Experiences in dining out will vary from person to person, relative to taste in food and location. The fact that you are the type to dine out suggests you don't have issues with the food in the places you choose, for the most part. There are others of us that seem to have a lifestyle of dining out forced by work or lack of time to prepare healthy meals, or both. Other cases are folks that live the provincial life and reach the dining out experience but a few times a year. Any case you fall in, your dining experience can be healthy and tasty, if you hold fast to a good set of rules when dining out. Most good experiences are chalked up to bad experiences that teach you where not to go.
One good rule of thumb to hold on to, but might not be the true axiom of good dining, is the outward appearance of the restaurant. Any place with a certain amount of pride in their establishment will show it. Cracking paint, moldy looking woodwork or dirty windows might be a good consideration for passing by. There are very, very few places that I have enjoyed eating with smudgy windows, cracked walls or deteriorating wood structures. Usually the food follows suit, either by quality in preparation or by on the dishes on which it is served, most of which might be from a can or plastic bag. Nice brickwork, updated paint jobs, at least fair landscaping, even doors that close solid can nearly guarantee a clean environment with good food. That isn't a given, however, as you might go to a nice looking Chili's and get those cloudy looking plastic glasses with bits of food dried in the industrial dishwasher.
Once you've established that you can recognize a decent restaurant, you can consider the source of the food. This one is hard, because no one is going to bring out a list of how the food was prepared and where it came from. I use my own eyes and palate to judge. Italian food is a good example of this one. I think anyone can tell the difference between the texture of pasta from a Chef Boyardee can and from a set of boiling pots, one for the pasta and sauce. Even sauce from a can or jar can usually be discriminated from the real McCoy. Choosing an Italian restaurant that prides itself in their own recipes of homemade food over delivered packages of frozen Lasagna in a bag is most likely going to be more delicious, not to mention healthier with fewer preservatives.
Quality dinnerware is a big factor, in my book, for healthy dining as well. Clean is a given. I, for one, do not appreciate plastic glasses or plates being used to serve my food. A place that chooses this format is most likely not using a state of the art dishwasher and might not be putting your food on the most sanitary plate. Ceramic plates, drinks served in a glass, nice shiny silverware and nice smooth tabletops all can be cleaned easier and are not prone to hold particles or to host germs as those plastic restaurants will. The quality dinnerware isn't always tell-tale sign of good food, however. My favorite barbecue restaurant, which serves the absolute best chopped beef and deep fried okra, puts it on a Styrofoam plate with plastic forks from a bag, and the okra comes in a plastic bag. This is OK in my book because okra is an expensive vegetable and timely to prepare Sysco does it just fine.
Finding the restaurants that focus on the essence of food and spice to make a dish delicious is very important for the healthiest dining out experience. So many restaurants these days focus on preparing meat items with processed spices like monosodium glutamate (a meat tenderizer and flavor enhancer derived from glutamic acid) and covering it with sauce, cheese, fried onion strings or bacon, or all of the above. Side items are becoming more loaded with fat and salt than the main dish, in lots of cases, like loaded mashed potatoes, or they are fried to smithereens with all but no nutritional value remaining; the blooming onion being the best example there. In my opinion, this is one of the factors that contributed to my repeated high cholesterol results not that I'm placing all blame; after all, I do love ice cream. Find a place that serves broccoli or cauliflower without cheese sauce, or one that makes their own macaroni and cheese fresh with pasta, cheese, egg and salt. Try it at home and then test it out at different restaurants, you will find the ones that get it frozen with all of the preservatives and added ingredients that give it that "yummy" texture, like gluten. This idea is more easily achieved by transforming your own palate to tolerate fresher foods, not foods prepared with a shelf life to endure the shipping from Cleveland to Little Rock.
One way to get a healthier and delicious dining experience is to go international, here in the U.S. Ever been to a Pho Bac, or Pho Huy? Here you will find a rice noodle soup in a large bowl filled to the brim with a great broth, fresh greens and options of thinly sliced flank, brisket and sirloin with additional options like tendon or tripe for added flavor. These are all prepared fresh and have no processes ingredients. Middle Eastern or Mediterranean restaurants are good places to get quality foods prepared fresh. An item or two may come prepackaged like any restaurant, but most items are healthy in some way. Hummus is good example, or lentil soup, coming full of fiber and vitamins, or greens prepared in the culture's fashion, adding taste and nutrition to the meal. You will definitely be able to choose from items made fresh there in the restaurant, using the essence of the combination of foods with olive oil and spice to make it delightful. An authentic Mexican restaurant is another place to find good food prepared well, but may come with more sauces and cheese usually not packaged though, in my experience.
Either way you look at it, healthy and delicious dining is fun. Searching for those places that make it that way adds to the enjoyment. You rarely just happen upon those quality spots, so ask around some, but take a wild guess once in a while. Nothing like a good find that you get to brag about, makes you look cultured and tasteful. Happy eating.