The law forcing chain restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide to display calorie information might have been drafted with fast food joints like McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts in mind — but it's ticking off diners at some of the city's more upscale restaurants.
Customers at some high-end steakhouses must now face the fact that their meals aren't just obscenely expensive, but also obscenely high in calories. "The numbers just jumped right at me," 49-year-old Ed Gluckman told the Daily News after eating at The Palm steakhouse in Midtown, where a porterhouse packs 940 calories. "I came to enjoy a nice meal, not to be reminded about calories. Then you start thinking about the calories and not so much about how delicious that steak is."
While restaurants including Morton's, McCormick & Schmick's, and the Capital Grille must now show the number of calories in dishes like salad with blue cheese and smoked bacon (915) and tenderloin with butter-poached lobster (840-calorie), the chain restaurant Houston's successfully skirted the rules by altering some recipes and renaming its Manhattan locations "Hillstone." Some diners, including tourist Michelle Dedriazia, 49, wish that all of the upscale chains would find a way to avoid posting the nutritional information. "These laws started in McDonald's, and I think they should stay in McDonald's," said the tourist, who dined at McCormick & Schmick's — where even a seafood Cobb salad boasts 1000 calories. "If you are going to a nice place, you should not be told this type of information. I don't know why they do this in New York City. It doesn't make sense."
