Most protein content guides assume home-cooked, weighed portions — useful for planning, less useful for the reality of eating out. Here's a more realistic set of estimates for common restaurant and takeout meals.
Fast food and quick service
A standard fast food grilled chicken sandwich typically runs 30-37g of protein; a double cheeseburger runs 30-35g; a chicken burrito bowl with a full protein portion (chicken, beans, and often some queso or cheese) commonly lands 40-55g depending on the specific chain's portioning; a footlong turkey or chicken sub runs roughly 35-45g across the full sandwich.
Sit-down and casual dining
A grilled chicken breast entrée at a casual chain (typically an 8-10oz portion, larger than a home-cooked serving) runs 45-60g; a salmon entrée similarly portioned runs 40-50g; a steak entrée varies enormously by cut and size but commonly lands 45-65g for a standard 8-10oz sirloin or similar; a full rack of ribs can exceed 70-80g, though it's usually eaten alongside a large amount of fat and sauce-driven calories.
Where restaurant portions genuinely differ from home cooking
Restaurant protein portions are routinely 1.5-2x the size of a standard home-cooked serving used in most nutrition databases (a "chicken breast" at a restaurant frequently weighs 8-10oz vs. the 4-5oz portion this site and most databases use as a baseline) — this cuts both ways: it's easy to underestimate protein intake eating out (you're getting more than you think) just as easily as it's easy to overestimate calories from the accompanying sauces, oils, and sides.
The genuinely hard categories to estimate
Mixed dishes — pasta with protein, stir-fries, curries, casseroles — are the hardest to estimate with any real precision without a menu's actual nutrition disclosure, since the ratio of protein to sauce, starch, and vegetables varies enormously by preparation. Where available, checking the restaurant's published nutrition information (increasingly required by law for larger chains) beats any general estimate on this page.
Practical takeaway
Restaurant and takeout meals are rarely the protein-desert people sometimes assume — a chicken entrée, a burger, or a burrito bowl commonly delivers 30-55g of protein in a single meal, often more than a home-cooked equivalent portion, precisely because restaurant portions tend to run larger than standard nutrition-label servings.