Fine Dining - Burger King: Is the Upgraded Whopper Good?

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

👑🍔 Burger King Returns: New History, Three Whoppers, and a Septemburger Showdown 🍔👑 Fill out the Septemburger 2026 Bracket here by 11:59PM PST on September 15th, 2026!! It's been three years since I last covered Burger King, so Andrew Carter (@andrewcahtah) joins me to find out what's changed since 2023 AND revisit the food as BK enters Septemburger 2026 against BurgerFi. There's just one problem: Andrew is very much NOT a Burger King fan. Can the King win him over, or is this tournament matchup already over before it's even started? 📚 Updating the Burger King Story with Everything That's Happened Since 2023, Including Patty the A.I. 👑 Burger King vs. BurgerFi in SEPTEMBURGER 2026! 🍔 Whopper, Texas Double Whopper, & Loaded Jalapeño Whopper 🍟 Fries & Onion Rings Combo Together 👑 We Try the Crown Nuggets 🐔 The Original Chicken Sandwich SUCKS 🥧 Hershey Sundae Pie Ain't It for Andrew 🎂 A Little Girl Behind Andrew DEMANDS His Attention 🥩 Calibration Station: Andrew's Best Restaurant Ever Is a Very Recent Peter Luger Experience 🍎 His Worst? An Applebee's That Proved BBQ Can Be Awful Fill out the Septemburger 2026 Bracket here by 11:59PM PST on September 15th, 2026!! 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Who deserves to advance in Septemburger 2026: Burger King or BurgerFi? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY:🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, extended Yelp segments & more): patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: youtube.com/channel/UCLbraNhL6KhDPkdSWt2yiuw 🔗 All links: linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 Guest: Andrew Carter | IG: @andrewcahtah Patreon Producers:Sue Ornelas, Joyce Van, & Robert McLaughlin Patreon Subscribers:David Ornelas, Kellie Baldwin, Jeremy Horwitz, Herbert Amaya, Simone Davalos, Scott Bennett, Amy Reinhart, Josef Castaneda-Liles, Travis Langley, & Michelle Elmer Free Patreon Followers:Joe Warszalek, Lauren Cummings, Grace Krainak, Keri Estes, Robert Duran, Patrick Elliott, Dave Plummer, Nicholas Volney, Michael Gerard, Tracy Molino, Phuong Duong, Tyler Robinson, Brandon Gully, Mason Cruz, Michael Milito, Mez, Aaron Hubbard, Steff, Renae Michael, Crystal C., NiZ, Science Broe, Jahid Ahmed, Jewell Hermann, Macky Markar, Morawski4, & Kellie Bowes 👉 NEXT WEEK: I visit the oldest currently-operating McDonald's with VyVy Nguyen! 🍟🏛️ We're digging into this historic location before McDonald's enters Septemburger 2026 against Fatburger the following week. Fill out the Septemburger 2026 Bracket here by 11:59PM PST on September 15th, 2026!!

Burger King advertises that we can have it our way, but what if the way we want it is to eat somewhere else? Having recently upgraded the Whopper, Burger King is currently writing a self-congratulatory wave of satisfaction after their CEO dunked on the head of McDonald's with his willingness to eat his own product with palpable enthusiasm. Personally, I've had a complicated relationship with Burger King in that every year or two, I remember it exists and regrettably caved to nostalgia. It's never going to be as good as it was before I'd been exposed to better burgers, but hey, at least I got a cardboard hat out of it. This week, we hit up the Burger King seen next to Doc Brown's garage and Back to the Future and went nuts on Woppers, crown-shaped chicken nuggets, and the legendary Hershey's Sunday pie. Does Burger King have a shot at eliminating BurgerFi from the September 2,026 tournament this week? By the end of this episode, we'll have our answer.

Stay tuned. And this is the Fine Dining Podcast. The best burger. I can see that all you're going for me. Was that really the Burger King that was in Back to the Future? It'd be a crazy thing for me to lie about. But yeah, it was. That's why you had us go to that one.

Yeah. It makes sense. Yeah. I never put that together. What's funny is the date that they time traveled to. That's Back to the Future Day is October 21st, 2015, I think. So that day, a bunch of people gathered at that Burger King. and they closed for the day.

That's funny. Like they like ran away from their responsibility. Wow. That's amazing. Hello. And welcome to the fine dining podcast, the quest to compare all restaurants to Chili's. I am your host, Michael Ornellis. And this is week two of the September 2th, tournament.

Burger King will put the wapper up against the Burger Fi hamburger that I reviewed last week to see who can advance to the semifinals. I'm joined this week by a director and writer who I met doing studio tour at Paramount Studios almost a decade ago. He's hilarious. His hips don't lie. And he's the human equivalent of the excitement you get when a band comes out for an encore after a concert that you knew was coming because they didn't play their biggest hit yet.

It's Andrew Carter. It's a very nice intro. Thank you. I'm not sure if I fully will live up to that. But that's very, very kind. To being the human feeling of an encore. That's a very nice description. That's, wow.

How you doing? I'm good, man. I'm doing well. A little tired. We were just traveling with our two and a half year old to Connecticut to see my family. And we just got back. And the three-hour jet lag is actually, I think, harder than like an eight-hour one because it's like just enough. Because it's like just so slight that you're like, I want to try and keep my schedule.

I want to try and keep my schedule. I want to try and sleep a little more. But our baby has always been a relatively early riser. Speaking of your household, your family. Yeah. You told me that Burger King has a very special place in the zeitgeist of your home. A little bit. Yeah.

If Zoe and I are discussing dinner plans and we don't have a plan yet or if something's not cooked or we're figuring it out, I'll just very deadpan. So what do you think for dinner tonight, Burger King? Yeah. Just throw it out every once in a while and she'll come back with them. Maybe Long John Silver's. Like she'll, you know, it's like a running bit of like one of my worst places. Oh my, dude. is where is there one?

Bakersfield. I did a road trip to have one of the worst meals. Wow. It was bad. I'm not surprised. And then I just had it a lot when I was a kid. My dad and I would go after soccer practice, we would call them out together lunches where we would go to Burger King or McDonald's or Taco Bell.

And this will come back later in our reviews of the food, but he would eat with me. So it leads me to believe that it was not. that bad if like a you know i love the idea that late 30s early 40s not only did my dad take me to burger king he ate it too well he that's what i'm saying i think that like which you know just that is a metric is very funny to me well yeah because you're you know when you're a kid you're what am i going to go two places yeah right he's like oh you enjoy this son and he's like honey you know we need some prosciutto and cantaloupe yeah what's your history with it my history with burger king was literally once they got the King mascot

that they updated. That's scary face. I don't think it's scary. I think he's amazing. I love the Burger King King so much. And once they changed over to him, I became obsessed with the brand. And they started,

they did Xbox games. They released three games that you could only buy at Burger King. One was like a racing game. One was a stealth game where you sneak up on people in the neighborhood and present them with. Woppers. Could you sneak up on them as the Burger King? You were the Burger King.

You were the Burger King. That's terrifying to me. And it was called Sneak King. And you were like and you and you were getting, uh, you were getting points for your like flourish as you present the Wopper. Right. Yeah. It was incredible.

I never released games. I bought all three and I didn't even have an Xbox. I had to go to friends homes to play them. And they'd be like, wow. And shout out Sean Spadman. He played Sneak King with me. me. But I got into a phase where I was like, love and woppers. They released Super Bowl themed King Bumbleheads. And I was at Burger King to collect all eight because I was just like, I have to

have these King Bobbleheads. I remember that. And then like, I had seven of eight of them. And I got my, they got my burger wrong. And I was like, hey, could I get it with no cheese? And I saw them go to the back and they were microwaving something that they put into my bag. And I was like, I think I'm done with Burger King. Yeah. And then for, years and years and years I didn't go to Burger King. But that's my history, that's your history. Yeah. I've done a Burger King episode of the podcast, but do you want to hear the history they've had since I did my episode?

Yes. Let's cover the history as we jump into this week's Eat Dietes. And since we're about to do the history of a place that I have done before, as far as scoring goes, instead of rescoring Burger King, we're going to decide if it is still deserving of the story. the score it has or if it should be moved. A few years ago, Burger King swallowed its largest U.S. franchisee, BK.'s parent company RBI, completed its acquisition of Carols in May 2024, bringing a thousand and twenty-three Burger Kings across 23 states under corporate control, a major intervention aimed at modernizing aging restaurants before eventually refranchising many of them.

So what does re-franchise mean? So basically, like, there's franchise locations and there's corporate locations. Right. bought up a thousand franchised locations so that they could bring them up to like the the standardization of how they want to run the corporate locations. I see. And then once they like modernized them, they were like, okay, these are now available for franchise again. Someone with restaurant experience, can they say, I want to franchise that burger king and run it? Every restaurant that franchises has their own like bar that you have to meet.

Some of them you don't have to have experience. I believe Subway does that. That's so interesting because I remember I was in Agora Hills, Calabasas. I was training at a job and I went to a subway and there was something about this guy. Like he wasn't wearing subway clothes. He wasn't like, he was just kind of wearing, like essentially what I'm wearing now. Maybe a polo. Yeah.

But he was like, he was very nice and like come like come back anytime. My, Mika Saucasa, like literally said those words. Like he was very. very like familial with it, like very inviting and welcoming. And I did think that was interesting. Like no, no uniform, no. So that's, wow. Some will have like, you have to have restaurant experience to open one.

Some it's just like, yeah, any person with the startup capital, like the buy-in capital can get in. And then some of them are like, well, you have to open it in a place where you're X miles away from the next closest branch. of that chain. Right. And like going back to subway, you can have two within like a four block radius and like they don't care. They just want subways everywhere. Right. So wow.

The million dollar Whopper turned customers into product developers. More than one million people submitted burger ideas in 2024. BK sold three finalists nationally and let customers choose who received the million dollar prize converting have it your way into an unusually. large crowd sourcing campaign. The finalists were the fried pickle ranch wopper, which featured fried pickles, bacon, Swiss cheese, and pickle ranch. The maple bourbon

barbecue whopper, which had maple bourbon barbecue sauce, candied bacon, crispy onions and jalapenos, and the Mexican street corn wopper, which was infused with a creamy corn spread, spicy queso, and crunchy tortilla chips. Wow. Okay, if I had to choose one

of those to eat, probably the maple bourbon barbecue it sounds the safest I am a big I like pickles I really do so that one sounded good too the Mexican street corn

sounds like food poisoning on a bond A lot of these just sound like things where it's like I'm not trusting a place at Burger King's tier to execute them no no

yeah but so did they all get them did they all split a million dollars three ways no it was like they were the finalists and then people vote. It's like the lays contest

where they put out specialty flavors, people buy them, and then they vote for which one they want to become like a real flavor. I see. And only the winner of that wins. It's a million. Yeah.

Wow. That's interesting though. It's a clever campaign. It is a clever campaign. And I guess you got, I mean, the old adage spend money to make money. And so that's Burger King's way of doing that.

And that is clever. It's like, you know, it's like audience participation or customer participation, that type of thing makes people feel important. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. If I got to be the guy that had one of my three whoppers,

do you think that I would let people forget that? No, I mean, it is a cool little fun fact in your obituary. Yeah. You know, like second place. Yeah, second place. And the Burger King literally have it your way. Yeah. And wouldn't it be some ironic shit if, like, you died from like, you know,

clogged arteries from eating too much Burger King. And I probably will. No. Don't say that. I don't like that. Not from Burger King. Good. Yeah. Wopper advertising came under fire in May of 2025 when a federal judge allowed consumers to pursue claims that Burger King advertisements made the Wapper appear roughly 35% larger with more than twice the meat than the restaurant version. Burger King denied misleading customers. The case hasn't been resolved yet. I get it, but you have some common sense. It's like when something's advertised, of course they're going to make it look as it's exactly like what social media is today.

Everything you see on there, you know, especially if it's like a model and, you know, posting something. It's like, yeah, they're going to look absolutely at their best. You know, that's the point. And so I think with food, I literally, we were in the airport the other day and I was walking by something. It's like coming soon and it looked this like delicious looking burger. And I literally thought to myself, well, probably won't look that good in person. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to get it. I think it's a matter of portion.

If it doesn't look the same, but it is technically the same amount of food as what's pictured, I'm fine with it. Yeah, that's fine. But if it's like, here's a triple patty burger and then you order it and it's a single patty and they're like, well, obviously it's not going to. Yeah, that's bullshit. Right. Yeah. So for them, it was just like the meat actually looked more substantial. Uh-huh.

In the photos. In the photos. I get that. But it's also like the McDonald's woman. like suing because her coffee was hot and she won she won yeah but it was also like scalding yeah that's true if it was scalding yeah i i watched a breakdown of like that case specifically and how the lady is kind of thrown under the bus in terms of like ridicule and like oh of course coffee's hot but like i believe the uh legal standard used to pursue her case was essentially like how hot is like can you

reasonably make coffee before it's like a liability. Right. Yeah. That's an interesting point. Do you remember the Seinfeld episode where Kramer sues because it's coffee's hot? Like he's like, this coffee's too hot. It had to be based on that. It absolutely was.

And they did like a double joke. It was like based on that. And then his lawyer was this smooth guy, slick smooth guy named Jackie Childs, completely based off Johnny Cockrell. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. He's like, and did you put the top of? on it. No, they put the top on it. They put the top on it. And you didn't make the top, did you?

And then he's like just trying to find loopholes. He's like, you find me one coffee drinker on that jury. I'm going to make you a very rich man. It's amazing. That lawsuit is such a part of the understood culture of America. It really is. And specifically the like, and so is the OJ one, which I, that's what's so brilliant about that. Yeah. That storyline in Seinfeld is like they managed to like work too in there. A friend of mine said, and I agree with him for especially specifically about the OJ cases, like, you can study that case for the rest of your life. Yeah. And like you could learn something new about it probably every day. Like it's just, it's insane. In 2026, Burger King installed an AI assistant called Patty in 500 U.S. restaurants to answer employee questions, flag operational problems, and measure hospitality phrases like thank you and welcome, prompting obvious questions about where workplace coaching ends and surveillance begins.

Yeah, wow. I would hate that. Oh, that would, yeah, that would drive me crazy. To feel like an AI is breathing down my neck? Because they're going to be more efficient at breathing down my neck than any manager. And that's a voyeur that you can never escape. It's one thing if you're working and you have an annoying boss who's like, all right, I'm going to take off early and then you can breathe a little easier. Patty never sleeps. Patty doesn't sleep.

Patty doesn't breathe. Patty's got. Patty's just there. Yeah. Great name, by the way. Great name. Very funny. And we are three years away from Patty being a neural implant required.

when you get your first job at Burger King. See, I feel like Burger King, even with the King design and this thing with the AI assistant named Patty, it does appear that they have a sense of humor about themselves. I love that you're like giving them a pass on 1984 because the name was cute. No, I mean, I'm talking about as a corporation in general, like there's like a wink and a nod to it, I think. It's like this. Yeah. It is, though, and I do respect that.

Yeah, I do. In 2026, McDonald's CEO, Chris Kempinski, posted a promotional clip eating the new Big Archburger, calling it a product and taking a very small bite, which the internet roasted as awkward and unenthusiastic. This prompted Burger King, U.S. President Tom Curtis, who posted a video on TikTok and social media to show himself taking a massive, confident bite of a whopping. ending with a remark that it only needed a napkin. Burger King was also in the comments of the McDonald's video going viral from saying, we couldn't finish it either. That's good. Yeah.

It's a little bit, I can't believe I'm comparing it, but this is the world we live in. It's a little bit of like Gavin Newsom trolling Trump. I do find it interesting that you bring in the political comparison, and I just want to say it's upsetting that part of the political culture has become, yeah, but did they dunk on the other team? I know, it's pathetic, and it's so sad, and it's exhausting. Bring back boring politicians. Yeah, man, I mean, the first election I ever voted in was 2008, and I voted for Obama,

and I miss Obama like a dead brother. Like, I... He's still alive. No, I'm just saying, like, God damn, that guy was the man, but I just think there's, like, there's just no respect anymore for a lot of people in office and it just is what it is. Yeah. And that will do it for this week's history of Burger King.

Okay, we went to Burger King. We got to review it. We got to talk about all the elements of it. Let's start in positivity. Let's talk about only the things that were good. Just to get this out there, I didn't. score any food six or higher. Oh, no. Yeah, I'm just being honest. I scored one food higher than a six. Which one?

I thought the fries were good enough to keep eating, but they were not in any way, like, impressive. But I kept going back to them and I can't discount that. But you kept, did you keep going back to them because you liked them or did you keep going back to them because you're like, I got to eat? They were definitely, it was kind of like a devil I know versus the devil I don't situation. Okay, that's fair. I don't hate Burger King's Fries. I, like, I'm not recommending them to anybody.

They were one of the things I scored the highest, correctly. But at the same time, it was, for me, it was the need for fuel. Because I didn't eat beforehand. I was like, I kind of eat. I had to go to work. I was like, I have to eat something. And they were the most, you know, probably the most edible thing, you know, or one of them. I hate that that's the case.

I went six and a half out of ten on the fries. I did, wait, do we score this now since it's below? Because we're still talking about the good, so I can go. Yeah, I'll hear your fries score. Okay, 5.1. Just very average and made better by the barbecue sauce. But without the sauce, it's like, what are we doing here? They're flavorless and, you know, no love, no, no personality.

You're not getting love at an establishment. No, I know that, but I don't know, man. Like, I've, I still sometimes get a little love from McDonald's. If I'm really hungry and I get like McNuggets and their fries, I'm like, I can, I can feel a little, might be like nostalgia. Okay, you're turning red. But what else was good? I thought the environment was actually fine. Like, it was not unpleasant and it was not dumpy at all.

I wrote clean, though corporately soulless. Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate. But, like, it was clean and, like, the design choices weren't. nothing, they were just uninspired and corporate. Aesthetically uninspired and plain, bland. Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate. Not, not creepy, not soulless in a creepy way. Yeah, and it wasn't

dingy and scary. No. Or anything like that. Yeah. But the dingy and scary, like, that's more memorable. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of the thing. I do love horror films. Yeah. I remember, I'll never, I actually don't remember what it was called, but this was like five years ago, Zoe and I were driving to Mammoth to ski with some friends, the first time of Mammoth, and we, our Zoe's friend's brother pitched to ride with us, and we were looking for a place to stop and eat on the way. And he was like, oh, I found this burger place. And it was like terrifying. Crash of thunder. It was like something, it literally felt like something from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, like it just hasn't been

updated in years on the road. Things were breaking. Fluorescent lights were flickering. Dry blood on the tile. I mean, it was really frightening. I have two other things in the good. Yeah, let's hear him. Crowns. I will never not be happy to see that pile of cardboard crowns that anyone can take at the front of the store. Yeah, that's true. I will say, I think they did a smart thing by just having them available. I think that's smart. But when we were kids and you had to ask, and it was like, where are they getting back there? You know, it's like, where's just coming from? It's like, It's like when you learn, it's like what you said, it's like when you learn that the food there is all microwaved

and when like the toys are just like, you know, they got shipped in a box and some of them are probably busted. It's like, wait, are you sad this isn't like real jewels or something? No, I'm saying that like when you ask for the crown and they go get it, there is a, there's a barrier that I think creates a, not like a sense of mystery, but like.

And you want the mystery. It makes it, it makes you like work for it a little bit. Now it's just like, here, take it. I don't know if I'm articulating it that well, but. I see what you mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like it feels like a like a prize. Yeah.

Or like a secret menu like a, hey, I know I can ask you for a crown and you'll go get it. Yeah. And I think what I'm also getting at is that like having to ask for it, everything's just so readily available these days on our phones and whatever. There's a thing for everything. And, you know, with the crowns just being there like, here, take one. Leave me alone. You know, like, that's kind of how it feels.

They were like right next to an ashtray and like a grumpy employee was. Yeah, when we were there and we were like, I didn't interact with one employee. It used to go up and order your food and talk to them. I have a note on that specifically that. Me too. Yeah. So, and it's like you just order on the machines now. Same thing at McDonald's.

It's like, I just think it's, like one of the things, dude, I went to in and out yesterday with Felix. We hadn't been in a while. And like, we went up, the woman at the counter. Like, she immediately gave him stickers. Hi, how you doing? Like, I remember her name. It was Isabel.

Like, she was very nice. The service is impeccable for a fast food restaurant. It's unbelievable. And it's brand consistent. Yes. Yeah. Everywhere. Anyway, continue.

So you mentioned the kiosk. My one other good note comes from the kiosk. And I hate an ordering kiosk. Okay. I hate an ordering kiosk. I think they're talking about soulless. But under the burger customization options, they had cut in half. And I appreciate that.

As someone who, we got. three burgers that we split in half each. And so for it to come already split in half, that's great. I really appreciate because there is nothing I hate more than trying to cut through something with a plastic knife. And that has been the experience with most of my September burger restaurants. Yes, exactly. So Burger King, good on you for having cut in half as a customization option. All right, we're now going to dive into negativity as we talk about the things that are not good. about it could have done with

that it's something brings down the mood. And so this leads me directly into my next point. Another option they have in the kiosk for your burger customization is hot off the broiler. How is that not the default?

Yeah, why? What is, you have to specify to have a hot burger? And let me ask you this question. Does it cost extra? No. Oh, well, that's good. No.

But like, why isn't that standard? Also, they still weren't very, hot. Yeah, that's what they were not very hot. That was something I noted. And that I think just speaks to, I think, the standards of these places. The standards of Burger King to me, they're not even mediocrity. They're like, they're lower. Yeah. I was, I mean, overall just disappointed with this visit. Me too. As someone who like, I'll occasionally do a late night drive-through of Burger King. I don't hate Burger King's foods. Like, I get a craving for it, but objectively, I don't think it's incredible. Interesting. Interesting. What? Like, just like a whopper and onion rings. All right. All right. This was my first time having it and I don't know how long. Probably like at least 20 years.

Sure. Look, my expectations were low and I think the fact that it actually, like, it ended up being lower. I think it's very like, it's funny. The way I'm saying this to you right now and there's just like the silence as well that follows. It's just like it's so, it's so somber. Like, it was low.

We're eulogizing. Yeah, we're eulogizing. Yeah, everything is dead. And here's the thing. It wasn't a terrible experience. It just wasn't a good experience. Yeah, terrible. I think it would have been terrible if like some customer yelling at an employee or like something.

I don't know if there was like other things happening. But I would say the food is pretty damn close to terrible for me. Oh, I don't, I don't think it's that bad. I think it's, I think it's underwhelming across the board. I think it's worse than underwhelming. I just, just. I just, yeah, I just, I, it, like, but as you said, you made the point earlier that it wasn't that hot. That was a big problem. It wasn't that hot. Sure, sure. Like, and we weren't, it's not like we were letting it sit there for 20 minutes and then, oh, it looks good. Well, we did get three and I did take, I do take, like, little pictures and videos of everything. So, like, it does sit for a couple minutes. A few, but not like, but that's what I mean. It's like, you're right. The standard should be hot off the broiler. Yeah. All right, let's get into it.

Just the fact that kiosks are required bothers me. And not only that, the kiosks make it so that your back is to the counter. So employees do not have to worry about accidental eye contact with you. Yeah. And I think if you're working in a customer-facing job, you just should be prepared to interact with people. Yeah. You know? And I think that we both worked customer-facing jobs.

Very customer-facing. Dude, those tours, man, they were exhausting. They were. But I did leave feeling pretty full every day. You know what I mean? Yeah. I was like, I did my job today and you meet interesting people. I'll never forget this one guy from the nicest guy I ever had was this guy from Dallas who was visiting.

And at the end of the tour, he was like, do you accept tips? And I was like, oh, yes, we're allowed to. Thank you. And he's like, because you have been a great tour guide. I'll just never forget the way he said it And like he was just like the nicest guy ever And like he was you know Then he started talking about how he's like visiting LA

And he was someone was talking about where do you go And he was like y'all go to pinks hot dogs He's like the mayor dog unbelievable Like he was just a lovely guy I met other interesting people As someone who grew up in Texas I feel like I've met that man Oh that's good

Yeah he was very He was just yeah he was just like very pleasant I mean, yeah, there were definitely tours that I had that were, yeah, some people were not that great. But, like, for the most part, it was a very pleasant job. But, again, exhausting. And, like, it's very, very, very much customer facing. And I just feel like, yeah, I agree with you. There is something about it.

Like, on the one hand, I understand, even though I'm an extrovert, I do understand being like, I don't want to see people. I don't want to talk to them. Sure. Yeah, yeah. I get it. But, like, I don't know, then go get a job as a, you know, a bookkeeper in a warehouse. Sure.

I don't know. Yeah, there's different professions that don't require that. Right. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So that lack of personal connection. Like, I'm a freak.

I'm a psycho. I'm a pervert. Whatever. I love interacting with like service workers. Yeah. I like one, I would like to make their day lighter. Like, yeah, that's a, and that's a nice compassionate quality of yours. Like, yeah, I want to like, I want to joke a little bit.

I want to, you know. But also how condescending of you to think that you're the one that's going to make their day later? No, I don't. I'm kidding. You know what? I am a hero. Yeah. I am a hero.

You walk in, you're like, who can I help today? Yeah. You. At this Taco Bell. You. It's you. Should we start with dessert, the Hershey Sunday pie and just work our way through the menu? Like, work our way back up.

I should have had that in good. It looks like I didn't write it down. I would have had it in good. You would have had the Hershey's Sunday Pine. I don't think it's like great, but like it was like passable. Yeah. I wrote 1.1. It was pathetic to me.

Here's why. Here's why. It's like you know what you're getting and it still was disappointing to me. The moment I was handed something in like weak cardboard with like a pole tab. Yeah. I knew what I was getting. Yeah, that's true. And as an adult who will still buy can't.

at a 7-Eleven. Sure, yeah. It's not like the quality was that far below that. So if I'm expecting, like, a candy bar, it hits. If I'm expecting, like, a good dessert, it doesn't. I don't think I was expecting a good dessert. I was expecting something that was, like, at least had a little flavor to it, and it didn't to me.

Here's the thing also. I'm going to sound super pretentious when I say this, but my wife's British and she, you know, grew up there. Britt, England does candy better than the U.S., especially chocolate. Cadbury's chocolate

is unbelievable. Sure. Especially when juxtaposed with Hershey's, like last, I think Halloween we had, I think I was like, I want to do a test here.

I had both like back to back and it was not even close. Sure. Yeah. Like Hershey's was junk compared to Cadbury. So maybe that colored it. But again,

I still love Ares. So I don't know. But like I, I kind of felt that way eating this. Hershey's Sunday pie. I was like, damn, this thing is disappointing. I probably would give it like a six.

A six? Yeah. Damn, dude. That's high, though. Yeah, because sweets are inherently better than most food. But like, I'm not rating it. We should be striving for better. Yeah, we should.

And it should be a shame that it's not like an eight. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Yeah. Okay, so. But that's where I'm at with that. Onion rings. I don't have that in the not good.

I have that in just there. Okay. I have that and the not good because I don't, I don't really like onion rings already. Okay. And these are just like

not that great versions of them. So again, I think I can, I'll acknowledge that I'm a little biased. Like, I don't like them already. So it's not like, you know,

I remember going to Bob's big boy in Burbank like, I don't know a year or so ago. They're like known for their onion rings. So you got to have it. They're good. Yeah. And even those,

I was like, I'm not an onion ring guy, but I was like, but I understand why people like these. These are pretty good. Burger King is the definitive onion ring for me in the sense that it was the first onion ring I ever had as a child. So my introduction to the concept of onion rings was Burger King. Okay.

So that's interesting too because there's obviously a nostalgia factor there, but you still just had it in just there. Yeah. I respect it. That's honest. Yeah. The crown nuggets I have in not good. They had chicken nuggets that are shaped like little crowns because royalty, Burger King. I wrote, fun-shaped slop.

Yeah. Didn't taste like anything more than the sauce. It's dipped in needs better seasoning two out of ten. You articulated it better than I could, but you'll be surprised by my ranking. And it's the same that I ranked the fries as, 5.1. Oh, so you have the crown nuggets and... Yeah, average because of, you know, what you said. But I think your wording is perfect.

Not better than the sauce they're dipped in is absolutely right. So interesting. Just from like a score standpoint, our preferences are very different. I don't think we've been close on any score. No, that's interesting. It's a good point. We'll see how the burgers do. Yeah.

Or, well, let's go to the original chicken sandwich. I also have that in the not good. Me too. This is my least favorite thing. Me too. I wrote, the bread chokes you. The chicken tasted funky. Too much mayo.

1.5 out of 10. Okay, so we're pretty close on this. I said 0.8.8. my god pathetic tastes like depression you wrote the sound of screaming yeah yeah it's true dude but i yeah i took a bite of that we looked at each other that was the one we were both like oh my god like i couldn't the other ones i was kind of like oh man these just suck but jesus christ that chicken a sandwich was like that was what my mom would get yeah and it's just like if she had that now she would like oh god i gotta get it i got to get it out i got to get it out my mouth so that's the thing my

bar for scoring something under one is am I willing to keep it in my mouth? Yeah, dude. So I gave it a 1.5 because I'm like, I took a couple bites and I, and I actually consumed them. Yeah, barely. But like, this was, I did not want to. I want to, I'm not going to make you change your score. I want to challenge you a little bit, though, because I feel like that's a little generous. I'm not kidding, dude.

It was so bad. It was very, very bad. It was fucking terrible. I think a 1.5 out of 10 is not a stamp of endorsement. know, but like, yeah, I think there's a part of me that, like, it's almost like I'm like avenging maybe my younger self because I ate this so much as a kid. I was like, I gave you people business. That's funny. You know, it's like, and I'm like, this is dog shit. I'm coming for mine. Like, yeah, so maybe that's a part of it. And it's like I'm avenging like good memories with my dad,

you know, it's like, you can still have those memories. And he actually ate it. And he actually ate it. Yeah. But that's what I mean is like the fact that my parents, who had more refined palettes at that age were willing to consume it. It makes me believe it had to be better than. It makes me believe it had to be better than 100%. There needed to have been somewhere along the line a massive drop in quality.

Andrew, everything was better than. Everything was because here's the thing. Companies have literally gotten, like Cisco is kind of the big offender here, but like companies have gotten big on the standardization of food ingredients and on the cheapening of food ingredients. And then they've gotten in the ears of all the companies like the chains and the fast food and the fast casual restaurants to all carry the same provider. So like that's why all bread tastes the same unless a place is bragging about its bread. Yeah.

Or like the hamburger buns or, you know, whatever. And like I feel like everything could come with like a disclaimer of like now with 40% less. Sugar. Whatever. Yeah. No, no, no, not sugar. Oh. Bread, now 40% less bread.

You know. Yeah, that's true. You know. Burger, now 40% less cow. But I don't know if I fully agree that everything was better. I know you're speaking. Broccoli. You know, in hyperbole.

But like, I think that's another thing that I think we're sold this idea of nostalgia where it's so black and white. Like, better than. It was better than. And like, if you look at things on the internet, it was like, like, POV. It's 1995, and it's like, you know why we keep seeing that? Because our generation, millennials came up with the internet. So, of course, we're going to be the ones to say,

it was better than in the 90s, 90s were better, because we were fucking kids with no responsibilities. Yeah. And everything was simpler. But the other thing, I don't think we talk about the dark side of nostalgia, which is that I think it keeps everyone, and I'm a victim of this. I think it keeps us all stuck.

It keeps us all. Like you're attached to a thing you can't move on from. You're attached to a thing that you can't move on from. And it's never going to be that way. Like, why can't you just accept that, like, okay, yes, it was great, but it has, it is now over. And that doesn't mean that your life is just going to suck now. I don't know. I know that's not what you're saying.

I think sometimes I feel that way out of, like, fear out of like, oh, God. Like, especially, I mean, as we get older, like, up into our, like, late 30s, it's like, I would imagine for most of us, life hasn't gone the way we thought it was going to, go both good and sure and not so good and i think the not so good stuff is just louder for me personally at this age and so i then don't pay attention to the the good stuff that i have as much so i think and i'm not saying i blame nostalgia like i look i'm a grown adult like i make my own decisions like i think for myself i take responsibility for these things but to bring it back to oCD and ADHD for a second i don't know if you've experienced this with ADHD maybe it's more of an

OCD thing, but what OCD can rob you of is your trust in yourself. And when something like that you've tried to do for a lot of your adult life hasn't quite worked out the way you thought it would, you start to doubt yourself and be like, what am I doing? Like, what could I have just done one thing differently or whatever it is? I don't know. You start to not trust yourself and that's hard. I don't know if it's an ADHD thing for me, but I have plenty of self-doubt and lack of trust in my instincts and stuff like that. Yeah. And that's what I mean. And I think that, like, you know, that might be a little separate from the nostalgia argument, but I think what I'm getting at is like if we, if we live our lives saying that, oh, it was always better back

then, how the fuck are we going to wake up the next day? I'm not saying, I'm not saying life was better than. I'm saying literally the ingredients of the food were better. That's a funny tangent. That's literally. That's what you're saying. Right. But I think it's, well, because private equity is coming and bought all these companies and

they're looking to cut corners. Right. And they're looking to make something that looks like the product you used to have, but it costs half the price to make. And then they serve it to you and you still eat it because it tastes close enough. But something's missing. Yeah, it's the equivalent of an AI movie or something. I've done four years of covering chain restaurants. And I wouldn't have done this podcast if I genuinely did not love chain restaurants and grow up loving chain and fast food restaurants.

And yet, since. doing this podcast, I feel like chain restaurants are much worse than I used to think they were. I agree. I have so many places here stuck in the four to six range to where now

I get excited when a place scores a six. Yeah. And that makes me sad. Yeah, look at where that's you have so much there. Love the White Castle in one point. That was one, that was the worst fast food I've ever had in line. That was terrible. Yeah. But like I hate the fact that I celebrate a seven

when like I want to be experiencing. And I remember when some of these places, to me, were like eights and nines. I understand what you mean. I think the reason I was relating it to like life stuff, first of all, I thought that's what you were referring to. But I also think that a lot of people just feel that way in general.

And I'm just, I'm like, I want to challenge that because it's a trap. And I'm just kind of like, I don't know, there's a part of it's like, that can't be the case. The food literally was better then. But like, I'm also. Also not like there's plenty of new stuff that comes out now that I love. Yeah, of course. So it's like, I'm not like, oh, everything was better than like I like.

But that's why I'm offended by that in and out score because I think the in and out hasn't changed, man. Like I had it for the first time 25 years ago. And I had it for the first time, honestly maybe same. But like it was amazing. It was nothing to me back then. Really? Okay. My first in and out experience is like, all right, it's a burger.

It's fine. Yeah. It's funny. I don't know if there are a lot of people out there. who like would say in and out sucks and it's bad, but I think a lot of people say that. There's people who say it's like overrated, which I do think it's slightly overrated,

but I still like it and the value is great. The value is that's my thing with in and out is it's like, if I'm looking to not spend a lot of money on dinner, I can get in and out. Yeah, so I get that. That's all of my not good. Do you have anything else and not good other than burgers? Anything else and not good other than burgers?

I mean, burgers are not good. Oh, but. You had a girl behind you. Very sweet little girl. I think he was like three or four. Just kind of looking at us. So hi,

what's your name, you know? And then I somehow we got on the topic of birthdays. And she and I ended up, oh, we have the same birthday, August 12th. And her mom was like,

her grandma was like, oh, she has a, her birthday's coming. I don't know how that came up, but I was like, she said, oh,

she's about to, I think I was because I asked how old she was. And she's about to turn three or four or something. She turns four on the 12th or something. or something. And I was like, 12 of August, that's my birthday. Oh, man.

And so we chatted. And she was very nice. But then she wouldn't stop trying to get your attention. Trying to get my attention. And it's one thing if someone's just staring at you, that's annoying enough. But she was tapping me and she was putting toys in my face. And this is someone who's sitting behind us in the booth. And it didn't help that I was doing the same to you from the front.

Yeah, exactly. You kept putting toys. And I was like, I got, you know, look, I'm like, I have two friends that want, to play with me and it's like I can only really play with one but it was like I kept having to be like oh no thank you no thank you and like but she just wouldn't stop and like look obviously like you know we kept our cool and eventually we left and it was fine but like but she didn't for literally the whole time we were still there like after that interaction probably for another what like half hour she just wouldn't it was pretty nuts she was pretty relentless yeah yeah so that was not good so that's all the not

good elements burgers aside we are going to get into the whoppers but before we do that the not good and negativity go together. And Andrew, I've heard you espouse some of the most heinous, downright despicable opinions in public, but when the mic is hot, will you own up to your penchant for controversy? It's time for you to lose half of your following in this next segment, The Heat Lamp. Andrew, put your reputation on the line and tell me,

Okay. What is your restaurant hot take? In and out has good fries. A lot of people going to be disagreeing with that. They're going to be mad. They're mushy. They're undercooked. I think the only tolerable way to get them is well done.

I get them well done too most of the time. I have also gotten them not well done and they've tasted great to me. The potatoes are never frozen. They're Kennebec potatoes, good quality. And they're made fresh every day. I mean, literally. They're cooked in like non-trans fat oils. So as fries go, they are maybe a lesser of several evils.

You can add a little salt in them if you need to. They taste good dipped in ketchup. They taste good dipped in spread. They taste good animal style. I know they're divisive. But to me, it's just, it's the quality, the freshness. There might not be, I will admit that they're probably not quite as like tasty as McDonald's fries.

See, tasty is my bar. I get that, but they're not, I don't think they taste bad. I think they taste good. I will eat plain in and out fries. I will. Like just, you know, after my burger, if there's still fries left over, I'll finish it probably, you know. I think they're good fries. Again, I think they're fresh, you know, with a soft drink, get it out, a diet Coke, even with water, they're fine.

I've never had a problem with their fries. I do want to say, the only drink that makes sense to me at in and out is root beer. I don't know why that's the case, but in and out. specifically as a root beer place. I do love root beer. Yeah. I have to watch my sugars, though, because I'm slightly in the pre-diabetic range and I want to be careful. So if I do a soda, it'll be diet. But unless I'm, unless daddy's feeling like I've earned this. Unless daddy can afford a nap later. But you know what, though? I'll still have like a sip of my son's milkshake. You know, and when I say a sip, I mean like 13 sips. Yeah. And maybe even like split it

with them. But I also think that I think the fries are good. I think they're fresh. I think you can taste the quality. I mean, what's the slogan? Quality you can taste. I think that's true. I think the fact that you need modifiers, the fact that you said you need to add a little salt, you have to dip them in ketchup or spread or they taste good in all those configurations.

I'm like, I want the baseline to be, to not need it and then those are cherries on top. But every fry needs those modifications. Every fry needs some salt and some ketchup. I just, maybe not ketchup, but like salt,

sure. And I'll eat an out fry plane too. But yeah, I mean, I think, I think in and out fries are great. You know, I like them. Like, I personally liked them.

Let's say there was a, I was hungry and like, you know, I wasn't doing burgers for a day or I was having a meatless day. I would still go and get. And like, in and out was an option. I'd be like, yeah, I'll go get some fries and a soft drink there. I push back. I don't think you would get fries in a soft drink over other options in the vicinity. All right. Again, to be fair, I think McDonald's and Chick-fil-A have better fries.

I think that's just You know I think that It's my Unbelievable warm Yeah Like fresh I think those are better

than McDonald's fries I think they're the best ones I think when you get a fresh one It's incredible It's incredible When you get a soggy one It's like all right Yeah it's a bummer

But I think in and out It has good fries That is my hot take I know a lot of people Will disagree I understand If you're like Well the burgers are the best part

I agree with that But when people say Their fries suck And they taste like Hardboard that is something I've never. I think that's just a taste thing and that's fine. But I just,

I don't agree with that. Something being compared to cardboard or it was like rubber are my least two, my least favorite two ways to qualify food ever. Because, first of all, no food tastes like cardboard. Yeah, no. And rubber, that's a texture thing.

Texturally close. And even still, is that a deal breaker if the taste is good? Yeah. I don't think so. Look, I don't like tomatoes. on my burgers or sandwiches. But you will put cardboard on it.

Right, but I will put cardboard and rubber on my sandwiches. But tomatoes, for me, I'll say this until the cows come home. Where are they? They are, actually, they are nibbling at some tomato plants. Ironically. But tomatoes for me, my dislike for them is a texture thing. It's not necessarily a taste thing because I like ketchup. I even like a little pico de gallo sometimes.

I don't want a wet tomato. No, I don't like a wet tomato. I don't like a thick, juicy tomato either. I think that ruins the texture of a burger or like a club sandwich or something. I've always been that way. Okay. Well, your follower account has dipped, but thank you for sharing your hot take. We are now going to go into talking about the things that were just there.

Most of what I have is burgers. I feel like I've actually talked about most of the things. have the onion rings in just there. I put a little sweet, not crunchy enough. I eat but not enjoy four and a half out of ten. Yeah, the way I rated the fries and crown nuggets at 5.1, those are probably just there for me. Yeah.

Not bad enough to truly hate, certainly not good enough to praise. Yeah. So just that I would say those were just there. That's it. That's this segment. Okay. We need to compare the burgers because they're in September. Yeah.

They're up against BurgerFi. Burger Fi. Burger Fy's hamburger scored a 6.77 last week. So that's the score to be. All right. So they left you a little message last week talking some trash. So we got to see what the Burger King has to say is they call out BurgerFi. Burger Fi.

Burger Fi. More like Burger Hi. How are you? You, not interested. I'm going somewhere else. And I think King, you know where I'm going. Burger Fy, more like burger, buy. Not interested, don't need you, don't want you, don't want to be you.

Burger Fy, more like burger die. You're dead, because once the king gets its crowns on you, I'm going to wear the September burger crown and become the September burger champion. Burger-fi, more like burger lie. You're a liar. You lie like my parents did when I was younger. And they told me there was a Santa Claus. And I believed it till I was nine years old.

They had an intervention for me at the dining room table when we were eating Burger King. And that made the intervention palatable, unlike your food, which is offensive to my palate. Strong words, the Whopper is the first round burger for September. Our whopper had pickle lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup on it, hot off the broiler, cut in half. So we might differ on this. To me, this tasted like the most standard fast food burger in a good way. Okay. It scratched the itch, but didn't impress.

This felt like a concession stand burger to me to where it's like, I'm at a sporting event, and I'm like, yeah, I'm going to get a burger. And I'm not going to have high expectations, but it will be. be undeniably that's what a burger tastes like. I think you liked it much less. Yeah, much less, I would say. I like the Whopper. Like, in general, it is a craving I occasionally get.

The charbroiled taste is like enough of a signature to where I'm going to be like, oh, I'll crave that over a McDonald's or, you know, other or even in and out. Like, not saying I think Burger King is better than in and out, but sometimes that's the craving that hits and therefore in and out can't scratch it because of the char. Sure. I went exactly six out of ten. I think it's the cusp between average and good, literally 6.00 to 2 decimal points. Jesus Christ, dude, that is far too high.

All right, go on. I gave the whopper a 3.13. I thought the bun was soggy. I thought the temperature was less than lukewarm. Uh-huh. I didn't like the abundance of mayonnaise. Nothing tasted fresh. So I actually feel similarly to you in the sense

that it was the most basic fast food burger, but I think in a bad way, because I've had concession stand burgers. I literally had one at the beach the other day when I was back in Connecticut. And like, that to me was like a fine burger, but actually pretty solid. Okay.

Like I haven't thought about it since, but like until now, and when you said concession stand, I was like, well, that was a concession Stan Burger, and that was pretty good. Like, that was better than edible. I enjoyed eating it. This, I couldn't wait to stop eating it. It just made me sad.

I was just like, there's, everything about it was by the numbers, and it wasn't even, like, serviceable to me. Like, I was, like, I was just, like, offended. What was your score? 3.13. All right. So when you put our scores together, Burger King gets a 4.57. That is not enough to beat Burger 5.5.

therefore Burger King is eliminated from the September Tournament. Nope. Not enough. But yes. Eliminated. Rightly so. Now that they're gone, we can talk about the other two burgers that we got

without me having to save those for the semifinals and finals episode. We got the Texas double whopper. Yep. Yeah, I wrote the BK bacon was never going to impress. No. Yeah. The quality of this bacon was not good. No.

I thought that more. meat was a detriment. The meatier this tasted, the more it highlighted how not high quality the meat is. I actually agree. Yeah, I agree completely. That said, our scores are going to be different. I went 5.86. It's lower than the other one. It's lower than the other one for me. Mine is actually a little higher because of the halapeno. It adds a tiny kick. The Texas double whopper had the barbecue sauce bacon and halepinos on it. The jalapeno added enough kick for it to be just slightly better than the other one. Still not by much. But I agree that more meat was less fun. Yeah. And as you said it, it highlighted the lack of quality, which is not what you want. I gave it a 3.21,

which again, slightly higher than the whopper because of the halpino, not good. And also, I think with something like jalapinos, you can go one of two ways with it. It can actually like add flavor and personality, or you just put it on there. Because you're like, just throw it on there. And this one was the latter. And I think with something like a spicy pepper, it's like you're adding it for a reason. This just felt like a little like almost like capricious to me. Just like, yeah, throw that on there.

What's funny is our next burger. Yeah. The loaded jalapeno whopper I thought was worse for being more intentionally. I thought this is the worst one. Oh, really? I thought it was out of the burgers the best one. Really? Yeah, we have, we just have different palettes.

I wrote the jalapeno was prominent, especially the pickle. halapeno, tasted like B.O. To me, this burger tasted like what B.O. smells like. That's insane. So B.O. smells like jalapeno to you? No, just this burger's overall taste profile with all of the elements, the way they combine. Have you ever accidentally tasted BEO?

Tasted like a locker room. Have you ever tasted something in a locker room? I've opened my mouth in a locker room. And you've gotten a taste. I feel like it. And it was like post like what football practice? A lot of sweat. Yeah, that's gross.

Yeah. And this burger brought me there. Did it real? That's, wow. 3.88. All right. We're close on this one. 3.42 for me.

You're still worse. I'm still worse. That's funny. I'm still worse. Yeah. But the more jalapeno I felt like actually I didn't mind it here because I accepted like, okay, this is just masking all the other tastes. Yeah. And I'm like, but at this point, I was, it was the third one we had.

I was like, I'm fine with it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Burger King didn't do great in the burger department. No. I do still like a whopper, but I'm not going to crave it often. I will never go to a Burger King again if I can help it.

Wow. Doesn't mean I'll never, I'm just saying if I can help it. If you can help it. But I even said that I was texting my wife Zoe on the day and was like, I pray that we never have to like stop here on a road trip with Felix. But it's like if it's the only thing, then yeah, we're getting it. And it's like, go three more exits. you'll find something else.

Yeah, maybe. All right. Well, this is the last new episode before the September Gr brackets are due. So get those in before next week's episode drops on September 16th. Last week, we saw five guys knock Smash Burger out of the tournament, as well as Muya eliminate the habit. And now we know BurgerFi has vanquished Burger King.

So if you put those answers down and get the rest of the bracket correct, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can tell me a restaurant chain that you want to see me cover for the show in the next season of the podcast. I will also write a rap song about you or any food-related subject you desire. Get those brackets in. The link is in the description of this episode. Andrew, we got to put all of this together to figure out, will Burger King stay where it is on the Chotchky of Mediocrity or will it move in either direction?

But before we do that, you need to calibrate yourself. So we are going to jump into this week's calibration station. Calibration Station Comparing this meal to the best or the worst Calibration Station Chuga, chuga, chugga, chugga, chugger, choo-choo-choo-choo-choo-choo-choo-choo. Okay, the train has left the station. The train has arrived at the station, I guess.

Oh, arrived, okay. I want your zero and your 10, your best and worst restaurant dining experiences of your life, whichever one you want to start with. Okay. I'll do best. funny, I had a different one, but then we were supposed to record this earlier, but our dog was sick and I had to take care of him and lost sleep so we had to reschedule. And in that time, I had a restaurant experience that I now consider my favorite. Oh. And it was Peter Lugar's in

New York. I, the original. I have had that one's like, like Brooklyn, right? Yeah. I had this guy, Travis, who's a listener of the podcast, keeps recommending. Michael, you got to go to Peter Lugar. It's amazing. Do an episode on Peter Lugers. And it is on my radar already. I looked at their website and it looks incredible. I'm so jealous you got to go there. It's incredible. Go on. So part of why I went there was twofold. One, I had never been. But it was my birthday last week. So my wife took me because I she said that little girls. Yeah, she met us there. She was tapping me again. She brought more toys. But this time since it was my birthday too, I brought toys as well. And she actually engaged with the toys as well. So she got a little taste of brown medicine. Yeah, I mean,

it was like the best meal in my life. And I, did you get steak? Yeah, of course. I mean, so here's the thing. The coolest part is that the steak comes on a 900 degree plate and you can cook it a little more if you want to, which we ordered it medium rare, which is how the chef recommends it. So we were fine to do that. But just you can do it. Take a little and do it and just like, you know, cook it and watch it sizzle is amazing. And then the side of it. they recommended were some German-style potatoes, which is like, you know, essentially like smashed potatoes with onions and olive oil and stuff like that. Phenomenal. And as someone who I can be iffy with onions, like, I don't like a prominent

onion. That's why I like the onions in and out, actually, because they're very tiny and diced, and they're not super. They don't get in your way. Yeah, they're not invasive. And these onions were similar. They kind of blended in with the potatoes really nicely. We got some grilled asparagus as well. But the whole vibe was awesome. It was, it's like, cash only. It's been there for over 135 years, like 1887, I think, was, so next year it'll be 140. Yeah. And we got drinks at the bar first, so we got a delicious martini. I had a Peter Lugar's old fashion, which was their own aged bourbon in a specific barrel. And yeah, it was just granted, it was my birthday, and I was with my beautiful wife having a great time. You get to roll up,

you get to be the bell of the ball. Yeah, it just felt good. There was also a guy at the table next to us who was celebrating a birthday. So we chatted a little bit and like that was fun. It was just a great experience. Sure. But the food was like phenomenal. And they have their own steak sauce, which it was very nice and tangy, definitely original. And like it didn't, the steak didn't need it. Like, and I dipped it in it a few times, of course, but like it really didn't need it. Like I would even argue, never dip in steak. I would even argue that it was better without it. Yeah. So if you go get the steak for, you know, go with someone and get the steak for two because you, will have loved over is get the German-style potatoes.

And then so here's the dessert. They have a famous apple strudel that comes with an apple struttle. Yeah, which we actually did not get. We got the Holy Cow Sunday, which was the best Sunday I've ever had, like without question. I'm not a big like apple. I like apple strudel, but I'm not like a huge struddle guy in general. Yeah. But the key is getting the schlog, which is their whipped cream.

It's like the best whipped cream you're ever going to have. Sure. And so this table next to us actually got the Sunday for the guys. birthday and I ordered a Sunday. We just ordered the Sunday. And Zoe said, I told him it was your birthday. So I don't know. I'm like, yeah, that's fine. And then the folks next to us, God bless him. We're like, hey, it's his birthday. You got to get him something. We're like, all right. So then as we're like still like chowming down on the Sunday, which has the schlog whipped cream in it, they bring like a small mountain of schlag with a little candle in it. And saying, and I was like, hell yeah. Again, I'm feeling decadent. It's my birthday, whatever. But I was eating just the schlog. That's how good it is. If you get a coffee, put the schlog in your coffee. It'll make it amazing. We didn't, it was like getting late. So we had to get home.

But by far the best experience at a restaurant I've ever had. It was amazing. My worst, Applebee's, Nashville, Tennessee, July 2003. And it's specifically, and here's the thing. I love barbecue. I want to preface with that. I really love, especially Texas style. We've talked about it.

Applebee's, I remember it. I remember it vividly. We sat down to order because she was like, Welcome to out bees. We're doing a barbecue promotion right now. And so I remember being like, oh, hell yeah. I'll get ribs and all this stuff. And we got it two days in a row because, again, it was the thing to have.

And then we go to this work dinner for my mom and I started feeling really not good. And it was food poisoning, my first time really having food poisoning. And this was at a time, this was 2003. So it was like way before we had to call it. We would get cabs, you know, to and from the event. And we were in a yellow cab. and I was just puking out the backseat window. And I remember being like, you know,

puking out of a yellow cab. That's a cool story if maybe you're like drunk in New York for the first time. But like, I don't even know if that's cool. And not cool. But like these are like the suburbs of Nashville and a yellow cab. Just like, it was awful. And I don't think I've been back to an Applebee's since.

It really scared me. Yeah. But it was a terrible experience. Well, somewhere between Applebee's, quality barbecue and a mountain of schlog is our experience at Burger King. It is time to put it to the Chili's Test. It's not to set scale. Isn't the worst.

It's the best. Let's put it to the Chili's test. But here's the thing. We're not going to put it to the test in the way I normally do where we give it a score. We're going to see, does it feel correct where it is? Yeah. I think it, I think, I think 4.29 feels right because like it was clean. It was fine. Yeah. They had some offerings where I was just like, oh, that's like that'll, I know for you it won't ever hit a craving. But like a wopper and onion rings is still a thing I'll go back for. And I can ignore the stuff that I didn't. And I don't think this place was terrible. I just thought it was like meh overall. I'm fine with it being 4.29. I did.

think the food was mostly bad. Terrible to me would be like you take a bite and like spit it out immediately. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say this was like some of it. I mean the chicken sandwich was borderline in edible. Truly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other stuff was not to be fair. It was definitely bland and bad, but not terrible to the point of, although I will say we didn't, maybe it's because we had multiple things, but we didn't finish. It's not like I was like, I got to finish these. But you're right that the experience itself, because that's what we're rating here, the food is a part of it. And the experience itself and the food are low enough to be a 4.29 to be like, okay, this was not so terribly unpleasant that this won't be your biggest regret on your death. No, it won't be

my biggest. Exactly. I, again, I maintain that like I feel absolutely zero desire to go back. But yeah, I think that a 4.29 is fair. All right. Well, Burger King maintains its position that it is officially not as good as Chili. Not as good as chili. Not so good. All right. Well, next week, September Ger rolls on. I'm going to be going to the number eight seed McDonald's, but I'm going to do something

a little special because I'm not just going to McDonald's. I'm going to the oldest still operating McDonald's. That's awesome. And so like the architecture is going to be like the old golden arches drive in and they still serve fried apple pies year round. as opposed to the baked apple pie. Yeah. So Andrew, thanks so much for joining.

It's been a pleasure having you. Tell people where they can find you on social media. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. Of course. It's been a pleasure. And I must say your set design is immaculate. I think I love the attention to detail. It really brings out a lot of personality, and you're doing good stuff and keep going

with it because it's great. On social media, you can find me at Andrew Kada, kind of said like Boston, but it's spelled my name, A-N-D-R-E-W. And the last name is modified. C-A-H-T-A-H. You can find me on Instagram or my website, Andrew Carter Director.com. Thank you for having me.

This is a lot of fun, even though I hate Burger King. And, dude, you got to do a Peter Lugers one. But that's the thing. Oh, I will. I will. Peter Lugers is like, it's not fine. It's like beyond fine.

But I mean, like, to me, if it's a chain, and like they operate. have a few. They have a few and I think they're in like multiple big cities. Yeah. So they have I think there's one in Vegas. There's one in Vegas. Yeah. And there's one in Tokyo. Yeah. Which I mean, that's enough of like a presence. That's fair. I mean, it's world famous. To be a chain. Yeah. So yeah, I'll do a Peter Lugas episode. Yeah. Anyways, you can follow the podcast on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining podcast. Hop on my discord if you want to chat with me and talk about Burger King or Peter Lugar's, Travis. I'm looking at you. And I have a Patreon. an exclusive episode that drops on the last day of every month. I do an episode that doesn't come out

on the regular feed with September being the one exception month where the semifinals and finals episode is simulcast both there and here. But there's a whole bunch of bonuses, including interviews with my guests over their preferred restaurant rotations, the extended Yelp from Stranger segment, all that good stuff. So if you just want to support the show, I appreciate all of my patrons, but even if you're not, I appreciate and love you all. Thank you so much for listening. That is another one in the books. I'll see you next

week with my episode on McDonald's. Have a fine day. Well, there's another one in the folks. We judge the service up to the cooks and while we may have gotten a couple of dirty looks, though the journey can never stop. Now, from the bottom down

to the top, we got things on lock. And that's Because cheerlees do put things up on the charge game. There's another one in the books. And we will see you next a week and next a week, baby.