Fine Dining - White Castle feat. Coyal Harrison (Visit Vegas Places Podcast)

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

Septemburger 2024's final stop! I'm in Las Vegas this week to hit the nearest White Castle to me with Vegas native (and host of the Visit Vegas Places podcast) Coyal Harrison and is not a good meal Apparently the White Castle slider was literally created in a moment of frustration when the founder couldn't quite figure out how to do meatballs, so he squashed it, put it on a bun, and called it edible The Secret Menu Mini-Game: Comedy Restaurants This White Castle is attached to a casino, so the vibes are nightmarish and should never be experienced sober or in the daylight What's Going On Over There with the signage that insists people refuse to live without White Castle? Septemburger: The White Castle slider gets scored ahead of its match next week with the no. 1 seed Shake Shack What we ate: French Fries Onion Chips Chicken Rings Mozzarella Sticks Chicken Slider Beef Slider Chocolate Shake Coyal details his worst and best restaurant experiences ever at the Calibration Station "Fine" Dining is now on video! Head on over to my YouTube to watch this episode! Music by: James McEnelly (@Ramshackle_Music) Segment Transitions Voiced by: Sandy Rose "Fine" Dining is on Patreon! Get an extra episode every month (I recently released the episode for the other New York restaurant I reviewed: Ess-a-Bagel with my girlfriend Joyce as she reeeeally wanted to try NYC bagels), extended Yelp from Strangers segments every other week, merch discounts, download access to our music including the 7 singles from our Olive Garden musical, and more! Patreon Producers: Joyce Van, & Sue Ornelas   Get the 5 Survival Tips for Casual Dining at www.finediningpodcast.com!   Send in your White Castle stories at [e-mail].   Follow the show on TikTok and Instagram @finediningpodcast Follow Coyal on Instagram & TikTok @visitvegasplaces   Let me know where I should go next by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, PodcastAddict, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I read every one!   Next week on "Fine" Dining: Shake Shack. The final stop for Septemburger is the top dog, the number 1 seed, and I brought award-winning storyteller and comedian Jen Kober with me. Will they overcome White Castle, a burger so bad that the bar is on the floor? Yes. The answer is yes. Ever work at Shake Shack? Send in your stories to [e-mail]

On this week's delicious episode of the Fine Dining Podcast, this is the worst burger I have ever had in my life. I agree with you. Okay, let's go zero. You're going zero on White Castle. Dead zero. There was nothing redeeming about this experience. Nothing redeeming about it. From this point forward, the word cheese will be bleeped because Michael finds it offensive. Hello and welcome to the Fine Dining Podcast, September-ger edition. This show is normally the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America, but this month, September-ger, I am looking for the best chain restaurant burger of the eight that I have selected in this month's bracket. We're talking in and out Culver's, Shake Shack, White Castle, Rally's, Steak and

Shake, and two others. Freddy's frozen custard and did I say what a burger already? Yeah, no, you didn't. I didn't. Okay. But they are competing for the championship, the September burger championship last year's winner Outback Steakhouse with the September burger championship. Last year's winner Outback steakhouse with the Blumen burger.

You put a Bloomin onion pedal on anything. I'm a happy boy. This year it's anyone's game. I'm going all fast food. I'm going all regional chains so that I have to travel. And I traveled all the way to Las Vegas, Nevada for this week's episode, White Castle. Now, the closest White Castle to me in Los Angeles is here in Las Vegas.

So I am joined by Las Vegas' own and the host of the Visit Vegas Places podcast, Coyle Harrison. Thank you. How you doing? Oh man, I'm blessed. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me on the show.

Yeah, of course. And thanks for hooking us up with this. We are shooting out of World of Wings, a wing spot here in Las Vegas. It's in Henderson, Henderson. Yeah. So just outside of Las Vegas. We're just going to jump into it. I made you a guy who goes to different small businesses in Las Vegas. I made you go to White Castle, anything but a small business. This is, this is a corporate joint and I'm asking you to review, I guess what you legally could call a burger. Maybe it felt like a relapse. It felt like a relapse. So we'll get into that, but if you're watching this show for the very first time, since this is a September episode,

I'm putting this all together with Eat Deets and the Yelp reviews. But we do judge restaurants based on their atmosphere. Based on their service. And based on their food. Well, in this case, I wouldn't say food, but you know. Fine dining party of two. We'll get right to it. Our table is in fact ready. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Take burgers and time, one burger leaves Take a look at the menu, nothing but beef So fire up that grill and fry up your soul We're looking for something that's better

than meaty oak We're looking for something that's better than mediocre It's time for the first September Yes, it's time for the test, they can only want Victor of the first September Yeah, we're looking for some perfection on the bun Just be the best burger that you can be Somewhere between heaven and ecstasy. I can see that hunger is in your eyes.

You're going for glory with a side of pride. It's Sussan Burger! All right, Coyle, do you know a lot about the history of White Castle? Not really. I don't at all. Keep in mind, my experience with White Castle was when they first came here, which was, I'll say like five to eight years ago, I want to say. But my experience for anything near White Castle was a place called Crystals.

So I guess Crystals is in a Southern area. Very similar. Yeah, same kind of thing. And that was the only experience I had. And they're also sliders, right? Same menu. The exact same menu. Same menu. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna read you some Eat Deeds. We're gonna jump into this week's Eat Deeds and find out all about where White Castle came from and where it went from there. Sounds good. and where it went from there. Sounds good. Walt Anderson, a short order cook in Wichita, Kansas, liked to experiment with the size

and shape of the hamburger patties he served. His greatest invention, though, was said to have occurred by accident. One day Anderson became so frustrated when the meatballs he was cooking kept sticking to the griddle that he smashed one with a spatula and thus the flat patty was born. Oh wow. I can honestly tell that White Castle was born out of rage. Right. Like based on what we ate today. But he said it was a meatball. Why can't we use that same meatball meat? Because the meat they have now is. Honestly, look, this might be a controversial take, but I'm not the biggest meatball supporter. This did taste kind of close to like a canned

Spaghetti-O meatball smashed up and served to you in a slider. Right. Walt Anderson also pioneered fast food in America. In 1916, Anderson opened up a hamburger stand with an $80 loan and quickly expanded to four locations. W.E. Billy Ingram, a local real estate broker who would eventually become the company's CEO, bought in and in 1921, they established a chain of small, efficiently run restaurants selling five cent burgers by the sack. Wow.

White Castle is widely credited as the first fast food concept in America. Imagine needing the $80 loan just to start your business. $80 and you get this shit. Well, I mean, Pizza Hut was started with, I think it was a $600 loan or $1200 loan. It was in that vein. It was just like borrowed from parents. Right, right. Wow.

Like that wouldn't even buy the idea nowadays. No, you would get laughed out of a room if you're like, I've got 80 bucks. Let's start this business. Let's let's dive into the deep end. Any takers? Even in 1916, people had The Crave. They really do market themselves on The Crave. Right, right, right, right.

According to David G. Hogan's book, Selling Him by the Sack, Anderson, while working at his original burger stand, noticed several young boys who regularly bought sacks of hamburgers. Thinking this odd, he decided to investigate and followed a young patron. I don't think you can do that.

Wow. Follow a young boy as he walked down the street around the corner and made a delivery into the open door of a limousine. Wow, now that's hard research. See, that's how you have to research back in the days where we could just type in one word. Back then you had to really do footwork.

This seems like an actual hamburger situation. There's like a monopoly guy sitting in the back of a limo. That's serious research. And this guy's like, why are these young boys bringing burgers to this man? Follow them. You can't do that. The root cause is the root cause. White Castle was the first fast food chain to sell one billion burgers.

White Castle's one billionth burger was purchased in 1961, two years before McDonald's cleared the same benchmark. Right. I don't know if it counts as much with white Castle because they're so tiny. Like, yeah, you can sell a billion of something if you make it so tiny that you have to eat like seven, right? Cause when you when you think about it for those tiny burgers will equal one McDonald's burger Yeah, right. Yeah, so yeah the name was meant to counter the bad rap hamburgers had at the time Exposés like Upton Sinclair's the jungle and commentary like Frederick J

Schlink's eat drink and beary portrayed hamburger beef as unsafe, if not downright poisonous. To give their burgers a pristine image, Ingram and Anderson combined two words together that conveyed purity and solidarity. White Castle's design was inspired by the Chicago Water Tower. The Windy City landmark,

which was one of the few buildings that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, was a model for White Castle's turret and tower design. Wow. Which, if you guys don't know the White Castle logo, I'll put it on screen here so you can see that. But pretty, I mean, it's a very recognizable, iconic, very few chain restaurants have that castle or fortified look. Even Burger King, which inspires royalty and you think kings and castles doesn't really go with the castle route. Correct. Correct. They go to the crown.

It lures the kids in also. So it lures the kids in. And I wonder was the thought due to the food is the way it is that when they came up with White Castle, was it more of a tourist site than more of a service of food type to think it sounds like it was? Well, it was the first fast food concept, so it was it was a restaurant first, because I don't think of White Castle as a touristy spot. It's got no, I mean, even the one we went to, which we'll get to later, had merch. It literally had like, oh, I've I've attended a White Castle. Let me commemorate this with a lunchbox. Right.

Yeah. White Castle had side businesses making their own buildings and paper hats. Ingram wanted his restaurant to be a small, inexpensive and quick to build and take down. So in 1934, he started his own subsidiary porcelcelain Steel Buildings, to make the lightweight porcelain and steel structures. Wow, this guy was pretty clever. I wish he would have put that same energy into the actual ingredients. The recipe?

Yeah. During World War II, PSB, Porcelain Steel Buildings, did its part by manufacturing amphibious vehicles. The ones that can drive into the water? Yeah. The company also bought manufacturer paper linen, P-A-P-E-R-L-Y-N-E-N, I'm gonna assume that's paper linen,

in 1932 to make the paper hats White Castle employees wore. Because why not? Realizing it had a profitable business on its hand, White Castle started taking orders from other food service establishments. And by 1964, they were selling more than 54 million caps annually. Wow. So I think White Castle may have been responsible for that big explosion of car hops, always having those hats.

True. You think Johnny Rockets, you think Krispy Kreme. Old school diner. You think the old school diner and you think those paper hats. So I wonder how much it says by 1964, that's right in that era where they probably had their hands and all of that Exactly and you said they sold these hats, correct? So these hats so they did it for themselves and then oh no No, they sold them for like commercial use from companies whose uniform required it. Oh, yeah

So they were making the merch for other companies. Yes. Wow. This guy's. Are you serious? He's a savvy dude. Yeah. Even though White Castle was founded in Wichita, the company doesn't currently maintain any locations within the Sunflower State. White Castle's headquarters were relocated to Columbus, Ohio in 1934. But to celebrate the brand's 90th birthday, a temporary White Castle shop was set up in Wichita for one day only on May 19th 2011. Proceeds were donated to the Kansas Food Bank. They donated the proceeds to the food bank

I thought they were saying that like the leftover burgers if I were that food bank I'd be like no thank you Today's White Castle slider is pretty much the same as the original recipe. This does taste like something that's 100 years old. Yeah, I can imagine. Anderson's original hamburger involved cooking a small beef patty over shredded onions, then sliding it onto a bun instead of between slices of bread. About 100 years later, not much has changed. I mean, yeah, the concept of a hamburger is meat between buns, but they could season it more.

Yeah, it was kind of bland. And then I also saw the way they were cooking it, the process of it. I was wondering how does the meat get done? I think you gotta tell them well done. On the griddles and back? Yeah. Also some weren't really done all the way.

I don't know if you noticed that in the burgers, a lot of them were done all the way through. I assume that's how they meant it to be. I think so too. Yeah. I think that's like their way of doing it, which is, you know, you want your burger rare, right? But it's a meatball, like a rare meatballs. But especially if it's processed, I want it done. It's not restaurant quality. So yeah, you know, yeah, I want it done. It's not restaurant quality. So yeah, you know, yeah. I want to burn anything that's living. In 1954, a White Castle employee named Earl Howell, who worked at the company's

Cincinnati location, suggested that the now iconic patties would cook faster if they were punctured with a series of little holes. Today, all White Castle hamburgers are prepared in this fashion with five holes a piece. So they look like the surface area of a Ritz cracker. Like the little perforations. Punch the holes through them, right, okay. And we actually own the patent on the machine

that makes five holes, White Castle Vice President Jamie Richardson said in a 2017 interview with Thrillist, it's called a meat horn. Hmm. The meat horn. I don't know. Not everything needs that doesn't need to be patented. Correct.

Yeah. Yeah. Vegetarians can order plant-based sliders unveiled in 2018. The meat free impossible slider proved successful enough to join White Castle's core menu. White Castle teamed up with Impossible Foods, a meat substitute company based in Northern California, to do this. I didn't see it on the menu.

I'm sure it's like a, you ask for it and they'll provide it. And I also didn't like scour the menu. I kind of picked a couple of things that looked good. Cheeseburgers didn't appear on White Castle's menu until 1961. According to the company's official website, 41 years after opening our doors, we took a calculated risk

and added our first new menu item, the cheeseburger. Which is such a small risk to take. You're adding one ingredient to your slider. Now, listeners of my podcast know that cheese would scare me away, but like, I can just order without it. That's fine. It's weird to count it as a whole separate menu item.

Like we took a risk. I prefer not to have the chees too. Yeah. On White Castle specifically or on burgers in general? No, on White Castle, no chees please. Yeah. The White Castle slider has been named the most influential burger of all time.

Wow. That's right, folks. In 2014, Time Magazine correspondent Sarah Begley ranked the 17 most historically significant burgers ever conceived. The traditional White Castle Slider beat out the Burger King Whopper, the In-N-Out Burger, and other worthy opponents for the top spot. Wow. Influential does not mean good. Right. It means influential. the Burger King Whopper, the In-N-Out Burger, and other worthy opponents for the top spot. Wow. Influential does not mean good.

Right. It means influential. And I think just given that White Castle started fast food, that might explain it. True, because you could be a famous actor if it doesn't mean you act well. Right. But everyone knows you.

Exactly. Popular and good are different things. Two different things, yeah, yeah. And it reminds me kind of like, I remember back in the days, we used to go to Dodger Stadium to watch the Dodger games. And they used to have the miniature bats. I don't know if they still do that. I've seen them. I mean, I used to go to Wrigley Field and see those. So with the miniature bats, it was real cool to have, but no one's actually going to actually play with it. So just like that, I wouldn't want to go see the burger, but I don't think I want to eat one.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. White Castle food is like a museum exhibit.

You're like, oh, people actually eat this. Perfect way to put that. Yeah. White Castle has a Craver Hall of Fame. They call their like famous patrons Cravers or even just their patrons. Okay. To honor its most devoted diners, White Castle established its hall of fame in 2001. More recent inductees include an army soldier who took 50 sliders all the way to

Germany and a couple who collectively lost 200 pounds eating the sliders. I'm guessing cause it makes you throw up. You have to. What do you do? I wonder when he got to Germany with those. Somebody's in the hospital. Grounded into a sausage. Man, I can imagine the form it turns in once it's done.

That process, all of it together is like, wow, crazy. I'm surprised he made it. Alice Cooper is in that Hall of Fame as well. According to White Castle, Cooper became a fan during his childhood in Detroit and the craze stayed with him throughout his career. And he based tour dates and concerts around the locations of White Castle restaurants.

Wow. That's an insane thing to do. True fan. Yeah. And now for probably the most culturally relevant piece of White Castle history, at least to the younger generation. In 2004, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle was released.

Originally, the stoner comedy was supposed to be about the pursuit of Krispy Kreme donuts, but the food was changed to burgers after Krispy Kreme refused to allow the film to use their name. White Castle in particular was chosen because screenwriter John Hurwitz used to crave them while living in Pennsylvania for several years.

At the time, Pennsylvania did not have any White Castle locations, and Hurwitz had to have family members bring him frozen White Castle burgers from New Jersey. Now that's pure comedy. Comedy. Comedy. Oh!

You hear that? Right, yeah. Hoyle, you have unlocked the secret menu minigame. You've said the hidden word of the episode, comedy. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Classic comedy movie. That was going to be the secret word. So the way this is going to work to play the secret menu, we're just going to rattle off a bunch of jokes to the category comedy restaurants. Examples being

TGI Friday After Next or Big Mama's House of Pancakes. But you at home can play along. Comment your comedy restaurants below and I'll pick my favorite one for the next episode and you can win a free fine dining t-shirt. And the winner of this week's secret menu mini game goes to my friends over at two in the cooler podcast for their submission for the category vehicular goodies, roadkill bossa, like roadkill. Go ahead. DM me on Instagram or tick tock, or send me an email. Fine dining podcast at gmail.com.

And I will get you your free fine dining t-shirt sent your way. Everyone else. Thanks for playing and better luck this week. All right, coil. I'm going to go first. We'll get started in 321. Wok Hardy's the Dewey Cox story. The Burger King of comedy. Benny Honolulu's a guy in 10 days. That's stupid. How about a macaroni Grilly Madison? Bojangle All the Way. Ooh. You know Bojangle?

Yes. Yeah, yeah. How about Caddy Shake Shot? Shoney I Shrunk the Kids. That was my favorite movie. Oh yeah? Yes. How about Breakfast?

Me, Myself and IHOP. Dumb and Dumpkin Donuts. That's my favorite comedy movie. White Chick's Filet. The Longest Johnist Silverist Yard. That's stupid, right? Okay, and that's time. So that does it for the secret menu.

Comment below with your favorite comedy restaurant, one that we didn't get. Tell us who won between us. Whatever, play along. You can get a free fine dining t-shirt. Back to the eat deets. All right. The filmmakers for Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle received permission from White Castle in 2002 to use the change name in the film.

One scene that depicted a White Castle being closed was changed at the request of the company's director of marketing. I don't know if they're all 24 seven, but the one that we went to tonight was 24 seven and most of them are open very late if not 24 seven. In marketing, Harold and Kumar New Line Cinema turned a parking lot on Sunset Strip into a temporary White Castle for the 11 days before the film's release. The restaurant served 40,000 burgers to patrons,

including Quentin Tarantino, Farrah Fawcett, and Jay Leno. I remember that day vividly. Were you there? No, I wasn't there, but I remember when it happened because we were all begging for White Castle to come to California. Did you live in California? Yeah.

I'm originally from California. Oh, yeah. I didn't know that. Yes. And now you're a giant representative of Las Vegas. You've changed teams. You've gone from California to Vegas. You're literally the Raiders.

White Castle launched several promotions in tandem with the film's release. The restaurant chain featured beverage cups with pictures of Harold and Kumar. They also provided free hamburgers to moviegoers attending the film's premiere. Stars, John Cho and Cal Penn were inducted into the company's White Castle Craver's Hall of Fame in 2004. Wow. Yep. So that's the history of White Castle.

That'll do it for this week's Eat Deets. Every week on Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, I invite an artist, writer, or politician to come to the table and speak from the heart in ways you probably haven't heard from them before. In recent weeks, I sat with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Democratic strategist James Carville, director Richard Linklater, and musician and actor Maya Hawke.

To hear those and more episodes of the show, listen on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Be sure to open up your free iHeart app and search Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. What it be, trivia lovers? It's your pal Ryan Budz, host of Trivia with Budz, a Monday through Friday pop culture podcast with episodes under 10 minutes to give your nostalgic brain a workout. With over 2,000 episodes, you're all set for fun and games on your next long flight, road trip or weekend hangout with friends and family.

Check out recent episodes on famous mullets, Dungeons & Dragons, classic cocktails and tons more. And for info on virtual, in-person and hybrid trivia, bingo and game game show events, go to my website TriviaWithBuds.com. Cheers! Atmosphere. Okay, so the specific White Castle that we went to is the one off of the Vegas Strip. Do you know what casino it's right next to? Yes, that's the Casino Royale. So that's the Casino Royale. So that's the casino. You know, Royale.

Is it a part of that? Or it's like that's the one that is right next to it. And what they did is they try to use the mid connect. So what they did to make it easier for everyone, you could just walk through as you notice each one and connect the five holes in the paddy. You want to go there, you go, you end up in a shitty restaurant. I don't want you to go out. They want you to stay there if that makes sense.

And it's right next to a Denny's. I know there's an Outback down the street. There's a Fat Tuesdays. There's all these places you could go that are better than White Castle. Correct. I actually interviewed a woman. I was just like, excuse me, you're at White Castle at 1230 PM on a Saturday. Are you drunk right now?

And she was like, well, I'm halfway there. She was like, we drank some Four Locos in the car. I was like, I don't think you're allowed to drink in the car. And she was like, don't use my face. Typical Vegas. But that's the clientele that a White Castle is attracting. And I feel like you can judge a restaurant

based on the type of people that are going to that place. Cause if you think about it, if you're drunk and you're ready like in order for you to start over again you have to barf. Now what, you can help you. I mean that can help you quicker. Yeah. So eat the White Castle and that'll help you quicker.

Yeah. Oh, that's how you lose 200 pounds like that couple. Yeah. So the fact that this, look, I'm not the type of person who gets overwhelmed too easily, right? But all of the like nightmarish circus noises of a casino while I'm trying to eat and the food that I'm eating ends up being White Castle. It sent me to a state of anxiety.

And I think all the bells and whistles at this White Castle, I'm going to give an award. I'm going to say it gets this week's, this is way too much award. Coil, would you agree with the sentiment that like it was a little extra to eat at this White Castle? No, I have it on my notes. And it's funny too, you said that that was the main thing I had as I have slot noise, you know? Cause, um, well to me that's music to our ears,. I was thinking that too. Like somebody sitting here would be like, what the heck is going on? I couldn't figure it out and I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know.

I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know.

I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know. I was like, could be traumatizing to someone else who doesn't understand. I'm not used to it. Yes.

And I was thinking that too. Like somebody sitting here would be like, what the heck is going on? I couldn't figure it out. And it was in fact way too much. Yeah. Uh, there's just, it was a lot going on. It was a clientele where like everyone was, I feel like everyone had a vibe of we're kind of hiding our faces a little bit.

We don't wanna be seen here. This guy's filming stuff with his phone. I'm just taking pictures of the decor, but they very clearly are like, this is a low point for me. Please don't document this. Correct, correct. Cause you have to understand also in that area,

which you mentioned with the neighboring establishment, that is probably the most inexpensive place within that neighborhood. So that's true on the, on the strip right there, even in that vicinity, there, there's nowhere you're going to get eats at that price right there. You know, I see. Yeah. I mean, it was very, it was a very cheap meal, but it tasted it. Right.

It tasted cheap. Yeah. Cause there are people in there and they're not going for a taste. They just want to throw some on their belly or get some out their belly. Yeah. Well, I mean, so a lot of people and we'll get into this later, but a lot of people refer to drunk to spoke ahead of myself, refer to White Castle as drunk person food. Correct. Bar food. We call it bar food.

Yeah. And it's just I guess it hits the spot when your taste buds are in a different, on a different spectrum. Yeah. Yeah. Not a quarter, not really coordinating correctly. No, now the merch window did tickle me. I do think it's just inherently funny that a fast food restaurant is like, you can get a lunchbox, a hoodie, a visor,

a magnet, a lanyard. Right. I don't know. A lanyard is an odd thing to get. Now, I guess unless you work for them. I like that because that's Vegas theme. Yeah. So basically that was all Vegas theme to where you can get a souvenir anywhere. And again, in that area, that is probably the cheapest souvenir you can get. So if you think of somebody who's, yeah, but white, but it has white castle. I know which is steam. If you notice that it was Vegas theme though, but white castle, I do have a fanny pack from Hooters that says long beach on it.

So, you know, then on top of what was nice. It said, uh, what did it say? Cater nation, uh, craver nation, craver nation. I'm sorry. It's craver nation, Raider nation. So I like the theme. That's where they get it from to make you theme, you know, everything's steam. All right.

I see what they're doing. Marketing branding. That's all. That's all of this. So you couldn't afford the Venetian nice souvenir. Just walk on down like this is where you belong. Get a cup. Now they had a couple signs in there.

One, just a big neon buy him by the sack. Right. A sack is the most inelegant sounding item to be like, would you like a sack of SpaghettiOs? It depends on the sack you're talking about. That sack might taste better than the sack that they're serving. I guess, but just a sack in and of itself is like- I know. There is no Michelin star restaurant where they're serving you a sack of anything.

Not at all. The only sack that I really would like to be handed is one of those with the dollar sign on it and like someone just robbed a bank, but it's like in a cartoon. Right. Those are the sacks that I want. Because there's something in that quantity at that price something's wrong. Yeah. There's going to be something that's going to happen that from the result of us eating

all this sacks. Yeah. Something's going to happen. But it rings, it's funny. And again, it caters to their audience. I don't know if they're trying to be funny with buy-in-by-the-sack. I mean, I guess in the modern day, they've kind of picked... There's a scrotum thought that everyone has when they hear the word sack.

Correct. Buy-in-by-the-sacks. Right. Yeah. Okay. Everyone's giggling at it. And then also it refers to like, you know, like, you're right. Why would I get one when I can just get a sack of because I remember they didn't used to do that. Oh, the snack packs that that plays on people's worst judgment.

If you're like, oh, why would I just get one? No, trust me. Just get one and move on. Yes. Save yourself. Yes. You'll pay for it later. You get the sack, right? Because you're going to be throwing half of your sack away. Yeah, you will. Now, there was one other thing in quotes. if you get the sack. Right, because you're gonna be throwing half of your sack away. Yeah. You will. Now, there was one other thing in quotes. If you look, there was like a banister on the back wall

where the line started, and there were a bunch of little quotes on there, and one of them was by and by the sack. But the one that stood out to me said, the taste some people won't live without. It wasn't the taste some people can't live without. You know, sometimes you hear that, oh, I can't live without it.

It's a hyperbolic way of saying like, oh, I really like it. I crave it. But won't live without? You refuse to carry on without it. That's a peculiar phrasing. And it makes me wonder a question coil. It makes me ask a very particular sequence of words. It makes me wonder what's going on over there.

So Coil, what is going on in there? Why won't people live without White Castle? My take on that right there is that's the prime example. If reverse psychology was a marketing quote, their food is so shitty that they're like trying to hypnotize you. And you won't live without it. You're like, I guess you can't live without. Yeah, they're like, there's there's just subliminal messaging. You see sentence upon sentence upon sentence.

I think if you like look between the lines and like the negative space, it says it's passable and it's like, stop lying to me, White Castle. You're hypnotized by that sign. You know what you are. Yeah. Yeah. I think there is something to that. They're using reverse psychology marketing on you

Definitely and and so it by that vein buy them by the sack is actually a warning We're saying do not not everything is kind of the opposite at a white casual. There you go. Not everything's quite right I think we figured it out. That is in fact what's going on over there All right, so yeah, so that's everything for the vibe of this place. Just people that don't inspire a lot of confidence. I mean, the place was clean enough and like the merch was shiny and nice. The lighting wasn't depressing. The decor was whatever, you know, but when you're comparing this against the nicest restaurant you've ever been to, I don't even think this is a neutral experience. This is, you know, especially with the ringing of the casino.

This is a slightly sad experience. I'm not going a full two thumbs down, but I am going to give one thumb down to the atmosphere of a White Castle. How about you? I think I concur with you with the one thumb down. Yeah. Yes. Same reasons.

Well, yeah. And then also to the fact that where is that like more of a tourist attraction. So I think people will get a kick out of going to see it and experiencing it. Yeah. And to be honest with you, I think somebody would really just want to experience and buy the burger and not even eat it. Just to get this for an Instagram photo, throw it straight in the toilet. Yeah. Or trash. Mm hmm. Basically, almost what you did.

I mean, I ate half of a slider, but I couldn't. I couldn't keep going. I know. I know. You were there. I know you experienced what I experienced. Yeah, no, not not a good decor, not good food. We'll get to that. Right. But yeah. All right. Let's move on. Service.

So coil the service here. Honestly, it was so quick. Right, right. And like efficiency is a good thing. Correct. But there's no rapport being built. You're not like joking back and forth with your waiter. You're not developing a friendship like you do when you go to a sit down restaurant and you get those repeat trips.

Like to me, those are nicer dining experiences with the service. Those are the positive things. This to me was kind of the definition of a neutral flat service experience. Correct. They did their job. They did nothing bad. They didn't do anything exceptional to me. No thumbs up or down.

I'm just right in the middle on service. Yeah. And actually, there was this real bland with it. anything exceptional to me, no thumbs up or down. I'm just right in the middle on service. Yeah. And actually, um, there was this real bland with it. They didn't see the expectations. They just did their job. They did their job. One thing that I'll give them a plus that is, um, with it being on the script,

uh, I don't know if you notice, but a lot of, uh, customer service on the strip, there's more rush. So if you go somewhere that you don't know what you're ordering or haven't been before, they'll stress you out. They'll kind of put that pressure on you. I'm one night. Here we go. We got a line with him. He was still calm. Yeah. And though we were asking questions and all that, he was real calm. Yeah. But he didn't have energy. I also don't know if anyone was behind us at that time though. Right. Right.

I saw him when we went back up, when I ordered the onion wings, it was a little line and I want to see his composure and it was, he held it. He held it. a little line. Yeah. And I want to see his composure. And it was, he held it. He held it. He held it. Yeah. But it was still that I would you like the burger or the yeah. Yeah. And I'm not like, I'm not praising you for not being bad.

Right. I'm praising you if you're good. So to me again, neutral is the name of the game. And then another advice to what I would advise if you're looking at this White Castle and if you know on the strip, it will be best due to the fact that you're on the strip handling tourists and also locals do come that we I noticed a guy who was constantly cleaning up trash on the tables. Yeah, just like it was kind of bothersome instead of it would be different. And he was cleaning up saying, hey, how was your meal?

Was everything OK? No, but it was just he's's coming and taking and taking like Harry. It would almost be invisible. Harry up and get out of here so more people could come in instead of their busting your food out of your hand as you're eating it. We know you're not going to eat this. Believe me, we throw these away all the time. Like there's actually a process that makes burgers out of the trash.

Oh, I would believe that. I would believe that. I would believe that. It's patent to that patent. That's the real meat horn. OK, so if you're yeah, if you're scoring this service with your thumbs, how would you how are you thinking? Middle, you know that? Yeah, just right in the middle.

Yeah, the middle. Yeah, yeah. I'll give it the middle that middle middle. Yep. Cool. Right in the sacks. All right. Yeah. Let's move on.

Oh, before you move on also, I want to give white castle a plus, give them their flowers because of the transit situation. Um, of course, um, in Las Vegas, we do have transits and I like the way to like, like the unhoused, yeah, unhoused or they might be homeless or they just might be out there on their luck and stuck in Vegas. Yeah, yeah. And I like how they handled them where they didn't single them out. They treated them like regular customers.

They didn't rush them out or made it a scene that they were in there. And I like how they handled that. I didn't notice that. I mean, the direction I was facing was pretty much the door. So yeah, no, I mean, that's a nice note. I mean, I, I'm very big on, you know, just let people be places, you know? Right, right, right. So, okay, well, they did a good job. That's a good note. Food. Yum, yummy. Okay, so moving on to the food. If you can call it that. Okay. I mean,

If you can call it that. I mean, where do I even start? So this is, this is a September episode and for September, I'm scoring burgers and they're in a competition. It's a single elimination tournament. White Castle is up against Shake Shack. The number eight seed versus the number one seed. Is White Castle going to advance? Stay tuned.

If you can tell from how we have talked about it, you probably know the answer. But we're gonna end on burger. We're gonna start with all the other things. So for sides, they don't really have starters, but they've got sides. So there's crinkle fries. Did you get the fries?

I didn't get the fries. My take on these was that they were got sides. So there's crinkle fries. Did you get the fries? I didn't get the fries. My take on these was that they were chalky. They were chalky and they weren't consistent. They weren't consistent. Some were mushy. Some weren't hard. You could tell that like, you know, they just keep adding new fries onto this batch and then they scoop from there and you don't know which is which. Was this the old batch?

Was this the new batch? Cause some were super hard that I know have been sitting up for a while. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. These weren't good fries. I'm not going to say I hated them. Like these weren't abominable.

I've had bad fries before, but I mean, even a bad fry is, is okay for a food. So I'm going to give this a four out of 10. It doesn't get like, Oh, it's not complimentary gonna give this a four out of 10. It doesn't get like, it's not complimentary. But like a four out of 10, four to six is your mediocre range. It's the low end of mediocre to me. You did better than me. I gave him three actually. You gave him a three out of 10?

Three out of fries, and cause I have to put too many salt packages on it. So for you, if you have to modify it in any way. Done, yeah. It's a no against it. Okay. And, if you have to modify it in any way, it's a note against it. Okay. And also they weren't consistent again, you know, they were so many different kinds of it was literally like scrolling through the fries to find the good ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The recent cooked ones.

Yeah. Oh, this is golden brown. This is from yesterday. All right. And then chicken rings. They have really weird, like you they do have onion rings, but they have chicken rings and onion chips. Right. So these onion chips, they were basically Bloomin' Onion Petals without any spirit. Correct.

I love the Bloomin' Onion from Outback Steakhouse. I do too. I think it's the perfect restaurant appetizer. These were that without the fun seasoning. These were that without the tasty sauce. It's like they dropped the onion in dirt. And they were like, that's good enough to serve. Look, I feel bad because this episode is just us punching down on White Castle.

But they earned it. They did. They definitely earned it. This did, they definitely earned it. This is the offering they put out. These were just not good. No they weren't. So again, this is gonna be where I sound nice. Like look, an onion ring type thing,

a fried thing with onion in it, is just a tasty treat. True. I'm still going four and a half out of 10. I'm not in the pits with these. Right. But for what it is, that's about as low as it can go. When the blue and onion is a 10, the worst of that kind of thing is around like a four and a half to me. I would definitely give those chips.

I was in the range of a four also. I actually have the four down for it. Um, that for the onion was good. Why I gave it a four because of the onion, I can tell it was a thick quality, quality onion in there. The breading was horrible. The breading that they use was definitely horrible, but not only that it broke right off of the onion.

Right. And then they give it to you plain. So there's no sauce like the onion sauce. You know, I usually it comes with either modify that taste of the bread. Even though the episode came out a few months ago on Patreon, I had Freddy's frozen custard. Have you had it before? Yes.

They have a fry sauce. Perfect. And they have a jalapenos fry sauce. Perfect example. That is such a good sauce. It is. I love Volvo. And like, look, you're saying like, oh, I had to salt the fry or I had to pepper or whatever.

To me, the sauces are freebies, especially if you offer like your own restaurant's signature version. Put on everything. If it's tasty, that's just White Castle's got nothing to it. When it came up with the idea of onion chips, why don't we have an onion chip sauce? Yeah. That goes, that specifically pairs with that. Right. Yeah. Not good.

Four and a half out of 10. You said four, right? Correct. All right. So now chicken rings. I don't know what they're trying to do with this. It looks like kind of a real thick onion ring filled with chicken with McNugget meat basically. And honestly, McNugget might be better.

It tasted like a freezer aisle. Chicken, you said it. They should have had just as a ring. Should have been dinosaur. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. This was giving dinosaur nuggets. Yeah, that's funny. And then, you know, you eat it and look like these are layups, right? Fried chicken, right? Fried onions, French fries. Right. Those are all things that should be scoring seven, eight, nine, you know, maybe

10 if they're, if they're like, but like, they're not, they're not, how are they failing at these things that are easy? So again, on the chicken rings, I'm going four out of 10. The chicken rings are definitely a three for me because it's something I can do at home. Go to a crozier. It's not something you can do at home. You can do it better. True. I can't do this at home. Right. I would do it better. Yeah. Yeah.

My kids, I think we eat my dinosaur nuggets before White Castle's any day. Yeah. Even if it's low effort, you throw them in a baking sheet. I was about to say in the oven, they hate that. Um, and then you can take that very chicken and put it on a slider. Now the one compliment I'll kind of give White Castle is the bun for the slider. Oh yeah. Was, you know, nice enough. Right.

So the chicken slider was an upgrade I thought over the chicken rings yes you take that I mean it is the same source it's an elementary school cafeteria mm-hmm that's what this chicken patty is correct inside of their bun I didn't hate it I wasn't mad about it you put a little bit of ketchup on it but again I, I mean, it needs the ketchup. It's not like it's optional. No, it needs to be tolerable. It does some sort of sauce.

Yes. But this chicken slider, it was. Unimaginative, but slightly better. So if I went four out of ten on the chicken slider, I'm going to go four point oh one out of ten. Okay. Just on principle of this chicken slider. Just just for the bread. But make sense. I don't know. You know what?

I actually feel like I'm being too generous. I'm going to I'm going to dock two points from both of those. I'm going to go two point oh one out of ten up your chicken game. White Castle. That's right. Up your chair. Why am I being so nice? Set the bar high for us. Actually, I know why I'm being so nice because I know what I scored the burger

and it is the meanest thing. No, they scored themselves like that. I mean, that's fair. That's fair. I am just a conduit. Right. I'm just a messenger. I'm just reminding you.

Luff. What do you score the chicken slider? The chicken, I gave it an you. What do you, what do you score the chicken? The chicken? I gave it an eight. I did, you know, I did. I gave it an eight. I'm sitting here going twos and you're like, but I'm going to think about it. Um, I wrote down eight and now, cause I'm being transparent.

I wrote down eight, but when my son and I was talking, I was eating, I did down it down to a six. Okay. So the reason why it's been years due to we've been, but keep in mind the burgers are first. So when they came with the chicken part, it was beautiful because I ordered chicken even from Chris. I'm not when you used to go. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So the chicken came out because chicken came later.

So that's why when we met, I mentioned the chicken first. I'm like, dude, the chicken, you know, is excellent. And I'm like, no, this is the burger specific episode. You're like, you got to try the chicken for some reason. They used to put mail and pickles on it. I know crystal do. So these chickens came playing that every, everything you playing. Yeah.

Eat these chicken little's play. No, get a sauce. You got to get a sauce. I don't care what's right. It needs wetness. Right. And the sauces were bland. They'll, although I have that, um, the brand imprinted on it for White Castle.

Yeah. The mayo was just a white substance that just went on top. It tastes like mayo. The ketchup was bland also. So I'm assuming that. Yeah, it was just packet ketchup. Yeah. And packet mustard and packet mayo. They don't buy quality products as far as. I mean, look no further than the chicken patty.

Like it's very clear that they're cutting corners. Right. Right. It got to be at either Tyson or somewhere. When they get closure stuff, they put stuff to the side for White Castle. Has to be. They do have to up their game as far as the quality of the meat. I don't think they're gonna. I don't see them changing.

Like this is kind of their brand. Is we're shitty and if you're drunk, you'll eat us. This is it. And we're cheap and you get quantity over quality. That's true. That's the White Castle way. That is true. That is true. So.

Yeah. All right, and then before we do the September-ger bit, I did get the chocolate shake. Mm. Yeah. Okay. And it tasted like they copied a Frosty from Wendy's. Can't be mad about that.

Right. So it's a seven and a half out of 10, but grudgingly, I'm giving them something that was all right. Okay. But also how do you mess up a chocolate shake? Unless you're using like expired milk or dairy or whatever you have in there. Right. You can't mess up a milkshake. So to their credit, you know, it didn't set my world on fire, but it

was a competently good milkshake. That's good. So seven, seven and a half out of 10. I got the mozzarella sticks. I was off. Oh, you did. I did. Yeah. Those are definitely a three out of 10. I'm not going to lie. Three out of 10. Yeah. The reason why I gave it three, the breading was better. They should. Yeah. I wish the breading was consistent across the board, but the breading was better. Um, they should, yeah, I wish the breading was consistent across the board, but the breading was different.

Had a real Italian seasoning. It was better than like the other breaded things like the chicken. Correct. This is the best bread at all. The was processed. Didn't have a course. And, um, the marinara sauce was kind of like a soupy ketchup. Was it really marinara?

So yeah, every three, definitely. We didn't even eat them all. I only finished my chicken slider. There was nothing else in this meal that I finished. Right. Okay. I think it's time. We gotta get down to it.

The burger, the beef slider, the entrant into September that will go up against shake shack next week. And then maybe they'll advance to the second round, but they're not this sucked. This is the worst burger I have ever had in my life. I agree with you. This beef slider is just an, it's bad. It's an abomination. So it has little cut up onions and it has pickle.

And then was it, was it mustard? Mustard and ketchup. Mustard, ketchup and a bunch. And the little slice of s***. Yeah, I got mine without the s***. And I took a bite. Well, actually, no, let's talk about the smell. This smelled like a shoe store.

Right. I've been here before to try and buy new Adidas Sambas. This smelled like that. I'm not being hyperbolic. It had like a leathery. No, I get you. Like, are they sprayed it with something like a waterproof? I don't know. Either that. And then also what I smelled, which because I'm a local, I smelled the, uh, the lure of the casino next door. So it was the

smells like a casino. What an endorsement. Cause you can smell the smoke, you know, the cigarette smoke and the cigars you kind of seeps over there. So you still reminds you that you're in Vegas, Like you're in the casino still. So I kind of smelled that mixture, which it throws off. Cause you, when you go to a restaurant, the smell triggers, you know? Yeah.

So when you go there, it's kind of like that triggers. Like, you sure you want this? It's like, you have to approve to use your debit card. Are you sure? You sure? Oh man. Yeah. We have to give a score to the Beef Slider. Like I said, this is the worst burger I've ever had. I agree with you.

But I imagine that it is possible to do worse than this. So I'm going to score this out of 10, a 0.13. Ooh. That is what I think of the White Castle beef slider. The beef slider. Yeah. I actually would agree with you. I would give it a, I'm going to give it a one, a 1.3. I'll give it a 1.3. You give it a 1.3.

1.3. When we put our scores together, let's see, 1.3 and 0.13. That means that for Septemberger, the score that Shake Shack needs to beat is a 0.72. They're going to blow them out the water. Definitely. Yeah.

I thought that the food at White Castle very easily. I can give two thumbs down to correct. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. That's it. Definitely. And it's not healthy.

And it's not healthy. Right. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, so that does it for the food. We're going to put this all together into a final rating, but before we can do that, we have to turn to Yelp and see what other people are saying about this White Castle location in this week's Yelp from Strangers. One star, two star, three star, four or five. So get a little Yelp, a little Yelp, a little Yelp from Strangers. A little Yelp, a little Yelp. Give us those complaints while you literally white and die.

Yelp! Alright, this is Yelp from Strangers, our segment where we go to Yelp and read out our favorite one, two, three, four, and five star Yelp reviews of the very restaurant that we dined at. Coyle, do you mind if I go first? Oh, no, go ahead. One star review. I'm going to start us off with what needs to be said, the one star review about this White Castle. Okay.

This is from Robert D from Tucson, Arizona, April 19th, 2024. Okay. This is from Robert D from Tucson, Arizona, April 19th, 2024. Okay. I went in two days ago on a Wednesday evening in mid April at about 6 p.m. And it pains me to, it was, I think he meant to say, it pains me to, it was the worst dining experience I've ever had.

I wouldn't say that for me, but it was the worst burger. Right. It took eight or nine minutes to get six White Castle hamburgers at $1.39 each. Fine. The dining area was filthy with smeared tables and left behind rubbish. Although the rubbish might just have been left where it was because the garbage cans were overflowing. The odd thing was a young lady came out to mop the floor without lifting a

finger to clean the tables or empty empty the overflowing trash receptacles. I found that odd. That is fun. You know, when you just like, you're too overwhelmed by part of the mess, you're like, you know what, that could be someone else's problem. I'll do. Yeah. The hamburgers stale, tough and tasteless.

I have been eating White Castle hamburgers since they were 12 cents and never once had I ever before been presented with such inedible, stale, tasteless food. There wasn't even an aroma of onions on the griddle. I specifically stayed at a hotel within walking distance so I could eat White Castleles for Wednesday dinner and Thursday breakfast. That's crazy.

It is. That's a crazy way to live your life. But after the debacle on Wednesday, I changed my mind. Memories of a lifetime were destroyed with one simple substandard meal. One star. Thanks Robert D. Right. Yeah.

That feels like what you would expect from a White Castle review. That was accurate. Four star review. So this is a four star for White Castle and this is from Dave L. out in Philly, shouts out to Philly, Pennsylvania. And this was on April 16th of 2023. So come on, y'all know exactly what you're getting when you go here. Just because we know what we're like, you know, you're going to get punched in the face.

That doesn't make it four stars. He says there are quite a few White Castle locations in Vegas, Vegas, and this is one I don't even know the name of the casino as part of, but it's not far from the Denny's on the strip. So this white castle has a simple menu. You can get their standard slider, maybe the chicken and definitely the fish. Ooh, that seems like a risk. One of the seafood at a white castle.

I wonder, is there a, you have to sign some waiver. Can I get a fish slider? Yes, sir. Can you just sign this real quick? So there's no Fox meat impossible. What you know, what? Oh, me know like this vegetarian and all that. Yeah.

Um, slider for sell here. They've got breakfast options, but I haven't dared to go there. I wouldn't either. Yeah. And I stick to two to three sliders and a cup of coffee. That's a crucial mixture. That's like a recipe for. And I stick to two to three sliders and a cup of coffee. That's a crucial mixture. That's like a recipe for a bomb. Coffee and two to three sliders.

Wow. Yeah. Wow. If you got to satisfy a drunk craving for White Castle, I guess go here. This spot will rock your digestive system. Literally. I added the literally. Four stars.

Yeah. Just true. Just, I don't understand how that, those combination of words equals a four star review. I don't either. People are too nice. Yeah. Yeah.

Unless he fat fingered it. The stars. You can go download our full Yelp from Strangers segment at our Patreon. The link for that is in the description of this episode, or you can go download our full Yelp from Strangers segment at our Patreon. The link for that is in the description of this episode, or you can go to patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. And we're now offering a one week free trial. So what do you have to lose? Go check it out.

People have wild opinions and we get to read oh, so many of them. Thanks. Okay, coil, we have to put all this together into our final rating. Now I've done this podcast 60, 70, 80 something times. I don't even I've lost count of how many restaurants I've been to. This is your first time on fine dining. So before you can rate properly, I need you to calibrate your scale. So we're going to stop by the calibration station.

Now in the calibration station, I just need you to tell me very briefly, what is the zero, the worst restaurant experience you've ever had? And what is the 10? So my worst experience out here in Las Vegas is a pub and grill Yeah, I went to is not too far from my home and was crazy as there is at least Eight or ten of them that are in the Vegas Valley. They are a chain. They are a chain. Yeah Their food is horrible. Just consistently bad bad And I think the median range of people who eat there are like, I think 55 to 70. And I was old school, but there's a lot.

The outside will fool you because the outside are new. Yeah. You go in and you look at the menu. It's kind of like Denny's back in the 50s. Yeah. And then that everything's process. Yeah, everything's process. Yeah. So that was one of the worst experience. I won't ask you to name drop. You don't need to put anyone on. But yeah, with this place, I'll definitely be in the back of a Lincoln.

And then the best. What's your 10 out of 10? One is top of the world and that is on top of the stratosphere. OK, top of the world. And the food is amazing. Excellent. Oh, my God. The food and the experience. When I went there, I had some, um, tangerine pork chop with this tangerine sauce on it. It had the mashed potatoes that were loaded and I've never seen loaded mashed

potatoes that was just, you know, it's just, it was just excellent. The presentation of everything. And then not only that it rotates around the city. So you get that view slowly changing, but I recommend going right before sunset. So you can catch the little daylight. And then also you can experience it at night. If you go during that time. Sounds nice.

Awesome. So that's your zero. That's your 10 White Castle. Where does it fall between those two things? If you have to put a number, a score on your White Castle experience overall, where's it landing? Final rating. Now, um, if the pub and grill was at a zero, and this food was worse, that's why I called it bar food, it was worse than their bar food.

Yeah. I don't know if this is done before, but that has to be a negative one. I, they have to your negative. Not even just the food overall. You think white castle is a negative score. The negative. Now that I think about it and we put everything together, it is negative. Okay.

Well, I'll let you go zero. Zero. Yeah. Okay. Let's go zero. You're going zero on White Castle. There was nothing redeeming about this experience. Nothing redeeming about it.

I think when we started, I did give it a 2.3 and I was on the strength because of the kids. You know, I'm a family man. I said, I'll give it that because of the kids on the strength. This is your experience. Me. Yeah. Zero.

There's no way that I'm going to see here and lie and give them that leeway when they have to step their game up. They have to step their game up. So I'm, I'm definitely more generous than you on this. Okay. I went into this white castle thinking, huh, the place looks kind of clean. You know, I went one thumb down on the atmosphere. It's whatever it's fine.

Um, the service in a, like it didn't register to me. It was just there. It was, it was a thing. It was a trans as transactional best way to put it. His food was bad, but I can't tank the score down as low as you did off of service that wasn't bad off of an atmosphere atmosphere that wasn't the worst it could be. Correct, correct. So for me, White Castle,

I'm gonna go 2.22. Wow. Okay, all right. Which means, when I get back to Los Angeles, the Chachki of Mediocrity, my giant scoreboard of all the restaurants that I've been to, is gonna have a new worst restaurant because when you average our scores together, White Castle goes up on the Chachki at one point one one out of ten.

Right where they belong. White Castle, definitively less than mediocre. Yeah. Less than mediocre. Not quite as good as Cracker Barrel. We already know next week the final first round match gets concluded

White Castle versus Shake Shack. So next week I will be going to Shake Shack and we'll conclude the first round and then you can finish the September girl out on my Patreon to hear the semi-finals and the finals. See who takes home that September girl championship belt. Who's it gonna be?

I don't know, but I'm pretty confident it's not gonna be White Castle. Coyle, thank you so much for joining me, for putting your body through what you went through to endure White Castle. Is there anything you wanna say to people? Do you wanna plug one more time where people can find you on social media?

Oh yeah, definitely you guys visit Vegas Places with Coyle where we highlight small business owners out here in Las Vegas. And you can check us out on all social media platforms as visit Vegas Places with Coyle, where we highlight small business owners out here in Las Vegas. And you can check us out on all social media platforms as visit Vegas Places. If not, go to the website, visitvegasplaces.com and check out the podcast on all streaming platforms. Awesome.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. We didn't find the most mediocre restaurant in America. The search does in fact continue. And you can follow me on social media at Fine Dining Podcast, Instagram, TikTok, fine dining podcast dot com, check out my Patreon, all the good things. But YouTube is really where I prefer you check me out

because I'm putting a lot of effort into making these video episodes. You can see this wonderful restaurant. Thanks again one more time to World of Wings for letting me shoot here. The search continues. We'll see you next time. Have a fine day! Our journey did not conclude The mother-eating surge continues Riders and I had to 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 TikTokiktok 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!