Appetizer Has 217 Fat Grams Cheese Fries Worst Thing Group Ever Analyzed

A juicy slab of steak isn’t the worst thing you can order at a steak house, but then it isn’t the healthiest choice either, a consumer group says.

In its latest restaurant-food survey, the private Center for Science in the Public Interest turned its fat-and-calorie counters on steak houses nationwide, including some of the largest chains.

What they found was that steak isn’t so bad after all.

“A cheese fries appetizer is worse than any of the steak platters we analyzed,” senior nutritionist Jayne Hurley said Friday. “In fact, it’s worse than anything we’ve ever analyzed, including a plate of fettuccine Alfredo,” which the group has described as a “heart attack on a plate.”

According to its analysis, that particular appetizer - more than a pound of french fries buried beneath cheese, crumbled bacon and ranch dressing - had more than 3,000 calories and 217 grams of total fat.

The government recommends a daily maximum of 65 fat grams for adults.

Second-worst appetizer was the battered, deep-fried onion, which had 116 fat grams and nearly 1,700 calories, the survey found.

“My advice would be to share it with the whole table,” said Edith Hogan, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Steak is fine, she said, as long as diners heed this advice: “You’ve just got to remember that you’ve got to balance this and probably stay on the treadmill an extra half-hour.”

The healthiest dishes at steak houses are barbecued chicken or grilled fish, Hurley said.

A trimmed 12-ounce sirloin steak, which the public interest group said was the leanest beef choice, had 1,100 calories and 58 grams of fat when served as a platter with a Caesar salad and baked potato with butter.

Choose a 20-ounce porterhouse instead and you’re looking at 1,640 calories and 107 grams of total fat.

The science center analyzed composites of 15 popular appetizers, entrees and side dishes at 26 steak houses in Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. Among them were Damon’s, Lone Star, LongHorn, Outback, Steak and Ale, Stuart Anderson’s and Tony Roma’s, small chains and independents.

The survey did not include budget chains, such as Sizzler or Ponderosa, or pricier eateries such as Morton’s.

The center previously studied Italian, Mexican and Chinese restaurant dishes and movie-theater popcorn, finding nutritional problems with many of them.