Frankie & Benny's Uncertainty....

[Sneeze]

I treated my mum to lunch at Frankie & Benny's today to thank her for helping me buy my car etc.

I picked out in advance what I was going to have using the Eating Out Guide and chose the Goats Cheese and Onion Garlic Bread (14pp) and Sweet Cured Bacon Steaks with Herb Potatoes (19pp).

The garlic bread came out and looked very very oily. It was thin though and didn't have masses of cheese so I thought 'hmm okay, it could just be 14pp'. But then the main meal came out and there's just no way it was only 19pp. I'd been expecting baby new potatoes with some sort of herb, but instead it was deep fried potatoes in a herby coating with 3 bacon medallions and a little salad. I took one look and thought 'there's no WAY that's 19pp'. The deep fried potatoes alone must have been that!! I ended up leaving the potatoes and having a side of steamed veggies with the meat, but do you think it really could have been just 19pp for all that? I sort of guestimated the bacon at about 9pp just for that and find it hard to believe about 150g of deep fried potatoes are only 9pp.

What do you guys think? The waitress (who I was chatting away to) just said 'if the book says it, just eat it' but I want to be true not only to WW but also the whole concept of healthy eating.

 

[carlyb1208]

I really hope its true because frankie and bennies is my fav restaurant,im only in my first week of WW so havent had an occasion to go there yet,but i love the herb potatos!! I usually have chicken with cheese bacon and bbq sauce and herb potatos!
It would be naughty if the book was wrong tho because its meant to help us point food at restaurants and its not like the book is free either! Maybe ask your ww leader when u have ur next meeting. X

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

 

[kagome75]

the book shows the points of the typically cooked dishes. Now, every cook is a human being and although having directives about how to cook a dish, someone could put more oil on it or too many fries or the likes. Besides, sometimes the book is wrong... a lot of people have had problems with the consistency of the propoints for example, like a dish being told to be a certain number of points in a page and another at another page (for example some of the Chinese or Indian take-aways). I think you've done the right thing in leaving the fries and having veggies instead. In fact, you might have had to just ask for more veggies rather than fries or baby potatoes rather than fries to start with. Don't be afraid to ask for alteration in what you eat. Restaurant food is high on propoints but you can improve on it by asking things to be changed. i'm always the worst nightmare of the waiters in the restaurants I go to... LOL

 

[Sneeze]

It would be naughty if the book was wrong tho because its meant to help us point food at restaurants and its not like the book is free either! Maybe ask your ww leader when u have ur next meeting. X

I agree it's pretty poor if the book is wrong but at the same time it wouldn't surprise me. As Julia's mentioned below there's a LOT of differences between values in the books/esource/meetings etc. Unfortunately I don't go to meetings though and do it online only so don't really have anyone to consult.

the book shows the points of the typically cooked dishes. Now, every cook is a human being and although having directives about how to cook a dish, someone could put more oil on it or too many fries or the likes.

Thanks hon. I absolutely agree with the above which is why I'm confused. But I just cannot for the life of me see how a pile of deep fried potatoes can be 10pp or 9pp. It's not really a case of the chef being liberal with the olive oil or anything, its just that fried food is generally higher.

Appreciate what you said about asking servers. The girl today got a generous tip for helping me out.

 

[kagome75]

Thanks hon. I absolutely agree with the above which is why I'm confused. But I just cannot for the life of me see how a pile of deep fried potatoes can be 10pp or 9pp. It's not really a case of the chef being liberal with the olive oil or anything, its just that fried food is generally higher.

Appreciate what you said about asking servers. The girl today got a generous tip for helping me out.

hehe they get good tips even by helping me

WW can only go with the NV the restaurants provide to them. It could be that the cook you had was really being too generous with the amount of food he gave you. It might be that the potatoes had to be half of the portion he gave you, or that he cut them thicker than they should have or things like that. Guidelines are guidelines... made to NOT be followed LOL. I remember when once I went to a Pizza express and complained (not harshly, but still...) to the waitress about the amount of salad on the leggera pizza, which was much smaller than the usual one I had at my restaurant, and asked to have some more. the manageress came to my table when they brought the bigger salad and explained to me that their cook was VERY scrupulous about the quantity of ingredients and probably the cook at my restaurant was a bit too happy in providing salad on the leggeras pizza. She said that their cook had used the right quantity for the leggera to be less than 500 calories. That showed to me that cooks sometimes can take guidelines very randomly LOL.

Anyway, when the NV are provided, that's what WW uses to do their books and if they are wrong, then the book is wrong. In addition, F&B could have changed slightly their menu and now that dish could have had fries rather than baby potatoes as it should have been beforehand or else...

PS: potatoes are not THAT high in points, 4 or 5pp of potatoes if cut finely can make quite a lot of them. Were they thick potatoes or were they cut fine? Couldn't it be that your eyes were betrayed and you thought the potatoes weighted more than they did?

 

[Sneeze]

They were cubed hon and took up most of the very large plate my food came on. It might have been slightly less than I imagined tbh but when I consider that a 200g of oven chips are about 8pp, I just can't see it.

The bacon medallions were lovely though and if I'd realised it was going to be fried rather than boiled potatoes I'd have asked for them to sub it, rather than order a side of veg.

 

[kagome75]

well, then it's definitely much more than what the EOG says... probably F&B have provided WW with the wrong stats... shame on them