I was surprised (well, not really) that the local news station did a story on how local restaurants are meeting the needs of people that are trying to lose weight. "The chefs are now cooking with olive oil instead of butter"....."we now offer fruit plates for an appetizer"......"steamed vegetables are always popular."

The primary focus of the story was "cut fat, cut fat, cut fat." No mention at all of meeting the needs of the low carbers... I know, I know...we have to make it known and I do feel that it will be seen in the near future.

Just thought I would share this information. Very interesting.

It might be my imagination, but when I first started LCing waiters used to flinch a little when I'd ask them to remove the bread from my table or details about sugar and breading on certain menu items, etc. Now it seems like they're all used to these requests and don't bat an eyelash anymore.

There was an article in the NY Times a few months ago about how restaurants were changing their menus to accomodate LC dieters....so maybe its the beginning of a trend! If they only knew how much they'd help their business by doing so!! I think there's a lot more LCers out there these days!!

Hi,

Just to share one of my bad experiences at a restaurant.

I ordered a steak...without the black pepper sauce that comes with it (I have eaten there before and their sauce looks like just a lump of brownish starch!). Anyway, the waitress who took my order looked so suprised that I almost thought I placed an order for a steak without the meat instead?!

After a while,she came back and apologized, saying that they can't fulfil my order as the steak has to have the sauce on it. I had to settle for grilled fish instead.

The restaurant was packed then...and thanks to the waitress's booming voice, we became center of attraction...so embarassing..

That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard! Who's paying the bill,anyway?!? I probably would have walked out and found another restaurant.

Oh yeah..I would love to hurry out of there if it wasn't a farewell lunch for one of my collegues. My pal said the black pepper steak(with that lump of starch on it) was restaurant's signature dish and they properly feel it won't taste good without the sauce! But isn't that up to me to decide?

Needless to say,I never gone back there since.

that reminds me of my packed lunch today.

as usual i was ordering 2 meat dishes and one vegetable dish with some rice during noon time. i ordered the fatty looking pork meat and the hawker was asking if i should reconsider....

i said go ahead......~

but i think the Lcing trend in S'pore is slowly slowly evolving...now drink manufacturers are coming up with lesser-sugar beverages.

waiting for more to come...

That's odd that they wouldn't even give you the sauce on the side. I mean, it's not like asking them to omit an ingredient that was mixed in beforehand and can't be removed.

I often have to ask for substitutions, but if a restaurant can't (or won't) do it, I never press the issue. Nice restaurants work hard to develop their menu and I'm sure it's quite frustrating to have people altering the dishes all the time, asking for key ingredients to be removed and so forth. Once I was in a good restaurant and heard a young woman order a pasta dish baked in cream sauce, but she wanted it with no dairy! If they had accomodated her request the dish would have been inedible. The waiter went and asked the chef, who said no, but the woman would not let it go. She kept at him and at him, while he kept explaining why it was impossible to make the dish without dairy. Frankly I couldn't believe how polite he was. So I can understand why some restaurants, in response to ridiculous requests like that one, develop a bit of an attitude about substitutions in general.

On the other hand, I never allow myself to be embarrassed about a special request. If they say no, okay, I'll order something else. But there's nothing wrong with asking. If the staff tries to make you feel embarrassed, that in itself is a reason never to go back.

Way to go Fumih!!



I think low-carb WOE in Singapore still has a long way to go! Most people and nutritionists still think that low-fat is best..Worse, most of my pals who wants to lose a few pounds just starve themselves,having just a few slices of bread a day. I can never do that!



Yes Sarah, I did feel kinda foolish for being embarassed. But I was just starting out then..and I don't used to be fussy about food,the kind that just polish off everything on my plate! Hope nothing like that happens again..

I would like to comment on the "sauce on the meat" thing. Now, I am not saying that ALL restaurants are like this, or THIS PARTICULAR restaurant is like this, but, here goes...

Growing up, my mom always told me that when a restaurant covers up its meat with sauces all of the time, that means that they might be covering up a lesser grade of meat. Using sauce sometimes tenderizes the meat a little more so the customer cannot tell if the grade of meat is actually what they ordered.

The only reason why a restaurant would not accept a change in the order like removing the sauce, would be if they bought the meat with the sauce already on it (like buying breaded shrimp - cannot remove the breading).

Like I said, this is just an opinion and I am in no way slamming any restaurants in particular - I don't want to get yelled at, ok?

I just started the Atkins diet yesterday, but I was on a carb-restricted diet (SCD) for other health reasons a couple years ago. I found that many chains have the steaks already prepped when they get to the restaurant. The waiters/ chefs couldn't even tell you exactly what is on the steak.

I would tell them I want my steak with nothing on it, no salt, no pepper, no nothing, because of allergies.

The waiters are usually trained to take the word allergies very serious. The restaurant doesn't want to get sued. If they could not give it to me that way, I had something else or I would go elsewhere.

Atkins isn't as strict as SCD, so I don't know yet how far I'll take it this time.

Arnie

Hmm...Darla, you may be right! I could use this reason to 'fight back' the next time I encounter poor service and things like that again

Hi Arnie, I just started Atkins too, after falling off the wagon for so long! All the best to ya, you can do it!