Darden

Dining out just got a little bit healthier. This morning, Darden, the world's largest full-service restaurant company, announced today that it's partnering with Michelle Obama and her "Let's Move!" campaign to cut calories and sodium in its menu items.

Over the next five years, Darden's portfolio of restaurants — which includes The Olive Garden and Red Lobster — will aim to cut calories and sodium by 10 percent. Over the next decade, the goal is to reformulate, re-size, or remove offerings in order to slash calories and sodium by 20 percent. Fruits and vegetables will now be the default side dish options on Darden's children's menus.

It's great to hear that one of America's most influential restaurant groups has just made a vow to help America get healthier. Will this impact how often you frequent Red Lobster, The Olive Garden, or any of Darden's other restaurants?

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While the country's most celebrated chefs ready themselves for global restaurant expansion, nationwide chain Red Lobster wishes to stay afloat by lowering its prices. Darden Restaurants executives hope the roughly half-dozen new menu items — which will run customers $13 to $17, as opposed to a current average tab of $19 — will combat declining sales.

The new menu, which debuts Nov. 16, will "allow guests to experience lobster in a new and affordable way," executive Salli Setta said. "It has become incumbent that we have a wide variety of affordable entrées on the menu." The lineup includes lobster bisque, shrimp flatbread, and a New England lobster roll with lobster, mayonnaise, lemon, and spices on a buttered roll for $14 at lunch and $15 at dinner.

Hopefully, Red Lobster won't fall prey to the bad budget lobster roll. Does the menu sound like it has promise?

Source: Flickr User me and the sysop