Restaurant Review- Kelsey's

A friend asked me out to lunch yesterday and we had to choose between two restaurants- Kelsey's or Montana's. I chose Kelsey's since I had never been there before. I didn't expect much from a chain family restaurant. I expected mediocre food, blend into the background decor, and average service.

When I know the restaurant I am going to for a meal, I always try to look at their website for a menu beforehand so that I can plan a healthy meal for myself and not be tempted by all the burgers and deep fried potatoes that reside in the full-fat kitchen.

Of course, I went to the Kelsey's website to click around and hopefully plan a decent meal for myself. I went straight to the section called Dinner Salads. They have a selection of 4 large salads which are very substantial with grilled chicken, various cheeses, and other add-ons like nuts and seeds. The salads come with pre-decided dressings. I was in the midst of deciding when I spotted something on the left side of my screen- Download Our Menu Nutritional Information. What?!? You have got to be kidding me!

Of course, I took at peek at it! Thinking that maybe they only had a few items listed. But, no. They have their entire menu listed including sauces and optional add-ons. I was VERY IMPRESSED! This really helped me make my decision and helped me steer clear of the burgers and various other goodies they were offering.

I decided on the Chicken Sonoma Valley Salad.

Here is the description from the menu:

Mixed greens topped with seasoned grilled chicken, red peppers, grape tomatoes, crumbled Feta cheese, croutons, raisins, mixed seeds and nuts. Served with our spicy Honey Citrus dressing.

Sounds good and it rings in at 550 calories including the dressing.  High for a salad, but not for a restaurant salad.

D'oh! 

I forgot to ask for the dressing on the side!


It came out and I was not disappointed. Tons of mixed field greens, a small chicken breast (not those crazy over-sized monster chicken breasts), not a mountain of cheese- just a sprinkle, and enough little extras to make me happy. It didn't come with bread- and that is a plus! Because I would be tempted to eat it and that would be an extra 100-200 calories. The dressing- it was barely there. It didn't drench the leaves to sogginess. If anything- I could have used more dressing! There was just enough to make the leaves taste a little spicy with vinegar.

All in all, I was impressed with the overall experience with Kelsey's website and food. As far as I know, including the nutritional info on websites is not common unless they are touting low cal content- like Applebee's. Obviously nutritional information will vary with the people making the food and any modifications that the customer makes, but it gives you a ballpark figure to play with instead of making a wild guess. I hope more popular restaurants follow Kelsey's lead and be upfront about calories and fat content in the food they serve.

Rating:

/ 5



I was not paid for this review. All thoughts and reviews are my own.

Applebee's Under 550 Calories Menu

A few weeks ago, Mister and I decided that we wanted to go out to dinner. After some back and forth, I suggested Applebee's and told him about the new low calorie menu that I had see advertised on commercials. He agreed, since he is watching his calories too.

I have never been to Applebee's before and he seemed surprised. We walked in and were told that it would be a 20-30 minute wait for a table, so we reluctantly sat at the bar to be served quicker- or so we thought. We took our menus and immediately looked at the Under 550 Calorie Menu. There is a good selection with quite a bit of variety. The calories range from as low as 261 for a salad all the way up to 541 for a steak.

I decided on the Teriyaki Shrimp Pasta which sits at 364 calories and Mister decided upon the Grilled Dijon Chicken and Portobello for 478 calories.

 

This next part has little to do with the actual menu but.... It took the food nearly an hour to arrive! It was bordering on totally ridiculous. However, the restaurant was busy, but the dishes are not very complex to put together.

When the food finally came, the portion sizes seemed decent. They were actual portion sizes, not those overly HUGE and MASSIVE portions where you eat for 20 minutes and it looks like you haven't even made a dent in the dish. For mine, there was a good cup of spaghetti topped with broccoli, snow peas and carrots. There was shrimp on top which was rubbery due to being overcooked. The taste was a bit bland however overly seasoned with cilantro- not my favorite herb.

The Grilled Dijon Chicken looked great. It was smothered with cheese and topped with red peppers and mushrooms. It was also accompanied by baby red potatoes, broccoli and carrots. Even though the chicken looked delicious, it was burnt to a crisp. It was almost inedible. Mister is one to clean his plate and he didn't finish the chicken- SHOCKER. Complaining didn't get him anywhere. They offered a free dessert to 2 people who just ordered off the low calorie menu. That is just silly. We declined. They ended up taking 15% off the burnt entree (not enough in my opinion).

All in all, the Under 550 Menu is in theory a good idea. However, I'm not sure how much I trust the cooks who make 1200 calorie burgers all day to make a delicious low cal meal that is edible. You never really know what is going on in the kitchen. They could be slathering butter on your steak and you think it is delicious because it is only 500 calories for the whole meal!

The menu is rather new as well. The cooks may not yet be used to the new menu items and they may not get ordered a lot for them to practice. If you are going to try this menu, then I suggest you wait a little while until the cooks familiarize themselves with the new items and the menu becomes more popular.

One plus to our visit was that you get a few new ideas of what to make for yourself at home. Low fat food doesn't have to be bland or only be salad. It can be steak and chicken with some cheese or pasta! I will be using the menu as inspiration at home.

Eat at your own risk!

OVERALL RATING: 

out of 5     


(This is my new rating system- Cherries!)