Has anyone here had good luck eating at Red Lobster or Olive Garden on MDI?
No. Pasta is hard for me on MDI or the pump. I don’t eat at Red Lobster. Wish I could give you some feedback on that place.
The few times that we have visited Red Lobster, I just ordered normal food so it wasn’t too hard to calculate the carbs. My 2 hour blood test wasn’t perfect of course but acceptable to me. I was more peed off one time that I had ordered my steak well-done and they brought it back bleeding. Gross! It usually takes forever to receive our food, so I had to drink a juice box that I had in my purse. Not impressed! I could tell by our waitress’s attitude that telling her that I was a Diabetic, would not have saved the day.
Red Lobster does not effect my blood sugar very much (unless I eat too many of their sinful cheddar bay biscuits). I do keep away from the pasta dishes there, though. I am a T2 instead of a T1, but the fish, a baked potato with sour cream and pico, veggies, and ceaser salad works fine for my goals.
Olive Garden is another matter all together, though. Pasta sometimes really sends my readings out of the ranges I like to keep them in. I am not on insulin, so I am not able to bolus for any of the food I eat. I just have to watch my carbs. They do have whole wheat pasta available for some of their entrees now, which helps a little, but it is still a challenge for me to eat there.
No can do Olive Garden - too many temptations.
Red Lobster is fine, unless, as Big Al says, you o.d. on the biscuits.
Oh yes. How could I forget the salad and rolls? Yep, they are really good. A good baked item is very tempting to me, and I often will give into temptation.
I just went to Olive Garden for lunch today. Do yourself a favor and download their pdf file. I was shocked at how many carbs everything had. They must add sugar to everything. Had I known how many carbs their food had I would have ordered something different or chosen to go to a different restaurant.
Where I work we do dinner out for different occasions…birthdays, showers, graduation, etc. We all vote on where to go. Most times we end up at Olive Garden…I order a separate bowl of salad w/no dressing(hidden sugar), I request a side of asparagus(use it in one of their dishes so they always have it), and order one of the dishes that have no pasta and eat only one breadstick. Red Lobster is a breeze compared to eating at Olive Garden…just keep in mind what I should be eating. Then I blow it and share a desert with a co-worker!
Me and my friends were planning to do an eat-out trip this weekend. So far it seems Red Lobster may be the better choice. I’ll just have to watch myself with the friggin biscuits! Thanks for all the input so far. 
I went to the Olive Garden recently with a friend–I looked at their web site nutritional information ahead of time and made the decision to get soup and salad–I had lots of salad without croutons, two bowls of soup, and I think just one bread stick (I only eat the part with the oil on it, not all the way through.) I did go a little high because I had not planned on eating the bread stick. But if you get the soup and salad, they’ll refill your salad bowl as many times as you like. I do love their salad, so it’s easy to fill up on that. I did find one or two of the pasta dishes that looked doable, but most are way too high in carbs for me.
Red lobster is okay if I stick with fish and salad. The cheddar biscuits nearly bring me to tears as I try to resist - mostly with success. With Red Lobster have to be careful with the fats.
I enjoy the challenge of avoiding pasta at Olive Garden since I don’t really like it anyway. I like the never-ending salad. What was I saying about avoiding fat? I know the salad dressing is full of fat. Still . . .
I eat at Olive Garden every time I go to Endo in the “city” and I always seem to do fairly well with MDI… I love pasta and never seem to have much trouble with it althoug I don’t eat the jumbo pasta dishes with the heavy cream sauces…usually chic parm with or eggplant parm with…I also have a fav Mexican restaurant we frequent and I seem to do well with that also. I just know that most restaurants require more insulin than I typically need at home. One thing that has always seemed to help; my CDE told me when estimating carbs to think of the size of a tennis ball (about 1/2 cup) as 15grams of carbs.
Good luck you need to enjoy yourself!
Hi I actually worked for darden restaurants for six years. If you do olive garden, the salad dressing is high in fat and sugar, I usually have no dressing unless I just need the extra fats. I usually will order the herb grilled salmon for my entrée but if I really want pasta, I’m italian, the I order the lunch portion- available all day- of chicken parm and get it with grilled chicken Instead of fried. I really don’t like the bread sticks so those don’t make a difference to me, but it is possible to eat there and keep things okay. As for red lobster, I actually had them for lunch, I always have a heck of a time trying to come down. I ended up having to correct twice just to get to 200! I didn’t a side item such as a potato and had the broiled platter with a cluster of snow crab, house salad with a tiny bit of honey mustard, four raw oysters, and two biscuits and topped off one hour afterwards at 546. Hope you have fun at dinner! Good luck!
My experience at both of these highly popular restuarants is that you have to watch out for the bread, the aauces, and at Olive Garden the Pastas. I did not know that the dressing for their Unlimited sald bowl was high in sugar!! I am glad that one poster mentions that you can download the nutruional info. I just get soup andd salad at Olive Gardern and leave the bread alone. Some times I will , like Elizabeth stated above, Iget the chiken grilled:. I tend to tstay away from the sauce-drenched ehtrees and the pastas. I personally have never been a fan of spaghetti , even as a little kid. I grew in a very small southern GA town where lasagna was barely heard of.( Very few people of Italian descent) We just ate macaroni and cheese ( lol)
I can manage O.k. at Red Lobster if I avoid those yummy cheese biscuits. That was probably what tipped you into the hi numbers Elizabeth. I wish that All these restaurants just had Virgin Olive oil and a little vinegar, which is my salad dressing of choice at home
When I eat out, I try to use an extedned ( dual or square wave bolus), give my self 1 more unit than I think I il need and monitor my blood sugars every 45 -60 minutes or so for 2-3 hours to catch any creeoing his. I will admit I do not do this 100% of the time, but I really do not like the sleepy draggy feel of hi blood sugasr at all, so I try to avoid them as much as possible. I am very active and I guess I just do not want the 'slow down" of hyperglycemia. I
This is a lot of work, but I like the meal socialization with my friends and co-workers, too much to stop eating out with them. We do it about 2- 3 times a month.
. I guess on MDI’s you can sequentially bolus in small increments, depending on your glood sugars and carbs consumed. Just some suggestetions: Your diabetes may vary… Hope this helps,
God Bless,
Brunetta
No failures Davey. You did not set up the menu: The place is just laden with hidden carbs, as are many restaurants… And we must bolus and restrict accordingly…sigh…
God Bless,
Brunetta
I went to Red Lobster about a month ago for lunch. Its easy to create your own meal and you can order veggies on the side instead of potatoes or rice. Like others have mentioned, the cheddar bay biscuits did me in. I had four of them!! (I rarely eat anything with white flour, but I just could not help myself that day.) I had scrimp scampi. Between the biscuits and the fat from the scampi I was over 200 for the rest of the day, even with a couple of corrective doses. I wonder what would have happened had I not corrected! I usually eat low carb so spikes are rare and easy to correct when they do happen. I felt miserable and never want to go through that again.
LOL - no Olive Garden or Red Lobster exists in the province I live in!!! So, I guess I’m lucky - because I think I would OD on those cheese biscuits that a few of you have talked about at RL . I did eat at a Red Lobster in Ontario many years ago (like 15)- and tended to stick to fish dishes. I think they had some sort of garlic bread soft sticks at the time - but too far in my memory banks to remember.
I was thinking of having the Shrimp Linguine Alfredo at RL. Anyone else tried this?