Health
12 Lowest-Sodium Options at Sit-Down Chain Restaurants
A single sit-down restaurant entree can routinely deliver more than a full day of sodium — 2,500, 3,000, even 4,000 milligrams in a single plate is not unusual. That is not a bug of one specific chain; it is how restaurant food works at scale, because salt is the cheapest way to make food memorable.
The flipside is that every sit-down chain also publishes a small handful of items that come in genuinely low. We pulled the twelve lowest entries from our database below.
The 12 lowest-sodium entries
- Jasmine Rice — Bonefish Grill (8 mg sodium, 220 cal)
- Jasmine Rice — Bahama Breeze (12 mg sodium, 220 cal)
- Fried Apples — Cracker Barrel (55 mg sodium, 180 cal)
- Tiramisu — Olive Garden (80 mg sodium, 470 cal)
- Black Tie Mousse Cake — Olive Garden (90 mg sodium, 680 cal)
- Tiramisu — Carrabba's Italian Grill (140 mg sodium, 590 cal)
- Brownie Bite Sundae — Applebee's (180 mg sodium, 390 cal)
- Buttered Corn — Texas Roadhouse (180 mg sodium, 180 cal)
- Crème Brûlée — Bonefish Grill (180 mg sodium, 610 cal)
- Tiramisu — Maggiano's Little Italy (180 mg sodium, 680 cal)
- Vera's Lemon Cookies — Maggiano's Little Italy (180 mg sodium, 410 cal)
- Brown Bread Mini Loaf — The Cheesecake Factory (250 mg sodium, 150 cal)
A few ordering moves that help everywhere
- Ask for sauces and dressings on the side — most of the sodium hides there.
- Skip the bread basket and any free chips/crackers; they are pure sodium delivery.
- Drink water with the meal; many sweetened beverages have hundreds of mg of sodium themselves.
- Pick grilled or roasted protein over breaded or fried; breading absorbs marinade salt.
None of this is dietary advice. Talk to your doctor if you have a medical reason to track sodium tightly.