Fine Dining - Is Joe's Crab Shack the Best Chain Seafood Restaurant?

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

🦞 Joe’s Crab Shack (Part 2): Heavenly Shrimp, Sloppy Lob, & Dessert Scores 11 out of 10 🦞 After diving into the shady past of Joe’s Crab Shack, it was finally time to eat. In this episode, I head to the Disney-adjacent location with friend and podcast voiceover contributor Sandy Rose to see if the crab still holds up. From shockingly great coconut shrimp to a fish filet that straight-up betrayed us, we cover every bite, every bathroom handle, and every s’more-stained moment in our quest to determine if Joe’s is truly the perfectly mediocre restaurant. Is Joe’s Crab Shack a crustacean celebration? Or just chaos in a cowboy hat? 🍤 Jumbo Coconut Shrimp That Changed Sandy’s Life 🐟 Fried Fish So Bad It Made Us Question Reality 🍰 Campfire S'mores Dessert – Sugar, Fire, and Too Much Cake 🧼 Bathroom Handles & Sauce-Covered Soap Dispensers 🧂 Captain’s Sauce: A Flavor Bomb or Suicide Mission? 🥔 The Cajun Platter That Made One of Us Cry (Almost) 🧃 Coleslaw, Cucumber Salad & My First-Ever Hard-Boiled Egg 👯‍♀️ Where Were the Dancing Servers?! 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Is Joe's the best seafood in chain restaurant dining? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🔥 Patreon (Bonus reviews & exclusive content!): https://www.patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Chat chains & share horror stories!): https://discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finediningpodcast 🔗 All links: www.linktree.com/finediningpodcast ⚡ Like, Subscribe & Share if you love chaotic deep dives into fast-casual dining! Patreon Producers: Sue Ornelas & Joyce Van 👉 NEXT WEEK: I’m hitting up the restaurant that started it all. Chili’s. Could it finally be the perfect 5.00? 🌶️

Joe's Crab Shack, a clear mastery of kitschy decor, but a fish filet that quite frankly bummed us out. A jumbo coconut shrimp that made me melt in my seat, but the mild Cajun seasoning was still too spicy for my weak palate. A generous server who doubled our dessert portion, but I ate my very first hard boiled egg and I've got thoughts.

We passed up Disneyland to eat at Joe's, and today we're going to tell you all of our opinions about dining at Joe's Crab Shack in an effort to determine if it's the most mediocre restaurant imaginable. We'll cover what was good about it, what was not good, and everything in between before scoring it at the end of the episode. Does Joe's Crab Shack have its positives and negatives perfectly matched up on the abacus of average? Let's find out. This is the Fine Dining Podcast. Your table is ready, take a seat.

The flavor of the day is mediocrity. Wouldn't you like to try a five? Guarantee it'll be the perfect five Fine dining, better than you thought, worse than you hoped Fine dining, we don't treat mediocre as a joke Breaking every single place we've the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America. I am your host, Michael Ornelas, and this is the show where I'm looking for the precisely

in the middle dining experience, the perfect.00 out of 10 because only once you know what's directly in the center can you tell what's good or not good by comparison. The current leader in mediocrity is Cracker Barrel, which was almost the direct center but not quite, resting on my scoreboard the tchotchke of mediocrity at a 5.01 out of 10. Will Joe's Crab Shack find itself one one hundredth of a point lower and become the litmus test of restaurant quality for millennia to come, or will it just be part of the journey en route to that destination? Joining me today to determine the fate of Joe's Crab Shack is a close friend of mine who, and this is a very real conversation we had during the drive to the restaurant,

is also worried by the decline in people's appreciation for chocolate these days. It's Sandy Rose. Hi. That's so true. And I think specifically, sweets in general. I feel like people have less of a palate for sweets. Yeah, I don't get it.

I love sweets. Me too. They're... palette for sweets. Yeah, I don't get it. I love sweets. Me too. They're... They're sweet. Yeah, they're the most indulgent thing you can have. And I think that's people's problem with it. Weirdly enough, they're wrong. They're objectively wrong.

They don't like joy. Is joy out of fashion these days? I guess so. I don't know. Well, thanks for coming with me to Joe's Crab Shack. You gave me your Tuesday afternoon to drive down to Disneyland, which for us is about an hour away.

About an hour, yeah. It was great, I enjoyed it. Was very sleepy afterwards. Yes, this was a filling meal. I say we just, let's jump into it. Let's start talking about it, let's review the place. Starting off with everything that we liked. This is all of the good. This is the good.

Done like it should be. Best stuff that's spank a lickin'. Or stakin' the land in. This is the good. I knew that you could. This is the good. My very first note is in all caps, I love the decor. You did, I loved it too.

I was gonna say I love that you did. You were delighted by it, you commented on it several times. I did too though. I think kitsch when executed well can be very, very charming. Yeah, yeah, it was like properly done. It was enough of it, it wasn't like embarrassed of charming. Yeah, yeah. It was like properly done. It was enough of it. It wasn't like embarrassed of itself. Yeah.

It wasn't like ramshackle. It was just, it was straight up, we are committing to these ideas. We are going to get somewhat high quality props for the decor. Yeah, yeah. Like even as we were leaving, our server was like, did you guys see the shark chasing the penguin?

Which settled an argument between us? because There's a shark on the ceiling that you notice. It's a grand set piece right when you walk in big I couldn't tell you the material, but you know maybe wooden. Oh my god. I have no idea Yeah, or like a hard plastic or mm-hmm polyurethane Poly something something. Yeah, it's poly. It doesn't settle with one.

Polyamorous for sure. Doesn't have one shark mate. But I didn't even notice a penguin there. And then from the vantage point of our seat, which was, I don't know, 25 feet away, 20 feet from this shark, I'd say, I noticed the penguin and I said, I didn't even see that.

It looks like it's chasing it. And you're like, no, I think the two are unrelated. They wouldn't do that to us. And then straight up the hostess on the way out, it's like, did you see this is chasing this? I was like, oh, so there is a story being told. Yeah, and I lost a very big bet. And the shark had a cowboy hat on.

He did. Yeah, I liked it. I think the penguin had a hat on too, to be fair. It probably stole a hat from the shark's hebidashiree. That's why he was chasing it. Yeah, he probably didn't want to eat the penguin. He just wanted his hat back. Oh my God, who could blame him? The place also had a lot of great signage, I thought.

Oh yeah. All weathered to look like it had been around. And a lot of California-specific stuff, but then they kind of went with some Florida specifics because beaches, beach life, a place like this, you do kind of think Florida vibes a little bit despite the restaurant being Texan. Right.

But hurricane evac sign, step one, grab beer. Step two, run with, step one, grab beer. Step two, run with hell yeah brother. Get that beer. I also think of Texas when I think of Hurricane Evac though. Do you? Like the Galveston area for sure. Okay, sure. Yeah, there was another sign that was like,

beyond this point there may be nude, like people swimming nude or skinny dipping or something like that. And I was like, ooh this point, there may be nude, like people swimming nude or skinny dipping or something like that. And I was like, ooh, how scandalous. Yeah. Joe's crab check. This is literally, I did my Hooters episode, like a few, or my third Hooters episode a few weeks ago.

And my friend who came with me to Vegas, he was like, look, I'll do this episode with you, but I don't want it to devolve into us just being like, Hooters, bro. Yeah, yeah, smart. And by the time we recorded the episode, that's all we were doing, just hooters. So the fact that we've now got a Joe's Crab Shack

equivalent of that. Never in a million years would have thought it. It's inevitable. But another sign that's like vultures may cause damage, that one was less fun. Oh, yeah, I don't think I even saw that one. It was right above the bathroom. Oh yeah, well and inside the bathroom

there was a nice little mosaics at Edith Joe's. I was just like, okay, take some time to decorate. That's kind of nice. My other note on that topic, this might tie into decor, literally my first note, cause I walked into the restaurant and immediately went to use the restroom after our drive I wrote the bathroom smelled really good oh okay like

yes we were the first patrons there that day so it makes sense that it still smelled good but it like genuinely I was like what is the scent they put in here I want my house it was like spicy and nice okay the men's restroom smelled neutral to me it like it did smell like a bathroom but it didn't smell neutral to me. It did smell like a bathroom, but it didn't smell like a bad bathroom. Sure, good. Bare minimum. I'll take it. I will take it. Puns in the menu.

I didn't notice too many. What? All the titles. Okay, I wrote them down actually. Yeah. So fish-ticated. Okay. Who you calling shrimp.

That's not a pun. That's just... That's just a sentence. That's just... That's just a sentence. That's just an aggression. And then sea-licious sensations. They had many more, but my hand was tired. I could not keep writing them. From all that crab claw cracking. The triple C.

Yeah, triple C. In walking around, I noticed a table just full of rubber sharks. A table? Tell me more. I did not see that. Well, it was like the booth when you go to the left, because they weren't seating anyone

to the left of the entrance. So they had a table that was just filled with the rubber sharks that I believe you drop into the Shark Bite drinks. Oh, OK. Yes, I forgot to mention Shark Bites. Which I didn't know about at the hindsight. I forgot to mention shark bites. Which I didn't know about at the time.

I knew once coming home and doing the research, putting it together for last week's episode. They weren't the ones that were in the merch shop for purchase? No, no, no. These were like the, you know those little dinosaur toys that kids get? One of these.

Yeah, with the little squeaky maybe. It felt like those. or it looked like those. Oh, I'm picturing that you're holding a stem and the mouth is biting. And you're going like this on the little. Oh, no, no, no. I'm talking about like a rubber dinosaur. Like an actual full body of a dinosaur.

Oh, got it, okay. Not the little claw grabber thing. Yeah, yeah, okay. I did like those though. The little robot arms. Grab someone or pinch someone. I was just like, am I strong enough to pick this thing up? And I'm like, I don't have the dexterity or this doesn't have the grip strength or

whatever. Yeah. It's like a weak handshake. I'll talk about the service a little bit. I thought our server very nice. Great. He was at the bar. Like that was his like station. Oh, I think. And so he was very accessible to us because we were also, we were at the booth that was like right next to the bar. Yeah, and because there was like maximum five other tables there, like he was very much on it and we were provident for. I like, provident.

Yeah, I liked him a lot. And we were both like hungry and excited to eat there and it just added to everything. Here's the thing. I had low expectations. I think I really did. I mentioned that we were going to my girlfriend, Joyce, and she was like, oh, good luck.

And then she realized she was thinking of Long John Silver's, which is like the fast food, seafood tier. This is like full on chain restaurant. And there seems to be a lot of effort to it. It was delicious. It was delicious food. It was, we were provident for. And the decor was out of this world.

So it was like, genuinely, there aren't a lot of shortcomings. So I think this good segment is just going to be us gushing about both big things and little things. Because there were so many details that were just enjoyable. Yeah, we both kept looking up and like, do we love this place? Like, what's wrong with it? Are we retirees? We should invest in Joe's Crab Shack, knowing it's sorted history and everything.

Let's move to Clearwater, Florida. And I'm less on board now, but all right. That's what it takes. Yeah. All right, yeah, let's start talking about some of the food. Yeah, adding to the good stuff, I mean, I do wanna start with my favorite part of the whole meal was that coconut shrimp.

Yes. Jumbo. Jumbo coconut shrimp. Yeah, I mean, I actually don't know if I've ever had coconut shrimp. Really? Yeah, I think that was why I was like, oh my God, what am I eating? It was so good. I've never had bad coconut shrimp.

I do think this may have been the best. Wow. That's probably saying something. But you took a bite and it was like, oh my God. I could see like the walls closing in on you of your former existence before you were born a new Sandy having had coconut shrimp, a new woman.

Yeah. It was the first bite that I had upon, you know. Getting your plate. Exactly, and being very hungry. I don't know if that would have changed with anything else that I'd eaten, but. Well, you did have the crab cake. That came out first.

You're right, I forgot about that. Yeah. Okay, the coconut shrimp was so memorable that I forgot about the crab cake. That you forgot about another dish that you did enjoy. I did, yeah. Yeah, and like it came with a plum sauce, which is typical for coconut shrimp.

I liked the plum sauce. You seemed- Not very much. That it didn't need it. And I actively did not like the plum sauce. You didn't like the plum sauce? Yeah. And it was a very generous portion. I mean, it was jumbo.

Of the coconut shrimp, yeah. It was jumbo. Well, there was four pieces of it on the sampler, so we each got two. Yeah. It was great. And plenty of other things on that sampler as well. Yeah. It was jumbo. Well, there was four pieces of it on the sampler. So we each got two. Yeah. It was great. And plenty of other things on that sampler as well. Yeah. Sampler. Sampler, as many syllables as possible.

Sample-er. Yeah. I liked it a lot. I went, what did I give the coconut shrimp? I gave it a 10, question mark, question mark. Did you? I did. I gave it a eight and a half. I was generous with my tens actually.

Yeah. I give a few things. Okay. Two things, tens. That's fine. For a place to have any tens is like, that's impressive. Way to go. I think I gave a 10 at Dairy Queen to the Blizzard. That makes sense.

Look, they know what they're doing with this. That tracks, yeah. I was like, if all the places I didn't expect to have a 10 on their menu I don't know if Dairy Queen I was thinking would reach a 10 on anything. But speaking of 10s, I also gave a 10 to the hushpuppies. Okay. I love hushpuppies though. I like, yeah I just I wrote down delicious little cornball which is more of a description of what a hushpuppy is than anything specific about this one. That's a term of endearment too.

It's a little corn ball. Pet name, delicious little corn ball. I gave it a seven out of 10. It was, you know, it was good. It was good. I liked it. Uh, it wasn't a 10 for me. Those were your only two 10s.

Oh, I gave the dessert an 11 out of 10. Yeah. Cause I'm a delicious little corn ball. Um, I gave it, I gave it an 11. No. I said yay. That's not how scales out of 10 work. I'm a rule breaker.

All right, we'll save the dessert for dessert. We'll get there last. Let's jump back to our appetizer. So the crab cake, that was the only starter we got, right? And it was very lemony. It was covered in like a lemon butter type of situation. Not in the conversation for the best crab cake I've had, but plenty enjoyable.

It was there. I mean, I gave it a seven. I went six and a half. I thought the portion was maybe a little bit small. Yeah, it was only one. And I think I like my crab cakes to be, I'm gonna use the word dryer, and I don't think that's... Do you mean formed? Maybe.

Yeah, I do like them to have more structure to them. This felt like it was a little flimsier, break apart. It's like they shaped it on the plate like this, instead of like shaped it like this and put it on a plate. For those audio listeners. They shaped it on the plate, like they're packing sand onto a sand castle. Your name is Sandy.

So this is the point of reference I expect you to bring up. Sure. I always talk about sand in every single conversation. I've noticed. Legally. Versus for the audio listeners,

packing it between their hands like you would like a meat patty for a burger. Yeah. I guess I usually expect more of like a puck shape. Yes. And this just felt like a pile. Of sand. A pile of sand.

TM. And yeah, it still tasted good. I think it was, yeah, it was a little too lemony, a little too buttery for my taste. I wanted not for it to be dry, but for it to be drier than it was. I think it was just a little too squishy for me. But still six and a half. I enjoyed the taste.

I would get it again. I liked the squishiness because it did kind of melt in your mouth a little bit Yeah, and I also like I kind of like a soggy squishy mouth feel. I'm not gonna lie I'm one of those people who does not mind when my cereal gets soggy. I don't mind it either I'm not in a rush to like eat my cereal before it sogs. Right, I'm not scared of it. I'm brave. I have- Sturdy cats out there.

I have courage. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so here's a little surprise. The crab cake came with a little cucumber salad that kind of looked like nothing. Right. It looked like- Garnish. You can avoid this if you want.

Yeah. We didn't. No. We ate it. It was great. It was great. It was a very good little cucumber salad. I was surprised. Little Cukes, little cherry Tom's. Cherry tomatoes.

I give it a seven out of 10. I give it an eight. Yeah. Yeah. You're generous. That was Jenny. Can you say the words as they are? No.

I don't think I can. My ratings did go lower as I got fuller though, so. Diminishing returns on a. Except then at the dessert at the end it went spiked way back up. Yeah. Because I love sweets. Honestly, I think this meal mirrored your blood sugar. Wow, that's actually a really good point.

Yeah. Uh, okay, a couple things that aren't, uh... major players in the meal, but were a part of it, and I do consider good. Red potato. So I got the... I want to say it was like the captain's platter or something like that, or Joe's platter or something.

Their signature dish thing. Everything I was finding on Yelp was like the captain's platter or something like that, or Joe's platter or something. Their signature, the dish thing. Everything I was finding on Yelp was like steam pots. And I think they downgraded it to a platter as like shrinkflation has hit. Shrinkflation. Sorry, my throat didn't make it. I felt like two things spoke to me at once there. A little goblin inside you and you.

A little goblin inside you and you. I genuinely don't recall seeing anything on the menu that was like get a pot of steamed crab. Cause all of the things that came in what I did get are what I was finding come in that pot. Yeah, I don't know what a steam pot is. It's just served in like a bucket and it's been steamed, so it might be a little bit warmer, but it's literally just the serving mechanism.

Anyways, I got this platter. And it was covered in a Cajun seasoning, and it came with two different types of crab, Dungeness and snow crab. It had corn on the cob, red potatoes, Andouille sausage, some like boiled peel shrimp. Yeah. But the red potatoes, andouille sausage, some boiled peel shrimp. But the red potatoes on here, they can be an afterthought in a dish like this.

And I thought that they pulled their weight. They were like, here's some carbs that you're gonna like, we're covered in a seasoning that I liked at least. Did you like it, but it was just too hot for you, or you didn't like it? I think I didn't like it. I think that, however, I can recognize that it was because there was, we had two big samplers. One was the seasoning spice that like I didn't love, but also the other sampler was just fried food, which was hyper palatable. So the-

Just a contrast. Adjacent- hyper palatable. Sure. So the- Just a contrast. Adjacent-ness, yeah. Yeah. I was like, I want this one. Sure, and I ended up liking what I got more. So at the end of the day, we ordered correctly for our own preferences, which is always good,

but I do tend to do these meals to share with my guests. Right. But that doesn't mean that we don't kind of end up claiming like this is the thing I like most, so I'll consume more of this than you consume. But yeah, I thought that the sauce for the red potato made it stand out. I gave the potato a six and a half out of 10,

which for just like a little boiled potato, not usually the best way you can make a potato. I like a fry over, but I mean like a garlic mash. Give me a garlic mash potato over maybe any other type of potato. Wow, you and your garlic. Had garlic earlier today. I did.

Well, speaking of fries though, interestingly enough, the fries on the other plate were less good probably than the boiled potato, would you say? Yes, yes. Yeah, well, I'll put the fries in a different category and I'll talk about them later. Yeah.

Uh, and then yeah, I have the hush puppy. Okay. Uh, we ordered a lobster tail. Yes, we did. A little a la carte lobster tail. Uh, you'll talk about it later. I, I'm sure I'll talk about it now. All right.

Well, I assume you have a different category than the good. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha. Don't wink at me. I get it now. All right. I thought this was a perfectly serviceable lobster tail.

It was fluffed up kind of like they serve at Red Lobster, where they pull the lobster out of the tail and kind of have it sitting on top so that you don't have to do all of the grunt work of acquiring the lobster meat. We kind of pulled it in half. I thought this was just fine. And not just fine in terms of average,

just fine in like, yeah, that does it for me well enough. Well, I think that, yeah, I could maybe talk about it in both categories because I gave it a seven. Oh, okay. Like it was still lobster at the end of the day. Okay, yeah, I could maybe talk about it in both categories because I gave it a seven. Oh, okay. Like, it was still lobster at the end of the day. Okay, okay, cool. So then, yeah, we'll talk about it here.

Yeah, I did do a little dip in the butter sauce. It did not need it. It had enough butter. It was dripping with, I don't know if it was dripping with butter, but it was dripping, so I was like, I don't need any more drips. It's a sloppy lobster.

Yeah, sloppy lob. Sloppy lob. Sloppy lob. Sloppy lob. I need a minute. Anyway, I wrote the note, couldn't taste. And I'm curious about that. Well, you also have COVID. I also don't have any taste buds.

So, yeah, can't trust me at all for any of these nuts. I think I wrote that because it just didn't have a strong flavor. I think that's just how lobster tastes though. I was going to say, I think lobster tends to glom on to what it's served with or what it's served in. And I agree that they could have done something maybe a little bit more creative with it to make it a little bit more stand out. Maybe more like parsley. I wouldn't be mad at that. But yeah, I went seven and a half out of 10.

I liked it well enough. Yeah. So. Good enough. Okay. The corn. Go ahead. I had like two little bites because- I loved it. There was like a sweetness to it that I thought was good.

It had like the right balance of butter. It was covered in the captain's sauce that I thought was good. It had like the right balance of butter. It was covered in the Captain's sauce that I loved. Well, it was on the cob and I just, I don't like biting into cobs. C prefer to cut them off like a little child. And there was just no knives available. So it was also near the end of the world. Do you do like the full on slice and get like the full? Yeah.

Okay. I do think that there is something fun about that process of like slicing down the cob of corn. Cause then it comes off in like a whole slab. Yeah. You feel powerful. Yes. I feel like I did this.

It's like when you reach into a bag of granola and you get a big old chunk. Oh Mmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you get the corn on the cob and you get a whole slab of it. I Yeah, seven and a half out of ten on that corn for me I lumped corn egg potatoes and sausage all together and give them a good old five. Okay I'll talk about that egg later. There was also, yeah, there was hard boiled egg on that platter for some reason, I guess, I don't know. Snow crab, tasty but a hassle, but that's all,

that's all crap. Yes. It's a lot of hassle, it's a lot of work. I will say that there was enough meat in these legs and claws to justify the work. That is not always the case. I remember going to Bubba Gump and getting just the smallest crab legs.

And it was just- They can't skip leg day. God damn it. They're skipping leg day. Yeah. And- Minimal reward. I did think that this was worth it,

especially those claws. Yeah, some of them were like, ooh, gold mine. And the legs did kind of, they almost serve you like a half crab. So you do get like, you know, kind of like the body a little bit at the top and they didn't skimp on the meat in those. They can't control how much meat is in those legs.

No, I know. But I mean, like the ones I got at Bubba Gump forever ago, they were also just like, they were so skinny, where it was like realistically, even if it was filled to the brim with meat, there's like nothing. Right, like choose legs that you know will have meat in them. A substantive, yeah, enough size of lobster.

Got it. But, and- Or crab. Or crab, yeah. And the body part, it was, it really felt like a treasure trove of like quality white crab meat. Yeah. On both of them, on the Dungeness and on the snow crab.

Same, same for me. Yeah, I honestly, I could not tell you a difference beyond maybe size of the two. The Dungeness was a little bit bigger than the Snow Crab. And maybe a crab connoisseur could. Yeah, and they also have King Crab on the menu. Right. Which, I mean, again, that's just a size thing. It's just way bigger.

What? Nothing. What did I say? Nothing. The fried shrimp, so your platter had three different types of fried shrimp. It had like a little popcorn shrimp. It had the-

A big old jumbo. Just a fried shrimp and then the coconut shrimp. Yes, I think that's all. The fried shrimp was also really good. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to beat fried shrimp. It was so good. Yeah. Great texture.

Oh, I don't know if I gave a rating, but six and a half out of 10 for the snow crab. The work ratio was still kind of high for it. The Dungeness I did go actually eight out of 10. So I guess I, in the moment, did recognize a difference between the two, but it also just might been a meat ratio. Yeah, the amount that you got out of it.

Yeah. So for that fried shrimp, one, I thought that the tartar sauce elevated it, but it didn't need it. So the fact that it was good with both of those ways that you could eat it, eight out of 10. I thought that those were great fried shrimp. I gave them a nine.

You gave them a nine. Yeah, yeah. Look, any of these eights, I could be talked into a nine. Totally. Yeah. These are not like, my limit is eight. These are very... It's flexible.

It's fluid. It's flexible in the sense of my memory days later is still very fond of them, which isn't always the case. Sometimes you like something in the moment and then you think about it and you're like, yeah, it was okay. That's all right. This is like, I would go back to a Joe's Crab Shack and know that this is a thing I'm ordering. I would get the coconut shrimp again for sure.

Like I know I would go back to a Joe's Crab Shack, but that doesn't always mean that I'm gonna eat the same things. I'm curious enough that I enjoyed the place enough that I'd be like, yeah, I wanna go back and maybe try some other things. There are a few things where I'm just like, this is a must have next time as well.

And the fried shrimp and the jumbo shrimp, coconut shrimp are both in that list. Then I had the boiled shrimp with the captain's sauce. I thought this was good enough. Did you have any of the Pull and Peel shrimp? I did. Yeah, I liked it enough, Six and a half out of 10. I also do like this prep style of shrimp.

And again, I did like the sauce quite a bit more. Now, an interesting note about the Captain's sauce is they had like five or six different sauce options or seasoning options. There was like a Cajun, there was a garlic one, there was a, I wanna say like a barbecue. Yeah. Or something.

Anyways, there were like a bunch of options, Old Bay. And then I was like, what is the captain's sauce? And it was just like, oh, it's just all of them together. This is basically the equivalent of a suicide. You know, the drink that you get in a soft drink machine. And I was like, okay, yeah, sure. That sounds interesting enough. And I did taste kind of the distinct elements of a lot of those different sauces.

Like I could taste the garlic, I could taste the Cajun style, I could taste the Old Bay. So the fact that it was that rich of a sauce that you can kind of pick up the notes of the different things that comprise it, I think is a big part of why I liked it so much. And maybe that's why I didn't like it. Revelations.

It reminded me of that scene in Ratatouille where he's like describing flavors and colors mixing. Yeah, like a strawberry plus a cheese. Yeah. So it was very, I felt at my most pretentious in my food review, tasting that sauce being like, oh, what a rich tapestry of different elements. It made you tap into your rat chef side.

In my rat era, yeah. Hell yeah. Next thing for me is the campfire s'mores. What? The- Okay. I mean, we've talked about a lot of the food. I've talked about both types of crab.

I've talked about all the- Popcorn shrimp. That's not in this category for me. Oh, it was an talked about a lot of the food. I've talked about both types of crab. I've talked about all the sh- Popcorn shrimp. That's not in this category for me. Ooh, it was an eight for me. Really? Yeah. Ooh, okay. But again, I-

Talk about what you liked about it. I- I like that it's fried, and I like that it's true. Literally, I wrote soft comma fried, because I like soft food, and I like fried food. And I cannot lie. I like soft food, and I cannot lie. I like soft food and I cannot lie.

I'm not gonna wrap along with you, but I enjoyed that. In the style of Creed. Yeah. And it was nice and peppery and flaky and buttery and nice and fried. And you can't go wrong with fried shrimp. I'll talk about it later. Dessert. The Campfire S'mores is what it's called.

So this is basically a slice of chocolate cake with graham cracker both underneath and on top, a full Hershey's bar that's been melted and then toasted marshmallows on top. Mm-hmm, big old jumbo marshmallows too. Big, yeah, the big like chubby bunny marshmallows. And the server knew we were reviewing the place and came by and was like, hey, I went to the back

and like the chef saw that I put a whole slice of cake, it's supposed to be a half slice. And I was like, you didn't see nothing. He was like, you can't give that away. He's like, watch me. And he was like telling the story of how rebellious he was. And I'm like, dude, I appreciate the gesture. I really do.

But also, are you trying to murder us? You saw what we ordered, man. This was so much cake. So much cake. That the half portion would have been plenty. Yeah, too much even. And because like the cake is definitely an interesting part that the half portion would have been plenty. Yeah, too much even. And because like the cake is definitely

an interesting part of this dish, but I think the graham cracker and the melted Hershey bar are kind of the star of it. Right. And then the fact that the marshmallows have like the burn marks on them. Yeah. It does give you that.

Campfire s'mores. That campfires, it's giving campfire s'mores. It's giving. That I think the cake isores. That campfires, it's giving campfire s'mores. It's giving. That I think the cake is just there to kind of give it a form. Not so much to be the main point of what you're eating. But when you go with a full slice of cake, the ratio turns.

Yeah, I thought it was, when you mentioned form, it is interesting because the cake, you know, it was like a triangle. For the audio viewers, I'm depicting this terribly with my hands. But anyway, there's an angle that the graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows were like- Marshmallows were like-

Rest on. Yeah, like a mountain. Cascading down. Cascading down. I don't know, it's just interesting because also they had a slice of chocolate cake on the menu as a dessert option as well. Right. It was the same cake.

So it was just like we got an extra dessert inside of this dessert. Yeah. Getting the cake alone would have been a fine dessert. So it's like, what? Like we could have, it very well could have been just like the s'mores itself. And so I know you said, you already told us your score,

that it's an 11 out of 10. For me, I think when I think s'mores, I think fire. I think I want it warm. And so even though the marshmallows were toasted and the Hershey bar was like in the process of melting, the cake was still served kind of like a cold moist cake. And I think that this needed the element of warmth to really take it into that transcendent level for me.

So I only went eight out of 10. I did really enjoy it. I would probably try the apple crumble next time because I do really love apple desserts. Yeah, that looked good too. But this was creative. And I think if it was the half-sliced portion, the ratio would have been a little bit closer to what I want.

And if it had been warm, that would have put it over the edge for me. I agree with that. And yet I maintain. That it is better than perfect. I think it's just, I have such a, like a, a little kid's palette. Where I'm just like sugaring ass good. Look, I love birthday party food. Yeah. Yeah.

So I don't know. So, no, I get it. Either way, we're 47 and a half minutes into recording and we're still talking about the good. Right. So that is the end of the list of the good for me. The service, to me, gets two thumbs up. The decor gets two thumbs up

and the food gets two thumbs up for me on all three of those elements. Yeah, I will also add, I just realized when I was saying that the apple crumble looked good. I like the pictures in their menu. I think that makes a difference too. Yeah, sometimes I'm like,

what am I about to be ordering? I equate it to like a good board game instruction manual to where it's like, I wanna see both what it's called with the picture next to it so I know, oh, this piece is that. Every time you refer to that from here on out, I now know that it's this.

To confirm. And I think that that is very helpful in a menu. Also, some people are, you know, they have bad eyesight to where like, reading is tough. Not everyone speaks English. You know, there's a whole bunch of reasons to put pictures into your menu. Absolutely, accessibility. And I love it. Yeah, speaks English. There's a whole bunch of reasons to put pictures into your menu.

Absolutely, accessibility. And I love it. Yeah, love it. I love it. Do you go two thumbs up on all those elements as well? Or is there any of them? Two. One thumb. Two thumbs.

Atmosphere service food. I might do one and a half thumbs if I could cut off. No. Oh. No, you get one or two. You won't allow me? You got one or two. Bodily autonomy?

No, 2025? No, not for one minute. Okay, no, you don't play that card. All right. Guess? You got one or two. Bodily autonomy? No, 2025? No, not for women? No, you don't play that card. All right. Guess it's up to a man. Okay, two thumbs, yep. How dare you? It's between one and a half and two thumbs for the food

just because of my stupid little mouth. Pfft. Pfft. All right, we're gonna go in and talk about everything that is not good about our Joe's Crab Jack experience. So for me, the popcorn shrimp. I didn't like it was way too flimsy and soft. It felt like there was no pushback on my teeth to a point where I was just like,

this is just squishy shrimp goo. And knowing that it is like meat, I do want a little bit of resistance. Tenderness is different in like a steak, but like with a shrimp, I don't want it to just immediately emulsify into a paste. I am having such a hard time keeping this PG with everything that you just said. Yeah.

But I won't go there. Whenever I go down on this shrimp, I want it. I don't want it to be flimsy. I don't want it to lose its shape. Yeah. So the popcorn shrimp for me, three and a half out of 10. I really didn't care for them. I mean, I definitely have a negative to mention. Yeah. And you've already mentioned it. So you can maybe take it if you want to.

The fish. Oh, OK. Look, this was on your dish. You take responsibility for that abomination. I will say, you've mentioned this a few times. I don't think I realized that it was my dish. I thought we were ordering for La Table. We were, but just based on who ate more of what

and what was situated in front of each person, just by nature, these weren't both in the middle. So it did feel more like your dish. The fried fish was lacking. Yeah, and so the whole dish you got was like the seafood and shrimp ensemble or something like that, but it was mostly shrimp. It was the jumbo coconut shrimp, the jumbo fried shrimp,

the popcorn shrimp, french fries, hush puppies, and then this fried fish filet right down the middle of it. It looked like the main star. I was really excited about it. It looked like this is our strongest foot forward and it was not. It wasn't. No.

I really wanted to like it. I kept trying to eat it, but yeah, it was just kind of almost tasteless, but not in the same way that the lobster, that I said I couldn't taste the lobster. I was like, lobster just tastes like lobster, but this was like, this is breaded, but I also don't like the breading, weirdly enough.

Yeah, it was a very, like a too tough breading almost. And then like it felt like the skin of a fish was like a big part of this. Even though it wasn't, it felt like it. Like the texture of it reminded me of like fish skin. The breading? Of the breading. Oh, interesting.

Yeah, it was just, it was unsexy in a lot of ways. And then the tartar sauce, which I really did enjoy, didn't even save this to me. Like I took a bite on its own. I took a bite with the tartar sauce and I liked it equally. Yeah, unfortunate. I gave it a three. I gave it a three. I gave it a two.

I think this is my lowest score of the whole day. I did write, literally I wrote, better with the tartar sauce. So I think we disagree. That's fine. I just like the tartar sauce though. Yeah, yeah. To me it's just, yeah, I like the tartar sauce,

but it couldn't distract me from how much I wasn't liking the fish filet. I had, I wrote in here, baby's first hard-boiled egg. Oh, yeah. I've never eaten a hard-boiled egg before. That's wild. Because I like scrambled eggs, I like omelets. With the increased prevalence of ramen in my life,

I like a soft-boiled egg plenty. I like the yolkiness. I had no idea what to expect of the center of a hard boiled egg. And I just wrote, it was chalky. Yeah, you were like, are they supposed to be this chalky? Like, who subjects themselves to this? This is just objectively a worse way to make an egg.

But it's a very convenient way to make an egg, to take it with you, like if you're on the go. But this isn't that, this is part of like a big platter. Right, so you're saying that it would have been better soft-boiled. Yeah, I would have like, yeah, like the yolkiness, I think would have created an interesting dynamic to mix with some of the other things.

I wonder if it's part of like a cultural thing. Probably, yeah, just with the combination of things, it seemed very specific. Two types of crab, boiled potato, corn, sausage, hard-boiled egg. It was just like, that's such a specific assortment. So it was definitely referential of something. But I didn't like it.

So I will also go two out of 10, but that's less of me not liking Joe's concept of a hard boiled egg. I imagine. I mean, I guess if it's the only one I had, technically, that's all I can judge it on. But I think conceptually, I'm just like, not for me. Mm hmm. Not for me. I didn't have any other bad scores, really. I have one other thing to talk about, and it's not a food item. But look, this is just a logistical thing. I have one other thing to talk about, and it's not a food item, but, uh...

Look, this is just a logistical thing. My hands were filthy from a plate that's just been dumped in sauce. I don't know if dumped in sauce is... The plate was dumped in sauce? The sauce was dumped all over it. It was slot bagged. The food was dumped in sauce. It was slot bagged. The food was dumped inside. It was slot bagged onto it. Sloppy love.

Yes. And then I have to use the bathroom. A push door would be an amazing logistical choice. But no, this was a handled pull door. Yeah, no option for a foot pole at all either. No foot pole. So I literally, I asked you to videotape it just to document it for posterity's sake. I felt like I was playing the game Operation,

like don't touch the sides. Oh yeah. And I'm like sliding my filthy hand in through this handle to get to the part of my wrist that is not covered in captain sauce. I don't like that sentence. Eww. my wrist that is not covered in captain's sauce. I don't like that sentence. Ooh. Um.

Ask me how I got first class seats on this cruise ship. My hands are covered in captain's sauce. How'd you get all that cake? And so I'm like, just trying to maneuver my way. Like I feel like I'm doing Tai Chi. Mm, yeah, very graceful. Yeah, slash playing operation to try and get this door open, just enough for me to then put my foot in the crack

to then open it all the way to then go in. And then both bathroom doors that are propped to open with trash cans, but they're push doors, so it's not for the logistical thing of, hey, we're helping you get these doors open. Where was that a second ago? Exactly. And then you go into the restroom

and you realize that the soap dispenser and the faucet knobs are both covered in Captain Sauce from other people who have had this same dilemma of trying to go to the restroom to wash their hands of this very messy situation. So, they would just turn on the faucets and they don't care to rinse the little faucets?

Men are animals. I hate that. I actually was just wondering if towards the end of the shift, maybe they have to clean the handle on the door as well. They've got to. Like, people are animals in general. That would be a very disgusting oversight if they didn't. We didn't experience it one way or another.

I'm just wondering if people allow their animalistic instincts to come out to the point where they don't care to do the Operation Tai Chi slide. Yeah. And they just open it. Yeah, I don't know. But the women's restroom did not have the same issue with the handle, but. You also may have been the first person

to use it of the day. Exactly. I was at least the second. You clocked that. Yeah. All right. Anyway, it wasn't like filthy. It didn't look like a crime scene of like, oh, who did it?

And there's like hand prints all over the place. Yeah. But there was definitely a like a crime scene of like, oh, who did it? And there's like hand prints all over the place. But there was definitely a person that I could be like, oh, you touched the soap, you used that faucet, I'm gonna use the other one. Dude, I think it's also just, this isn't me thing. I typically try not to use my fingers to touch anything when I'm washing my hands because I'm like,

they're washed and now I'm gonna touch this faucet again, I'm gonna touch the soap, like no. I'm touching everything with my elbow. What I'll do is I grab paper towel, dry off, and then I use that paper towel to open the door on the way out and then toss it. For sure. That, but I also don't, we're just getting

into my mental health issues right now. I don't touch the faucet at the sink either. You are the game operation. Don't touch the sides of anything. I use my wrist to do everything. But yeah, even though a little bit silly and like, you know, I had fun with like game-ifying this obstacle, you still got to acknowledge the fact

that it is an obstacle. This is a thing that is happening that is unpleasant objectively. Yeah, that's gross. But also they did give us little branded wipes so we could have used those instead of using the Russian. And honestly, their branding was sharp. They had the wipe, they had the bucket

that had your fork and napkins in it, and then they had the little crab seafood pick, I think is what the official term is. But the thing that you use to dig in, scrape the crab meat out and it says Stolen from Joe's crab shack, which I thought was a fun little touch. I asked for permission I was like, can I have one of these?

Can I steal these? Can I steal these? You can just have it and I was like no no call it stealing I'm in my bad boy phase right now And so I put it on the tchotchke. So we've got it right there. Hey. Okay, that is all the things that I would call negative about this experience. None of it other than like a couple items of food that I didn't care for but didn't really eat a lot of anyways.

Nothing really like brought down my meal. These are just kind of like the remnants of things that I'd be like, yeah, just it was there and I didn't care for it. Yeah, like that wasn't for me. Well, with all of that good and not good covered, now we just got to talk about that middle ground, all the things that didn't inspire emotion one way or another, but you did clock

the things that were just there. This is a weird one. I'm not quite sure what to say about it. Yeah, this is for the stuff that is just there. For me, the coleslaw. I also have it in there. Just there, man. I put almost good.

Yeah. A little fruity in taste almost. Yeah, a little tangy maybe. Yeah. I went five and a half out of 10 on it. I even a four, four in taste almost. Yeah, a little tangy maybe. Yeah. I went five and a half out of 10 on it. I even a four, four and a half. Yeah. You know, it was like, it's whatever.

Yeah. I do like coleslaw generally. So I was excited about it, but it didn't land. It was just the least interesting thing in that vicinity. I thought. Could be a thing. Yeah. For me, the fries were just whatever. And I love French fries, I thought. Could be a thing. Yeah. For me, the fries were just whatever,

and I love French fries. I know. These I gave a four out of 10. Four. When I'm biting into a fry and I'm disappointed, come on. Yeah, it's so easy. It's a potato and it's fried. Yeah.

And it was not good for the worst reason. It was bland. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, which is interesting, you know, next to the very, to me, spicy Captain's platter or whatever. Like, they have seasonings in back. They have a bunch of variety. Just pick a seasoning to put on the fries.

Old Bay fries would be interesting. Oh, yeah. Or, you know, a paprika, always a, you know, reliable thing to put on fries. I like to pepper my fries when there's nothing else. Some garlic. Yeah, or just go over to Islands and steal their fry salt because that is the best fry salt.

I haven't had it. So yeah, the fries I went four out of 10 and just bummed about it. So the sausage, the potatoes, the hard boiled egg, and the corn on your platter. Yeah, all five. Yeah, I was like that's same across the board. It's for me.

They had the same taste. I know they're different food, obviously, but because of the spice, it just overwhelmed it to the point where I was like, I had already identified that the spice was not for me. Yeah. And I was like, that tastes like the spice. So the sausage for me ended up getting exactly a five. And that's a disappointment because sausage, when it's like savory, is so good.

And I just felt like it. It lacked that it just it was a little dry. And just not it didn't taste very rich or anything like that. Yeah, I think it was andouille sausage, but I assumed that the sauce that it all was tossed in would help it. It didn't do much for it. So I've had a ten bummer, not offensive, but not not bad. Yeah. And for me, the boiled shrimp and the crab legs, I gave a six.

I think that's both types of both types of crabs. Yeah six. I think that's- Both types of crab legs. Yeah. I do think that a lobster is better to dig through than just because you're gonna yield more meat than a crab most of the time. But yeah, I did like those enough to call them good, but I can totally see how you end up just feeling like, yeah, it was just there.

Despite the place being Joe's Crab Shack, the shrimp kinda stole the show overall. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. But I did like the shrimp and I liked the lobster. So, yeah, not a lot that was just there. Most of the things inspired emotion in us. Most of the things were pretty darn good.

So I think we're ready to put a number on this whole experience, but before we do that, Sandy, this is your first time properly doing a full episode of the podcast. You haven't been to the 99 restaurants that I've covered in the run of this show. Incredible. You're not as calibrated as I am, but that's okay.

We have a method. We are going to stop at the calibration station. ["Calibration Station Theme Song"] Calibration station Comparing this meal to the best or the worst Calibration station Chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo All right, Sandy, thank you for...

...thinking about something that I thank you for thinking about something that I asked you to think about. You're welcome. Your worst and your best dining experiences are going to be what we need to calibrate the bottom end of your scale, something you would call a zero out of 10, the top of your scale, something you would call a 10 out of 10.

Because only once those two points are defined, can we properly place Joe somewhere in between them. So go ahead, the floor is yours. Start with either one, the best or the worst. Okay, I guess I'll start with the best, the 10 out of 10. Yeah. A few years ago, I was seeing this guy who was very into Michelin star restaurants. Okay, hey, not the worst, not the worst thing.

He had money. It was a great time. And we went on one date where we went up to wine country and he let, you know, he picked me up and asked in Martin and we drove up there and it was like, and I'm saying this because it adds to the experience of the whole thing. We drive up there and we stay at this Airbnb

attached to this gorgeous little area, had a great time, went to dinner, and it was like this one-star Michelin restaurant, should I name it? Yeah. Bells in Los Alamos. Okay. And I don't remember what the deal was that night,

but there was some sort of prefix menu. Like literally the appetizer was like caviar, and like they had like, what is urchin? Okay, yeah. Uchi. but there was some sort of prefix menu. Like literally the appetizer was like caviar and like they had like, what is urchin? Okay, yeah. Uchi, something like that. That was so good. And that was back when I was drinking. So everything, every part of the meal was also paired.

Paired with a wine. Paired with wine and the servers were extraordinary. The lighting was gray. It was very romantic vibe. You know, it was like a little weekend getaway and just like everything was delicious and buttery. And the night was just like perfection. Yeah.

So that was a 10 for me. I don't think I've ever been to a better restaurant than that. Shout out to that guy. But did they have campfire s'mores? Probably not. Probably not. Because that's an 11. That wasn't an 11.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I like a good Michelin star restaurant. I've only been to a handful. Luckily, there's a thing in Los Angeles that happens in February, usually for a couple of weeks, January, February, called Dine LA. You heard of it? Yeah.

Yeah, where a bunch of nicer restaurants kind of make more affordable pre-fixed menus for people to go try it out. And it's a good opportunity. A lot of Michelin star restaurants do participate in that. So yeah, it allows you to kind of taste what they're famous for, for a little bit better price point usually.

Okay, so that's your best. Let's hear about that bottom. Okay, so that's your best. Let's hear about that bottom. Okay, so my worst, I couldn't really think of an actual restaurant experience, but this is definitely a zero out of 10 dining experience from eating in general. All right, this was back in 2011, back in grad school. I had the afternoon to just relax,

and I was like, let me order a pizza, let me put on a movie, let me order a pizza. Let me put on a movie. Let me just chill at my apartment. And the pizza, when it got there, oh, can I say what I ordered? I remember what I ordered. Papa John's. I love Papa John's.

I hate Papa John's. I think Papa John's is trash tier food. So I'm already starting out low for you. At that time, I loved Papa John's. I was hyped about it. It got there, it was a little cold. So me with my underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, you can probably see there's this going,

I wanted to heat up the pizza. And I put the whole pizza box with the cardboard and everything in the oven. And not only did I turn on the oven, I turned on the broiler, which is fire. And so I went to go set up the movie to get ready. I was like, I'm gonna have pizza and a movie, heck yeah. And then I saw smoke in the kitchen.

I rushed back over, opened the oven to see flames, turned it off. I will say to my credit, I turned off the broiler. I thought to do that. Called 911 for the first and first time in my life, which I guess is a blessing. And so firemen came, I had pet rats at the time and I had to take my rat cage out to my little patio.

I think my landlord saw that I had pet rats and he was like, what the? And also she's causing fires in this apartment. But the pet rats first. Yeah, for sure. That's the first thing you notice, what the hell? Not the flames. And so the firemen were in my apartment. But the pet rats first. Yeah, for sure. That's the first thing you notice. What the hell? Not the flames. And so the firemen were in my kitchen.

They took the whole pizza box out and dumped the pizza in the kitchen sink. Like it was still okay. It was just the box that was on fire. I couldn't. I love that you're like, whoa, I would have eaten that. Like, thanks for saving my life, but my food? Come on, I was planning on eating that.

They saved you twice. No, they ruined my afternoon. No, thank you to them, obviously. But yeah, it was just like slightly charred pizza in my kitchen sink and mess everywhere, afternoon kind of ruined and it was just, yeah, zero out of 10. I'm asking people to define it was just, yeah, zero out of 10. I'm asking people to define a restaurant experience

that is a zero out of 10. I will allow this to play because essentially, Papa John's was a zero out of 10. And I think that's a fair admission. It plays into your agenda, that's fine. Yes. Okay, well, you are calibrated. Somewhere in between you needing the firemen to save you

from your burning Papa Johns to a Michelin star romantic getaway lies Joe's Crab Shack. So we are going to jump into giving our final scores. Final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, final score, the good things all about the not good things. A few things that were just there, but I think we've covered all the feelings that we have about Joe's crab shack. The one thing we have not done is put a number on it so that it can go up on the tchotchke of mediocrity. And if it is on the spectrum below five, it's not good. If it's above five, it's good.

Or if it is the five, it can be the litmus test of comparison used moving forward. Where does Joe's crab shack fall for you? Well, when you were describing the numbers to me, you said 7.5 was kind of a marker of above that. Good to great, yeah. Right. I gave it a 7.48 because it was almost there. It's almost greatness, but it's a very solidly good restaurant to you.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. I can respect that. I have Joe's Crab Shack as a great restaurant. I don't think it's like in the best tier of restaurants I've ever had, but from a place that I approached

with kind of low expectations to now being a place where I'm like, I really respect the work that Joe's Crab Shack does, both on their food, on their atmosphere, all of it. We didn't even get the dancing servers. Oh yeah, we didn't. We were ripped off. We were screwed.

We were screwed out of the full experience of, yeah. I would love to see it. I don't need it. But it is fun. And I do like experiencing the kitch that a place like that can offer. It would be like going to Texas Roadhouse, and you don't see the line dance at any point.

But when I went to Texas Roadhouse, it was on a weekend. It was not Tuesday afternoon. Mm-hmm. So I'm gonna make a point for my next restaurant. I will go for dinner on a Saturday night and get the full experience. Good call. I go 7.70. Hmm.

Still very, very close to yours, but I do think it just crosses into, yeah, it's a great place to go. So when you put your score with my score Joe's crab shack goes up on the Look at that. Which is not a cracker barrel. Yeah. OK, Sandy. You're like, what was that? There was a theme song that just played, and I just waited.

I figured. I was like, in a moment. He's having a stroke. It's fine. I was straight up reacting to it, and I was like, oh, wait. I haven't informed her what's happening right now. I get to just be here.

I do have to go somewhere next week to look for the perfect five point double zero. It's episode 80 technically, but like not real. I don't know. I went to two parters starting with episode 42. So it's like, it's the 80th restaurant I've done on the proper podcast, but I've done 20 on Patreon. This is my 100th restaurant for the podcast. Wait, not Joe's, the next one. The next one.

Okay. I have a restaurant that I've been saving. One, because I suspect that it is very mediocre. It might be my five point double zero. I don't know, but I'm going to go find out. So instead of drawing from the you must bowl to figure out where I'm going next time, I'm going to declare that the restaurant that inspired this whole podcast premise is going to be my pick for next week's restaurant.

I want my baby back. I'm going. Get it back. To Chili's. Woo! Wow, that's exciting. Yeah. That does seem like the pinnacle restaurant for this.

Of mediocrity. Yeah. Yeah, and you know what? I love a Chili's, but I also like, I don't know, let's look at what's below five or near five. Buffalo Wild Wings, it got a 3.56 and I still like a Buffalo Wild Wings. So when I call something mediocre,

that doesn't mean I don't like it. I'm trying to stand up for the mediocre and say, look, it's okay. It's fine. It's okay to be mediocre. Yeah. You know, Cinnabon 4.19, it's okay. It's fine. It's okay to be mediocre. Yeah. You know, Cinnabon 4.19, I love a Cinnabon.

It's just not a good restaurant. They have one good product. They have a good food item, but like, you know, service and ambiance are nothing. Yeah, right. So I think Chili's has a case to maybe have all of them in perfect balance, the atmosphere, the service,

and the food all kind of just... Just there. Equally good and not good. Yeah. We'll find out. I'm gonna do that next week. And in the meantime, Sandy, thanks for doing this with me. Thank you for having me.

So fun. I got to eat a really good popcorn shrimp. Good ol' hush puppy. I liked it a lot. Tell people where they can find you on social media. Well, I... Or your personal address. My social... is that okay? My social security number? Yeah, yeah. I am private on social media, but you can find me and you can DM me and I will probably see it.

Not I will respond, but. If you seem cool, I'll definitely respond. Yeah. Yeah. But it's Sandy Rose, but Sandy with three A's. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And you can follow the show at Fine Dining Podcast on Instagram and TikTok.

I'm also, I think it's like at Fine Dining Podcast dot blue sky dot or B sky or something dot social. Yeah. I'm also, I think it's like at finddiningpodcast.bluesky. Or B-sky or something dot social. I don't know, the usernames on Blue Sky are weird because you can't just look up Find Dining Podcast and find me. I don't understand it. But there is a link to it in the description of the episode.

So you can find me there. You can also go to my website and find all my socials. That's finddiningpodcast.com. But what I most want you to do is join my Discord server. Come chat with me, come hang out. I'm in there too. Yeah, there's a lot of fun stuff. Occasionally talk about board games,

maybe talk about movies, talk about what's going on over there, things that are peculiar that happen in restaurants, both for me and for other people. Yeah. I will read some of those stories on the podcast that people from my Discord write in. There's also a Yelp from Strangers segment

where people can find any fun Yelp reviews and send them to me, and I might read those on the podcast. So. Perfect. All of those things. Way to cure the loneliness epidemic. Yeah. We didn't find the most mediocre restaurant in America.

The search does in fact continue. We'll see you next time. Have a fine day. The search continues. We still need the perfect file. The search continues. Like and subscribe. The search continues.

Our journey did not conclude. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue.

We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. We're going to have to wait for the next episode of The Search to Continue. Like and subscribe, the search continues. Our journey did not conclude. The mother rep and search continues. Rattus and I-2's review. And hey, while you're at it, why don't you go ahead and make it five stars, huh? Come on. Follow us on TikTok. The same on Instagram.

All the socials. At Find Dining Podcast. We have a website. Find Dining Podcast dot com. Buy our T-shirts, then put them on. And don't forget, you can always suggest where we go next. OK! We're going to find it.

Mediocrity, the search continues See you next week!