Ethnic Eateries go low-carb
SoCal restaurants add new menu item or emphasize existing ones for dieters.
By Candice Choi
Staff writer

Sunday, August 08, 2004 - Rice and beans, tortillas, noodle soup and spaghetti — how does a low-carb dieter in Southern California resist temptation in a land teeming with ever-present ethnic chains?

It turns out even Mexican, Asian and Italian chains built on carbs are evolving as they try to maintain loyal customers and attract new ones amid a national weight-conscious fad.

"Now I can accommodate (my diet) wherever I go," said Sandra Rizzo, a 30-year-old Pasadena teacher who grabbed dinner at the Baja Fresh in Sherman Oaks this week. The world is opening up for people like Rizzo, who avoided stepping foot in any ethnic restaurant just two years ago. Back then, it was the standard grilled chicken and steamed vegetables wherever she could find it.

Now everyone from Olive Garden to Panda Express is responding to the growing hunger pangs for ethnic fare. It's no wonder, with the National Restaurant Association projecting the state's $46 billion restaurant industry to expand by 5 percent this year.

Panda Express began offering a "lower your carbs" option just six months ago, allowing Chinese-food lovers to substitute rice and chow mein with mixed vegetables, even though the cafeteria-style dining has always made putting together a low-carb meal a possibility, said Vicki Gelberg, vice president of marketing for the Rosemead-based chain.

"We've seen a comfortable percentage of people taking advantage of it," Gelberg said, declining to cite specifics.

Now Rizzo says she can find a way to stay on her low-carb diet at almost any major chain restaurant, no matter the cuisine. Before, her favorite Asian fare was out of the question.

"If you wanted to have something like Thai food, you'd really have to get the rice to enjoy the experience," she said.

Even Italian food chains — perhaps the last frontier for carb-phobics — are finding a way to speak the low-carb language. In May, the Olive Garden began offering whole wheat pasta as a substitute for its dishes, an option the restaurants claims triples the amount of fiber of a spaghetti dinner while lowering the carb content by 17 percent.

Another Italian chain once known as Pasta Pomodoro went so far as to drop the offensive carb from its name, said Randy Hiatt, president of the restaurant consulting firm Fessel. Now the chain, which will soon open locations in Burbank and Orange County, is called Pomodoro Cuisina Italiano.

"They completely dropped the pasta from the name," Hiatt said.

Meanwhile, Olive Garden makes it a point to highlight a range of menu options in television ads — not just the pasta, said spokesman Steve Coe.

"We've always had a pretty broad menu," Coe said. "That's why we've performed pretty well despite these fads."

Greg Schroeder, a research analyst with The Advest Group, said that's why ethnic restaurants are still cooking despite the low-carb craze.

"If I like Panda Express, I'm still going to go to Panda Express," Schroeder said. It may just be a matter of fishing out the protein dishes and skipping the rice. As a result, he said ethnic restaurants aren't necessarily taking a major hit in sales.

Chains like P.F. Chang's China Bistro — which recently began featuring "high protein" dishes — are performing steadily amid the low-carb storm, he said. Part of that is making it known that a low-carb meal can be found in their menus, said Katherine Kim, spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association. "It's an industry of choice. We're there to provide options."

These days, Kim said that often means customers are eating the bulk of their meat and substituting tortillas and rice with a salad.

What it boils down to is that a low-carb menu comes in a variety of languages these days.

La Salsa's fresca platters — a salad-based dish topped with steak or chicken — have been among the Santa Barbara-based chain's top 10 sellers since they debuted in March.

"Mexican food doesn't have to be just rice and beans," said spokeswoman Mona Shah. "There's a whole range of flavors and ingredients that can be incorporated into the cooking."