Eating out without wrecking the week
What a restaurant plate actually costs, and the four swaps that do most of the work.
সংক্ষেপে উত্তর
Read this bit if nothing else
Restaurant food is not a different food group. It is the same dishes cooked with three to five times the fat, in portions built to impress rather than to feed one person. The gap is almost entirely oil, cream and portion size — which means it is fixable without ordering a salad.
সূত্র·Computed from ThaliFacts food data·পর্যালোচিত জুলাই 2026
The same meal, two ways
A very ordinary restaurant order
- বাটার নান ×2576 kcal
- পনির বাটার মসলা ×1300 kcal
- জিরা রাইস ×1231 kcal
- গুলাব জামুন ×1129 kcal
The same meal, ordered differently
- তন্দুরি রুটি ×2263 kcal
- কড়াই পনির ×1263 kcal
- পেঁয়াজের স্যালাড (কাচুম্বর) ×132 kcal
- দই ×190 kcal
A difference of 589 kcal এবং 3.8 g of protein, from the same cuisine, the same restaurant and roughly the same amount of food on the plate. Every figure is computed from the dishes named, at the serving sizes on their ThaliFacts pages.
What actually works
- Tandoori beats butter.
- A tandoori roti and a tandoori or kadai dish are cooked dry. A naan is brushed with fat before it reaches you and a makhani gravy is built on butter and cream. Same restaurant, same cuisine, a very different number.
- Order one gravy, not two.
- Two gravy dishes for two people is the standard order and it is roughly double what anyone needs. One gravy, one dry dish, one bread each, and a salad closes the gap.
- Rice or bread. Not both.
- The rice arrives because it was ordered by reflex. If the bread is already on the table, the rice is a second serving of the same thing.
- Curd on the table.
- A bowl of plain curd is the cheapest thing on the menu, adds protein, and takes the edge off both the chilli and the appetite.
- Skip the sweet, not the meal.
- One gulab jamun is not a catastrophe. Two gulab jamuns and a rasmalai after a full meal is where a restaurant evening quietly doubles.
Put it into a week
Guides are for the awkward days. The plans are for the ordinary ones.
The other awkward days
What people ask about this one
Eating out without wrecking the week?
Restaurant food is not a different food group. It is the same dishes cooked with three to five times the fat, in portions built to impress rather than to feed one person. The gap is almost entirely oil, cream and portion size — which means it is fixable without ordering a salad.
How much difference does it actually make?
1,236 kcal against 647 kcal for the two plates on this page — a gap of 589 kcal from a single meal, with 3.8 g of protein difference on top. Repeat that four times a week and it is not a small number any more.
Are these figures exact?
They are computed from Indian food composition data at the serving sizes shown, which makes them a good estimate of home cooking and a conservative estimate of restaurant cooking. A restaurant version of any dish here can run 30 to 60% higher, almost entirely because of fat.
ক্যালোরি ও ম্যাক্রো হিসাব করা হয়েছে ThaliFacts ডেটাসেট থেকে, যেটি তৈরি হয়েছে Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (ICMR–NIN), তার সঙ্গে এই সাইটের জন্য আন্দাজ করা আঞ্চলিক পদগুলি, যেগুলি চিহ্নিত করা আছে আনুমানিক যেখানেই সেগুলি থাকে। প্রতিটি বিল্ডে শক্তি 4P + 4C + 9F-এর সঙ্গে মিলিয়ে দেখা হয়। প্রতিটি সূত্র, শেষ কবে যাচাই করা হয়েছে সেই তারিখসহ, তালিকাভুক্ত আছে সূত্রের পাতা। শুধুমাত্র সাধারণ তথ্য — চিকিৎসা বা পুষ্টি সংক্রান্ত পরামর্শ নয়। এগুলি গড় মানের উপর তৈরি উদাহরণমূলক প্ল্যান; এগুলি প্রেসক্রিপশন নয় এবং অ্যালার্জি, রোগ বা ওষুধের হিসাব ধরতে পারে না।
সূত্র·Computed from ThaliFacts food data·পর্যালোচিত জুলাই 2026
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This site and nine others like it are built and photographed by two people: Amit Sharma — behind the build; Geeta Patel — the poses, demonstrated. New work goes up on Instagram and Facebook before it reaches a page here.
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