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How to Track Restaurant Meals (Without Losing Your Mind)
Published February 2025
We've all been there. You're at Nando's with mates, you order the peri-peri chicken with spicy rice, and then you open MyFitnessPal.
Search “Nando's chicken”… 47 results. Which one?
- “Nandos Chicken Breast” — 156 calories (that can't be right)
- “Nando's 1/2 Chicken” — 540 calories (is that with skin?)
- “Chicken Nandos” — 890 calories (added by user: dave2019)
You scroll. You guess. You give up and log “grilled chicken — 400 cal” and hope for the best.
Why restaurant tracking is broken
The problem is user-submitted databases. Anyone can add entries, few are verified, and portion sizes are inconsistent. You end up with dozens of entries for the same meal, all with different calorie counts, and no way to know which one is correct.
Where to find real restaurant nutrition data
Here's what most people don't know — many chains publish official nutrition data on their websites:
| Restaurant | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Nando's | nandos.co.uk/food/nutrition |
| McDonald's | mcdonalds.com → Nutrition Calculator |
| Chipotle | chipotle.com/nutrition-calculator |
| Chick-fil-A | chick-fil-a.com/nutrition-allergens |
| Subway | subway.com → Nutrition Info |
| Wagamama | wagamama.com/allergen-information |
| Pret | pret.co.uk/en-GB/food-and-drink |
The problem is that finding these pages, navigating allergy matrices and PDF downloads, and cross-referencing portion sizes takes ages. Nobody wants to do this at the dinner table.
Tips for tracking restaurant meals manually
If you're tracking manually, here are some things that help:
- Check the restaurant's website first. Most major chains publish allergen and nutrition information on their websites, and many include full breakdowns.
- Log the exact menu item name. “Nando's Half Chicken, Lemon & Herb” is much more searchable than “grilled chicken”.
- Don't forget sides and drinks. A meal with spicy rice, garlic bread, and a Coke adds significant calories beyond the main.
- Be honest about portions. If you ate half the chips off your mate's plate, log it. Rough is better than nothing.
The easier way
This is exactly why we built Macronote. Type “Nando's half chicken with spicy rice” and we pull the official data automatically. No searching, no guessing, no user-submitted entries from dave2019.
Every number is traced back to its source, so you can see exactly where the calorie count came from. If the data is estimated rather than sourced directly, we tell you that too.
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