Many restaurants pride themselves on a signature dish, and some of these places, around America and abroad, love their signature dish so much they decide to prepare it in mass amounts -- and then challenge guests to eat as much of it as they possibly can. People from all over the world visit certain establishments to try these crazy food challenges. If they are victorious, they win not only pride, but usually a spot on a wall of fame.
All these restaurant challenges have one thing in common: participants have to eat a ridiculous amount of food, and sometimes within a restricted amount of time. But not all of these challenges are created equal. For example, The Inferno Soup at Nitally's Thai-Mex Cuisine in St. Petersburg, Fla. challenges participants to slurp down an insanely large 48-ounce bowl of spicy soup (that includes 12 different hot peppers from around the world) in 30 minutes, while Randy's Wooster Street Pizza in Manchester, Conn.challenges participants to eat a stuffed pizza so large they claim they can't even list the amount of toppings.
Occasionally, the restaurants will allow the diner to split the foot challenge with a few friends, but that almost always means it's going to be even harder, whether you're talking about Big Pie in the Sky's 11-pound pizza down in Kennesaw and Roswell, Ga., or Clinton, N.J.'s Clinton Station Diner's 105-pound burger, which officially makes it the largest in the world. It can be split 10 ways, but that doesn't seem to matter: no one has yet bested this beef behemoth. Many restaurants also have rules disallowing visits to the restroom for those who might feel the sudden compulsion to be a little sick. The ones that don't will likely at least admit that you're probably going to have a rough night's sleep after polishing off the pounds of (usually unhealthy) food they've dared you to eat.
From doughnuts to phở, we've compiled a list of the wildest restaurant challenges and ranked them based on the amount of food involved, as well as any other special regulations like time limits and the spice factor. From bacon-wrapped meat to two-foot-long burritos, check out our slideshow to see some of the country's craziest restaurant challenges!
Have you competed in a restaurant challenge? Are there any others that aren't included here that we should know about? Feel free to let us know by leaving a comment.
-Matt Hershberger, The Daily Meal
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