AMERICA'S BEST AND WORST RESTAURANTS
Seafood Place
Best: Red Lobster
Red Lobster not only ranks highest in the seafood category, but our nutritional analysis also taps Red Lobster as the best all-around sit-down restaurant. And it's not just the Lobster's abundance of heart-healthy seafood that helps it edge out the competition. See, even though seafood chains like Bubba Gump's and Captain D's also offer fish prepared in healthier ways, their options are typically limited to just a few varieties of seafood. At Red Lobster, on the other hand, you can always order any one of a dozen or more varieties of fish on the menu. And the chain relies primarily on simple cooking techniques, like broiling, blackening, and wood-fire grilling, to accentuate the fresh flavor. One caveat: Unless you order from the Fresh Fish Menu, expect a heavy dose of sodium. Sorry, can't win 'em all.
Top Pick
Blackened Rainbow Trout with Fresh Broccoli and Coleslaw
610 calories
34 grams (g) fat
830 milligrams (mg) sodium
Rainbow trout is a sustainable fish with low contamination levels. Wood-fired or broiled both work fine, but ask for it blackened—you'll enjoy a robust coat of smoky spice without extra calories.
Worst: Long John Silver's
It's fitting that this seafood chain was named after a nefarious pirate. Long John is perhaps the biggest villain in the restaurant industry. Why? Because of the restaurant's preferred method of cooking seafood: boiling nearly everything in a hot bath of partially hydrogenated soybean oil. That means any heart-health benefit you might receive from the seafood is negated by a boatload of nasty trans fats. Order a Fish Combo Basket and you've just dropped a 12.5-gram trans fat mortar shell right into the depths of your belly.
Survival Strategy
If it's fried, you don't want it. You can head off the relentless trans fat assault (and save on calories) by ordering from the Freshside Grille menu, which pairs grilled seafood—salmon, tilapia, or shrimp scampi—with rice and vegetables.
Red Lobster not only ranks highest in the seafood category, but our nutritional analysis also taps Red Lobster as the best all-around sit-down restaurant. And it's not just the Lobster's abundance of heart-healthy seafood that helps it edge out the competition. See, even though seafood chains like Bubba Gump's and Captain D's also offer fish prepared in healthier ways, their options are typically limited to just a few varieties of seafood. At Red Lobster, on the other hand, you can always order any one of a dozen or more varieties of fish on the menu. And the chain relies primarily on simple cooking techniques, like broiling, blackening, and wood-fire grilling, to accentuate the fresh flavor. One caveat: Unless you order from the Fresh Fish Menu, expect a heavy dose of sodium. Sorry, can't win 'em all.
Top Pick
Blackened Rainbow Trout with Fresh Broccoli and Coleslaw
610 calories
34 grams (g) fat
830 milligrams (mg) sodium
Rainbow trout is a sustainable fish with low contamination levels. Wood-fired or broiled both work fine, but ask for it blackened—you'll enjoy a robust coat of smoky spice without extra calories.
Worst: Long John Silver's
It's fitting that this seafood chain was named after a nefarious pirate. Long John is perhaps the biggest villain in the restaurant industry. Why? Because of the restaurant's preferred method of cooking seafood: boiling nearly everything in a hot bath of partially hydrogenated soybean oil. That means any heart-health benefit you might receive from the seafood is negated by a boatload of nasty trans fats. Order a Fish Combo Basket and you've just dropped a 12.5-gram trans fat mortar shell right into the depths of your belly.
Survival Strategy
If it's fried, you don't want it. You can head off the relentless trans fat assault (and save on calories) by ordering from the Freshside Grille menu, which pairs grilled seafood—salmon, tilapia, or shrimp scampi—with rice and vegetables.
No comments:
Post a Comment