25 Unhealthiest Restaurant Salads in America

We love fast food burgers, and we bet you do, too. However, it's an indulgence—and everyone knows it. Just as you wouldn't order a Whopper or a Big Mac because you're trying to watch your waistline, you'd probably order restaurant salads for the same reason: it sounds like the healthiest item on the menu. Sadly, that's not always the case as there are plenty of restaurant salads that are high in calories.

More often than you realize, that salad is actually the worst choice on the menu. Restaurants across the country have learned that "nutrition" sells, so they smack these salad calorie bombs onto the "lighter fare" portion of the menu, encouraging you to think you're making a healthy selection. To clear up the confusion and call these offending high-calorie salads out, we've rounded up the most prominent examples of unhealthy salads. These restaurant salads are so bad, you'd be better off ordering that Whopper, after all. Or maybe one of these best restaurant salads instead!

In fact, the 25 unhealthiest restaurant salads have thousands of calories, unhealthy trans fats, and more sodium than you should eat in a whole day, all served over a bed of lettuce. Check out the worst offenders from some of the most popular restaurants in America.

Four of the salads on Applebee's menu break the 1,000-calorie barrier, making them just as dubious as any other menu item, but this one takes the cake with more than the daily recommended amount of sodium in just one salad! Slash calories by switching over to the Thai Shrimp Salad.

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Side Caesar Salad

It's quite baffling seeing the amount of sodium and sugar you get from this salad! Your better option is to choose a side salad, and a side salad only, as most of Buffalo Wild Wings' salads are high calorie.

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Caesar Side Salad 

There's no reason that this salad should saddle you with over a grand of calories. According to the CPK website, it contains grapes, green apples, candied walnuts, crisp celery, baby greens, and Gorgonzola, all served with housemade Dijon balsamic vinaigrette.

When mixed together in reasonable proportions, there's nothing inherently wrong with these ingredients. In fact, most of them are good for you. It's just that CPK jumbo sizes their menu items. (If you're looking for helpful dining out tips, your ultimate restaurant and supermarket survival guide is here!)

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Roasted Veggie Salad with Dijon Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing, Half

You might think choosing a salad that has Beyond Meat might make it healthier but alas, that is not the case. Here, mixed greens, sliced carrots, red cabbage, avocado, tomatoes, chopped cage-free egg, bacon, blue cheese, red onions, cucumber, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses all come together along with ranch dressing for a salad that is overloaded with fat and sodium.

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Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken with Caesar Dressing

Why is this salad so hefty? Part of the blame goes to the tasty Oriental vinaigrette, for sure (the secret is always, at least partially, in the sauce). Another reason: It's topped with crispy noodles (carbohydrate overload). And to complete the triumvirate of dietary doom: Fried chicken. What exactly makes this a salad again?

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Side Caesar Salad

The "explosion" is what happens to your mind when you realize what's in this "salad." Chili's highest-calorie salad will supply you with 1.5 days' worth of fat, thanks in no small part to its "garnish"—an order of cheese quesadillas!

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Santa Fe Chicken Salad with Chicken

Bet you weren't expecting to take down the sugar equivalent of six Original Glazed Krispy Kreme donuts in a salad were you? That's not to mention you'll also be wolfing down the same amount of fat as you'd find in 13 bags of Doritos chips. Instead, opt for the more calorically-reserved Seared Tuna Tataki Salad.

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Seared Tuna Tataki Skinnylicious Salad

The dismal dawn of the more than 2,000-calorie salad is upon us. If we're being honest here, nearly every Cheesecake Factory salad dwarfs a Whopper (or two, or even three), but this one is truly the worst of the worst. Save 1,340 calories by switching to the Wellness Salad instead. On the "Super" Food Menu, the Wellness Salad is a kale-based dish with avocado, broccoli, fresh fruit, and nuts.

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Wellness Salad

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Panera's salads might have fewer calories than a Whopper, but it's worse in almost every other category. This Southwest Chile Lime Ranch Salad packs in more than 1,000 milligrams of sodium. If you're planning to order a salad at Panera, try the antioxidant-packed Strawberry Poppyseed & Chicken Salad.

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Strawberry Poppyseed & Chicken Salad, Whole

If you're looking for a salad at Chipotle, be sure to pass on this vinaigrette dressing on the menu. With 220 calories and 16 grams of fat, it has more than double the calories than the most caloric salsa at Chipotle. Your best bet is to turn the tangy green salsa (just 15 calories per serving) into your dressing and spend the 205 calories you save elsewhere. When you're looking to order at Chipotle, we opt for a burrito bowl over the salad and ask for extra lettuce on the bottom. Basically, just a salad without the caloric dressing.

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Barbacoa Burrito Bowl With black beans, cheese, lettuce, and tomato salsa

We're going to say it: the sodium in this salad is just downright scary! Ordering a restaurant salad when dining out is risky business, but the Shanghai standby below offers plenty of lean protein and fresh vegetables without the normal salad pitfalls.

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Smart Fit Salad

When you're at BK, just stay away from this salad! Although it might not seem as bad as some of the other culprits on this list, it's still pacling when it comes to fat and sodium. It has more sodium that one Whopper!

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Garden Side Salad

This high-calorie salad comes from BJ's "Garden Fresh" menu, but it's not even close to something you'd find in a real garden. It has multiple nutritional categories in the quadruple digits. Downsize and look to the "Small Salads" section of the menu.

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Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Salad

Adding protein such as chicken or fish to a salad is never a bad idea. But as you can see, that doesn't save this salad here. The fact that it has 1 gram more sugar than four donuts is just not OK, along with packing as much sodium as 120 Lay's potato chips.

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Asian Caesar Salad with Chicken

Again, this is yet another example of how you can't just trust that a salad offered up a restaurant will be good for you. The "crusted" salad is just another way of saying breaded and fried. Don't let it fool you!

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Entrée Caesar

Rice and a fried tortilla combine for a one-two punch of empty carbs, while the shredded cheese and sour cream lend these leaves more saturated fat than a dozen strips of bacon. Opt for the surprisingly healthy Double Chicken Avocado Salad instead.

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Double Chicken Avocado Salad

You know something's amiss when the salad packs more than twice as many calories as the pizza. California Pizza Kitchen's menu is a minefield of viscous calorie bombs, and if you try to venture far from the beaten path, you'll likely find yourself with a barrage of clandestine calories clambering for real estate in—and on—your belly.

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Classic Caesar Salad, Full

You could almost have two Whoppers instead of this high-calorie salad! This belt-busting bowl boasts two days' worth of saturated fat and almost a full day's worth of heart-taxing sodium. The Chipotle-Honey Mustard Dressing alone adds 330 calories and 31 grams of fat.

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Sizzling Fajita Salad – Chicken

Here, you'll be eating a salad that is made up of crisp veggies (shredded carrots, edamame, cabbage, fresh avocado to be exact), fresh cilantro, chicken, peanuts, wontons, and rice sticks. It comes across as seemingly harmless, but this salad will saddle you with more calories than a pound and a half of sirloin from Applebee's.

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California Cobb With Herb Ranch Dressing, Half

When you sat down for dinner, did you expect to blow through your entire day's sodium budget by the end of your salad? Well, that's exactly what would happen if you sat down to this dish at Ruby Tuesday's. While our healthier option is slightly better on the sodium front, it's a clear winner when it comes to being nearly half the calories, fat, and saturated fat.

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BBQ Chicken Cobb

Although it's no surprise that IHOP has some of the unhealthiest restaurant breakfasts options, seeing a salad that has more calories than an order of pancakes is just shocking.

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Grilled Chicken & Veggie Salad

The Cobb salad with Chick-n-Strips and avocado lime ranch dressing off Chick-fil-A's menu will set you back nearly 1,000 calories. That's a hard-pass on this option! Instead, go for the grilled nuggets on the market salad to cut back on calories and fat for a good amount of protein.

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Grilled Market Salad with Light Balsamic Vinaigrette

We think this is clear: if you're trying to eat healthy, a deep-fried taco shell isn't going to cut it. Swap the chicken for steak, leave out the 455-calorie deep-fried taco shell, sub the Southwest Vinaigrette for a Chipotle Ranch, and you're looking at a reasonable meal from Moe's.

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Chopped Romaine Salad with Steak, Pico de Gallo, Shredded Cheese, and Chipotle Ranch

Save yourself 30 grams of fat and over double the saturated fat and trans fat by opting for grilled instead of fried when you're ordering a salad at Zaxby's. The fried chicken chain makes some good crispy chicken, but double the calories just isn't worth it if you're eating a salad every day.

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The Garden Blue Zalad

Wendy's may have a good number of salad options, but you're going to be in the red when it comes to one macronutrient for each of them. While this Taco Salad takes the cake for the worst of all of them, we're going with the Southwest Avocado Salad as the healthiest fast food salad from Wendy's because many of those fats are healthy monounsaturated fats from avocado. Plus, it serves up a high amount of protein. Go with the half to cut back on calories while maintaining just as much protein as the Taco Salad.

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Southwest Avocado Chicken Salad, Half