We live in a golden age of dining out. The average American reported dining out about 5 times per month in 2024, up from 3 times per month in 2023. With all that eating out comes a very real question most of us ask at some point while scanning the menu: is this dish actually worth it? Not just the money, but the calorie load, the sodium hit, the fat content that would make a cardiologist wince.
Honestly, some restaurant dishes have a way of looking glamorous on the menu and delivering genuine regret on the plate. The nutritional reality hiding behind the sizzle, the sauce, and the "chef's special" label is often jaw-dropping. Here are the ten dishes that diners are increasingly saying they wish they had skipped entirely. Let's dive in.
1. The Bloomin' Onion: Pretty, But at a Price
Few appetizers are more iconic, or more deceptive, than the deep-fried onion blossom. It looks festive. It looks shareable. It looks like a vegetable. The Bloomin' Onion from Outback Steakhouse contains around 1,620 calories and over 120 grams of fat, making it one of the unhealthiest appetizers on any menu. Think about that. You haven't even seen your entrée yet.
Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion has more than 800 calories, 58 grams of fat and 22 grams of saturated fat, plus 1,520 milligrams of sodium, and those numbers don't include the dipping sauce, which is also loaded with fat, calories, and sodium. There is a version at Texas Roadhouse called the Cactus Blossom that takes it even further. The Cactus Blossom from Texas Roadhouse packs over 2,000 calories and 5,000 milligrams of sodium in just one sitting. Skip it. Order something you can actually feel good about.
2. Loaded Fries: The Side Dish That Became a Catastrophe
Somewhere along the way, fries stopped being fries. Restaurants discovered that piling cheese, bacon, sour cream, and chili on top of an already high-fat dish was a crowd-pleaser. Anything described as "loaded" is a strong warning sign. For example, the Brew Pub Loaded Waffle Fries from Applebee's are piled high with calories, fat, and sodium, and the sodium in one order exceeds 4,000 milligrams, which is getting close to double the daily maximum recommended by the FDA.
Loaded fries from some chains carry more saturated fat than is recommended in an entire day, and close to double the amount of a day's worth of sodium. It's genuinely hard to wrap your mind around that. The word "loaded" is doing a lot of work on these menus, and not in a good way. Next time, plain fries or a side salad might save you from a nutritional spiral you didn't see coming.
3. Fettuccine Alfredo: Butter, Cream, and Regret
Fettuccine Alfredo is the dish that sounds sophisticated and arrives as a caloric wrecking ball. How can something with chicken in it have so many calories and more than twice the saturated fat you should have for the day? Easy. The fettuccine, butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan put it over the top. At some chain restaurants, this gets particularly extreme.
The Cheesecake Factory's version of fettuccine Alfredo contains 2,300 calories and a whopping 154 grams of total fat. For comparison, a stick of butter contains 92 grams of total fat. Let that metaphor marinate for a second. You are essentially eating more fat than a stick and a half of butter in one pasta dish. While fettuccine Alfredo does provide some protein from chicken and calcium from cheese, it is high in saturated fat and calories due to the cream and butter. It's genuinely one of the most calorie-dense dishes hiding in plain sight on restaurant menus.
4. The Restaurant Combo Platter: More Is Not More
There is something seductive about the idea of ordering everything at once. Why pick one meat when you can have three? The Ultimate Smokehouse Combo from Chili's has over 2,000 calories and a dangerously high 7,400 milligrams of sodium, which is three times the daily recommended value, and the combination of chicken, ribs, sausage, fries, corn, and garlic toast will send you way past your nutrition goals even if you try splitting it with a friend.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has called such meals "nutritional nightmares," noting that "even the typical dishes served at restaurants are a threat to Americans' health because they increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and more." Combo platters have a way of tricking your brain into thinking you're getting value. What you're really getting is a full week's worth of saturated fat in a single meal. Portion discipline here is not just smart, it's honestly essential.
5. The Restaurant Salad: Not the Healthy Hero You Think
Here's the thing. Ordering a salad at a restaurant feels virtuous. You practically pat yourself on the back as you close the menu. The truth is humbling. The Cobb salad, for example, may be loaded with veggies but it's also loaded with cheese, bacon and avocado, and with dressing it can easily reach 800 calories or more.
Creamy salad dressings are loaded with calories and they are everywhere, drizzled generously over your "healthy" choice. At Panera, the Pepperoni Mozzarella Melt, which many assume is a healthier option, packs more than 1,000 calories and 2,610 milligrams of sodium, and consuming too much sodium raises blood pressure and increases the risk for heart disease and stroke. The broader lesson is this: never trust a restaurant dish simply because it contains a green vegetable.
6. Potato Skins: The Innocent-Looking Calorie Bomb
Potato skins have been a bar-food staple for decades. They feel like a lighter alternative. They are not. Deep-fried potato skins filled with melted cheese, bacon, and sour cream rack up alarming amounts of calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium. They are one of those dishes that diners consistently regret once they look up the actual numbers.
Potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C and potassium, but adding sour cream, cheese, and bacon makes this side dish almost a meal in itself. That transformation from humble potato to nutritional disaster is surprisingly quick in a restaurant kitchen. Let's be real: if something is described as "deep-fried and stuffed," your calorie budget is about to take a serious hit.
7. General Tso's Chicken: The Takeout Trap
General Tso's Chicken is one of the most ordered Chinese-American dishes in the country. It also regularly lands on dietitians' "avoid" lists for a very good reason. Dishes like General Tso's Chicken, fried rice, and lo mein are prepared with lots of oil, sodium, and MSG, making them some of the most calorie-heavy options you can order. The fried chicken pieces are coated in a sweet, sugary sauce that adds layers of hidden calories.
General Tso's Chicken looks innocent at first glance: fried chicken and broccoli covered in a sweet and spicy sauce. The reality underneath that glaze is a very different story. Healthier alternatives include steamed or stir-fried seafood, chicken, or vegetable dishes with steamed rice, asking the cook to use less oil and soy sauce. The good news is that better choices are almost always available on the same menu. You just have to know to look.
8. The Brunch French Toast: A Sugar Ambush
Nothing looks more cheerful on a brunch menu than a stack of thick, golden French toast, dusted with powdered sugar and dripping with syrup. It's almost an edible greeting card. The Bruléed French Toast with Bacon at The Cheesecake Factory has over 2,100 calories and 70 grams of saturated fat in one sitting, plus 115 grams of sugar, more than four times the recommended daily limit.
A plate of French toast with a side of bacon can accumulate 131 grams of fat and 2,180 calories. That number is difficult to process, and yet this kind of dish is presented as a perfectly normal weekend brunch choice. In 2024, consumers increasingly focused on holistic health goals and were drawn to clean-label products, natural ingredients, and options that enhanced their well-being. Which makes the continued popularity of these sugar-bomb brunch plates all the more surprising.
9. The Appetizer Sampler Platter: A Starter That Ends the Game Early
Sharing a starter with the table sounds so reasonable. Everyone gets a little of everything. What could go wrong? Applebee's advertises that you're getting "all the classic apps you love" on one plate, but the combination of boneless wings, spinach and artichoke dip, brisket quesadilla, and mozzarella sticks packs 2,220 calories and a staggering 6,160 milligrams of sodium, equivalent to spooning just over 2.5 teaspoons of salt directly into your mouth.
Chain restaurant appetizers like wings, potato skins, creamy dips, fried onion rings, and mozzarella sticks are consistently high in saturated fat, sodium, and sometimes even trans fat. Over time, consuming foods too high in these items can lead to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or even heart disease. That's a serious consequence for something that was supposed to be a warm-up act. The appetizer, in many cases, is doing more caloric damage than the main course ever will.
10. The Towering Restaurant Milkshake: Liquid Calories Gone Wild
Milkshakes have had a serious glow-up in recent years. They come loaded with whipped cream, candy toppings, cookies, and sometimes entire slices of cake balanced on the rim. They are absolutely spectacular to look at, and absolutely devastating from a nutritional standpoint. A vanilla shake from Fatburger was cited in a 2024 Plushcare study for containing 30 grams of saturated fat and 86 grams of added sugar.
Even a smaller milkshake option from The Cheesecake Factory, the Flying Gorilla frozen cocktail, clocks in at 950 calories for just one drink, the equivalent of a Big Mac and medium fries at McDonald's. Think of it this way: that milkshake you ordered as a treat is, in caloric terms, sometimes an entire extra meal. Consumers are beginning to opt for smaller dishes driven by interlocking demands for value and health, with analysts expecting a growing evolution toward smaller portions as diners become more calorie-conscious. The era of the towering, over-the-top milkshake may finally be meeting its match in a generation that is paying much closer attention to what's actually in the glass.
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