an entire extra-large Domino's Thin Crust chorizo pie. If it's pizza you seek at Uno's, turn to the admirable new thin five-grain crust to avoid total catastrophe.
STEALTH HEALTH FOODS: Power up your diet by expanding your menu. Here are The 7 Healthiest Foods You're Not Eating.
Eat This Instead!
Thin Five-Grain Crust Roasted Eggplant, Spinach & Feta Pizza (1/2 pie)
5. #5: WORST APPETIZER: Applebee's Appetizer Sampler
Sample platters are the lairs wherein all menu miscreants hang out and nearly every chain offers a criminal version. Applebee's is the undisputed kingpin. Its repository of cheap, fried, monochromatic foods is a lesson in the perils of restaurant eating. It begins with chips and spinach-artichoke dip, a euphemism for a crock of cream and cheese with a few token shards of vegetable matter. From there, it gets worse: fried chicken wings, fried mozzarella sticks, and greasy cheese quesadillas. You could eat the celery on the plate to make yourself feel better, but by that point, the damage is done.
Eat This Instead!
Chicken Wonton Tacos
4. #4: WORST BREAKFAST: IHOP Big Country Breakfast with Country Fried Steak and Country Gravy
This smorgasbord is an unabashed siren call to gluttons everywhere. It's a 12-ounce steak breaded, fried, and dripping with gravy; three eggs; hash browns; and three pancakes crowned with an ice cream scoop of butter and a sugary tide of syrup. Heck, this meal wears its pride in its name. You could feed a small nation with the Big Country, though doing so would be grounds for UN intervention.
Eat This Instead!
Simple & Fit Spinach, Mushroom & Tomato Omelette
3. #3: WORST RIBS: TGI Friday's Caribbean Rockin' Reggae Ribs
Of all the foods on this list—burgers, fries, pasta, ice cream—none is more consistently catastrophic than a rack of restaurant ribs. Part of that is due to the fact that ribs comprise a nutritionally flawed cut of meat, redolent as they are with both external and intramuscular fat. But restaurant cooking methods, which invariably involve layer after layer of oily, sugar-dense barbecue sauce, only compound the problem. Want ribs? You're not going to find a decent rack at Friday's. Order the sirloin instead.
Eat This Instead!
Petite Sirloin (with Broccoli and Mandarin Oranges)
520
calories, 24.5 g fat (11 g saturated), 1,830 mg sodium
2. #2: WORST CHICKEN ENTREE: The Cheesecake Factory Chicken and Biscuits
Weighted down with more 1,000-plus-calorie meals than any other chain in America (26 at last count), the Cheesecake Factory offers diners a Russian roulette of choices. Every time you pick up your fork, you risk absorbing days' worth of unhealthy nutrients. Take the Chicken and Biscuits, for example. It's a classic like Grandma used to make—that is, if your grandma used every form of fat in the pantry and doled it out by the bathtubful. Even worse, the Factory seems to patronize those seeking to go lighter by putting its lower-calorie choices on the Weight Management menu. Anyone order a side of condescension?
DIRTY BIRDS: There's plenty more polluted poultry where this dish came from—check out the Worst Chicken Dishes in America for the most calorically outrageous dishes coming from your favorite restaurant chains.
Eat This Instead!
Weight Management Spicy Chicken Salad
1. #1: WORST FOOD IN AMERICA: The Cheesecake Factory Bistro Shrimp Pasta
We recently named Cheesecake Factory America's Worst Restaurant for the fourth year running. No establishment better represents the confluence of factors that have saddled America with an ever-worsening obesity crisis. First, portion sizes are large enough to feed an NFL offensive line. Second, the use of cheap sources of flavor—oils, butter, cream, salt, and sugar—knows no limit. Finally, the percentage of dishes fit for consumption is absurdly small (we count 8 on a menu of more than 200 dishes). Amidst the carnage, one dish sinks below all the rest: the Bistro Shrimp Pasta. Tangled up in these noodles are more calories than you'd consume if you ate three sticks of butter for dinner.
