LOW-FAT OFFERINGS FAIL TO BRING HOME BACON FOR RESTAURANT CHAINS.

Byline: Martin Zimmerman Dallas Morning News

The demise of McDonald's McLean Deluxe hamburger recently is the latest evidence that restaurant patrons often say one thing and eat another.

Since the early '90s, restaurant chains have been experimenting with low-fat and low-calorie dishes. The motivation was twofold: Public health watchdog groups were regularly lambasting restaurant operators for serving up what one group called ``a heart attack on a plate.'' And marketing surveys indicated a significant slice of the dining public wanted lighter, healthier fare.

So far, though, it hasn't worked out that way. NPD Crest, a suburban Chicago-based market research firm, regularly asks focus groups what they want on a menu - and what they actually order.

``Their attitudes typically don't correlate with their behavior,'' said NPD's Bonnie Riggs. The focus group results - and the experiences of restaurants ranging from McDonald's to Brinker International to Taco Bell - point up an anomaly. At a time when food companies such as Frito-Lay and Nabisco are making millions on new lines of low-fat and no-fat products, restaurant patrons are shunning light meals.

``I feel like I'm getting gypped when I order them,'' said Philip Peters of Dallas, who was having lunch with friends recently at a Dallas restaurant.

While there are some glimmers that restaurant patrons may be finally warming up to low-fat entrees, a much broader trend among chains such as Pizza Hut, Wendy's and Jack in the Box is to provide their customers with ever-bigger, ever-meatier and ever-cheesier pizzas and hamburgers.

``Without question, the chains are now going to the other end of the (nutritional) spectrum,'' said Raj Chaudhry, publisher of Chain Update, a restaurant industry newsletter. ``Jack in the Box is offering what looks like a half-a-steer burger.''

Not that there haven't been some successes in the health-conscious category.

T.G.I. Friday's, the Dallas-based casual dining chain, suffered through four years of unspectacular sales of its low-fat dishes. But recent results have been appetizing, says Jody Mortenson, Friday's executive director of research and development. Sales of the chain's no-meat garden burger are now comparable to any nonhamburger sandwich on the menu, she said, and the chain's Pacific Coast tuna entree recently won kudos on a national TV report on restaurant nutrition.

``We got so many letters and telephone calls thanking us for putting those items on the menu that we just knew we were hitting a niche,'' Mortenson said.

Bennigan's has seen its Health Club chicken platter become one of its best-selling entrees.

Even so, recent history is littered with examples of low-fat food gone wrong.

The McLean Deluxe, with half the fat of a Big Mac, was supposed to revolutionize fast-food dining. Instead, it was a victim of slow sales and ``menu streamlining'' by McDonald's.

Brinker unveiled its Guiltless Grill low-fat dishes with high hopes in the fall of 1993. The meals featured half the fat of the regular fare at its Chili's restaurants and were praised for their good taste - but they have been slighted by diners.

``It's more than 10 percent of our menu, but less than 10 percent of our sales,'' Brinker spokesman Harry Day said of the offerings. ``We sell more of any one of our burger items than all of Guiltless Grill combined.''

Applebee's International, a casual dining chain, introduced light meals five years ago. Only in the past two years ``have we finally seen the needle begin to move'' on sales, says Ron Marks, Applebee's vice president of research and development. And even now, the light entrees are only ``a nominal success,'' he said.

Taco Bell, a division of PepsiCo Inc., rolled out its Border Lights menu - a collection of tacos and burritos with half the fat of the chain's regular offerings. Border Lights are now widely perceived as a flop by industry analysts, an impression reinforced by the recent news that sales at Taco Bell units open for at least one year slumped four percent in 1995.

For now, at least, the company is sticking by the brand and says there are no plans to drop the line at this time.

Chains that specialize in light fare have also stumbled. For instance, Fresh Choice, a salad-making chain, has been closing units due to slow sales.

So what's the problem? Restaurant pros are puzzled by that question. Some say that people want to splurge when they dine out. Faced with lurid menus featuring mozzarella-stuffed, deep-fried jalapenos and deep-dish fudge brownie sundaes, ``when the moment of truth comes, it's easy to fall off the wagon,'' says Applebee's Marks.

There's also a perception that low-fat meals aren't a good value. Light entrees sometimes cost more than regular dishes. And even when they're cheaper, the portions are often smaller. For instance, the low-fat chicken fajita platter at Chili's is $7.99, compared with $8.49 for the regular version, but it has less chicken.

Restaurant chains had hoped that recent innovations in better-tasting low-fat products - especially cheese and other dairy items - would result in healthy dishes that tasted so good, nutrition-conscious diners wouldn't be able to resist.

Unfortunately, consumers still tend to dismiss low-fat food as bland and unsatisfying - what Marks calls ``the cottage cheese and tomato wedge stigma.''

Some companies, such as Brinker, have responded by scattering low-fat offerings throughout the menu. Applebee's takes the opposite tack, believing diners want to know where to look for low-fat offerings.

In any case, restaurants believe they have little choice but to continue offering health-conscious fare, even in the face of diner indifference. One reason is the much-discussed ``veto vote'' - the person in a party of four who nixes a lunchtime restaurant choice because there's nothing on the menu that fits his or her diet.

``When we go out to lunch, there's always one person who orders'' a low-fat meal, said Lisa Hylbert of Dallas, another restaurant patron. ``Otherwise, we wouldn't go.'' Hylbert's friend, Tammy Tallent, stuck to a low-fat regimen during her recent pregnancy and said, ``I wouldn't go to any restaurants where I knew there was nothing I could eat.''

Restaurants are also aware of the need to keep up with the competition. And as the population ages and as more and better low-fat food offerings are devised, hopes remain strong that sales will slowly improve over time.

A recent development that restaurant chains will be watching closely is how olestra, the controversial fat substitute, fares in market tests this year. Cleared for use in potato chips and other salty snacks, olestra is plagued by side effects.

``Frito-Lay has vats of it for making potato chips,'' said Marks of Applebee's, ``and to me that's only a step away from putting it in restaurant deep fryers and making fat-free fried chicken.''