Tommy and Harry T.'s Profile

The is a South Beach Diet-friendly review.

IHOP is more South Beach friendly than you might suspect. They have Cary's sugar-free syrup and they offer multi-grain pancakes. It is fairly easy to order safely once you know this information. Almost all their breakfast meals come with a "side of pancakes." For a little bit extra, you can upgrade to the Harvest Grain 'N Nut and ask for the sugar-free syrup.

We usually order an omelette or one of the classic breakfast platters. You might have to ask them to leave off the hash browns. Tommy likes to get the Chicken Fajita Omelette or the Big Steak Omelette. Either of those could easily be made to last 2 meals if you are in a position to take it home.

As for beverages, IHOP does offer tomato juice, a South Beach favorite, but only offers whole milk, which is to be avoided.

The IHOP website's menu now has indicators for carb, fat and calorie conscious diners.

This is a South Beach Diet-friendly review.

We started with the Ultimate Fondue, which I'm sorry to say was a little disappointing and didn't live up to the name. It seemed like lumps of seafood in a thin cheese sauce. Just tell yourself it has too much bad fat for the diet.

For entrees, we had the Seafood Caesar Salad and one of the "Today's Fresh Fish" specials, Cajun Salmon. These were both excellent dishes. The salad had tons of tiny shrimp and 2 kinds of lobster, making every bite fantastically different. The fresh fish was ordered with double vegetables, which ended up being heavy on the broccoli. The salmon was well-seasoned with a nice butter sauce.

South Beach Diet focused review.

For an appetizer, we had the Pepper Jack Fondue, skipping most of the crostini in favor of the heartier complimentary focaccia. The fondue itself was quite flavorful and, optionally, can be ordered with Italian sausage or crabmeat if you prefer.

Carino's offers steaks, salmon and chicken with pasta on the side, however, we opted for salads on our visit. The Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad seemed a little heavier on the pecan breading than previous visits and may not be the best choice for South Beach. The Italian Chopped Salad on the other hand, had easily ignored garlic toast, while still offering a filling combination of chicken, bacon, pepperoni and cheese in fresh greens.

South Beach Diet focused review.

We enjoyed the "House Specialties of Coastal Mexico" section of the menu for the best variety of South Beach friendly plates.  The Los Mejores De La Casa presented a savory selection of tenderloin beef and shrimp each wrapped in bacon with jalepeno and cheese. We were able to substitute steamed broccoli for the potatoes (papas con chile).

On a second visit, we had the Chile Manzanilla and the Salmon San Carlos. The Chile Manzanilla was an open and unbreaded poblano pepper stuffed with all sorts of Mexican seafood goodness. Harry claimed the salmon was among the best he'd ever eaten with its cilantro garlic butter sauce.

Like any Mexican food restaurant, South Beachers really have to push away the ubiquitous tortilla chips.

This review is primarily focused on the availability, variety and presentation of food suitable for the South Beach Diet plan.

There are a number of South Beach friendly breads available at Panera, notably a whole grain bread. The three seed, stone-milled rye, white whole grain, sunflower and country breads should all be suitable in limited quantities. They also feature a couple of lower carbohydrate breads like a pumpkin seed or an Italian herb. Most of their sandwiches can be made South Beach friendly by choosing a more whole grain type of bread.

We have mostly purchased the excellent fresh salads while on the diet, such as the Grilled Salmon Salad or the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad. When ordering salads, you are given a choice of a baguette, kettle chips or an apple. We usually order one salad with the apple and one with the whole grain baguette then share each of them.

We also like to buy whole grain bagels for breakfast, getting them sliced there for take-out. Panera offers reduced-fat cream cheese which is better for South Beach. A whole bagel counts as two servings of grain on the diet, so plan accordingly.