The Best and Worst Restaurant Salads

Thumb's Down: Steak & Blue Cheese Chopped Salad 
Seared sirloin steak, frizzled onions, plus gorgonzola jack up the stats on this whole salad to 790 calories and a jaw-dropping 54 grams of fat (16 saturated). And the 1,280 milligrams of sodium doesn’t help either. Still interested? Go halvesies for 390 calories and 27 fat grams.

Thumb's Down: Tostada Salad with Charbroiled Steak
Filling a crispy tortilla shell with steak, cheese, guacamole, and sour cream sends the nutritionals for this salad sky high. Reduce the 1230 calories, 63 grams of fat, and over 2300 milligrams of sodium by ditching the shell, skipping the meat, and choosing just one creamy topping.

Thumb's Down: Thai Chicken Noodle Salad with Thai Peanut Dressing
Despite good-for-you ingredients like grilled lemongrass chicken, mangos, and bean sprouts, high-cal add-ons like rice noodles and Thai peanut dressing send this salad over the top. The result: 900 calories and 38 fat grams. Slim yours down by ditching the peanut sauce and drizzle with a little rice wine vinegar and low-sodium soy sauce instead.

Thumbs Down: Quesadilla Explosion Salad 
Don’t let the grilled chicken fool you. Chili’s most popular salad clocks in at a gargantuan 1,410 calories. Complete with quesadilla wedges, it serves up 89 grams of hidden fat (of those, 26 are saturated). Sodium-wise it’s a nightmare too, with nearly 2,400 milligrams worth.

Thumbs Down: Full Moroccan-Spiced Chicken Salad
Overflowing with roasted butternut squash, dates, avocados, beets, chopped egg, and cranberries, this bowl looks like a wise choice. In reality, it could be one of the most fattening salads out there. The reason: Sheer size. When your salad is as gigantic as this one, it has more of everything like toasted almonds, dried fruit, and Champagne vinaigrette. That translates to an over-the-top 1,370 calories, 82 grams of fat (12 saturated), and 1,040 milligrams of sodium. For a healthier option, choose the half salad and ask for the dressing on the side.

Thumbs Down: Aussie Chicken Cobb Salad with Crispy Chicken
Think salad is a healthy alternative to steak? Not when the word “crispy” is in the description. In addition to fried chicken, this bowl is weighed down with bacon, eggs, croutons, and two different kinds of cheese. Order yours with the honey mustard dressing and you’ll find yourself staring down a staggering 1,285 calories, nearly 100 grams of fat, and more saturated fat and sodium than most of us need in an entire day.

Thumb's Down: Così Cobb Salad
While most of Cosi’s salads are healthier than the competition’s, bacon and gorgonzola cheese bump up the calories, fat, and sodium significantly, making this one of their least nutritious salads. Order the Così Cobb Light to reduce the calories by almost 200.

Thumbs Down: Mediterranean Chicken Salad 
This is one of those rare instances when going Mediterranean isn’t better for you. The 590 calories worth of Tzatziki totally undoes otherwise healthy ingredients like grilled chicken, garbanzo beans, and tomatoes. The result: A whopping 830 calories and 71 grams of fat, of which 21 are saturated for the large salad.

Thumb's Down: Salad Sampler 
Sometimes too many choices spells trouble. A tasting of Romano’s Market Chop, Caesar, and Bibb & Blue salads add up to 1,030 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat, and an over-the-top 2,720 grams of sodium.

Thumb's Down: Carolina Chicken Salad 
Weighing in at 1101 calories, 46 grams of fat, and 1057 milligrams of sodium, fried chicken, bacon, full-fat cheddar cheese, and croutons make this the most caloric salad on the menu. Instead, get your produce from Fit & Trim menu where you’ll find loads of fresh veggies that you can pair with a calorie-controlled portion of protein like the Petit Jumbo Shrimp Scampi.