10 Unhealthiest Restaurant Pasta Dishes in America

Pasta is a beloved comfort food, but dining out at chain restaurants can transform this classic dish into a nutritional nightmare. Creamy sauces, oversized portions, and indulgent toppings can turn a classic into an unhealthy dish loaded with excessive calories, saturated fats, and sodium.

While a simple pasta dish can fit into a healthy diet, many restaurant offerings push the limits. From calorie-packed Alfredo creations to carb-heavy plates topped with fried meats and rich cheeses, these dishes can deliver more than an entire day's worth of calories and sodium in a single serving. Not to mention the high-fat content of these dishes, often exceeding guidelines for saturated fat.

To help you make better choices, we're highlighting 10 of the unhealthiest pasta dishes available at major restaurant chains. Whether dining out for a special occasion or trying to make healthier choices, knowing the unhealthiest restaurant pasta dishes can help you make informed decisions to enjoy your meal without compromising health. Read on, and for what to order instead, don't miss The #1 Healthiest Pasta Dish at 10 Major Restaurant Chains.

10 Unhealthiest Restaurant Pasta Dishes in America

• Chili's Cajun Pasta with Grilled Chicken
• TGI Friday's Cajun Shrimp & Chicken Pasta with Breadstick
• Olive Garden Tour of Italy
• Outback Steakhouse Queensland Chicken & Shrimp Pasta
• Ruby Tuesday Crispy Chicken Mac 'n Cheese
• Olive Garden Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo
• Macaroni Grill Mama's Trio
• Carrabba's Filet and Shrimp Pasta Toscana
• Cheesecake Factory Bistro Shrimp Pasta
• Cheesecake Factory Louisiana Chicken Pasta

Chili's Cajun Pasta with Grilled Chicken

Chili's Cajun Pasta with Grilled Chicken is a creamy, cheesy Alfredo pasta packed with sodium. The creamy, cheesy sauce is topped with Parmesan, one of the saltiest cheeses, which only adds to the dish's already high sodium content. Swapping the chicken for shrimp doesn't significantly change the nutritional profile, making this pasta equally indulgent either way. If you choose to indulge, consider sharing it or saving half for leftovers to keep portions more manageable.

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TGI Friday's Cajun Shrimp & Chicken Pasta with Breadstick

The Cajun Shrimp and Chicken Pasta at TGI Friday's has 1,410 calories, 58 grams of fat, and 2,760 milligrams of sodium per serving. The pasta dish comes with a hefty breadstick, adding to the dish's high-calorie content. Chopped red bell peppers dot the pasta dish but don't contribute enough to boost the fiber intake or help meet vegetable recommendations of three cups daily.

Olive Garden Tour of Italy

The Tour of Italy from Olive Garden is a calorie-heavy meal combining lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine Alfredo. This indulgent combination delivers a whopping 1,500 calories, 97 grams of fat, and 3,250 milligrams of sodium in a single serving. While it does provide 75 grams of protein, the high fat and sodium content make it one of the most indulgent items on the menu.

The dish is particularly concerning for its saturated fat content. With 50 grams of saturated fat per serving, it far exceeds the American Heart Association's recommended daily limit of 13 grams, which is based on keeping saturated fat to less than 6% of daily calories. Consistently consuming meals like this can contribute to elevated cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease.

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Outback Steakhouse Queensland Chicken & Shrimp Pasta

A creamy and meaty dish, Outback Steakhouse's Queensland Chicken and Shrimp Pasta packs more than 1,500 calories per serving. Although lower in sodium than other options on our list, it still contains nearly an entire day's worth of sodium in a single meal. For individuals with heart concerns or those monitoring their sodium intake, this dish surpasses the American Heart Association's recommended limit of 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day, making it a choice worth reconsidering.

Ruby Tuesday Crispy Chicken Mac 'n Cheese

The Crispy Chicken Mac 'n Cheese from Ruby Tuesday is a surprising source of both sugar and sodium, partly due to its tomato sauce, which can sneak in added sugar and salt. With 26 grams of sugar per order, this dish exceeds the American Heart Association's daily added sugar recommendation of 25 grams for women and 36 grams for men. On top of that, it packs more than 2.5 times the recommended daily sodium limit of 2,300 milligrams.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

Fortunately, Ruby Tuesday offers customization options to make this dish slightly less indulgent. Skipping the Parmesan cream sauce saves 90 calories and 250 milligrams of sodium, while forgoing the breadstick cuts another 130 calories and 180 milligrams of sodium.

Olive Garden Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo

The Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo at Olive Garden is a decadent meal consisting of cheese-filled tortelloni pasta cooked in an alfredo sauce topped with toasted breadcrumbs and sliced grilled chicken. The dish contains nearly 2,000 calories, roughly the average calorie intake of an adult in the United States.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting saturated fat to less than 10% of total daily calories. On a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet, this amounts to roughly 22 grams of saturated fat. With 76 grams, the Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo contains three times more than the recommended saturated fat.

Macaroni Grill Mama's Trio

Mama's Trio at Macaroni Grill is a combination platter with three of the restaurant's pasta dishes: Chicken parmesan, lasagna bolognese, and fettuccine alfredo. Individually, these dishes pack a significant amount of calories and sodium. Together, these three pasta dishes provide 2,110 calories and 3,940 milligrams of sodium.

The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight. The RDA represents the average daily protein intake necessary to meet nutrient requirements for most healthy adults. For someone who weighs 150 pounds, this amounts to 54 grams of protein per day—slightly more than half of the 103 grams of protein in the Mama's Trio dish.

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Carrabba's Filet and Shrimp Pasta Toscana

Carrabba's Filet and Shrimp Pasta Toscana is a decadent dish that combines fettuccine with spinach and mushrooms in a roasted garlic cream sauce, topped with steak filet and shrimp. At 2,140 calories and an astonishing 4,910 milligrams of sodium per serving, this meal far exceeds the daily recommended sodium limit of 2,300 milligrams. With over 2,000 calories, it can easily account for the entire daily caloric intake of many individuals, making it a poor choice for anyone aiming to lose or manage their weight.

Cheesecake Factory Bistro Shrimp Pasta

The Bistro Shrimp Pasta at the Cheesecake Factory is a bowl of spaghetti topped with mushrooms, tomato, arugula, and crispy battered shrimp in a basil-garlic-lemon cream sauce. Shrimp, on its own, is considered a lean protein, but its lower-calorie status changes when it's battered and fried. Ask for grilled instead of crispy battered shrimp to cut down on sodium and fat content.

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Cheesecake Factory Louisiana Chicken Pasta

Mushrooms, peppers, onions, and parmesan-crusted chicken top this bowl of pasta in a spicy New Orleans sauce. With a whopping 4,460 milligrams of sodium, the Cheesecake Factory's Louisiana Chicken Pasta significantly exceeds the general recommendation that adults limit sodium to 2,300 milligrams daily. Some of the other significant

When ordering pasta dishes out, opt for ones without a cream sauce to help cut down on calories, sodium, and fat. Some restaurants offer dishes that mix regular pasta and zucchini noodles for a lower-calorie option. And remember, sharing dishes or saving half of a meal as a leftover is always an option.