Discussion Board

My department does a lot of nice things including bringing us coffee and taking us all out to lunch for birthdays and anything to celebrate.Since this woe is new I need advice about handling ordering at these mostly meat centered restaurants. Lets take Red Robin for example. Any suggestions?

Red Robin has Vegan Boca Burgers, I looked up the nutritional content and it has a little sesame oil in it, but the calories from fat are only 7% so it's not bad. Sodium is 4:1 tho. So depending on how lenient you are on occasionally eating out, that might be an option. They also have a hummus plate, they drizzle olive oil on top of the hummus so you could ask them to hold that. And I would ask for more veggies to replace the focaccia bread. They also appear to have substitutions that might work, such as steamed broccoli, fruit salad, black beans, and rice. I would ask how they were prepared before ordering.

I got all this from browsing their menu online. http://www.redrobin.com/menu#_dl/menu/i ... GB-STNDTRI

I would just choose one of their salads and ask to hold the meats and cheeses and bring along my own fat free dressing.

I wouldn't bring my own dressing, looks a bit strange. Just ask for vinegar on the side and add some salt and pepper.

I just had a look at their online menu, the calorie counts for the food is quite shocking!

or lemon/lemon juice

Boca Burgers are NOT on plan, period! And any hummus in a restaurant is full of oil (even if you have them hold the additional oil drizzled on top). Choose salad and a baked potato (with salsa if they have it--plain if not). Take your own no-oil dressing (plenty of people do that--there is no reason not to--it's YOUR meal so don't worry about what other people think!.

I've found it's often easier to get a meal that's on-plan in a place like Red Robin than fancier (even vegetarian/vegan) restaurants. A plain baked potato like ETeSelle said, and steamed vegetables or undressed salad on the side, is a very satisfying and healthy meal.

Whoa. Call off the firing squad. I know they are not on plan which is why I said "depending on how lenient you are on occasionally eating out". Eating out is hard enough, choosing a fastfood burger joint like Red Robin is even harder. I didn't even see baked poatato on the menu.

The most important thing is to see what might be an option on the menu, like hummus, and then ask your server about the ingredients, i.e. Is there any oil, animal products?

I would definately have the salad dressing with me as a back up tho. Some of us don't like plain vinegar. (Although it is an ingredient in most of my dressings.)

Also, why not eat at home before you go out and just drink water at the restaurant. We've done that before so we could still socialize, but we have understanding friends. I could see how that might be awkward for some.

it's easiest to stick to a salad. ask for lemon or vinegar as others suggested if you don't want to carry your own dressing.

with so many people having dietary issues (like gluten sensitivity) don't you think it's just easier to do things like carry your own dressing?

was thinking of going to weight watchers to buy a box of their single serving sized salad dressing. aren't those still fat free? it would be simple to carry one of those out to lunch....

Not sure about weight watchers, but if you don't want to make your own dressing, Whole Foods has some great oil free ones in their Health Starts Here section.

I personally think the best option is to bring your lunch to work with you that day (like I presume you would do any other day of the week). Eat your lunch right BEFORE everyone heads out. You do not want to go to the restaurant hungry! Once there, have a salad with some lemon. You shouldn't be very hungry so the salad should be plenty. If you go to the restaurant hungry, you will likely be tempted by all the unhealthy options and 99.9% of everything served is going to be crap.