Greg's Running Blog

I haven’t been eating out much lately and I definitely seek healthier choices when I do decide to eat out. Tuesday night me and my wife decided to celebrate the fact that we became US Citizens by going out for dinner. We have been eating at the two safe places I like, barbecue and the Mongolian grill, way too much so she wanted something different. It’s always hard to decide on a place as my wife is kind of picky and she is always concerned about what the kids can eat at a particular place as giving them mac and cheese at every restaurant we go is just not really a true option even if that’s what happens more often than not.

So she decided that we should go to Razzoo’s. Razzoo’s is a “Cajun cafe”. They serve fish, crawfish, shrimp and the like with some heavy sauces that have some kick to it. I used to go there and think that the food was pretty good. I enjoyed eating lunch there every now and then. I knew that their general menu wasn’t all that healthy but I had hopes to find something a bit more on the low cal side. I wanted to check their website prior going to get an idea about their food and nutritional information but we ran out of time and with two anxious kids and a wife in the car waiting I thought we better hit the road and go. As it turns out I didn’t miss much by not checking the website.

I usually don’t get too pissed off about restaurant menus nowadays as most of the time at least they’re trying their best with one or two healthy(er) items on the menu and the food I end up getting is usually half decent. But I got so pissed off after I read through the menu at Razzoo’s that I had to send them a letter so they knew how I felt. If you want the Cliff Note’s version their food is greasy super salty junk and I have not seen anything even remotely close to it in the past couple of months since I really started watching what I eat. I mean I’d go to McDonald’s over Razzoo’s any day of the week. Over at McDonald’s at least they have the balls to tell you what you’re putting in your mouth. Well I’m sure it isn’t out of the goodness of their hearts that they post the nutritional information but at Razzoo’s the utter and complete ignorance of having any kind of sensible food choice on their menu and the absolute lack of nutritional information is just not worthy of my, or anyone else’s, business. That was the short version. For the longer version feel free to read my letter that I have sent to them this morning.

Hi,

I have visited your Bryant Irving, Fort Worth, TX location the other night for dinner with my wife and two young children. We used to visit Razzoo’s on a regular basis but four months ago I have decided to lose weight and eat right. Losing weight while eating out is not an easy task so we have limited our eating out for the past four months.

Tuesday night called for a celebration and under my wife’s recommendation we went to Razzoo’s. I had doubts about possible food selections even before we got there but once I took a look at the menu all my doubts were gone. I knew for sure that there was no way I could eat anything even remotely healthy at your establishment. Was it not for our two young children I probably would have walked right out and never looked back.

But with two kids in tow it was no possible. We were stuck and we were going to have dinner at your restaurant. My wife opted for the fried catfish basket, a long time favorite of hers with a good kick of spices. My son ordered the children’s fish with fries and my daughter got the fried chicken tenders with fires. I have asked the waiter if he had information about the nutritional information of your menu items. He said that there is not a piece of paper that he could bring out for me to look at. Neither Chili’s nor Corner Bakery has nutritional information available to give the customers but both restaurants have nutritional information posted on their websites and they can look it up and provide you with the information upon request at the restaurant for any item in question. When I asked our waiter he said that was not possible either. Basically they serve food that they have no clue about. He had to go and ask what kind of fish was in your Tricky Fish menu item.

I thought that I would just go home and check on the least of the worsts that I would manage to pick out and see what the damage was by looking up the nutritional information on your website. Unfortunately your website does not provide this information either. In desperation I have opted to order the Tricky Fish with blackened catfish over dirty rice and crawfish etoufee and green beans. I figured the blackened fish can’t be that bad even though your menu mentions it is “butter basted like crazy” which is never a good sign.

What your menu has failed to mention was that it’s not only butter basted it is salt based like crazy too. Your food was so salty it was almost unpalatable. Our poor waiter had to keep shuttling water to us as if it was going out of style. The rest of the items on the plate must have also been basted in butter as the plate was oozing with fat. I have never seen such a small portion of green beans that were swimming in so much white creamy fat before. I have clearly made the wrong decision. I have passed on 2/3rd of the dirty rice and the garlic bread and the waiter had the gall to offer a to go box for the aftermath that was left on my plate. Needless to say I declined.

My son’s dinner consisted three tiny strips of fish with a large amount of fries. He’s only 5, weighing in at a solid 33 lbs and he was left hungry. Maybe because I did not let them order a soft drink and they did not get any of the empty calories from there. Luckily my 20 month old daughter left enough of her chicken strips to fill him up. Again, there were absolutely no healthy options for our children to eat from your menu.

All in all I was sorely disappointed with your food selection and total lack of nutritional information. Having a general idea about your food and its fat and salt content I can see why you chose not to disclose any of the information to your patrons. And to call a salad with “killer croutons and zippy dressing” topped with fried popcorn shrimp rabbit food is just plain wrong.

I run a weblog at www.gregstransformation.com about my weight loss transformation. I will be posting my review of Razzoo’s along with this letter for all my readers to see. Should you chose to reply I will be more than happy to publish your rebuttal as well.

Best Regards

Greg

Bottom line is that if you’re ever in Texas looking for some Cajun food and you care the least bit about your arteries and general health I’d stay away from Razzoo’s. I know that is what I’ll do. I’m also betting that this post will rank super high for Razzoo’s nutritional information and calories in search engines in no time, I know people looking for nutritional information about Uncle Julio’s seem to end up here. When people search for those keywords they should end up on the restaurant’s site not on a personal blog coplaining about the lack of such information. Maybe it’s time that the Razzoo’s folks rethink their lack of nutritional data on their website. Better yet, they should rethink their food choices. But then again what do I know? Looking at the menu and their patrons on site I’m probably no longer their target market.

UPDATE: I have actually received a response from Razzoo’s to my query. Read all about it in my Part 2 of the Razzoo’s Saga

Since I went running for the first time on Saturday I felt I needed some better shoes than the worn out running shoes that I bought for everyday wear a year ago and they have long been decommissioned to lawn mowing duty. So I went to the local sporting goods store and started looking for some running shoes. I didn’t really put a lot of thought into it and I probably should have but based on my history with running and the wear patterns of my shoes I have a natural running/walking gait meaning I neither pronate nor supinate. This means I can get away with a wide variety of shoes and most shoes in the store today will probably provide me with more support than I’d ever need. So the only drawback of getting too much support is a heavier shoe with a bit less cushioning.

I have been buying nothing but New Balance for the past 5 years and I have been very pleased with them whether I bought walking or running shoes. Granted that I mostly used them for everyday wear and casual walking nothing hard core. The store had an amazing variety of shoes and prices. I knew I wanted something more than the basic $40 shoes but I knew  that I didn’t want to spend $100 on my first set of running shoes. Then I found one that was selling for $69.99 and it said it was reduced from $119. Sounded like a pretty good deal, I liked the way the shoe looked so I tried it on. It has certainly fit great so I jogged around the store for a good bit and I was amazed just how much cushioning there was in these shoes. I haven’t felt anything like it in a long long time. So I bought them.

Then I went home and did my research post purchase to dismiss any cognitive dissonance (buyer’s remorse) I might have had about the shoes. Amazon’s Review of the New Balance MR1124 was great. It was close to 5 stars. So I figured if that many people like them they can’t be bad. Especially that some of the folks were willing to pay double of what I paid and were still happy about it. Sounded like a bargain to me.

The shoes fit great and they do feel great when I’m out there running. I’m thinking about buying a second pair so I’ll have one ready when this one wears out. They only last 350-500 miles.

I ran out of Nature’s Best Low Carb Isopure, Dutch Chocolate so I had to make a decision. Do I buy more of this stuff or do I try something else? The Isopure wasn’t bad, it was actually the most decent stuff I have found so far. I have had some store brand protein, both vanilla and chocolate from the local grocery chain that was pretty bad, clumped terribly and the taste was not very good either. It was also loaded with too much carb and too little protein. I have also tasted a friend’s Vitamin Shoppe brand chocolate protein which was just way too sweet. But it wasn’t a good sweet it was that fake Splenda sweet that lingers in your mouth forever. So the Isopure was the best stuff I have tasted so far. The only thing that bothered me is that while my friend’s 7.5lbs tub tasted really good the 3lbs tub I bought had a bit saltier taste to it. It wasn’t a huge difference but it was noticeable.

This same friend who got me onto Isopure told me that a friend of his was raving about another protein powder that is just phenomenal and blows everything away. my friend hasn’t tried it himself but I figured I’d give it a shot. So I went to GNC and signed up for their Gold Card and got a tub of this stuff: GNC Pro Performance AMP Amplified Wheybolic Extreme 60. The name is ridiculous. It was clearly thought up by some moronic marketing idiots who were probably locked in a room with nothing to eat or dring other than this protein shake until they came up with a name so ridiculous that would blow the competition away. Mission accomplished. Regardless of the name the content seems to be decent. It contains 60 grams of protein per serving, but a serving is 3 scoops of the stuff and there is only 17 servings in a 3lbs tub. It’s marketing gimmick again. Isopure had 50 grams of protein per servings and a there were 21 servings per tub. So while Isopure sold you 1050 grams of protein, GNC is selling you 1020 grams of protein per tub.

I guess the real question is how did it taste? I can see how some think the AMP Wheybolic Extreme is the best thing since sliced bread. It is much more creamy and less chalky than the Isopure Low Carb stuff. It is also less salty which is a good thing in my opinion. It smells like cocoa powder when you open it up. It dissolves great, even better than Isopure and I thought Isopure was awesome to start with when I compared it to the other junk I have seen. The only negative I have found is that the AMP has a bit more Splenda taste to it than I would have liked, it leaves a bit of aftertaste in your mouth, nowhere near as bad as the Vitamin Shoppe stuff. The flavor has a bit of a nutty taste to it which I personally like. My friend also had a chance to taste it and he wasn’t overly impressed by it. We both agreed that it’s a pretty decent tasting protein mix but based on the fanfare and expectations it has fallen short of being the cat’s meow. I won’t be returning the stuff, It’s definitely likable. I’ll report on my final decision once I got to the bottom of this 3 lbs tub.