Fine Dining - Luby's Gives Off Strong Nursing Home Vibes feat. Pumbaa from "The Lion King"

Episode Date: January 18, 2023

The boys get f***ing AMPED about their first cafeteria Pumbaa from "The Lion King" reviews Luby's mac & cheese on behalf of Cheese Correspondent Steven Zurita Michael & Garrett get to the bottom of why Luby's gave up on offering kids menus Michael wears a cone of shame Luby's nursing home feel scores a sponsorship from Old Old Ooooold SO OLD Navy JUB rallies against Goldblumers Additional voices: Ernie Sabella & Jessa Day Get our 5 Survival Tips for Casual Dining at www.finediningpodcast.com!   Send us your Luby's stories at [e-mail].   Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @finediningpodcast   Let us know where we should go next by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts. We read every one!   Next time on Fine Dining: Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen! If you have ever worked for Cheddar's and have a story to share, or if you’d like us to hear your child’s review of the Cheddar's kids menu, send it to [e-mail].

Huge thanks to Gabe Alvarez at Austin Audio Lab for hosting us this week. Hey hey, welcome back to Fine Dining, the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America. I'm your host, Michael Ornelis. And I'm your host, Garrett's work. And where'd we go, Garrett? We went to Lubies. Wow, my first time there and I have thoughts. We went to a cafeteria. Yeah.

It was a new experience. Partially skewed by the fact that I had a cone of shame around my neck for the entirety of the meal. One of those things that you get on a dog so they don't chew their stitches or whatever. Yeah, okay, so we did this. This makes me wonder, how the heck are you supposed to put this on a German shepherd if it was that difficult to put on you? Like, I was staying perfectly still. I know a dog wouldn't do so, but the one that we bought specifically was so difficult to snap shut. It wasn't like a matter of the sizing was off or anything like that, it was just the actual snaps.

We're a nightmare. I have never felt more like I was appropriately dressed for a situation than walking into Lubies with a cone of shame on. But you got some looks as we walked in. And you caught them on your video. For those of you who don't know why this happened, it's because we have a bowl of punishments that we draw from the You Must Bowl. And because I picked Gattie Town last week and it was not mediocre enough, it was outside of the four to six score range, I had to draw a punishment and I had to do Lubies in a cone of shame. And we went to the pet store.

I'm like, hey, we need a cone of shame for a German shepherd. Yeah, you were trying to save me my dignity. But then I looked at it as an opportunity to maybe, you know, gain a fan. So the lady, I was like, do you do podcasts? And she was like, no. And I was like, it's for me. Well, wait, I shouldn't have said that. You said no.

But hey, as it turned out, she checked out her TikTok. She checked out our TikTok. Which happens to be. Because that's where we're posting the videos of the cone of shame stuff as well as our Instagram. Find dining podcast. At find dining podcast for both of those. It was fun. It actually like, it was a hassle for sure, but I had a good time with it.

It was gold. Trying to eat corn. That's like, actively falling into this funnel that's just juicing towards my neck. Oh, oh, that's a sentence. Yeah. That's, that's the experience that we had. So let's stop talking about juicing. And we are rating these restaurants based on atmosphere, service and food.

And we are looking for the perfect five out of 10 experience. We're looking for perfect mediocrity. And since we didn't find it, that's why we were punished this time. But we want to bring you that most mediocre restaurant experience just for fun. We, you know, we know all these places are middle of the road. We want to find you the midlist of the road. The most epically okay restaurant possible. The averageist.

We're looking for the averageist. Find dining party of two. We'll get into it, but for now our table is ready. Hey, hey, wait, we got to go through this line first. We got to do like a whole thing before our table. And hurry up, they're staring. Okay, okay, okay, let's go. Your table is ready.

Follow me. Have you tried our chicken breast? Serving pancakes and ribs. I recommend the spaghetti. We're here to satisfy, not to impress. Your table is ready. Complimentary butter and bread. These walls have growth signs.

Knit, knack, cowboy hat, good luck, cat, autographed guitar. Some crap from your city. Behold the trash key of mediocrity. Find dining. It's just find dining. Find dining. Two ledgers on the sign are shining. Neon flickering irregular timing.

Identify the perfect vibe. How the 10. Find dining. Find dining. First impressions. We pull up and we see yet another beige brick building. Just like a big, non-descript. Yeah.

I'm like, uh, uh, Saddy Town flashbacks. You're getting Gattie Town flashbacks. It's right. We also see a big drive-through line. Oh, that's not a good sign. I didn't know Lubies had a drive-through. I mean, I guess I see how it could be done, but like with the, it's literally a cafeteria.

It's like when you're going through the line in school. Yeah. You know, it's just a bunch of different stations with stuff. So I mean, I guess they can have like someone just grabbing like a to-go container and kind of filling up a to-go box. It seems difficult. I imagine you have to be quite the regular to be able to handle that drive-through.

I think you have to be a regular here no matter what. I feel like Lubies is a place that like, oops, all regulars. You walk through the door and they're just all assuming like it's never anyone's first time at Lubies. The only people there are Lubies vets. But hey, to be fair, if you're from Texas, if you live in Texas, you are a Lubies vet. Maybe.

I mean, you've been there for sure, but man, I, I mean, it didn't help that I had a cone around my neck. But even without that, I felt so overwhelmed walking in. They had a menu mounted on the wall and it wasn't very well laid out. Okay. But I think this might have been a lot of cone interference. I, you know, I don't, I don't think it was that much that. I think it was people coming in behind us interference.

I think the fact that there were other people and we let them go in front of us. I was like, oh, hey, hey, first time here. Come on, guys. I did not feel equipped to like study this menu and like, you know, it wasn't like choose. Like I still couldn't tell you what the actual process is. Oh, okay. I went through and I just was like, that looks good.

That looks good. That looks good. I didn't know how many meats I was supposed to get. I didn't know how many side or how many, you know, entrees I was supposed to get. I didn't know how many sides I was supposed to get. It was literally just a matter of grab. It looks good and I'm trying to sort myself as I'm looking at this menu

and I'm feeling so overwhelmed because it's, it's just the beef section, the chicken section. I was like, just give me an entree section, which it's understandable. You walked in with a cone of shame. All of the focus was directly on you. Yeah. So it wasn't on me. So I took the time to look over the bulletin board that had the menu

and there's this one poster. How to order. Hmm. Yeah. I felt too much pressure with people behind me to really take it in and like learn the process. Like it's, it's when you're trying to make a left turn and you're just like, Oh God, they're going to, they're going to hunk.

I'm not comfortable making it on this, on this one specific intersection or whatever. And I let you live in your anxiety while I just took an environment. Didn't help. You know, we did send some people past, but I have no idea what I was looking at. I have no idea what I was looking at. And then it didn't help that like certain things were like taped over. Like they have like a white masking tape.

Okay. So this was just a crappy label maker that changed the prices on the menu. So I'm like, uh, another sign where this experience might be a little rough. Might start falling apart. And then, and then of course, you know, cause I'm always looking around for like, what are the weird things that are way too much? What are the things that are going on over there? I'm always, I'm always keeping an eye out for the strange happenings.

And I can't help but notice to the right of this menu. There's just an entire room full of like discarded boxes. There's an entire room like it would like curtain rods and stuff like that. Yeah. Just next to the menu. And I'm just like, well that, you know, I guess that's their storage space. That's where they keep their boxes. It's got to go somewhere.

Yeah. There were extra cups too, because Styrofoam cups come in large containers. Yeah. And I was just like, okay, you know, I can forgive this. It's an eyesore, but it's, it's out of the way. It's not in the dining area. That's fair. That's probably why you were distracted and didn't look at the menu or the instruction

or any of that. And then of course I'm looking at this line where everyone is going through and they just seem like total pros. And I'm just like, okay, well, I guess I got to get in this line. And so I go, I grab a tray. I start moving through. And I don't know how to order, but luckily you do. So here when you're at Lubies, how to order one, grab a tray in silverware, which you

did. I did to choose my salad served me right or skip the line because at first there is the cold salad area. Three, select your entree sides and bread. Now there are two options. The Luan, which is a half portion of a Lubies classic entree with two sides and bread or a combo, which is the full entree. Number four, add a fresh baked dessert.

Number five, refresh with a beverage. And by the time you do all that, you are at the station where you pay. I guess I instinctively did that. You know, I went through, but it was one of those things where like even going through, I feel like it would have really helped if the meats that I'm looking at were labeled because I can't remember back to this menu that flustered me on the wall, you know, a minute ago to be like, okay, because I looked at the menu and I did not decide on anything. I was like, I'm just going to, I'm just going to freehand this.

I'm just going to walk into the line, take what looks good. I also didn't know what you were getting. And I always want to make sure that, you know, for, for more food coverage, we're getting different things. So I just felt so much pressure. I know you had mentioned wanting the chicken fried steak. So I've, I avoided that. Honestly, it looked appetizing.

Yeah, we'll get into it later. It was pretty good. I mean, I'm, I'm haunted by chicken fried steak in my history of this podcast. If you go listen to the Denny's episode, just, just the graviest abomination of chicken fried steak you can possibly imagine. I felt like I was going out of order. First thing I grabbed was a cup of pineapple followed by red jello. And I gave you blue jello.

You were like, give me whichever one you're not getting. So you and I had, we're the jello boys. Yeah. Jello boys in the place. Hey, I'm just saying. You can't go to Lubies and not get jello. No, the jello is fantastic. It's great.

We'll discuss later. I don't know how you actually rate jello, to be honest. I know. I know. And then I'm looking at all these meats and I have no idea what's what. I could really use some labels. I end up getting a chicken that I think they tell me is mango chicken. Yeah.

And then they ask, like, do you want a little or like, do you want like a full? And I didn't know if it was like, they're going to chop it up. Or if it's like, nope, they, they gave me like a large, like half a chicken. And that's the difference between the combo size and the Luan size. Didn't know that. I got way more chicken than I ended up eating. And then I got mashed potatoes and gravy. You know, I went further down the line, got my bread, you know, we'll get into the food

properly later. I got a dessert. I got to the end of the line just feeling like, I really want to know what those other aren't like. I felt unfulfilled. I felt rushed. I felt pressured. I felt stressed.

And I want to say thank you for going through that. So I could watch you struggle and be prepared. Yeah. It was a stressful experience. And then I get to the end, I go pay. Now we get to go sit down at a table. But first, let me describe the buffet slash cafeteria layout. Oh, sure.

First, as you said, there were some pineapple, other healthy options, cold sliced veggies. Side salads. I saw like cucumber. Yeah. Next, it went to the Jell-O. After that, it went to the entree slash meats option. The fried chicken looked so good. It was a smorgasbord of fried food.

Honestly, I wish I would have gotten the fried chicken in hindsight. The mango chicken, like, I like the mango chicken. I wish I would have gotten the fried chicken. Like, Lubies just feels like the place where you go to get fried chicken. Yeah. Next, we had the sides. There were baked beans, coleslaw, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn, fried rice, so many different things.

Yeah. I will say compared to the buffet we went to the night before, night and day. Oh, yeah, completely. Saddytown was empty and depressing. Lubies was vibrant and full and crispy. And stressful. But the layout, everything looked good. Yes.

Things looked tasty, even the lighting on them. Yeah. The lighting matters. Like, it really does. You get a presentation at Gaddytown of like one fluorescent overhead bulb versus... So, you have a horror show versus a welcoming home. Yeah. It did feel very homey.

The lighting, you know, was kind of a more tungsten light instead of a fluorescent light. It was, you know, got that little, little orangish hue. As we'll get into soon, this was the exact point of the restaurant. Oh, really? Okay. It was enjoyable. I mean, I still can't get past the rush. Not the rush like the adrenaline rush.

Yes, Lubies. The rush of Lubies. Lubies! Holy fucking Gaddy fucking Lubies! Our jello doesn't jiggle. It causes our quads to inject gravy directly into your veins. Assaulted batter you gain funds with our salted batter. Soft lighting for hard people.

Mother fucking Lubies. Stop letting your kids find out you're at Lubies. Cafeteria, more like kick asseteria. More metal than your hip replacement. Titanium is for the weak. Fucking Lubies! No, but like the rushed, probably self-imposed feeling that I had. I think you were already...

No, it was rude. You were already stressed because you were wearing a cone of shame. I did. I was kind of like everyone's probably staring at me and they're expecting me to do something crazy. And I'm like, no, no. This is it. This is the crazy thing. I'm not going to like now start acting like a dog, but they don't know that.

They don't. There was, oh, we were going through. It looked like a manager just staring daggers at you the entire time. Really? His eyes never left you. Really? Yes. I did not notice that.

I was going to take a picture of him, but I'm like, I'm not going to take a picture of a human being like that. You had your opening. What am I going to do? Post Instagram, post a picture of a random man. That's a little rude. No, it is rude. Yeah. And that's not our speed.

The one thing that this did kind of remind me of, I mean, in a less official, or I guess a more official capacity. From Luby's perspective, was like a Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, yeah. It felt like a place where if I didn't have a place to go for Thanksgiving dinner, Luby's would be a solid option. I don't know if they're open on Thanksgiving, but I don't know if they were. And the food had a very strong homemade Thanksgiving dinner vibe to it. It did. Taste wise.

It was, I don't want to spoil it. Yeah. We'll get to food. For now, why don't we just jump into some like history and some facts about Luby's. Yeah. Got some for me, Garrett. I got some rusty facts. Let's go into a rusty fact roundup.

There is a little confusion about when Luby's actually started. Okay. According to Luby's website, Bob Luby opened the iconic Texas cafeteria style restaurant Luby's in 1947 in San Antonio. You'd think this is what the website says. Yeah. This is the gospel. However, the roots of the chain can be traced back to 1911 when Bob Luby's father, Harry, opened a cafeteria style restaurant named New England Dairy Lunch in Springfield, Missouri.

Oh, so not even in Texas. No. To add even more confusion, Harry's cousin, Earl Luby opened something called Luby's Cafeteria in Dallas in 1929. And that predates the chain by how much? By 18 years. Okay. I think there may have been some family drama or something.

Just being like, I have this great idea for a restaurant. Grandpa goes and does it, then the cousins or whatever are just like, you know what? I'm going to take on grandpa's legacy. No, no, no, no. I'm going to take on grandpa's legacy. And it looks like that's exactly what happened. Yeah. Because multiple Luby family members opened up their own Luby's in different parts of the country.

Did they start suing each other or did it seem like they were like in line with each other? I didn't see any records of lawsuits or maybe it was like homages. It could be. There's one picture of... Although it would be weird for the website to not mention the like... Because usually a company likes to claim that they've been around even longer. Yeah. So there had to be some form of drama because the website is claiming 1947.

Yeah. No matter what happened, currently there are 42 Luby's located only in Texas. That's right. So Bob Luby, his branch of the restaurant is what survived. Is the hangar on? I don't know what I'm saying. The hangar oner. The hangar oner.

Yeah. We had a lot of buffet food, so the mind is not sharp. I honestly, I do have buffet brain. I've always got buffet brain. Yeah. No, we've done two buffets. In the hit animated show, King of the Hill, one of the characters, Lou Ann Platter, was actually named after the Lou Ann Platter at Luby's.

At Luby's. You know, I didn't remember that Lou Ann's last name was Platter. Yeah, that's actually her mated name. I mean, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And within King of the Hill, Luby's shows up in like eight or nine different episodes, but it's called Lulies. I need to rewatch that show.

Good show. I watched it after moving out of town. Like, I didn't watch it growing up because, you know, I'm also a Midwest-y, rusty boy. So I moved from Chicago to Texas in like fifth grade right around the time King of the Hill was starting, and it just never resonated with me because I didn't have a Texan childhood. True. But then spending like 12, 13 years in Austin and then leaving and watching King of the Hill, I was like, oh, wow, that resonates with me so much more now.

So yeah, it was a show I was, I was never into until after the fact, but it's great. Yes. The Lumen platter itself at Luby's was named after Bob Luby's daughter's favorite doll. That's sweet. Yeah. It's a cute little note. In 2011, Luby's purchased the chain, Fudruckers. Okay.

So I did know there was a correlation. I didn't realize that that was the relationship there. I didn't know that Luby's was the one that bought. I thought it was the other way around for some reason, but it would make sense because Fudruckers are going out of business and Luby's is still here. Yeah, which it's so sad. Fudruckers is going, but I'm happy that I got to experience Luby's. Yeah.

One of the famous dishes, the fried fish or as it is colloquially called the square fish. It's the top selling entree. I bet the mac and cheese is the top selling side. I would have gotten the square fish if I had been able to identify it in the lineup because there was the chicken fried steak, the fried chicken and the square fish and they were all just like fried looking foods. And they all looked good. And I was flustered.

And, you know, the light kind of refracts weirdly off of the inside of a cone of shame. So, you know, my vision was a little obscured. And it's funny. It's like everyone we talked to in the week leading up to this, they're like, hey, okay, square fish, mac and cheese. That's what you got to get at Luby's. Yeah. Which we didn't get either.

No. Unsurprisingly, since those are the two popular dishes, H.E.B. sells frozen family style portions of both. Oh, okay. That makes sense. So you can take Luby's home. You can go have Luby's for lunch, go home for dinner, have more Luby's. H.E.B. being the popular grocery chain here in Texas.

For those of you who are not from Texas, the B stands for butts. Is it butt or butts? Do you know Gabe? Old for fact check. The B stands for butt. That's actually the founder's last name. Well, thanks Garrett. That's been a good collection that you rounded up this week on Resty Facts Roundup.

More beige. More beige. This is like, if the first part of the restaurant is a school cafeteria, this is not. This is the nursing home portion. This is a nursing, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because like, there was no cool kids table, the lighting was a little bit better. Honestly, we were probably the cool kids table. Oh yeah, totally.

No way that's true. But yeah, it was, I think nursing home is actually a sad but accurate way to put it. It has safe generic artwork, sparse walls, string lights. Oh yeah, string lights. It actually had a nice wood paneling on the ceiling. I would appreciate a good wood panel. But still it had a strong nursing home vibe. It did.

I mean, that also, it didn't help that the clientele had a strong nursing home vibe. A lot of people eating through their gums, you know. Yeah. But hey, I think I like that because it shows these people have been going to Lubies their whole lives. They love Lubies. Yeah. No, I mean, it's true.

It seems like a place that breeds loyal customers. And I mean, again, everyone there felt like a repeat customer. Like, we were the only ones out of the loop. Now, I want to follow up on something that we mentioned a little bit earlier, Garrett. That room full of boxes. I thought that would be it. Me too. I thought like, you know, this is their storage.

What did we see when we got into our booth? A bunch of boxes. A wall of boxes. Two walls of boxes. Separated by the entrance to the bathroom. It was truly a crazy amount of boxes. I would say it was way too much. This is way too much.

Would you say that, Garrett? Yes, this is way too much. Would we agree that this is way too much? Yes. I have no explanation for them. No. I didn't look at what was in them. I don't know if it was merch.

I don't know if it was Styrofoam. I don't know if it was silverware. I don't know if it was any sort of implements needed to have this experience. I don't know if it was receipt paper. I don't know if it was empty. I thought they were all those things. I bet those were just empty. Takeout boxes to supply the drive-thru portion of the business.

Maybe. Yeah. I have no idea. It wasn't a nice aesthetic. I feel like they could have done, you know, anything else with those walls and it would have been nicer. But it is kind of a knock against it to me. Yeah. It's almost as if a hoarder designed this.

Yeah. Yeah. It was just like, I'll get to this later and then now it's been like four years. Yeah. A hoarder that lives in a nursing home. Maybe it was bingo balls. But their mere presence was, in fact, way too much. You said the bathrooms are right in between these two mysterious hoarder box walls.

Hoarder monuments. Yeah. The bathrooms were decently clean. Yeah. We always got to evaluate the bathrooms. There was a King of the Hill episode where Khan ended up living in Alubi's bathroom. Now I want to go watch that. Just wanted to throw that in there.

That's fun. I didn't get any super impressive feeling from this environment. I didn't get anything that I hated. I mean, I thought the boxes were nice. Oh, I did have one thing that I hated, but I'm going to save that. I want to talk about everything before I rant a little bit. I want to bring a little something up with you because we ate with a friend of mine. Yes.

My friend Brad, one of my buddies from college, came with us, hung out with us. And just put up with your cone of shame. Put up with my cone of shame. But what I noticed, there is an unspoken power dynamic when you have a party of three. Specifically, it only happens with parties of threes. When you walk to a booth and you realize two of you have to sit next to each other. Yes. And one person gets the entire side by themselves.

Look, I'm going to preface this with, I was selfish. I know that. I'm aware. I don't know if you noticed the specific body language things I was doing, but I wanted that solo side. I wanted you and Brad to sit next to each other. Well, I didn't put that much thought into it. I assume not.

All I thought was, you know what? I'm not going to sit next to the guy that's trying to eat food while wearing a cone of shame. That doesn't seem like a good idea. I did require a wide berth. So I think just for the radius needed to effectively eat with a cone on my head. Honestly, it was probably for the best. But even if that wasn't spoken, Brad sat down first and he went to the inside of the

booth. I sat down next and I intentionally sat in the middle of the booth, not to one side. I didn't do the scoot. And I noticed Brad didn't immediately do the scoot. We were both centered and we were kind of locked in a game of who's going to scoot and make room for Garrett. And the thing about me is I don't care who scoots. I'm just going to sit on whatever spot I want.

So I have two justifications for this and I actually want our audience. I want you guys to chime in. Email us your thoughts on this exact thought process. Find dining podcast at gmail.com. Let us know what you think. My mindset first and above everything else is you are both talking to me. Like Brad is someone I'm catching up with. You know, it's my only chance to see him over this over this Austin trip.

And you know, I want face to face with Brad, you and me. I mean, at this point, I mean, we're friends, but we're also coworkers. We've got business to do when we're in these restaurants. I want to be able to discuss stuff with you and I know that you two are going to be facing each other way less than I'm going to be facing each of you individually. So it was partially a way to facilitate that. Am I an asshole? No, you're not an asshole.

That's just a lot of thought to go into where you're going to sit. I hyper fixate on this stuff all the time. I cannot get out of my own head 90% of the time. Audience, I don't know if you think about these things. Is it a selfish thing I did? Is it a practical thing I did? Do you do the same thing? And are you willing to admit you do it for selfish reasons or not?

But there is one other reason that I want to do it. And this is going to set off a little bit of a rant about Lubie's situation. Okay. I like the solo booth because I like gold blooming. You know what gold blooming is. Totally. After a meal, you are propped up against the side of the booth. You're doing that sexy-ly lounging.

You are lounging Allah Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. That famous shot where he's got like the billowing black shirt button to open. Chest hair just poking out gloriously into the wind. Life just finding a way. I like to gold bloom against the side of the booth. I put one foot up and it's not a classy thing to do. I acknowledge this is fully trashy. But I like a nice booth wall to lean against and gold bloom to my heart's desire.

And Lubie's took that from me. They did. This is something that one percent of people that go into Lubie's will even notice and an even smaller percentage will care passionately about. There was a space between the wall of the booth and the table. It was like, I don't know, not even a foot and a half, maybe 14 inches, 15. Like it was a very small thing. But if I tried to gold bloom, I'm falling into this gutter.

Hey, I bet Lubie's heard we were in Austin and they prepared their restaurant for you. Pull them away. Call an audible. These guys are going to bolt gold bloom. We don't want to do it. It looks trashy. We already look like a nursing home and someone could break a hip. That's what it is.

Well, no, because then you should want it there so that no one accidentally falls. If it's like elderly. And now a word from our totally not made up sponsor. Oh, hi there. It's me, Chubb, not Jeff Goldblum. However, Jeff Goldblum does have a lot to do with what I'm shilling this week. Are you the type of trash who goes into a restaurant eats way too much until your belly's too full? And you got to just like put your feet up and like burp and pass gas.

But you don't want no one to notice. So you just sit up in your booth up against the wall. This upsets me. This upsets everyone around you. Stop doing it. Nobody says nothing to you. They don't want to rock the boat. We'll screw you.

I'm on the restaurant side. Hire me and I'll add a trench. A gold blooming trench. Try and lean against the wall and you'll the fly into the gutter where you belong. I'm going to ask nicely that you Jurassic Park yourself in your seat like a normal adult and just the big chill with an independent state too. I'll make sure no customers are gold blooming in your restaurant. You're a classy joint.

Not a nursing home. No matter what these people are trying to tell you. So call me. I spent some time in the Swiss Alps and I'm really good at hearing yodeling. So do that instead of dialing anything on a phone and I'll hear you. You and Job teaming up to take on the Jeff Goldblum's of the world. Okay, bye. I don't know what the logic is, but Lubies you're on my shit list.

Because I wanted to gold bloom and you took that from me. You couldn't gold bloom, but that's not a thing I normally do. That's fair. How would you rate the atmosphere overall? Why don't you do it while I think about my atmosphere rating? Yeah. What do you got? This was not a bad experience.

No. I like to think the whole entire cafeteria buffet is part of the atmosphere. It looked very appetizing. It was clean. It was well lit. Everyone there seemed to enjoy being there. Yeah. It was a good experience.

Some people seem to enjoy us being there. I was getting some looks. But then we walked into the dining room and I was suddenly in a nursing home. That doesn't make me feel good. Yeah. So overall, I'm just going to give this zero thumbs up for the atmosphere. It was a neutral experience. Zero thumbs up, zero thumbs down, just nubbing it.

Yeah, just giving a nub. I think the amount of overwhelming anxiety I felt in the early stages just carried over and I never felt like I could settle in fully. I attribute that to the atmosphere. I'm going to go one down. Okay. I didn't hate it. That said, nursing home chic, even if it's chic, is still nursing home.

It's a safe place to be, but it's not getting a recommendation from me. I'm not out there calling people up like, hey, if you want to surround yourself in an ambiance that you're going to think about for days to come, wishing to go back, it's not going to be lubies. No. One thumb down. Okay. That's fair.

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We're used to it. The nursing home sheet collection all for a limited time at old, old, old, old, so old, navy. Get it before you expire. Service. Now we had a little unexpected surprise. We did. A little pleasant.

Yes. Unexpected surprise. So this is a cafeteria style buffet. We expected no server, the only people we would I guess interact with would be the people giving us our food and the people ringing us up. But we had a server and we didn't know it. He just came over and started talking to us and I was like, Oh, he's asking us like if we need refills and stuff like that.

I'm giving him a name. Garrett, do it. He was, I have nothing negative to say about this man and that is our criteria for naming our waiters on this podcast, Loreto and the cool thing about Loreto. He played along. He acknowledged your code of shame right away. Big points with me. Big points with me.

If we're doing a you must bowl punishment and you ask about it, you smile at it, you know, you have fun with it because I mean, that's what we're trying to do. Yeah. We're trying to stand out in a way that makes people laugh, makes people be like, I saw the craziest thing at Lubies. No harm. Right. I'm just sitting there and making a fool of myself, funneling Jello into my face or

trying to eat a chicken wing. But like the amount of reach my wrists have don't go past, don't go past the edges of the cone. And you have very experienced percussionists. You should be good at this. And I succeeded. You did. I succeeded, but it was still a challenge and he had fun with it.

Now he came over asked like, you know, so what, you know, why is this happening? I'm like, Oh, I lost a bet. Well, no, my first answer was so I don't chew my stitches. And he laughed. And he laughed. I was just like, Oh, I lost a bet. We were review restaurants. And if they don't score in a certain score range, the next time we go out to eat, we

have a punishment. And then I mentioned we went to Gattie town the week before. Yeah. And he was like, Oh, makes sense. I see why that didn't score well. Yeah. Yeah. We had a good time.

He came by often enough, always had a smile, you know, very pleasant interactions seem to enjoy our company. I mean, you know, it might just be waiter instincts where it's just like, I noticed something else too. Yeah. The table next to us, they just went sat down. He took their order. Really?

He did. I didn't even know this was an option. I kind of wish that I had tried that. Yeah. I would have if I would. No, actually, I would have wanted one of us to do it. Yeah. I don't want to break the system.

I don't like if it's a thing they offer. Great. If it's a thing that's like it's a it's a hassle to them. I don't want to do that. But that that is the way I would have liked to experience this restaurant. But at the same time, the layout is the layout. You experience it the way that they set it out for you. But this this waiter was great.

He was friendly. He was personable. He cared. He made eye contact with you in a cone of shame. Yeah. Despite my shame, I was willing to make eye contact and he was willing to make it back. And what stronger bond is there with a server than eye contact between a thin sheet of plastic? I did ask him a question and I got kind of a weird response.

Nothing on him, but it was something I didn't expect. I asked him, hey, could we get a kid's menu and some crayons because for the the Luby's kids menu review, I have a family member in mind. And I was like, oh, that would be fun to get them to do our kids menu review one week. So I was like, all right, I need to get this kids menu. His response, oh, we don't have the kids menu, we're all out. And I was like, oh, okay, that's a shame. And then he continued to say, like from now on, we ran out about three weeks ago and corporate

was like, yeah, okay, we're done. And I'm just like, what's going on over there? What's going on over there? What is going on over there, Garrett? Why did they just give up on kids menus? I think they accidentally shipped all of their kids menus to fud ruckers and then the fud ruckers closed. Oh, and they're too proud to admit it.

They're like, no, no, no, no, we wouldn't accidentally ship them anywhere. And they're just, they don't want to eat the crow of having, I'll bet you every closed fud ruckers now is just an abandoned warehouse of Luby's kids menu. It's just floor to ceiling stacked all Luby's kids menus. This is a blatant case of corporate denial. This is corporate denial. This is unreal. Luby's, I know you're too cowardly to admit it, but what'd you do with them?

Huh? Where are the kids menus? Why'd you give up on kids? We know that you've got old people. Yeah. Do you just not want kids in your restaurant or something? You're just doubling down. Are you, are you being paid off by big life alert?

I fall in and I can't get up. Oh, I don't care. You guys are falling in my opinion of you as we speak. I need you to find these kids menus. Kids deserve to eat at cafeterias too. Not just in school. What happens if a family has kids? What are they supposed to do?

Leave the kids a parking lot? This is grandma's time. No, not on my watch. Luby's, you go to those fud ruckers and bring them back. Get those menus. We demand it. And don't forget the crayons, okay? Kids deserve to have fun, okay?

We are advocates. We are. Look at the world that they're in right now. The world is in shambles. Children are our future. Don't want to give them hope. Give the kids something to color. Just give them something to color.

It's not so bad. All you have to do is admit you made a mistake on the shipping labels and, you know, make a new shipping label. That's all you got to do. Just send a U-Haul over to fud ruckers, load them out, bring them back to Luby's. All is right in the world and you're off our shit list. We'll make you that deal. That's it.

We promise you, Luby's, get those menus and we will respect you again. Because we figured out what's going on over there and you don't like it. That's what's going on over there. I had high opinions of this guy. I did too. Laredo, if you're listening, I know you're smiling. And if you're smiling, you're positively impacting my rating. But this wasn't a full service experience.

It wasn't. I don't know if you even know how I feel about that. Can give two thumbs up. You know how I feel about that. There is a cap if you don't offer full service unless you're a Patreon exclusive episode. Everyone, go listen to our Rudy's episode where you'll see them get two thumbs up on service despite not offering table service, but you got to pay for that. You got to pay for two thumbs up on service that isn't traditional.

I'm going to go a strong one-thumb up here, though. I will do. A strong, enthusiastic one-thumb up. The format is the only thing holding it back. Yep. This is a strong one-thumb up for me. He is a two-thumb up server, but it's the restaurant that lowers it down to one-thumb up because of format.

He's a two-thumbs up server in a one-thumb up situation. He's a victim of circumstance. He is. We'll be right back. Garrett, we're still in Austin. We're not just eating at these chain restaurants. Oh, no. There's other food we need to eat.

We need pallet cleansers. We need calibrators. We need to know what the 10 out of 10s are to know what the one out of 10s are. We need to know exactly where things fall to call them average. We got to have the best of the best, the worst of the worst, the average of the average. And yesterday, you took me to get some pizza. This is, in my opinion, the best of the best pizza you can find in Austin. For my dollar, this is it.

And for me, this was a strong 10 out of 10 pizza. We went to home slice pizza. It's wonderful. Wow. I've had this place for over a decade. I've been a frequent customer. Every time I come back to Austin, if I've got the time, I'm going to home slice. This is my first time trying out this location, but I wanted to take you.

And this is now on my list of best pizza places in the country. That's sausage and garlic pizza. Oh, my gosh. They have a sausage and garlic pizza. It's like a specialty pizza. I don't think they have it every day of the week. I think it's like one, two, maybe three days out of the week you can get it. But try to go on a day where they have the garlic and sausage pizza.

Wow. It's great. We got some garlic knots. We had their pepperoni pizza. The crust was just perfectly crisp. Yeah. It wasn't a struggle to bite. And then, you know, if you get the garlic knots, you have that extra cup of marinara

there. You can dip your crust in. It's the perfect setup for me. I can't speak highly enough of home slice. I am in love with this pizza place. And I will always be in love. And I too am now in love with home slice. Also the manager, you know, we told her the premise of the podcast.

She was talking about how she does like a norm corn night every week or every month or whatever. I've heard it a long time where they go out to like a chain or something and they or they say yes to every single upsell they're offered. They're just like, OK, she was like, you'd be shocked how far 50 bucks can go. So it was just fun. So thank you guys at home slice. If you're listening, thanks so much for giving us a memorable time.

Food. Enough with home slices food. That's not what we're here to talk about. We are here to dissect Lubies. Tell me, Garrett, what did you like most? This wasn't my favorite item, but this was the most memorable item for me. OK, cool. The chicken fried steak. OK, chicken fried steak.

After your Denny's chicken fried steak, which literally gave me fear tremors. My chicken fried steak, where the best adjective for it is goopy. Oh, so this chicken fried steak, it was crisp, the batter was well seasoned. And what I really liked about it when I sliced through the batter stayed intact and stayed attached to the meat so I could have one full bite tasting every element without like a tear ruining the integrity of the dish. And the steak was still tender and flavorful.

I did not have gravy. I know Brad did. I don't think this dish needed gravy. It was moist enough already. I'm going to give that a 6.5 out of 10. All right, but with the note that this was really good. OK, usually that's what the number is for. But within overall foods, sure, it was a good chicken fried steak, but you don't think a chicken like a chicken fried steak is that high.

I'm going to have a steak. Come on. Just give me a steak. Sure. But I'll still eat this again. I had the mango chicken. Oh, how was that? I liked it a lot. Chicken that comes right off the bone, juicy taste. It was a very, very succulent chicken. I'm going eight out of 10 on my entrée,

but the sides are where where the meal kind of comes alive. Strong performers in the sides. I had corn, which was a nightmare with the cone of shame. I mean, honestly, all the food was very difficult to eat, except for maybe the potatoes, except for a couple of ones that got a little drippy. And I just I had a nice little residue slide right in front of my face. Yeah. So mashed potatoes and gravy. It was unremarkably average potatoes and gravy.

I honestly, I expected a little bit more, but the portion was plentiful. It was it was the perfect portion of potatoes and gravy. Six and a half out of 10. You know, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong. If you're a six and a half out of 10 player with anything that you make, there's nothing wrong with it.

You should be taking pride in your six and a half. Exactly. I will go out to eat and gladly order six out of 10 every single day. I'll watch a six out of 10 movie, six out of 10 movies. They play all day, every day on TNT, TBS. I probably shouldn't name specific things, but, you know, you can see any TV movie. It's a six and a half out of 10, six and a half out of 10. That's where America thrives. Yeah. That's the bread and butter. Six and a half out of 10 is great food because four to six is average.

But once you go over six, now you're good. You're good. You're you're a solidly good. Yes. So for me, the mashed potatoes. Yeah. I didn't get gravy on them. I don't like gravy. OK. Unless I make it myself. But I thought they had a homemade taste to them. They were airy, fluffy and still had a few little potato chunks. I like potato chunks and mashed potatoes. I did, too. So I'll give them a strong seven and a half out of 10.

They didn't need butter. They didn't need salt. No, they didn't need pepper. They were excellent on their own. For me, they didn't need anything else. They just as they were texturally, it was presented well. It was just the taste. I was just like six and a half out of 10 mashed potato for me. I'm also a sucker for a garlic mashed potato.

You throw garlic into a potato. Now we're talking. Now we're cooking. Well, now we're cooking with garlic. And then on the other side of the coin, I had corn. I'm a corn boy. I like corn. That was my note at Gattie Town. I like corn. It's all I wrote. I like corn. Gattie Town corn, six and a half out of 10. Luby's corn, a little bit better.

I was just nom nom nom and away on the corn, dropping it all over my cone of shame. But even then, I was I was forking it up the up the incline of my cone of shame to get it back. You did speed corn. I did. Oh, I did speak by the way. Look, I'm this is something really it's entertaining. You should go watch it on our social media. That's right. We're on Instagram at Fine Dining Podcast.

We're on TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast, and you can email us whatever you want. Fine Dining Podcast at gmail.com. We might regret that, but I don't know. Maybe we won't. I really laugh watching the videos of trying to eat with this cone of shame on. It was it was a struggle. It was an entertaining struggle. I go seven and a half out of 10 on the on the Luby's corn.

OK, then I also had the red potatoes. I was in a potato mood. So they were soft, warm, appropriately buttery. Sure. Pretty tasty. How did they compare to Rudy's? Those Rudy's red potatoes as they call ruined me. Yeah, so I can only give these a 5.5 out of 10 would have been higher would have been higher if it wasn't for Rudy's.

You know, that's why we do the calibrations. That's why you got to do that stuff. Now, I like the corn, the cornbread, on the other hand, weak. Yeah, I expected a lot more from the cornbread. I thought Luby's would be a place that has a strong cornbread game. Yes, Luby's did not have a strong cornbread game. May have been a bad batch. May have been a bad location.

Or maybe it just sat under the heat lamp for too long. Maybe maybe that helped and cook it a little too much. But it was dry. Yeah, it was too dry for me. Is it was a four out of 10 cornbread for me. And I'll go five out of 10. The flavor was OK, but the dryness really tanked it. Flavor variants from cornbread to cornbread isn't usually that high. It is just did you nail the texture or not?

Did you nail the dryness and they didn't sell? Yeah, that's why I'm docking them a little bit more. But I would give it another shot. It's not like I'm avoiding cornbread. Exactly. How do we rate the Jell-O? I don't know, man. It's Jell-O. Yeah. Can you like screw up Jell-O?

I don't know. It was the ideal Jell-O. Yeah, it was excellent Jell-O. It was 10 out of 10 for Jell-O. But it's Jell-O. Yeah. Five out of 10. It's just kind of right there in average land for me. I'm going to give this a 7.5 out of 10 Jell-O.

You're mad, man. You're out of control and you need to be stopped. This Jell-O I found was slightly sweeter than your average Jell-O. And the cubes stayed together. They did. The Jell-O integrity, I respected it. Because of sweetness and integrity. This gets a 7.5 for me. I still dropped it on my cone. The fork balance, my fork was steady.

My fork was steady and I maintain that. But the trip from the bowl to my mouth, Jell-O fell. Jell-O fell into my cone. And then you tried to flip your cone to make it land in your mouth. Unsuccessfully, I just ended up swiping the side of my jaw line with Jell-O. Now, there was one big side that Lubies is known for that we didn't get because Garrett and I don't eat cheese. We're talking about the macaroni and cheese.

But luckily for you listeners, because we care about you so much, we have hired a cheese correspondent, my friend, Steven. But if you were listening last time in the Chewies episode when he popped by, he ended up biting his tongue. So 10 out of 10 dish this. Sorry, I bit my tongue there. Sounds really good. I kind of wish I had it myself.

But OK, I got a I got a thought that that hurts. OK, back to the show. Back to. So he's out of commission. He can't do this review. Luckily, we've got someone else to serve as his voice. Now, before you get going, replacement voice of Steven, I just want to stress once you start talking about the cheese, it's one minute on the clock.

That's all we're willing to give it. So take it away, Pumba from the Lion King. A crooner, Matata. Now, Steven was to review Lubies' Mac and Cheese for the Flying Dining podcast as our cheese correspondent, but he injured his mouth and can't talk. So I'd like to tell you about this review. He grew up eating Lubies' Mac and Cheese, and he's biased from nostalgia. Now, who couldn't be?

But the Mac was a great amount of soft, not mushy cheese was gooey done. Right to write viscosity. I love that word. What a wonderful phrase. This custody ain't no passing craze. So it lived up to the memory, very good flavor. Eight out of ten bacon bits and fancier cheese could take it to ten. I ate like a pig, and that gives me a song.

It means don't worry for the rest of your days. It's all for our own free philosophy. A crooner, Matata, because I love Lubies' Mac and Cheese. Huge thanks to Ernie Cebella for introducing us to Pumba for that review. And then the last side I had before I go to dessert, I just picked up some pineapple. You know, I got burned with fruit at Gaddy's, and I was just like, I'm going to give fruit another chance. But here's the thing, you got burned with fruit at Gaddy's.

No, exactly. Think of that statement. You know, the fact that this pineapple wasn't translucent is already a good sign. It was good fresh pineapple, seven and a half out of ten. It's literally just straight out of nature, seven and a half. If you're in here hating on pineapple just by itself, take it up with Mother Nature. She worked hard on it, seven and a half. But yet Mother Nature didn't work hard enough on Gaddy's melon.

You know, it's still in the air. Is Gaddy's melon from nature? We don't know. We don't know. It may be lab constructed. We don't know. Beyond melon. Beyond melon, it's made of meat. Like it's the inverse.

Beyond fruits are literally meat stuff like they're anti-vegan. Oh, God. Oh, that's so disgusting. That seems like something someone would do. 3D printed meat fruit. Oh, God. Cursed. Cursed. So let's talk about something actually appetizing. The dessert, which was great.

There's always room for dessert, just like the song, just like the song. Just like latex, it's a waste of space. Just like the song in perfectly adequate or Olive Garden musical. That's right. Episode seven, baby. Go check it out if you haven't. I had cherry pie. How was it? This was great cherry pie. This was nine out of ten cherry pie.

Wow. And my nine out. My cherry pie rating is an informed cherry pie rating. I'm a man who's had a lot of cherry pie in his life. So this is like hitting Republic of pie level pie. Yeah, Republic of pie, a pie stop that we love in North Hollywood. This is on the level. Wow. This is on the level. Lubies, your cherry pie game came in strong last night.

Now, I had the chocolate pie. It was smooth, rich, chocolatey, covered in cool whip and chocolate crumbles. Yeah, it was really good. But compared to the Republic of pie chocolate pie. Yeah, I'm going to have to score this a six out of ten, which is still respectable. And I will still get this again. When I look back at this entire meal, it was weird. There were there were parts of it that I thought performed strongly.

The mango chicken was really tasty, but it wasn't something where I'm like, I'm not going to be sitting at home and now I'm in the mood for Lubies. I'm craving that mango chicken. I might want their cherry pie, but I can still go somewhere else and, and, you know, not have the pressure of a cafeteria system to go get it. So I don't know if even the cherry pie is bringing me back. So I look at this meal, nothing here is bringing me back to a Lubies. I would willingly go back to a Lubies, but nothing's nothing's enticing me.

I'll say whenever I'm in Texas going forward, I will always stop at Lubies. I don't know if I can say the same. I've got my roster. I've got my home slices. I've got my Dan's hamburgers. I've got my Texas honey ham. I've got my La Barbecue. I've got my roster.

These are all excellent. These are all excellent. So when we're not there to rate it, I don't know if Lubies is getting me back in those doors on a craving. And that's based on the power of their food. I liked their food, but I can't in good conscience go to. I can't go to. I'm giving it one thumb up. It's a it's a respectable one thumb up.

I'm not going to call it as enthusiastic as my one thumb up for Laredo, but it's a one thumb up. Where are you standing? I'm with you on that. I'm going to give this a one thumb up to I enjoyed the food very much. And honestly, there's something cool about a restaurant that reminds me of King of the Hill. So the food kind of tastes better. Sure. I'm just I'm hoping the meat was cooked on propane grills.

Because if not, that's a little offensive to the brand. Honestly, yeah. So yeah, one thumb up. I'm coming back to Lubies. All right. Final rating. We got to throw another thing on the board. Lubies, it deserves to be up there. It does. But we need to know where does it fall? What score zero to ten is Lubies going to get?

OK, so I gave this zero thumbs up for atmosphere. Yeah, one strong thumb up for surface and one strong thumb up for food. Overall, I'll give this a six point two one. Lubies is more than mediocre. Six point two one. That's respectable. I can't forgive how flustered I felt at the beginning. And you know, the staff wasn't really helping me along. They were looking for all they knew it was a neck brace.

I mean, it's a weird one, but like, I don't know. I wanted some like, hey, welcome to Lubies. This is your first time. We recommend this. You get this. You get this many sides. Just a little guide would have been amazing, not just the written guide. I mean, you know, a little bit of hand holding. I'd appreciate you looked like someone that needed to have his hand held in that moment.

Honestly, in a nursing home type environment, a lot of people probably need their hand held, not for Lubies. That's muscle memory at that point. When you're 80 and you're zooming through that Lubies line, it's just like your muscle memory kicking in. You end up with a plate of food in front of you. You don't even know how you got it, but you got it. I didn't get that. I wanted it.

Can't knock them too hard for it. It was it was good food. I liked Laredo a lot. He was charming, but the environment, the environment sticking with me at a negative spot. I'm going to go just a clean five point eight zero. OK, five point eight zero. Let's throw our rating up on the board when we average them together. We yeah, we get really six point zero one.

It is out of the zone of mediocrity. It has escaped the four to a six. I had to wear a cone of shame today, Garrett. You picked Lubies and now you got to do something because that was not mediocre enough. Not mediocre enough. Draw from the bowl that you must bowl by point zero point by one one hundredth of a number.

Wow, that's hilarious. All right, you got to draw into the you must bowl. Let's see what you got to do at our next restaurant. OK, let's do this. What do you have? You must your face is great. Speak to your server only in rhyme. Well, you spent a lot of time doing poetry in college.

So I that doesn't mean I want to talk to a complete stranger in rhyme, but you're going to. OK, well, let's do it. You want to see these antics? I'm going to record them and we're going to throw it up on our social media. But in the meantime, we got to figure out where we're going to go next. Where are you going to speak to somebody in rhyme? It's time to play the headline game.

The rules of the headline game are as follows. Garrett will present three headlines to Michael that include this week's restaurant. They can be made up or they can be actual headlines. If Michael can correctly guess if at least two out of three are real or fake, he will get to select next week's restaurant. However, if Garrett stumps him, he'll select again. Are you ready to play, fellas?

I'm ready. OK, headline number one, supply chain innovation, how propane ice trucks and new ownership all came together to save Texas Staple Lubies. I am staring deep into your soul right now to see if you constructed that. Am I capable of constructing that? That's what I'm wondering. Oh, God. I'm going to say true. OK, next one. Ten day manhunt ends in Laredo Lubies bathroom.

Deputies say false. OK, next one. Man arrested at Hampton Road, Lubies after drop kicking employee over an undercooked square fish. Gosh, that one's colorful. It is. But it's believable. What do I do?

Uh, I will say false. I don't feel good about it, though. OK, you went true, false, false. I did. And I made up all three of them. You did. I did. OK, so I got two out of three. You got two out of three. I did win the headline game. Great. I feel good about myself.

I love winning. I wanted to throw in the drop kicking. I figured you'd get a kick out of that. Yeah, quite literally. So I get to pick. Yeah, where we going next week? You are going to have to speak to your server only in rhyme at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen.

Cheddar's. I've never even heard of this place. I haven't either. My buddy recommended it to me and I was like, sure, I'll add it to the list. Let's try something totally new. Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen. Here we come. OK. Fine dining podcast number one.

See, I can do the rhymes, too. One and come rhyme together. Yes, that that is a correct statement. You could get away with it in a rap. Yeah, of course. It's not perfect. I don't think you want to rhyme those two words together in a rap. But but you could. And that's what's important.

Well, awesome. Thanks, everyone, for joining us on another episode of Fine Dining, the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America. Garrett, thank you for joining me in Texas. We'll be back in our normal studio next week. Yeah, we're getting Cheddar's for the road, and then we'll be at our home base recording again. Thanks again to Austin Audio Lab for hosting us.

Michael, you know what? I want to say this. This trip 100 percent changed me. I love Texas. Everyone has welcomed us with open arms. The food scene is amazing. I know it's, you know, we're going to chain restaurants. So those those are a little bit different. But the food that we've eaten outside of these, all top notch.

Yeah, Texas is amazing. This is this state. This is my home, man. This is just where I come from. Legendary. It's not my point of origin, my P.O.O. It's not my poo. I'm glad it is my home, though.

I grew up here. I love Austin deeply. I'm glad we got to do this. Yeah, Dyna Maniacs, please check out our Patreon. We're going to have a new episode for you every month. And we'll have a couple of other fun things for you there. Follow us on social media, Instagram and TikTok at Find Dining Podcast. Go ahead and email us find dining podcast at gmail.com,

your stories from Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, whether you used to work there or not. We appreciate all of you. Truly, it's been a very fun ride so far. We hope to keep this going and find you the perfect 5.00 out of 10. But we didn't do it this time. Nope. So the search continues. We'll see you next week.

Have a fine day. The search continues. We still need the perfect 5. The search continues. Like and subscribe. The search continues. Our journey did not conclude. The moderate search continues.

Write us an iTunes review. And hey, while you're at it. Why don't you go ahead and make it 5 stars? Come on. Follow us on TikTok. The same on Instagram. All the socials at Find Dining Podcast. We have a website.

Find Dining Podcast. Come by 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.

It hurt my throat a little. Have a fine day.