DISH: Thai Sweet Chili Wings

RESTAURANT: Real Sports Bar & Grill

LOCATION: Maple Leafs Square, 15 York St.

PRICE: $14.49

You can fill your belly with a lot of food for 1,308 calories.

You could eat a pair of foot-long BLT sandwiches from Subway.

You could munch your way through 29 honey dip Timbits or 19 cups of microwave popcorn or 376 baby carrots.

For 1,308 calories, you could indulge in a three-course meal from The Keg Steakhouse. This decadent dinner includes a shrimp cocktail, an eight-ounce sirloin steak, a Caesar salad, vegetables and mushrooms and, for a sweet finish, a mini butter tart with vanilla ice cream.

Or, for the same amount of calories, you could eat six Thai sweet chili chicken wings from Toronto’s Real Sports Bar & Grill.

Six. Chicken wings. For 1,308 calories. And — the even scarier bit — 93 grams of fat.

Even after three and a half years of writing The Dish, I’m floored by those nutrition numbers.

In 2010, ESPN Mobile declared Real Sports Bar & Grill “North America’s Best Sports Bar.”

The sprawling space, a fixture of Maple Leaf Square by the Air Canada Centre, seems like the ultimate sports haven.

It has 36 kinds of beer, a 39-foot HD screen, captain’s chairs, a sweeping bar and more TVs than you could possibly watch at one time, including, I am told, several in the men’s washroom and one over every urinal.

According to Real Sports, more than one million people have come to the bar to dine, drink and cheer on their favourite team since it opened in June 2010.

The Dish thought some of those patrons might like to know the calorie count for one of the bar’s more popular items.

While the burgers and nachos are perennial favourites, several servers told me the Thai sweet chili wings — one of 14 wing flavours — get the most orders.

I sent a half dozen, along with the accompanying radish, celery stalk, two carrot sticks and dipping sauce, to the laboratory for analysis.

Like me, registered dietitian Shannon Crocker was flabbergasted by the results.

“The calories, fat and sodium are ridiculous for six wings — and a few veggies with dip.

“Remember KFC’s Double Down sandwich that had the nutrition world up in arms? Well, you could eat two of those and still have less calories and fat than six wings.”

To recap, six Thai Sweet Chili wings contain 1,308 calories and 93 grams of fat.

For the average man, that’s about half his daily calorie requirement and his full allotment of fat. For the average woman, that’s about two-thirds of her daily calorie needs and almost double the recommended daily intake of fat.

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The half dozen wings contain 2,290 milligrams of sodium — about one teaspoon of salt — which is the maximum recommended daily allotment.

Crocker knows, as do I, that diners who order chicken wings do not have nutrition top of mind.

“They know they’re not good for them, obviously. But I’m not sure most people could imagine how “not-good-for-you” they truly are.”

The Dish has investigated chicken wings at other restaurants, including those from Duff’s Famous Wings. In 2011, an order of 10 Buffalo wings tossed in hot sauce contained 539 calories and 28 grams of fat. A treat, yes, but not over-the-top outrageous.

The wings served at Real Sports are certainly big — plump and juicy with many bites of meat per wing — but Crocker points out they are still likely considered a snack or starter, rather than a meal.

“The worst of it is, this is not going to fill you up, so it’s likely just the beginning of the calorific indulgence.”

When it comes to chicken wings, there isn’t much you can do to make them more nutritionally sound. Ordering them without a sauce will cut down on the salt. Picking off the skin will drastically reduce the fat content. But then, what’s the point?

Crocker would love to see restaurants offer skewers of grilled chicken breast with wing sauce on the side so health-conscious wing lovers could relish the taste without the calorie overload.

Until then, she recommends wing aficionados treat themselves less often.

“If you’re a Leaf’s season ticket holder and stopping for wings every time there’s a game, you really need to reconsider your snacking options.”

VERDICT:

These six wings contain the same amount of calories — and 26 more grams of fat — than a three-course steak meal.

Nutritional Information

Serving size: 509 grams, or six wings

Calories: 1,308

Fat: 93 grams

Sodium: 2,290 milligrams

Carbohydrates: 56 grams

Protein: 60 grams