The magazine went on a quest to find high street restaurants who cater for diners trying to eat healthily, either to lose weight or because of health reasons and today revealed its winning list.
They are:
- Pizza Express - Best healthy eating idea
- Zizzi - Best for special diets
- Wagamama - Best for busting hunger
- Yo! Sushi - Best for calorie counters
- Giraffe - Best for variety
- La Tasca - Best for gluten free
- Nando's - Best for online nutrition info
- Harvester - Best for those on a budget
Special diets
Pizza Express, which launched its 500 calorie Leggera pizza range in 2009 for calorie wary diners, before going on to list lower calorie wines and smaller desserts, also includes calorie information for all its dishes online, while diners with special diets are able to filter dishes online through Zizzi's website with options such as 'dairy free', 'soya free' and 'gluten free' included.
Spanish tapas chain La Tasca, which increased the number of dishes suitable for diners unable to tolerate gluten to 34 in February this year and stocks a gluten-free beer, celebrated the news it was the winner of the Best for gluten free category today.
La Tasca chief executive Simon Wilkinson said: "Here at La Tasca we are passionate about offering our customers a variety of dishes, so the launch of our gluten free offering has been a great way to make our menu more accessible to more people. The award win follows a period of significant change for the business and we’re thrilled to see this is being well received by both our customers and the media."
Healthy Food Guide's experts will outline why the winning chains were awarded for their efforts in the September issue of the magazine, out on 2 August.
Although including calorie information on menus is currently voluntary under the Department of Health's Responsibility Deal, more restaurants are pledging to help make their offerings healthier with public health responsibility partners from within the restaurant sector including Cafe Rouge, The Restaurant Group, Pizza Express, The Real Greek, Strada and Yo! Sushi.