Small Plates & Snacks

37 grams of fat. In a bowl of cucumbers.

It sits in the SkinnyLicious section, and that's my objection. Everything about the framing says light, while the sesame oil and soy dressing carries 1,850 mg of sodium, roughly four-fifths of a day. You get 2 grams of protein for 470 calories.

It tastes good, and I'd order it.

Just order it knowing what it is, a sharp cold counterweight to something rich. Better still, make it at home with scored cucumber, sesame oil, soy, garlic and chilli. Salt the cucumber for 20 minutes and drain it first, or it waters the dressing down within the hour.

The Cheesecake Factory has posted the recipe for this salad on its own site, so you can see exactly what goes into it.

Arugula over beets, orange segments and avocado, with radish, crispy quinoa and a pinch of Maldon salt, the flaky sea salt made in Maldon, Essex, since 1882. 290 calories. The fat, 12 grams, is the lowest of the five SkinnyLicious salads.

7 grams of protein won't carry you through the afternoon. Order it as a starter. No gluten or wheat is listed, only milk and soy.

This shouldn't work and it does. Ground beef, cheese, pickle and onion rolled in a spring roll wrapper and fried, served with a dip that's essentially burger sauce. 980 calories and 43 grams of protein puts it among the better-balanced appetizers here, and at 1,890 mg the sodium is under half what the Buffalo Blasts will cost you.

The pickle is doing the real work. Take it out and you've got a fried cheese tube.

16 grams of protein and 25 grams of fat. In its SkinnyLicious small-plates section, that's the most protein and the least fat.

Four crisp corn tortillas are rolled around chicken, green chiles, roasted corn and cheese, and they're served with avocado cream, guacamole and salsa verde.

Corn tortillas aside, gluten and wheat both appear in the allergen list. So do milk and soy. At 420 calories and 1,000 mg of sodium, it's the first thing I'd order from that section.

Fried crab and cream cheese parcels at 550 calories, and honestly one of the more sensible things in the appetizer section. Nothing here is light, but this is a long way from the Buffalo Blasts. The filling is cream cheese first and crab second, which is how these are made everywhere and worth knowing if you're expecting a crab cake in pastry. Shellfish is listed, along with gluten, wheat, milk and soy.

34 grams of fat, 14 grams of protein, 1,050 mg of sodium. Order them hot and eat them immediately — the wrapper goes leathery within a few minutes, and reheated wontons are never worth it.

It sits on the SkinnyLicious small plates list at 570 calories, the heaviest dish in that section, and 46 grams of fat, also the most there.

Bacon and a maple-butter glaze are why. Roasted sprouts and crispy leaves get tossed in both. The leaves are the best part.

410 mg of sodium, the lowest of the six small plates. Gluten and milk are listed, and no pork allergen, despite the bacon.

410 calories. Only the Soup of the Day and the Chicken Pot Stickers come in lighter among the appetizers, so if you want a starter that doesn't wreck the main course, this is one of three. Small crab cakes pan-crisped and served with a mustard dipping sauce. The mustard is doing real work, cutting through the fried crust.

Both fish and shellfish are listed, plus gluten, wheat, milk and egg. 600 mg of sodium.

45 grams of protein and 78 grams of fat. Both are the highest figures in the Small Plates and Snacks section.

Mozzarella and fontina are cut into thick batons, breaded and fried, and the fontina is there because it melts smoother and nuttier than mozzarella, which on its own turns rubbery as it cools.

Marinara comes on the side. Eat them before they cool. Vegetarian, 1,070 calories and 2,320 mg of sodium, with gluten, egg, soy, wheat and milk listed.

Zucchini is about 95% water. Fry it in breadcrumbs and serve it with ranch and parmesan, and you get 76 grams of fat and 1,000 calories out of a vegetable.

The breading soaks up oil while the water inside steams the zucchini soft.

It's vegetarian. Sodium runs 2,050 mg. I'd split it among 3 or 4 people as a snack rather than order it as a side for one.

It's the vegetarian answer to the Korean Fried Chicken, and at 660 fewer calories under a sweet-hot chilli glaze, I'd order it over the chicken version anyway.

It won't fill you. 11 grams of protein. That's a plate to share.

1,150 calories and 2,570 mg of sodium, more than a day's salt. Cauliflower survives frying because the florets hold their shape where softer vegetables collapse. Eat it fast, because the batter stays crisp under the glaze for about 4 minutes and then it doesn't.

260 calories, with 25 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein. Fat supplies about 87% of those calories, so the vinaigrette is doing most of the work.

The menu describes it in four words, tossed in our vinaigrette, and it's the smallest salad in the SkinnyLicious section on calories, carbs and sodium alike.

Order it as a side. Ask for the dressing separately. Then use half.

Elote is Mexican street food, grilled corn rolled in crema, cotija and chilli, and this is a respectable version. The corn is the least of it. 54 grams of fat comes from the crema and cheese.

710 calories, 14 grams of protein and 1,000 mg of sodium, which is low by the standards of this menu, and it's vegetarian with gluten, milk and egg listed.

Nearly all the search traffic for street corn is people trying to make it at home. They're right to. Corn, mayonnaise, lime, cotija and chilli powder, 15 minutes on a very hot grill until the kernels blacken in patches. The charring is the flavour, so don't pull it early.

42 grams of fat in a 510-calorie dish, which works out to about 74% of the calories coming from fat. That's the fontina, the parmesan and the white wine butter the mushrooms bake in. It's also one of the gentlest plates on the menu for salt at 500 mg, and it's vegetarian with only 19 grams of carbohydrate.

Mushrooms release a lot of water as they cook. Baking them slowly lets that liquid reduce back into the butter sauce rather than pooling on the plate, and it's the reason the sauce tastes of mushroom and not just of garlic.