The healthiest restaurant meals in Britain - and some to avoid

We’re all eating out more often – encouraged by a wealth of choice and a ready supply of discount vouchers. But when you haven’t prepared the food yourself, you can’t tell how calorific it is, or whether it’s high in salt or saturated fat. So we’ve pored over the menus for you and given calorie counts, where available

What's on the menu?
To help you steer your way through, we’ve picked out not only the healthiest option for a main meal but also the high-calorie dishes, so you can decide whether you want to be a 'saint' or a 'sinner' for the night.

Beefeater Grill

Saint: Paprika Chicken Salad, 315 calories
Sinner: Rack of Ribs with Mojito Sauce, 1,348 calories
Need to know
• Sauces are usually served separately so you can decide how much to add
• Full nutritional details are available online, but no plans to display calories on menus
www.beefeatergrill.co.uk

Bella Italia

Saint: Cozze Napoli (mussels in tomato sauce), around 168 calories
Sinner: Spaghetti Carbonara (with smoked pancetta, pecorino cheese and cream)
Need to know
• Nutritional details for all main dishes should be available on the website from autumn
• Look out for the under- 600-calorie Healthier Option range of dishes
www.bellaitalia.co.uk

Café Rouge

Saint: Salade Entrecôte, around 343 calories
Sinner: Steak Frites (sirloin steak served with French fries and melted garlic butter)
Need to know
• For dishes under 600 calories, check out the Healthier Option range
• Nutritional information will be available on the website from autumn
www.caferouge.co.uk

Carluccio's

Saint: Insalata di Mozzarella, around 403 calories
Sinner: Gnocchi di Patate con Spinaci e Gorgonzola
Need to know
• Nutritional details will be available on the website from autumn
• Following customer research, no plans to display calories on menus
www.carluccios.com

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Saint: The GBK Salad (with avocado, oven-roasted and baby tomatoes, mixed leaves, pinenuts and a lemon and mustard dressing)
Sinner: The Mighty burger (two beef patties with aged Cheddar, streaky bacon, garlic mayonnaise, salad and relish)
Need to know
• The Gourmet Burger Kitchen tells us it has no plans to provide nutritional information to customers either on menus or on its website. We say they clearly don’t want our business!
www.gourmetburgerkitchen.co.uk

Harvester

Saint: Flame-grilled Chicken Breast with Grilled Corn on the Cob, 260 calories
Sinner: Full Rack of Ribs served with Grilled Corn on the Cob, 1,230 calories
Need to know
• Nutritional details on the website and calorie counts on menus, including those for soft drinks. Hurrah!
• The menu is designed so you can choose each component separately – a grilled option, for instance, plus a sauce, side and unlimited salad bar
www.harvester.co.uk

JD Wetherspooon

Saint: Superfood Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette (including butternut squash, spinach, edamame beans and broccoli), 279 calories
Sinner: Gourmet Beef Burger (with bacon, chips, salad, beer-battered onion rings, Stilton and a Shropshire blue and spring onion sauce), 1,828 calories
Need to know:
• Dishes with 5% fat or less are highlighted with a symbol
• Full nutritional details are available on the website
• Calories of all dishes will be displayed on menus from late October. Hurrah!
• Menu includes a variety of nutritionally balanced meals for children. The Spaghetti Bolognese contains ‘hidden’ vegetables
www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk

Loch Fyne

Saint: Sea Bass with garlic, chilli, ginger and Chinese leaves, 501 calories
Sinner: Marinated King Prawns with chips and lemon mayo, 962 calories
Need to know
• Nutritional details of core menu on the website from November, including low- calorie and high-calorie dishes. We say: why only the core menu?
• Nutritional details are also available on request in the restaurants from November
www.lochfyne-restaurants.com

Pizza Express

Saint: Pollo Verdure salad, 478 calories
Sinner: Francesco Mazzei Calabrese pizza, 1,165 calories
Need to know
• Good Housekeeping loves the lighter Leggera range, with pizzas all around 500 calories and low in saturated fat. There's also a lighter starter and dessert choice
• Red and white wine in the Leggera range has just 9.5% alcohol and fewer than 100 calories per 175ml glass
• Calorie information available on the website. A calorie crib sheet will be available on request in restaurants soon
www.pizzaexpress.com

Pizza Hut

Saint: Virtuous Veg Pizzetta (served with rocket and tomato), 440 calories
Sinner: Italian Specialities Deli Italiano 11in pizza, 1,185 calories
Need to know
• Unlimited salad bar but beware the mayonnaise-coated potato salad, coleslaw and cheesy sweetcorn pasta
• Look out for other menu items in the Pizzetta range, all with fewer than 500 calories per dish
• Nutritional details on the website and calories on menus
www.pizzahut.co.uk

Prezzo

Saint: Spaghetti Arrabbiata, 379 calories
Sinner: Aldo Zilli’s Meat VI Pizza, 1,264 calories
Need to know
• Look out for the Light options range of low-calorie flatbread pizzas and pasta with salad, all under 600 calories
• Calorie content of all meals on the website, but there are no plans to put it on menus
www.prezzorestaurants.co.uk

Strada

Saint: Tagliata di Manzo, 395 calories
Sinner: Strozzapretti Pugliese (with Luganica sausage, pancetta, broccoli chilli butter and Grana Padano)
Need to know
• Look out for the Healthier choices range on the menu, all under 600 calories
• Calories on all main menu dishes available on website from autumn
www.strada.co.uk

Zizzi

Saint: Spiedini di Gamberi (oven-baked prawns with cucumber salsa and dough sticks), 394 calories
Sinner: Fettucine alla Carbonara or the Formaggi and Piccante pizzas, all with more than 1,000 calories
Need to know• Wholemeal bases are available for all pizzas
• Ice cream from 49 calories per scoop
• Look out for the Cicchetti Venetian tapas range, with around 300 calories per dish
• No plans to put nutritional information on the website or on menus. They clearly don’t want our business!
www.zizzi.co.uk

GHI call for change

• Only eight restaurant chains have signed the voluntary pledge launched by the Government to display calorie counts on menus. What about the rest? What have they got to hide?

•Currently, a restaurant can make up its own benchmark for low-calorie or healthy dishes. These can vary from 500 to 700 for a main course – far too vague for someone trying to lose weight on a 1,500 calories per day diet. We think this should be standardised.

'Good Housekeeping' believes it's our right to know what's in the food we eat and that all restaurants should provide nutritional information on their menus or websites. Dishes that look similar can vary wildly in fat content and calorie counts. The food we buy to cook at home must be properly labelled, so why not the food we eat out?

The recommended daily intake for food is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men (guideline daily amounts, FSA)