The Best Worst Restaurant Names Ever
Word Of Mouth asks, "What's your best worst restaurant name ever?" Thaitanic? Butt Savories? Chickpizz? The possibilities are endless. And mildly disturbing.
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49 Comments:
Cluck You Chicken in Columbus, Ohio...it's not even funny and I have no desire to ever eat there.
earlybirdkate at 1:33PM on 01/14/08
The funniest and worst restaurant name I've encountered recently was in France. It was called "La Bouche des Gouts" which means, The Mouth of Flavors, which is weird enough on its own, but when spoken and not read, it is also a double entendre for "La Bouche d'Égouts" which means the Opening of the Sewage Drainpipe. What were they thinking???
seyo at 1:45PM on 01/14/08
Thai places are easy; Thai Wun On, Beau Thai, etc.
Many years ago there was aplace in L.A. called the Itchy Foot.
I never ate there. The image did not conjur up wholesome dining for some reason!!
RichardCrystal at 1:55PM on 01/14/08
Dirty Dick's Crab House, Panama City, Florida. Never had any desire to eat there the entire 2 1/2 years i lived in Panama City. Couldn't do it.
beth1 at 1:57PM on 01/14/08
There was 'The Golden Shower', a Chinese restaurant in I cannot remember which Italian city.
mongoose at 1:59PM on 01/14/08
For years there was a restaurant on Nantucket called
The Elegant Dump! No longer there!
ciaobella at 2:01PM on 01/14/08
In Albany, we have "A Taste of Greece."
BTW, could someone please explain "Eat and Two Veg," as discussed in the article? I don't get it.
Kerosena at 2:20PM on 01/14/08
Also: Fatty's Chinese Kitchen in Honolulu.
Kerosena at 2:25PM on 01/14/08
In Owego, NY there was a restaurant called Shards. All I could think of when I heard the name was shards of glass. I spoke to the woman who owned it where she got the name from and she said it was the name of her dog. She had always wanted to open a restaurant and finally did. Well as you may expect the restaurant didn't last.
Someone else bought the place and did such great business that they had to move because they could expand the site. It now sits empty. :(
pmagnus at 2:27PM on 01/14/08
Doggy Style Hot Dogs in Memphis, which opened in a space formerly occupied by Chitlins N' Thangs. This was a great place to get a really good chicago style hot dog at a great price in a really attractive space. The name killed it for me though. The last thing I want to be reminded of while eating a hot dog is sexual activity.
It closed.
jccvi at 2:28PM on 01/14/08
Mongoose: Was it in San Francisco? ;-)
RichardCrystal at 2:30PM on 01/14/08
Kerosena: "Meat & Two Veg" is a standard on most Brit bills of fare. Eat & Two Veg, I have no idea!!
RichardCrystal at 2:32PM on 01/14/08
Down the road a piece (that means somewhere out on the rural highway nearby) there was a Shell station that had a lunch counter inside it.
They featured something called "Angel Steaks". I do not know what they were, really. It was posted on the big sign outside to see as you drove by.
One day the Shell sign lost the letter "S".
So when you drove by what you read was
hell
We serve Angel Steaks!
It stayed like that for some time.
I never did venture into hell to dine upon angel steaks.
Karen Resta at 3:25PM on 01/14/08
Arizona is home to the both infamous Pink Taco and the Heart Attack Grill!
OneWallKitchen at 3:31PM on 01/14/08
Growing up in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. We had a great pizza place right across from our High School, called Gagglios. Best pizza, and meaty anchovies!
marcwcarroll at 4:00PM on 01/14/08
PuPu Hot Pot in Cambridge MA is an unfortunate name. There also used to be a "Ducky Wok" in Allston MA.
And of course there's the famous and actually high-quality "No-Name Restaurant" on the Boston fish pier.
shlotz at 4:08PM on 01/14/08
I LOVED the Ducky Wok! SOOOOO GOOOD!!!!! The name is funny, granted, but not really what I would consider unapealing.
Their food was awesome. We would go there in groups of 6 - 8 on Saturday nights after having stayed up all night partying Friday night and sleeping all day Saturday, and absolutely demolish the place.
They had a noodle dish with roast duck and duck broth served on the side that I still crave to this day. In all my years of eating Chinese food, and with all the Chinese restaurants in NYC, they are still my favorite. I was very sad when I learned that they closed.
seyo at 4:25PM on 01/14/08
Smegy's on Torresdale Ave. in NE Philly. Cannot bring myself to even go and and check it out.
KakiSue at 4:29PM on 01/14/08
There's a Honolulu place with the clever name Ciao Mein. You can guess what it serves.
kjgibson at 4:47PM on 01/14/08
We had the fortunate experience of having a wonderful meal at a place called " Tin Lung" on the north side of Chicago.
beano at 5:57PM on 01/14/08
"Lovely Hula Hands" serves NW local food in Portland OR. It is supposed to be very good, but I hate the name so much that I refuse to try it. Any thoughts on what they are getting at with the name?
alexb at 7:38PM on 01/14/08
I heard of a pizza place called Cheezus Crust.
misseditor at 8:08PM on 01/14/08
While on a road trip in the U.K., my family & I ran across a Chinese take-out called "Fried Lice," (No kidding.) I think it was in Wales, but it may have been Scotland; I'll have to ask my husband if he remembers.
barbok at 8:35PM on 01/14/08
On the Indian River in Sebastian, FL is a place called "Squid Lips" and in Hoschton, GA you'll find "Peckers" (A rooster never had a better piece of chicken).
grampart at 10:18PM on 01/14/08
"What the Pho' " in Atlanta. I've also heard that there is a Vietnamese place somewhere called "Pho' King," but I've never actually seen that one.
LesDuLunch at 10:22PM on 01/14/08
"Food Wall" in Jamaica Plain, Boston. Chinese, allegedly. Just... gross.
swans at 10:23PM on 01/14/08
It doesn't get worse than a chain of fast food fish shops with the name "Something Fishy." It's a South African chain and when I saw my first one I swore that the name would never work in the U.S..
Years later we moved to Santa Barbara to find a sushi joint with the same name. Very appealing.
rudbeckia at 10:35PM on 01/14/08
What the Pho!...pho noodle house.
tonks442 at 10:44PM on 01/14/08
We saw a place in Houston called "Chewy Balls"--amusing and disturbing.
caprafan at 11:31PM on 01/14/08
Pho King in San Diego and Taco Rosa (Pink Taco) in Orange County.
Afishionado at 11:45PM on 01/14/08
There's a "Something's Fishy" in Malibu. Don't know if it's part of the South African chain rudbeckia mentions, but that one has definitely caught my attention as particularly unappetizing.
Also suspect in sunny LA-LA land: "Wacky Wok" and "Killer Shrimp," both on Washington Blvd, in Venice. Wackiness and lethality are just not attributes I like to associate with my food.
Honorable mention: the now defunct Mo' Meaty Meat Burgers on Pico and Fairfax Blvds. (They didn't specify what kind of meat, or what state of meatiness had existed prior to the onset of "Mo'.")
Anna at 12:05AM on 01/15/08
I got the name wrong. The official name was
"Mo' Better Meatty [sic] Meat Burger"
Awesome.
Anna at 12:08AM on 01/15/08
There is/was a "Mother Cluckers" in New Orleans.
When I was in London in '94, there was "Phuckets" which we pronounced with an "f" sound (we were in high school and thought it was hilarious)
And another place in London was called "The Crusty Loaf" which I thought was kinda cute.
Erinay77 at 4:31AM on 01/15/08
"Meat and two veg" is also sometimes used to refer to a portion of the male anatomy.
In Jacksonville, FL, there is (or used to be) a place called Chinee Takee Outee, which I always found somewhat horrifying.
thepictsie at 5:08AM on 01/15/08
"The Oinkster" on Colorado in LA's Eagle Rock neighborhood is the best worst name I know. While the name is a total joke, the food is not!
I stopped in there in late December and got a generous serving of their belgian fries w/ garlic aioli. So damn good, I finished them all.
Oink, oink, baby.
http://www.oinkster.com/concept.htm
Susquehanna at 8:27AM on 01/15/08
"Cabbages and Condoms" in Bangkok.
pemabuk at 12:05PM on 01/15/08
Around the corner from my house (in a neighborhood with a large Latino population) there is a restaurant called "Pupuseria My Family's" I'm dying to know how they managed to have a sign created without anyone pointing out the problematic grammar. thepictsie - There's a "Chinee Takee Outee" in Gainesville, FL too.
MBinDC at 12:24PM on 01/15/08
Kung Food in Las Vegas far off the Strip
stevebillings at 2:45PM on 01/15/08
Mrs. Fly's Bakery (now defunct) was famous for shoo-fly pie.
PerkyMac at 12:37AM on 01/16/08
In Bellevue, Washington, there is "What the Pho?"
katiekate at 10:38AM on 01/16/08
There's a Chinese restaurant here in Portland, OR called Hung Far Low. I have no idea why.
There used to be a place called Takee Outee in the French Quarter. There was one right up the street from Pat O's. The eggrolls were huge, delicious and exactly what we needed after a few Hurricanes. Good times.
RegrettableFoodie at 3:00PM on 06/17/08
Singapore Bistro on 19th and L in Washington DC has the name right but if you look closely the sign below reads "Asian Cousin". Awesome!
And in Hilton Head, South Carolina somewhere I remember seeing a restaurant called Mexician Grill. We still laugh at that one!
divaofyum at 3:24PM on 06/17/08
My favorite is the chinese restaurant in Cooperstown, NY.
Foo Kin, as in "I want some of that Foo Kin Chinese Food!"
gb944 at 5:24PM on 06/17/08
Juan Toomany's Taco Hut in Missouri City, Texas (now closed).
lambowner at 11:30AM on 06/18/08
Phuket, let's Thai one on.
gnnoles at 8:48PM on 06/18/08
Safari Tacos in Door County, Wisc. I mean seriously, that makes no sense. Safari Tacos?
friedman719 at 4:58PM on 06/19/08
A friend of mine at Vassar told me about a place in Poughkipsee called the "Yeung Ho Chinese Restaurant"
Xtreambar at 2:57PM on 07/17/08
Dai Ho
Temple City, CA
Yung Ho King Tou Chiang Restaurant
San Gabriel, CA
Yung Hou Tou Jiang
San Gabriel, CA
Yung Ho Restaurant
San Gabriel, CA
It's all about the HOs!!
dinhster at 3:57PM on 07/17/08
In Chongqing. I recent ate at a hot pot restaurant called Zhu's Fagty Rot Hot-Tot. I have the napkin to prove it. What is this: a restaurant for gay pedophiles?
doctor at 11:45AM on 11/25/08