Redneck Hibachi
I mean, it's cooking on a flat top grill in front of people.
Do you go to Benihana’s or Kobe for the food or for the entertainment? Face it, once you’ve seen the show and eaten the food, subsequent trips are like watching reruns of “How I Met Your Mother.” A reliable blandness and tired monologue, “Choo Choo!” Ding ding ding.
It’s cooking on a flat top grill.
Meanwhile at Waffle House, we see skilled professionals weaving a tapestry of unscripted artistry. A performance that provides sustenance that perfectly fits the needs of the moment, i.e., 3 am and hammered.
Sit back and watch them work one time. The unconscious artistry of the short order cook in concert with the precise cadence of the waitress barking out the order, complete with a code that both fascinates and confuses. A Waffle House performance exceeds the scripted same-every-time show from the likes of Benihana and Kobe. It’s more like watching an episode of Friends for the fourth time. You know what I mean, it’s familiar, and yet, something happens that you didn’t see before and it makes you laugh out loud. (I don’t think I ever laughed out loud watching HIMYM.) Waffle House offers a comfortable familiar environment with reliable fare, and yet someone may throw a chair at the waitress.
If you want bland predictable fare in a faux environment of sophistication, then by all means go to Benihana.
But, if you want chaos and danger, you want Waffle House. You want Redneck Hibachi.