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By Liz Hur, CBS 2 News
NEW YORK (CBS) ― All New York City restaurants must now drop trans fats or pay up. That's just one of the new rules going into effect at area restaurants.

But as CBS 2 HD has learned, not every eatery is playing by the new rules despite the fact that diners say they were long overdue.

It was another busy Sunday at the Flame restaurant in Midtown. From waffles to fries and omelettes, cooks served up whatever the heart desires and that's why patrons like Michael Weintraub keeps coming back.

"I've been eating here for 20 years," Weintraub said. "I look pretty good now."

He looks good and said he feels even better knowing what he will not be eating from now on -- trans fats, which are found in some cooking oils. These unhealthy oils are cheaper and have a longer shelf-life so while some restaurant owners feel defeated by the new ban, others say they've already made the switch and so far the change has not hurt their business.

"I think it's great," one eatery manager said. "We shouldn't be eating it anyway."

However, as CBS 2 HD has learned, though some fast-food establishments may say they have gotten the message, their actions have suggested otherwise.

Leaflets tacked onto the wall at one midtown McDonald's said, "0 Grams Trans Fat and Still Loving the Taste!" But the restaurant kept the nutritional information off the menus, relegating it to a chart on the back of the fliers: 740 calories for a quarter pounder with cheese, 620 for a McFlurry.

Even the leaflets were not in evidence at several nearby McDonald's. "I have no comment," said a manager at 10th Avenue and 34th Street.

McDonald's Corp. and Burger King Holdings Inc. were among the chains refusing to follow the new menu rule, which would require that certain fast food restaurants list calorie counts next to menu items in type that is at least as large as the price.

With city officials not planning to issue fines for violations of the new rules until Oct. 1, most chains seem to be holding out in the hopes that a New York Restaurant Association lawsuit in federal court will get the calorie rule thrown out.

By contrast, most fast-food chains reversed their initial opposition to the new trans fat ban and implemented it ahead of Sunday's deadline, the city Health Department reported.

The first phase of the trans fat regulation applies to oils, shortening and margarines used for frying and spreading—not to baked goods or prepared foods, or oils used to deep-fry dough or cake batter. These are covered by the second phase of the regulation, which takes effect on July 1, 2008.

But if the transition away from trans fats is going smoothly so far, the same cannot be said for the rule about posting calorie content. In the lawsuit over the regulation, the eateries argued that their First Amendment rights were being violated, and complained that the rule would turn each of their menu boards into a cluttered mess.

At one Burger King restaurant on Sunday, the nutritional information including calories was posted on a wall where few customers waiting to order their food appeared to notice it.

If they had, they could have learned that a triple Whopper with cheese has 1,230 calories -- 1,070 without mayonnaise—and a king-size chocolate shake has 1,260. The recommended daily calorie intake for an adult woman is about 1,800.

Lowell Stephens, a manager at the Burger King, said the information had been posted in the restaurant for at least a year and a half.

"A lot of people know that it's there," he said. "They can read it any time."

But when the city does start cracking down, posting the calories on a chart on the wall won't be good enough. City health officials have said that the information must be on the menus themselves, not on hard-to-see material tucked somewhere else in the store.

"It needs to be at the point of purchase," Health Department spokesman Andrew Tucker said Sunday. "The point being that customers can actually see it when they're deciding what to order."

Knowing trans fats clog arteries and contribute to heart disease, it's a no-brainer that the changes were made. Several diners we spoke to said they have no problem letting go of the fatty oils.

"The food tasted fantastic," patron Judy White said. "We didn't even know it."

"A lot of cities and towns are doing it. I think it's healthy and I think it's what we should do."

And for those restaurants that do not comply, health officials said they must beware. They will be fined anywhere from $200 to $2,000.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)