Fine Dining - Ghost Kitchens: Deceptive or Delicious?

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

👻🍔📦 Ghost Kitchens: Delivery Secrets, Alter Egos, and The Burger Den Truth 📦🍔👻 This week, I'm joined by Ansley Layne (@spookyfoodie) for a haunted deep dive into the world of ghost kitchens. We tell the entire history like a ghost story, tracing how these delivery-only concepts rose from the shadows to dominate the pandemic era. From secret alternate restaurant identities on delivery apps to celebrity-backed virtual brands, this episode pulls back the curtain on one of the most fascinating and unsettling trends in modern dining. And yes, multiple Yelp reviewers feel personally obligated to warn us that The Burger Den… is just Denny's. 🌫️ The Rise of Ghost Kitchens During the COVID-19 Pandemic 📱 Restaurant Alter Egos Hiding in Plain Sight on Delivery Apps 🚗 The Uber Connection and the Tech Behind the Movement 🍔 Celebrity Ghost Kitchens including the infamous MrBeast Burger 👻 Eat Deets Told Entirely as a Ghost Story 🌴 Ansley's Dream Restaurant Becomes a Haunted Rainforest Cafe 🗣️ Yelp Reviewers Desperate to Expose The Burger Den 🕵️‍♂️ Which Chains Are Secretly Operating Under Different Names? 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Have you ever accidentally ordered from a ghost kitchen without realizing it? 📢 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: Ansley Layne | IG: @spookyfoodie Patreon Producers:Sue Ornelas & Joyce Van Patreon Subscribers:David Ornelas, Kellie Baldwin, Jeremy Horwitz, Herbert Amaya, Simone Davalos, Scott Bennett, Amy Reinhart, Josef Castaneda-Liles, & Travis Langley Free Patreon Followers:Joe Warszalek, Lauren Cummings, Grace Krainak, Keri Estes, Robert Duran, Patrick Elliott, Michelle Elmer, Dave Plummer, Nicholas Volney, Michael Gerard, Tracy Molino, Phuong Duong, Tyler Robinson, Brandon Gully, Mason Cruz, Michael Milito, Mez, Aaron Hubbard, Steff, Robert McLaughlin, Jewell Hermann, Renae Michael 👉 NEXT WEEK: We step into The Burger Den and put this ghost kitchen to The Chili's Test to see if the disguise holds up.

Are your delivery apps haunted by Gaggaggaggg ghost kitchens? Originally known as virtual restaurants, ghost kitchens have popped up in cities all over the world. A way to push restaurant food without having to create a vibe or higher servers, ghost kitchens have been a controversial venture for established chains. If you've written off Chucky Cheese's pizza is low quality, but Pasquale's pizza and wings pops up as a new option on DoorDash, you might be duped into ordering pizza you already know you'd otherwise.

a void. But just like how all ghosts are looking to fulfill their purpose, ghost kitchens found their calling amid the COVID-19 pandemic, obliterating the overhead costs while still offering delivery to a population of involuntary homebodies. This week on the show, I'll Patrick Swayze my knowledge directly into your to me more of curiosity so that you two may know everything I've learned about ghost kitchens. Then we'll exercise our attention to the people of Yelp to see what they're saying about the Denny's based ghost kitchen. We just. just ate at. Stay tuned. This is the Fine Dining podcast. Your table's ready. Take your seat. The flavor of the day is mediocrity to try a bar.

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with IQ Bar. Go to eat IQBar.com and enter code bar 20 to get 20% off all IQ bar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eat IQ bar.com and enter code bar 20. So a guilty pleasure of mine, a secret that I have, I crave Chuck Echese pizza a lot. Do you really? Yeah. And I'm really grateful that Piscollis has an option that I can just order. Have you ordered it?

Yes. Have you ordered it many times? Yes. Really? Definitely more than five times. Like your go-to? Yeah. Well, one of them.

And Costco pizza. But like, Chucky cheese pizza for me, it just hits a little different. And I like it. It's a little controversial and a little suspicious. It feels like the sticky hands inside of one of those plastic tube tunnels that kids crawl through. That's the taste of Pasquale's pizza to me. For some reason, it's like super nostalgic. I don't know.

I was obsessed with it as a kid and I still am. The slices are always mismatched. And you think that they just put random slices together, which maybe that really, that really. That really could be. Hello, and welcome to the fine dining podcast, the quest to compare all restaurants to chilies. I'm your host, Michael Ornellis, and in this podcast, we learned the history of our favorite restaurant chains one week before seeing how they compare to chilies in week two. This week on the show, I'm doing things a little bit differently. While we did eat at one of Denny's aliases, a hamburger joint known as the Burger Den, we're going to learn all about ghost kitchens themselves.

And joining me to discuss it is a new friend who's much. braver than I am. She makes content detailing her travels to haunted hot spots, especially restaurants and bars. She's the spookiest foodie I've ever met. And she's like if a Ouija board actually had a voice. It's Anzley Lane. Yay. I am a Ouija board. I believe it. Human Ouija board. I believe it. But a foodie board too. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. Thanks for going to two Denny's for me. I didn't know that there were two Denny's ghost kitchens in North Hollywood within like a mile of each other. Yeah. That's pretty insane. Well, it felt paranormal where it's like, I'm out front. I'm out front, but I don't see you.

And then it's, I'm eight minutes away. Yeah. And then I got there. Yeah, no, it was great. That was wild, though. You ordered it on your phone and then we went inside to eat. We broke some, I don't know about laws, but norms. Yes. Yeah. And what a rush. What a rush that was. So I have to ask, I mean, you said you order Pesquale's pizza. Yes. Do you have a lot of experience with ghost kitchens? Yes, I do.

Okay. I enjoy them out of curiosity for the plot. I will partake in a ghost kitchen. Is it like the celebrity tie-in ones that catch you? Yes. The celebrity tie-in ones have caught me before, but they're never that good. They're very disappointing. The picture never looks like what it actually is.

And the ingredients are almost always wrong. Right. Except for the Weiner Snitzel one. The Bigfoot, the Bigfoot, Weiner Snitzel themed one. Like a fry themed restaurant, right? Yes. Loaded fries, corn dogs. Do you have, well, this is a loaded question because I know the answer.

You were starting to tell me and I cut you off because I could say it on the podcast. Yeah. You have an experience with a Denny's where there was like a funeral going on and back of the Denny's? Yes. Please elaborate. I was at a Denny's in Korea town. But we were sitting there and it was like, I guess it's three o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah.

And we were hearing like a group of people in the conference room right next to us talking about someone who was passed away. And everyone was coming up and crying and like talking about how much they loved this person. And I was like, holy crap, there is a funeral. Do you think it was Denny himself? It could have been Denny. Yeah. It could have. It was just, but it was like so wild that Denny's is so lawless.

Anything goes into Denny's. Anything else, you can just walk in. There could be a punk band, you know, like, what's up Denny's? You know, that meme of like the, what the heck is up, Denny's? Like, it's the same thing. Like, there could be a concert going on. Speaking of Lawless and the Denny's, can we point out your shirt? Yes.

So this shirt's by my friend Freddie Tyler Paul. He's awesome. He makes really funny shirts. And this one says, I got stabbed off the Denny's off of Pacific Coast Highway. But I still got the Graham Slamwich meal. So it's cool. Yeah. I thought it was very fitting for today.

It's the vibe of the Denny's. It's just like, I could get stabbed. It's not exactly Waffle House levels of like. But Waffle House is so good. I know. I'm just saying in terms of like your expectation of a brawl. Waffle House is at the top. Yes.

Then Denny's. Then Denny's. Yeah. But Waffle House, their food is actually good. Like I crave Waffle House. I never crave Denny's. We'll get into this more next episode. I think Waffle House shines because they have.

such a small menu. Yes. Burger Den is misleading you because it has like six things on the menu, but it's Denny's who has a billion things on the menu. So that's why it's not going to measure up. That too, and maybe because Waffle House is far away. There will never be a Waffle House in Southern California. It just wouldn't fit here.

It wouldn't. It wouldn't ever. No. Well, that's your history with Ghost Kitchens and Denny's. Do you want to hear the history of Ghost Kitchens? Absolutely. I'm so curious. All right.

We're going to jump into this week's Eat Deets. Eatery details. So this is a brief history of ghost kitchens, and I wanted to set a vibe. Look at this. This is a vibe. I feel like I'm transported. I am not going to tell you these eat deets the way I normally do. Okay.

I want to make this a little spooky. Oh, is that why we have these? Oh, that's why we have flashlights. I'm here to tell you a ghost story. Oh, my goodness. It's getting real. Whoa. Gather round the fire, friends.

Let me tell you the tale of ghost kitchens. A new breed of restaurant with no dining rooms, no signs, no wait staff. Overhead costs so reduced, you would swear they were overheadless, cursed, food that seemingly comes out of nowhere. It all began in the early 2010s. The scariest time. Millennial optimism era. Back then, restaurants were trying to keep up with the rising tide of online delivery.

At first, they just carved out corners of their kitchens, side hustles to keep the delivery apps sated. But slowly, quietly, a new idea took shape. Why have a restaurant at all? Why not? Just cook in the shadows. It's like a full-blown entity now. They flat out make restaurant-less ghost kitchens now. I know.

It's stupid. It's crazy. There's one by me that just says ghost kitchen with a ghost. I don't even know what's inside. No one never does. No one never knows. They've been dead for 15 years. But this eerie trend didn't start in America.

No, it came drifting across the seas. In India, a company called Rebel Foods shuttered its storefronts in 2016 and embraced the void, cooking only for delivery. Huh. Rebel Foods. That fits. Which is how we got to feel today. Today. Oh, well, we'll get into that.

Stay tuned. In Europe, ghastly food portals called dark kitchens popped up. A deal with the demon lord himself. Or something worse. Restaurants, you can't eat at, like a soul without a body. They were called dark kitchens before they were ghost kitchens. Wow. Yeah.

Virtual restaurants is like the official name. Yeah. Dark kitchen sounds so metal. It sounds so metal. And they're like, okay, let's tone it down. That sounds a little. We're scaring people. We're scaring people.

Evelyn and the nursing home will not be ordering from the Tender Shack. Yeah. Soon the specter reached the U.S. In the mid-2010s, whispers of virtual restaurants, virtual restaurants, began to spread. And then like lightning, striking the friar, as happens, the spookiest of them all, tech entrepreneurs, invested $400 million into a new vision from Uber's own co-founder,

Travis Kalanick. I think that's the scariest part. That Uber's co-founder is partially to blow. blame for this movement. Yeah, it was a company called Cloud Kitchens. They flooded cities with these occult kitchen outposts, feeding hungry apps with not a storefront in sight. By the late 2010s, the Ghost Army grew.

Startups like Kitchen United and Reef Technology built kitchen colonies, dozens of brands cooking under one roof hidden behind warehouse walls. Delivery giants tested their own phantom kitchens, and fast food chains began quietly using secret kitchens to serve new cities. Why does this feel so evil and wrong? I mean, probably the vibe we're bringing to it. We are shining flashlights in our eyes. But I do think that there is an element to it that does feel.

It feels off. To me, it feels counter of the reason I go to restaurants. Yes. Or rather, the reason I eat out. out. Like, I want this food as an experience. I don't just, I mean, sometimes I just want the food. Yeah. But like, I love going to restaurants with people. Me too. And this kind of takes that. Yeah. And is the care really there in the food? No, but I mean, one might argue that at a chain, it's very rare to get that. And sometimes you do. And those are some of my favorite chains. Yeah.

Or outback steakhouse, which I just love, even though I know the care isn't there. Let's go out back tonight. No rules. Just right. That's a, that's their motto. No rules. You can do whatever. Anyways. Ooh. Shiffleigh, Wendy's, all dabbling in the dark arts of takeout only orders in dense urban areas. Then came 2020. The year everything changed. All hell unleashed as the great sickness closed our dining rooms. But while we were locked down, the ghosts moved. in. With eerie speed, the number of ghost kitchens exploded. What was once a fringe idea suddenly became a lifeline. Over 13,000 ghost kitchens haunted the globe with more than 10% of them invading our very home, the United States. Does the U.S. scare you? Because we like guns. Chains were rattled too from the great sickness.

So, backed into a corner, they invited being possessed by these ghosts. Chucky cheese launched Pascuali's pizza and wings, pretending to be a totally different restaurant. Denny's invented the burger den and the meltdown. Chili's unleashed It's Just Wings, raking in millions without adding a single table. Chili's had just wings? Yeah, it's just wings. Is that what it's called? It's called It's Just Wings.

Oh, it's called It's Just Wings. Yeah. I had no idea. Notoriously, the best part of Chili's is their wings. Yeah, it's true. They were smart on, and their riblets. They could make another kitchen called, it's just riblets. Applebee's I thought was the one with riblets. Oh, you're right. I was wrong. And I'm going to say, I'm going to go so far as to say, I think the riblets are terrible. Oh, wow. Not because of taste, but because it's like, I don't know how to eat them without just ending up with those like bone triangles in my mouth. That's true. Every single time. You have to put the entire bone in your mouth and swish it around. Oh, for some reason that they're going to say the entire rib and I was like, do you pull it out like Tom and Jerry like a full fish bone?

Yeah, I do like I put the whole riblet in my mouth and I'll put the bone in there and then I take on the bone. So it's like work. But it's uncomfortable. Yeah, it is work. It's like sunflower seeds. It's like sunflower seeds. Where it's just like here's a task to do, which I don't like. I understand.

And speaking of Applebee's cosmic wings, they also did a wing restaurant. But these weren't new restaurants. These were body snatchers. The townspeople felt betrayed to learn. These new exciting friends were just their old flames trying to deceive them. Even my beloved Outback Steakhouse dabbled in the paranormal with The Tender Shack. The Tender Shack? They have a chicken tender offshoot of Outback called the Tender Shack.

They had such a great opportunity to just have a blooming onion ghost kitchen. But it'd be so obvious who they were, which by the first. the way, I wouldn't be mad. No, like, can you imagine a loaded blooming onion, like loaded fries? That sounds crazy. But like, with like mayo and bacon and like, this sounds like a, like, what's that quote in Jurassic Park? We were too busy thinking about if we could. We didn't stop to think if we should. Exactly. Yeah. Like that's, that's what it should have been. Yeah. Al Pac take notes. I get the bloom and onion burger. Okay. So it is like the bloom and onion with bacon, right, with the sauce on it, with beef. Like, right. But it's. But it's.

seems like the pattern is they want to do something that's not their brand. Correct. Like it seemed like it's not that. That's the thing. I think that they're banking on the fact that their reputation is sullied. Yeah. So they're trying to be like, oh, well, maybe people will order from us if we just pretend to be someone else. Right.

Which is tricking people. Well, it's tricking people. But it's also such an admission of like, yeah, we're not great. Exactly. Right. Yes. Like, if you were. you would just be like, no, this is Outback's chicken tenders and people will be like, oh, yeah, I want those because they're great.

But that isn't why people go to Outback. Right. So, yeah, I don't know. It's interesting. It's the dishonesty, but it's also the vote of no confidence in themselves. Yes. That bothers me. That's true, too.

And then there's just the ghost kitchens that you do know, but they're all grouped together like Chick-fil-A. There would be like a chick-fil-a, other kinds of chains like in one kitchen in a strip mall. that you can like order from. Chick-fil-A, Jimmy Johns, like they're all in like one. I've seen like a dangling sign while just like walking down the street, just like up the block from here.

And it's like a chick-fil-A sign. And I'm like, this isn't a chick-fil-a. It's their delivery-only kitchen. Yeah, but it's in there. But if you knock on the door, they treat you like you're weird. Exactly. No, you're advertising.

Exactly. The thing. I'm trying to get food. I can't go in here. It's strange. I want waffle fries. Right. You know?

And then the celebrities arrived. Mr. Beast, the YouTube mogul, launched Mr. Beast Burger in late 2020, and within months, it was everywhere. That was the worst burger I've ever had in my life. Was it? I never had it, but I did go to a Friendlies. Do you know Friendlies? They're a, like, New England chain. They're like a burger chain.

They've kind of gone all up and down the East Coast, and then they've kind of shrunk back. to New England. But really good milkshakes. It's probably akin to like a Johnny Rockets or something like that. I went and there was straight up just a sign out front that was like Mr. Beastburger is here. And that was where it first occurred to me. I was like, wait, is Mr. Beastburger just whatever burger the host makes? So your Mr. Beastburger could be a Denny's burger.

mine could be a friendlies burger, someone else's could be. Right. It could be like a different place. Yeah. Or is it all shipped and kind of standardized across all Mr. Beast burgers, but different kitchens are prepping them. That was kind of a thing that I always wondered. Right.

Did you get the answer to that? We'll see. Okay. Yes, it is provided by Mr. Beast. Oh, wow. Yeah. But it is just prepared. So, I mean, there's probably going to be a cross-pollination of like the burger patties would

probably be a Mr. Beast thing, but then like the condiments might be like, oh, well, this is like the ketchup they had it. That they had the kitchen. So it's like, it's a mix. Right. Yeah. That's still so weird. It is.

And again, it takes the reason I go to restaurants out of the process. Out of it all. Anyways, with Mr. Beasburger, there were over 900 locations across the U.S. and Europe, all without a single real restaurant. Just kitchen ghosts license to cookies food. Then came Mariah Carey's cookie company. And Wiz Khalifa's hotbox, all of them creating food brands with no home. Yep.

There was a Poyos Armanos, too. Yeah, yeah, the breaking bad one. That was good. I feel like I had it. No, I have not had it. I have been to the rest, like the site of Poyos Armanos in the show. Right. I went to Albuquerque.

Oh, you actually went to like all the spots, but it's not a chicken restaurant. Right. There's one that's like by USC. I don't know if they still do it, but I ordered from there. and they had like the box and everything. That makes me happy. Yeah. I was a diehard breaking bad fan.

Right. Same. Yeah. Now it's 2025 and the ghosts are here to stay. Cloud kitchens, kitchens united, reef, they've all staked their claims. Chains are weaving ghost kitchens into their growth plans. Even fine dining chefs are testing the waters. The world of delivery has changed, but not without consequences.

Because here's where it gets spooky. You order a meal online. Looks good. New place. Five stars. But where is this really coming from? A Denny's in disguise? A warehouse kitchen in a back alley?

A ghost brand running out of a chain that doesn't want you to know? Is it out of the back of Armando's Prius? Could be. Could be. And if you get sick from spoiled food or dirty prep, who's responsible? The kitchen, the brand, the driver? That's the thing about ghost kitchens. They hide in plain sight.

They operate under aliases. They could be your next door neighbor. They don't just feed you. They haunt your door dash, your postmates, your Uber Eats. They're everywhere. So next time you're scrolling late at night, stomach growling, and you see a restaurant you've never heard of? Pause. Because that meal might just be made in a ghost kitchen.

Ah, the ghosts kitchens. So bad for my eyes. That was, oh, God. That last part, like, wow, the reality hit. And I'm like, oh, God. This is going to get worse, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, ghost kitchens are absolutely going to be more a part of our future as opposed to less a part of our future.

Yes. Because, you know, you see those articles that are like, here's how millennials killed dining in, which is not true. No, I think it's the boomers. Yeah. But like, genuinely, I don't want ghost kitchens because I want to go out to eat. Well, let's think about it. I don't mean a stereotype.

But do tech bros and billionaires really have a good taste in food? No. Because all I think about is Mark Zuckerberg, we're smoking ribs. You've seen that video, right? No. Have you not seen that video? No, I need to see it. Oh, my God.

First of all, he looks a. He looks like just expressionless. I think he is AI. I think he is AI. I want to peel his skin. I just want to know, you know. I just need to know. He's a ghost kitchen.

He's a ghost kitchen of a man. He was born in a ghost kitchen. He's a ghost human. Yeah, he's a ghost human. Also known as a ghost, I guess. That's what we call ghost humans. But no, it's like him trying to be relatable and be like, oh, we're clearly he has like paid actors being his friends.

We're like, we're smoking ribs today. And it was, I think it was a. Facebook Live. It was like when Facebook Live launched to be like, look at this feature. Watch me cook rude. Watch me be relatable. And it somehow was the least relatable thing I've ever seen. Yeah. Yeah. And that will do it for this week's Eat Deats. Ansley, I hope such a spooky origin story doesn't scare you away from pitching me a restaurant concept that you have come up with. Because right now is exactly the opportunity for you to do so. But before we jump into this segment. Yeah.

We need to come up with a theme song. Okay. And I also want you to give me a style that you want us to Like a musical style. All right. And this is pertaining to my restaurant idea. Doesn't have to be. Okay. It's just pertaining to the concept of having a dream. Okay. And a restaurant.

I think we should do a like metal. All right. All right. That is the restaurant of your dreams. No more. Ghost Kitchen for me! You do it to drown out the screens. This is the restaurant of your dreams.

I think that was really good. Ansley, I want to know what spirits you would conjure and staff a restaurant with. If you could make your very own dream restaurant, something so good that the booze from Super Mario World would stop following him and go straight to your establishment. It must be practical, delicious, memorable, 3-2, 1.2. one go. Well, any restaurant open still has to have that comfort aspect and that consistency because I love that and that nostalgia. Right.

But I do want to make like a goth Denny's. A goth Denny's. Yeah, and it's called Spookies. And, you know. Seems branding appropriate. Denny's logo. Think of it like that. But it's a coffin.

It's a casket. Yeah, it's a casket. It says Spookies in the middle. There's like black milkshakes. There's like weird spaghetti plates that look like guts. You know what I mean? You're like picking it out. Do you eat it out of like a guy's torso?

Yeah, exactly. Like the game of operation. You're like, you're like picking it out of his body. You know, you know whose body I wanted to be served on? You know when you go to like a boxing gym and there's that guy with like the big buff body at the top of like a punching bag? You need to just buy a bunch of that torso. Turn it sideways, cut it open and serve spaghetti out of that guy's torso with this like weird crew cut and square jaw. You know who I'm talking about?

Yeah. That would be insane. just like pulling it out of his brain. Like it's like brains or like intestines. Yeah, fun stuff like that. But it's still like, it's still good diner food.

Classic diner food with like some horror twist. Yeah. It just also does kind of taste like polyurethane because of what you're eating it at it. But then there also has to be, um, those like swirly straws. Like that's a requirement too. You know like the swirly,

yeah, yeah. Yeah. Every single drink has to have that. I. Everything is goth except for the straws. Which is like this rainbow pink, You can literally, I hate those straws.

Oh. Not to look at, but like just the amount of time it takes to get your drink, I'm like over it by the time it gets to my mouth. And then I pull away too early and it like squirts me in the face. And I'm just like. Yeah. But if you think about it, it's the same thing as a horror movie. It builds suspension. Mm.

And then it like surprises you with like blood on your face. Exactly. But it's sprite. Yeah. Which goes with desserts. And you could get really creative with all of that kind of stuff, horror and food, ketchup, blood. Yeah.

You know. Tomatoes. Blood. Other red foods. Blood. Yeah, everything. You know, stuff like that. Black milkshake.

Yeah. I want to think of other. Stakes are only served rare. Yeah. Oh, 100% like vampire style. Not great. I mean, it's tasty. No, I like a right.

I like a good rare. I go for medium rare, but in a diner, I don't trust it. Right. Like there are places where it's just like, I'm going medium here. Because I don't trust that you'll do it, right? Yeah. No offense to your restaurant, but by nature of being a diner, I don't know how much I'm rolling the dice. Right. A diner, yeah, it can get risky. Yeah. But I think it would be funny to do it there. Yeah. Just so many different ideas like that. And I want it to be all like black inside. Yeah. It'd be cool. Like a dungeon. A dungeon Denny's. Yeah. What are you looking for in a server when you're hiring?

I want them to be like deadpan. I want them to kind of all be like Eastern European like Tommy Waiso vibes, like dead behind the vibes, dead behind the eyes. Yeah. Tommy Wysot is the is the perfect example of an employee at Spokies for sure. Where's like so many straps on their pants? It's like, why do you have like eight belts on? We don't need that.

You know? It's like hot topic. Hot topic attire. So many chain wallets. Yes. This place is the alternate. It could be spookies. And then the motto is just oops all chain wallets.

Yes, oops all chain wallets. Yeah. Wow. And a claw machine for sure. And a claw machine. Like we did at Denny's today. And the claw machine has like those like rings that like take up your whole finger on the claws. And I also wanted to be filled with those like fake tattoos that you like turn the knob for 25 cents.

I love those things. And you can get like the Mike Tyson face tattoo. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So much stuff like that. I would go here. I do have one consideration that I think you should put some thought into.

I know that this episode isn't coming out in October. This episode is just coming out like, you know, regular time a year. Yeah, as though October is not regular. Like, you're going to see the rush in October. Right. How do you stay afloat the other months? What, like, what is Spooky's doing on St. Patrick's Day? Right.

I feel like, I feel like it would be funny. The irony of it is to completely, like, celebrate that holiday, like, go on. all out. Everything's green. Everything's green. To be fair, there's a horror movie franchise based on Lepercon. Yes. So like everything's green. Valentine's Day, everything's pink. Everything's red. It's funny to like just random you walk and you're like, wait. I mean, Valentine's Day, you can serve stuff that looks like an actual beating heart. You could. You know, and then that feels both spooky and romantic, kind of cute, you know. I feel like people would like it. It might, I don't know, it might come off as catchy to some people, but I love a good themed restaurant. I think we should bring themed

restaurants back. Yeah, me too. It used to be really big in the 60s. One of my higher scoring restaurants, which I think it scored too high, but I'm not the only one who rates these, Rainforest Cafe. Oh my God. Like unmatched vibes. It's so fun. I love, I love an animatronic. Casa Bonita. Yes. Have you been? Can you imagine a rainforest cafe, but it was like a haunted house. And you're just sitting. Absolutely imagine it. You're sitting in like a Black Lagoon. This is my restaurant now. You're sitting in like... We're pivoting.

A lagoon. Yeah. And there's all these creepy like animatronics. I thought you said a lagoon. I was like we're sitting in a bean. No. Or a nut. It's like a creepy lagoon and you feel like you're in like, I don't know, what, Friday

the 13, something creepy like a like a, I don't know, a campsite lagoon. Instead of like elephant noises, it's just breathing into the microphone. It's the restaurant manager going, I have to do this again. Oh, so dumb. It's so stupid. But I think that's what it is now. Yeah. It's a haunted house rainforest cafe and a spooky rainforest.

We found it. Oh my God. That's genius. I would go. And I mean, if it is still like rainforest-y, you could, like, anacondas are terrifying. You could, like, you could just do like the sounds of like snake hisses or like, you know that thing when you go to like a 4D movie at like Universal Studios and they have like the air pressurized under your seat and it feels like a snake's blowing in the booth yeah you're like what's touching my

legs every table every table has those i think this needs to like come to life yeah this has to happen we we found it it's an experience i'm going into business okay i'm signing the deal cut the ribbon we still need the straws though and the funding uh thanks for going over all of that with me angely i now have a better insight into what you dream about yeah One last time. This is the restaurant of your dreams. Yeah. All right.

Okay. Now let's bring things back to reality and see what other people think of the burger den that we feasted upon in this week's Yelp from Strangers. We need a little yelp, a little yelp from strangers. A one star, two star, three star, four or five y'i So get a little yelp A little yelp, a little yelp from strangers A little yelp, give us those complaints Why you literally white

All right, this is Yelp from Strangers, our segment Where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite One, two, three, four, and five star Yelp reviews of the very restaurant that we went to. That's actually for once not true in this case because there are so few Yelp reviews of the Burger Den specifically that I kind of just sourced

from the greater L.A. area in general. Yeah. But I do have a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. So do you mind if I do the first one? Absolutely. All right. 4 star review. This is a 4 star review

from Kaylee S. from Recita, California, October 1, 2022. Whoa, that's a long, that's like three years. This has been around for that long. Yeah. Well, because like pandemic. Yeah, I guess so. You're right.

You're right. Yeah. I also just want to say the word Denny's is in this review a lot and every single time it's in caps lock. Every single time. This is literally Denny's. I called the number and it was Denny's. Why did I pay $17 for a burger from Denny's? I mean, that seems so pretty normal.

$17. Right. Yeah. No, that's not a crazy amount. But I do think that like the,

the incredulous. It's just Denny's in all caps. Yeah. Thought this was going to be from a burger stand, but it's straight up Denny's. We are all laughing so hard right now. Denny's really finessed us with a different name.

Don't be their next victim. I like Denny's, though, so I'll give them a solid four stars. Oh my God. So she just thought it was funny. Yeah. Like,

it was just like, y'all. I wonder what the realization was. Like, I wonder what happened to make them. I kind of know the answer to that based on other Yelp reviews I saw. The receipt that I got that says Burger Den on it used to be a Denny's receipt. So these would show up at people's door, like the DoorDash order, be at their doorstep. And they'd look and stapled to the bag, it would say Denny's.

And they'd be like, wait, I didn't order from Denny's. And then they would be like, I ordered from Denny. I think that makes it even freakyer, though, that they took note of that. And now they're actively really not trying to make it seem like their Denny's. Like they're doing a receipt now. Yeah. Like, why does it matter? They already ordered the food.

Yeah. But I guess they want you to come back to the Burger Den. They want separate. Well, they don't want you to come to it. They do. Wait, yeah. I was genuinely shocked that pickup was an option for this. I assumed it would be delivery only.

Right. So the fact that it's like, oh, yeah, come pick it up at this Denny's. Look, 50% of all. people are below average intelligence. That's what the word average means, right? Right. There have got to be several people who have shown up at Denny's pickup order, gotten their burger den and still didn't piece together that they were getting Denny's food.

Right. They were probably just like, oh, I guess they drop it off at this Denny's. Right. Yeah. That's so scary. That someone could be that dumb. That's one can be that dumb. They don't realize they're into Denny's right now.

Three star reviews. All right, shout out Amaru V from Santa Rosa, California. We're reading your three-star review of the Burger Den. The picture is hilarious. Okay. So off the bad, I'm going to tell you that the Burger Den is really Denny's. There's a thread. There's a common thread.

If you were there for Chuckie Cheese fronting as Pesquale's during 2020, I was. Then you know that's how they sold their pizza. Denny's is basically doing the same thing. Catfishing. Now, that's not bad, but if anyone is against eating at Denny's for any reason, now you know. It's against my principles. Denny killed my father. Denny, yes.

This is, thank you for letting me know, Amaru. As for the burger and fries, the fries were all right, but way too less of them. I rather have normal fries and you give me a bunch of those. Same. Okay. Yeah, same. And not only that the fries were a bit too soft. The burger was okay, a regular burger.

Nothing super special when it came to taste. I will say that the price wasn't there. This was near $20 and this isn't $20 worth of food. Maybe I'm eating at Denny's all wrong, but I was bamboozled. I'm eating at Denny's all wrong? Wait, yeah, you're right. That's the crazy. When I go to Denny's, I'm just like, going to Denny's is wrong.

There isn't a right combo at Denny's. There's, like, Denny's. Like Denny's is where you go to contemplate what led you to that Denny's. Exactly. Yeah. It's to debrief. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but he says, but I was bamboozled once I found this out.

The Burger Den, and then he repeats it. Yeah. The Burger Den is a Denny's. Burger was okay. Fries were not it. I can't disagree. Right. And then he, yeah, he posted a burger picture.

Yeah. I can't disagree. Yeah. We kind of came to the same conclusion. It's a Denny's. the burger is fine. Yeah. The fries are not.

No. The fries, I guess we'll get into it. We'll get into it. Yeah. But yeah. That's a whole tangent. I just, I really love like, hey, if you're opposed to Denny's it for any reason, I, in good conscience, have to let you know this. It is kind of my duty as a citizen of this country.

Of the United States. To tell you. If you don't like Danies. This is one. Yes. Yeah. And if you are sober, do not eat this. Stay away.

Do not eat this particular burger. Hey there. It's me, Michael. And now that we're in season four, I'm adding more content to my Patreon. Not only can you hear the extended Yelp from Stranger segment with three more reviews. And not only can you get an exclusive full episode covering an extra chain restaurant on the last day of each month. But I've added an extra chat with my guests where we discussed their go-techurchase. to fast food and chain restaurants and talk about why they love them so much.

I hope you'll come check it out and you can get your first week completely free of charge. That's patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. I appreciate and love you all. Back to the episode. And that's part one of our Burger Den episode. Tune in next week as we tell you what we thought about our meal at the Burger Denes slash Denies. We actually ate at Denny's.

In the meantime, Anzley, where can people get more of you online? I'm Spooky Foodie on Instagram and on YouTube. Yeah, come follow me around. I go to haunted restaurants and bars in Los Angeles and also just like weird, weird food places and dive bars. It's cool. We have fun. Great.

And you can follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast. You can join my Discord where you can yell at me for my food opinions or post your pet photos. I welcome both equally. Show me any fun Yelp reviews that you find, all that kind of good stuff. And then if you want the extended full Yelp from Strangers segment or an exclusive, episode that I put out on the last day of every month. I do have a Patreon. Patreon.com slash fine dining podcast.

That's it for this. We're just going to be sitting here for one week waiting on our table. Tune in next time and we'll tell you all about how the Burger Den compares to Chili's. In the meantime, thanks for listening. I'll see you next week. Have a fine day. This step is done and we had some fun. Now we're waiting on table waiting on.

Next time we're seeing. Stuck in line. Waiting on a deal What serves for mediocrity