VENUE INFO

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• Dunaway's Palazzo Ossigeno
• Oceanaire Seafood Room
• Three Sisters Cafe
• Taza Cafe

Stop by Taza Cafe for falafel wrap ($6.95), which gets a healthful protein boost from ground chickpeas. (Star file photo)

Get your omega-3s with the Oceanaire's grilled salmon. (Michelle Pemberton / Indy.com)

The tuna burger ($15) - made with ground tuna mixed with cilantro, scallions and peppers - is a healthful lunch alternative at Dunaway's. (Kelly Wilkinson / The Indianapolis Star)

Powerhouse potatoes from Three Sisters Cafe and Bakery (Michelle Pemberton for The Star)

Gelato Da Vinci, whose flavors include eggnog (from left), mixed berry and cake spectacular, prepares creamy frozen treats that contain less fat than ice cream. (Michelle Pemberton for The Star)

The healthful diner is no longer ignored or scoffed at. These days, his or her order is coming up exactly as requested.

"People are concerned more with what they're putting in their bodies," says registered dietician Annessa Chumbley, who, with Ruthanne Hilbrich (also a registered dietitian), founded and runs Flourish, a company that offers cooking demonstrations and kitchen boot camps designed to help bariatric patients prepare more healthful meals.

"A lot of restaurants I have seen recently are serving portion sizes other than the monstrous sizes we're (used to)," Chumbley continued. "Some restaurants are finally listening to people."

At issue are not just portion sizes, but also the food offered. Today's healthful eater demands whole foods that are deliciously presented. So in the interest of your belly, we've put together just a few of the healthful choices local restaurants are serving up by the plateful.

Healthful hangover breakfast:
Three Sisters Cafe & Bakery, 6360 Guilford Ave., (317) 257-5556.

If you're haggard and tired from a night out, greasy hash browns and buttery biscuits are likely on your mind. Opt instead for a less-processed platter of powerhouse potatoes. Try Three Sisters' Yukon gold potatoes mixed with onion and tofu and topped with fresh salsa ($3 per cup) and tofu scramble ($6) with mushrooms, onion, spinach, avocado and tomatoes.

Power lunch that's still on a bun:
Dunaway's, 351 S. East St. (317) 638-7663, www.dunaways.com.

Ahh, a burger does sit right in the gut. But there's all that fat. Dunaway's Tuna Burger ($15), which sous-chef Matt Mullins describes as "kind of like a salmon patty," features ground tuna mixed with cilantro, scallions and bell peppers, served on a Kaiser bun. Typically served with a delightful-sounding tomato-jalapeno-lime aioli, we suggest you ditch the aioli to cut the fat. The burger is served with a fresh fruit cocktail.

"It's high protein, low-fat," Mullins said. "It's got a lot of fresh herbs in there, with vitamins and minerals from those."

Eating to impress:
The Oceanaire Seafood Room, 30 S. Meridian St. (317) 955-2277, www.theoceanaire.com.

If important clients are in town, you're often forced into a steakhouse or out to a swank bar. The Oceanaire Seafood Room offers a sleek experience with a chance to avoid all the fat. (Don't get us wrong, you can still have the fat with their Stone Crab Claws, which are served with butter.). The restaurant serves 25 varieties of fish daily, said chef Ryan Nelson

"We have the buying power to purchase the best," he said.

Nelson recommends the grilled salmon (prices vary by season, from $21 to $42), because of the omega-3s and the good cholesterol promoting properties. The grilled or broiled salmon is cooked to the customer's specifications and plated by itself (in a big, 10-ounce serving).

Decidedly decadent dessert:
Gelato Da Vinci, 14390 Clay Terrace Blvd., Suite 170, Carmel. (317) 816-9100, www.gelatodavinci.com.

Do you normally take on a wounded tone when the server asks if you want dessert? "No, none for me," you say, sadly. But when those gooey ice cream sundaes pass by your table, you look at them longingly. Enter Gelato Da Vinci in Carmel, which always has 13 to 14 gelato flavors in the case (a single serving is $2.65), as well as sorbet for you real ascetics. Owner Jim Colvin says all of the frozen treats are made on-site.

"Gelato is very low in fat," Colvin said. "Ours has almost the exact same calorie and fat content as frozen yogurt. It's really a fairly healthy choice."

While Colvin demurs when asked if gelato is a health food, he does note that gelato is 7 percent fat. Ice cream has between 16 and 24 percent fat. Indeed, gelato cannot be called ice cream under governmental regulations. "It's in a different category," Colvin says.

One for the road after hitting the strip:
Taza Cafe (The Gyro Joint), 825 Broad Ripple Ave. (317) 255-8835.

Walk past and you could miss this gyro and falafel joint in a drunken blink. Germane to your other options for a last meal of the day, Taza is a good spot to hit. Yep, falafel is fried, but the healthful proteins and fibers from the chickpeas make for a simple but hearty late-night snack.

We also send out late-night love to the Ripple Bagel & Deli (also on Broad Ripple Avenue), home of the steam-heated bagel sandwich. Get your bagel topped with just about anything under the sun, including lean lunchmeats, spaghetti sauce, hummus or avocado. Just stay out of the fast food drive-thrus; those fries will do nothing for your thighs.

Real-world eating

Annessa Chumbley and Ruthanne Hilbrich, founders of Flourish (www.flourishyourlife.com), see many clients who are trying to slim down and eat healthfully. This includes wiggling out of high-calorie, high-fat, low-nutrition meals eaten out. Here are their top tips for eating out, all of which play into their philosophy of living in a real world but applying healthful diet strategies.

• If you're worried about portion sizes (and you should be), cut the meal in half and request a box before eating, Chumbley suggests.

• "Learn to be satisfied with just having a cup of soup," Chumbley says. The idea of a complete meal being composed of protein, starchy vegetables, etc., is the best way to view a meal.

• Ask for sauces on the side. That way you can have just a taste of cheese sauce, rather than a drenching.

• "One thing that we like to do in Flourish is really and truly have people begin to appreciate the good company that they're in and develop the friendships," Hilbrich says. "Focus on the people and the positive experience that it can be. Enjoy the conversation."

• As much as you can, stick to healthful proteins and vegetables. Focus on the "vehicles" for your food, and be aware that the starchy, processed foods (white rice, bread, etc.) will add empty calories.

• Don't drink your calories, either as alcohol or juice. Juice is "liquid candy," Hilbrich says, and alcohol, "just removes our inhibitions, and we eat more."

• Be aware that, while it is wonderful that restaurants post their nutritional information online and in their restaurants, the calories and other figures vary from kitchen to kitchen.

• "You're in charge," Chumbley says. "Look at the dish. See if there's anything you can have them remove." While this might make for flustered dining partners and 10-minute conversations with the wait staff, remember that you are not only the person paying for the food, you're also the one who is consuming it.

• When it's all said and done, Hilbrich notes, fat is fat is fat. That goes for butter, margarine or olive oil. Although olive oil is touted as a healthier options, "Ultimately, it's all about the amount of fat that you take in during the day," she says. "It's important for cardiovascular health."

• Go for whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible. "Those are the healing foods," Chumbley says. "It's like giving your car the right kind of fuel."

• Learn your own boundaries, and do whatever it takes to live healthfully, Hilbrich advises. If one taste of barbecue sauces sets you off on a whole-bottle-binge, stay away from the sauce. Seriously.

Words can hurt you. Or help you.

No, thanks: Creamy, cheesy, breaded, fried, smothered, low-carb (this often means the restaurant pumps up the fat), aioli (a fancy kind of mayo).

Yes, please: Grilled, baked, steamed, broiled, poached.

Get a fast and healthful fix

Fast food and other chains are stepping up to the healthful plate, too.

• For fast eats, Wendy's Dollar Menu has chili, baked potatoes and salad. Plus, this fast-food stop serves Minute Maid Lite.

• Arby's Market Fresh Sandwiches, thinly sliced meats on a variety of breads, are a good option. (Nix the mayo, though.)

• Check out the kids' menu at McDonald's for smaller portions with healthier options, such as fruit and yogurt.

• Applebee's has a Weight Watchers menu with dishes such as Teriyaki Steak 'N Shrimp Skewers, which includes grilled steak and shrimp, rice, veggies and teriyaki sauce on the side.

• Ask for veggies steamed, not stir-fried, at P.F. Chang's, and you've got a healthful meal. Or try Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps as an entree for a low-cal protein wrapped in crisp lettuce.

- Jolene Ketzenberger

On the Web

While finding out the damage you did to your diet might not be heartening, getting nutritional information on dishes is an important step towards healthful restaurant eating. Here's a sampling of Web sites with diet information on specific restaurant dishes:

Calorieking.com: Find the nutritional info for more than 50,000 generic and brand name foods, including more than 260 restaurant chains.

Dietfacts.com: This database catalogs nutritional info for nearly 43,000 items, including more than 400 restaurants.

Fitday.com: This site allows users to keep an online journal to analyze and track foods, nutrition and weight-loss goals.

Dottisweightlosszone.com: A real woman who lost a lot of weight gives lots of real advice.

- Jolene Ketzenberger and Jenny Elig