5 Healthiest And 9 Unhealthiest Things To Order At A Steakhouse

When you think of the quintessential steakhouse experience, you likely imagine a few specific foods. There's your steak, obviously, and then all the decadent steakhouse sides: a loaded baked potato, creamy spinach, thick-cut fries. Or perhaps, you start with a huge steakhouse-style salad and some elegant appetizers like oysters on the half shell. You might even cap off your meal with a luscious slice of cheesecake. At the end of dinner, you get a bill that's a mile long (but hopefully worth it), but it's not just the dollar signs that are creeping upward. Your calorie count, sodium intake, fat intake, and more are also likely sky-high — if you didn't order the right options on the menu.

While steakhouses might not get the bad rap that fast-food and fast-casual chains do for their mostly unhealthy meals, their menus still include a lot of pitfalls to avoid, especially for those with certain health concerns. Whether or not your actual steak is healthy will depend, ultimately, on the size and cut, but certain sides, appetizers, and entrees are a little more straightforward as to where they fall on the healthy foods spectrum. To help you navigate your next steakhouse dinner, here are some of the healthiest and unhealthiest items you could order.

Good news: Oysters, which you'll find on many a steakhouse menu, are considered a pretty healthful appetizer option. They're low calorie and high in nutrients such as vitamin B12, vitamin D, zinc, and selenium.

How your oysters are cooked (or not cooked), though, matters. For example, at steakhouse chain McCormick & Schmick's, you can order your oysters raw, buttermilk fried, or baked with a Parmesan pesto. The raw oysters are going to naturally have fewer calories and less fat than an oyster that's been fried, and less sodium than an oyster topped with Parmesan. 

On the flip side, though, uncooked oysters do come with some risks. Raw oysters may contain bacteria that could lead to food-borne illness, so it's advised that some individuals avoid them due to this risk, such as those with compromised immune systems or who are pregnant. As such, if you're looking for a healthier appetizer option, go with the oysters, but choose the preparation wisely.

Meat and potatoes just go together, so it's no surprise that loaded baked potatoes appear on many a steakhouse menu, alongside various other forms of potatoes, such as steak fries, au gratin potatoes, and mashed potatoes. If you're trying to eat healthy, you might automatically assume that of these options, the baked potato is the way to go. After all, baked potatoes are rich in potassium, and studies have shown that they can improve your heart health and gut health, while decreasing risks of certain cancers.

However, when you begin to pile on cheese, butter, sour cream, bacon, and other toppings, you may start to negate their purported health benefits. A standard, medium-sized baked potato with no toppings comes in at just 160 calories. Compare that to the 1-pound baked potato topped with butter, sour cream, chives, and bacon at Ruth's Chris Steak House, which packs in a whopping 800 calories (it doesn't even have cheese!).

When dining out at a steakhouse, opting for seafood over red meat is going to be a healthier option in most instances. When you compare beef and fish, for example, the two are pretty similar in terms of protein, though beef has more fat. When looking at the various different types of fish and seafood you could order at a steakhouse, shrimp is one of your best options, as it's high in protein and low in both mercury and calories.

If you compare shrimp options with other seafood available on steakhouse menus, you'll find that if you're wavering between the barbecued shrimp and calamari at Ruth's Chris Steak House, the former has fewer than half the calories of the latter (400 vs. 990). Meanwhile, at Outback Steakhouse, the chain's famed grilled shrimp on the barbie entree comes with 620 calories, 1,240 milligrams of sodium, and 58 grams of protein. Compare that to the chain's seared peppered ahi, which comes with 1,130 calories, 5,240 milligrams of sodium, and 44 grams of protein, and it's clear which seafood entree wins.

No one's going to say that macaroni and cheese is truly healthy, but a foodie can dream, right? Just like everything at a steakhouse, the mac 'n' cheese offerings are usually going to be as decadent as they come, served in a rich, multi-cheese sauce and topped with crunchy Parmesan breadcrumbs or maybe even mixed with lobster. However, as mouthwatering as all that sounds, the macaroni and cheese at a steakhouse can be one of the most nutritionally lacking sides on the menu.

At Longhorn Steakhouse, for example, the lobster macaroni and cheese with bacon comes with 720 calories, 1,430 milligrams of sodium, and 48 grams of fat (including trans fat, which the American Heart Association cautions avoiding altogether). This all makes the lobster mac and cheese with bacon the menu's highest-calorie and fattiest side, and puts it in the top three for sodium (only the baked potatoes outrank it).

It's hardly any secret that salmon is a healthful choice when dining at home, and the same remains true when you're dining out at a steakhouse. It's low in calories and high in omega-3 fatty acids, protein, vitamins, and nutrients such as vitamin B12, niacin, vitamin B6, and riboflavin. Plus, unlike some normally healthful foods like baked potatoes, which get the steakhouse treatment and then skyrocket in calories, that typically doesn't happen with chain steakhouse salmon. 

At The Chophouse, a serving of the Atlantic salmon comes with just 579 calories and 687 milligrams of sodium. At Colton's Steak House & Grill, the blackened salmon similarly comes with 536 calories (do note, though, that the chain's blackening process increases the sodium significantly, to nearly 200% of the daily recommended value; if you're watching your sodium, you may want to ask for the salmon to be prepared another way). The salmon fillet at Ruth's Chris Steak House, broiled with lemon, butter, and parsley, is even lighter at 380 calories.

This is another sneaky one. You think spinach is healthy — and it is! — but when it's served swimming in a creamy, rich sauce, the calories, sodium, and fat start to add on. Just how much sauce you add differs according to the recipe, with some including just heavy cream and milk, and others piling in heavier or saltier ingredients like cream cheese and Parmesan cheese.

For example, at Morton's, while the creamed spinach certainly isn't the worst side dish you could pick in terms of calories (that honor goes to the bacon and onion macaroni and cheese), it still comes with 510 calories for just a side serving; you'd be better off picking the jumbo steamed asparagus or sauteed garlic green beans. Likewise, at Ruth's Chris Steak House, the creamed spinach side is 440 calories, compared to the 100 calories you'll find in the grilled asparagus and mere 80 calories you'll get from the steamed fresh broccoli.

Condiments can be a big source of hidden calories, sugar, and sodium. More sugar than you're likely anticipating is lurking in your ketchup and barbecue sauce, while sodium often hides in your hot sauce. You might not think of the high-end sauces that come delicately drizzled over your steak as condiments per se, but the same rule applies. The sauces that steakhouses typically offer as an accompaniment can really take your steak from moderately healthful to a heavy hitter.

When considering which steak sauce is going to unnecessarily add calories, fat, sodium, and other undesirable features to your steak, use the same rule you might for salad dressings: If it's creamy, it's probably not the best nutritional fit. If, though, the sauce is made from an oil rather than a cream base, you're probably good to go. One popular oil-based steak accompaniment that you might find on steakhouse menus is a chimichurri sauce, which is made with olive oil, red wine vinegar, herbs, and spices. A basic chimichurri sauce might include about 75 calories per tablespoon, along with 130 milligrams of sodium, and around 8 grams of fat.

In contrast, beyond just creamy sauces in general, what are the particular creamy steak sauces that you should specifically avoid? Béarnaise and hollandaise sauces are best to steer clear of. Both of these sauces are made with butter and egg yolk, along with seasonings and acidic ingredients. Ruth's Chris Steak House offers the two, and both add nearly 300 calories to your steak.

In addition to the nutritional woes, these sauces also may prove a hazard to your health if not prepared correctly. For example, raw egg yolks can lead to severe salmonella-related food poisoning. Sauces like hollandaise must be kept within a very specific temperature range, as heating it too much can cause it to separate or the eggs to start cooking. With this in mind, restaurants are known to make their hollandaise in batches, and then leave it out for the day adjacent to cooking equipment to keep it moderately warm. As you could guess, this can mean the hollandaise falls into the USDA's food safety "danger zone" of 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, in which bacteria like salmonella rapidly grows.

Not a seafood fan and in search of something equally delicious and healthful on a steakhouse menu? Look to the grilled chicken. While not every restaurant's grilled chicken is going to be the epitome of health, you can find nutritionally sound options on many steakhouse chains' menus.

At Outback Steakhouse, the grilled chicken with seasonal mixed vegetables comes in at an impressive 390 calories and 14 grams of fat. At The Chophouse, the grilled chicken is similarly 300 calories and 14 grams of fat. Since that's such a low amount, you might not hesitate at all to add goat cheese crumbles and sun dried tomato fennel pepperonata; served with a side of the chain's mashed potatoes and broccoli, the whole meal comes out to 961 calories and 56 grams of fat. Likewise, at Coloton's Steak House & Grill, you could order the mesquite grilled chicken and rice pilaf meal, then throw on a side of grilled asparagus and corn on the cob, and you're still just at 877 calories and 29 grams of fat.

The wedge salad is a steakhouse icon, consisting of a wedge of iceberg lettuce typically topped with a creamy dressing, blue cheese, and bacon. There are multiple problems with this salad, though. For one, it's often overpriced, given the affordable ingredients used in its compilation. For two, it not only adds fatty, sodium-rich ingredients like bacon and blue cheese, but it pairs them with the most nutritionally destitute of greens: iceberg lettuce.

The wedge salad at Outback Steakhouse, which is technically considered a side salad rather than an entree salad, is the highest-calorie, highest-fat, highest-sodium salad among its peers, with 530 calories, 46 grams of fat, and 1,250 milligrams of sodium. For all that, it only offers a measly 4 grams of fiber. Additionally, it contains 8 grams of trans fat, which the National Library of Medicine recommends consumers avoid entirely if possible, as it's the overall worst fat for your health, increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease, weight gain, and diabetes.

It's not just the loaded baked potatoes you have to watch out for. Au gratin potatoes, a casserole-like dish featuring layered potatoes baked in a creamy sauce and typically topped with melted cheese and toasted breadcrumbs, can also be a high-calorie lurker on the side dish section of a steakhouse menu. These are not your mother's au gratin potatoes either, if you remember eating Betty Crocker packaged au gratin potatoes during their 1990s heyday. As is the case with just about everything else, steakhouses take this dish the extra mile, piling on plenty of cheese and decadent ingredients like bacon.

At Morton's, the smoked gouda and bacon au gratin comes with 860 calories for a side serving. At Ruth's Chris Steak House, the au gratin potatoes in a three-cheese sauce are slightly better, at 560 calories per serving, but the chain's garlic mashed potatoes are still a better pick if you're watching your waistline, at 440 calories.

Steakhouse potatoes really can't catch a break. Another unhealthy side that you might want to avoid, even if it's a classic steak pairing? The steak fries. Just like au gratin potatoes and loaded baked potatoes, if you're really craving a spud, you have better options than choosing the fries.

Take the seasoned fries at Longhorn Steakhouse. They pack in 500 calories per serving, alongside 23 grams of fat and 1,280 milligrams of sodium. In contrast, you could just order the plain baked potato or even the loaded baked potato, for that matter, and tally up fewer overall calories (though you will consume dramatically more sodium with the loaded potato). For fewer calories and significantly less sodium, you could order the plain sweet potato, which comes with just 240 calories and an impressively low 95 milligrams of sodium. Prefer the mashed potatoes? They too have fewer calories and less sodium.

You may think that a big, juicy steak is going to be too fatty, too rich, and too calorie-laden for your nutrition goals, so you just go with something simpler, like a burger. Not so fast. Steakhouse burgers can be deceptive. Some steakhouses may make their burgers using not the lean ground beef that you're accustomed to buying in the grocery store, but instead, leftover steak trimmings, which can really jack up the fat levels, meaning you're not actually doing yourself any favors.

Don't believe us? Just compare the burgers to the steaks at The Chophouse. There, you can order a classic burger topped with pickles, onions, lettuce, and tomato, and it'll come with 711 calories, 35 grams of fat, and 141 milligrams of cholesterol. You could, though, just order the sirloin steak, which has 652 calories, 45 grams of fat, and 147 milligrams of cholesterol — plus less sodium.

Last, but certainly not least, you have the fried onions. While it seems straightforward — it's just an onion that's been fried — fried onions, both as appetizers and a steak accompaniment, can pack in a surprising amount of calories, fat, and sodium.

Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion is likely the most notorious in this category. A serving comes with nearly your entire allotment of calories for the day (if following a 2,000-calorie diet), plus 152 grams of fat and 4,870 milligrams of sodium. For reference, the American Heart Association says ideally adults should not consume more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day. At Longhorn Steakhouse, the story is only slightly more positive, with the "Texas Tonion" weighing in at 1,180 calories, 58 grams of fat, and 2,720 milligrams of sodium.

If you're really craving some onion-y goodness with your steak, you might opt to skip these appetizers and instead go with an onion addition served on or next to your steak, preferably sauteed not fried. For example, the Boursin cheese and tobacco onions at The Chophouse will add 249 calories, 18 grams of fat, and 523 milligrams of sodium to your steak.