I Tried Every Viral Restaurant in America

The food influencers might be lying to us all. In fact, some of them get paid just to say good things about a restaurant. These people are going viral, making claims that this is the best burger, taco, pizza. And their only validation? Well, they got millions of views and likes. So how can we trust these places are actually good and worth waiting four hours in line just to eat? So we're eating at every most viral restaurant across America, from $70 pizzas to Wagyu Philly cheesesteak and even shawarma that makes lines like it's Disneyland. Are these people showing us the best food on Earth? Or is this just fake content made for clicks? And it all starts in New York City. Starting off with a $68 sausage pizza. Coming from the new pizza shop, Saris, which is run by Michelin-starred chefs. But are their Michelin stars enough to charge this much for a pizza with Nduja sausage, burrata, and aged balsamic? Given the price, we better hope this gets at least an A-tier. Of course, I couldn't do this without bringing back pizza expert, Scott Wiener. It's very creamy smelling. That's a banger. I love this because you get this undercurrent of heat the whole time. Super light, airy, crisp, quick bite. It's just easy to eat. It's salty, it's sweet, it's acidic, it's meaty, it's smoky, it's cheesy, it's creamy. So many things. My first thought is, is this better than Lindustri? Because I think they're in the same echelon of absolute perfection, like precision level excellence. So if you're thinking, oh, I don't want to go to Saris because I'm worried about the line, just come. So the final rating is S-tier. Next up, the most viral pancakes in the world at Golden Diner New York City. I will say, visually, these look impressive. And they smell amazing. The lemon zest, smell the butter. I love that this is like a new universe. I feel like I have never experienced this type of pancake before. Do you know how they cook these? They basically cook it only in one position, and then they finish it in an oven. And then they invert it. So it's only one side gets browned. I don't know, I'd wait an hour in line for this. Citrus zest is the best. I came in expecting to ---- on this place. This is an example of emphasizing every single one of those elements that make a great pancake to the absolute max. I'm shocked. Starting off with two S-tiers seems unnatural. So we have a new taster coming into the fold, and it is my buddy Salt Tank. In fact, he has a restaurant of his own that's gone viral for a French dip. I'm just going to say right now, I don't want to boost your ego too much. You've had it boosted enough over the last couple years. It's seasoned perfectly. The texture's f***ing beautiful. Soft and creamy on the inside. It's not one ounce of dryness in this sandwich. It's a beautiful sandwich, really. If you haven't been to Salt Hank's, you need to go. Salt Hank is a friend, obviously. So he is disqualified due to bias. The competition should consider themselves f***ing locked. The Henry's not in this. Now, on to the next. We have Bradley Cooper. Yes, the famous actor who's opened a sandwich spot called Danny and Coops. And as you can imagine, there were lines around the block, because he was there actually cooking. It's a collab with Philly's Angelo's Pizzeria, which is the cheesesteak that won our best sandwich in America. Can they sustain the quality here? It's creamy, it's juicy, it's loosey, it's goosey. Cheers. That's just a vehicle for white American cheese. It's so good. This is my favorite Philly cheesesteak I've ever had by a million light years. The bread is beautiful. You can taste the toasted sesame, which I love. I think it's the best Philly cheesesteak so far, because there's another viral cheesesteak in this video, and it happens to be the Los Angeles competitor. We've got East Coast versus West Coast now, but we'll get to that later in the video. Some restaurants are lacking on the cheese, and they do not f***ing skimp whatsoever. Are you also noticing the pepperiness? Like, there's a lot of black pepper in there. The onion comes through, the beef comes through. It's seasoned perfectly. This is better than most of the Philly cheesesteaks in f***ing Philly. Is it worth it, though? You've got an expensive sandwich. This is probably the most viral Philly cheesesteak known to mankind. Is it worth the hype? I'd say yes. I'd say yes, absolutely. A thousand percent, yeah. Although I'd say it's worth it, the original Angelo's was better. And if the original Angelo's is an S-tier, that puts Danny and Coop's at a solid A-tier. Now we move on to Halston Tastes. But what does Texas go viral for? Meat. Franklin Barbecue is the OG of restaurant hype. Even before Instagram or TikTok, people were lining up at 4 in the morning just to try his brisket. And after all these years, is Franklin still the king? And joining me today is our longtime taster, Vikram, to give us the palate of the people. Don't even need a knife. Just use a plastic fork. That's how good it is. Wow. That's insane. What I'm really loving is, number one, how tender it is. The salt on the crust is addicting. Brisket is very easy to mess up. Because really, it's just three things. Brisket, salt, and you have pepper. Everything else is technique. And hours and hours of smoking, and waiting on it, and checking it, and flipping it, and all these things. It's perfectly executed. Seasoned to the limit with salt. The smoke levels are amazing. I've had barbecue all over Texas. This is always ranking consistently towards the top. It's an S. Moving on. Next up, All Day Pizza. They've gone viral for having pizza supposedly as good as New York City. But in Texas? And their current hit is a giant dill pickle pizza. Oh boy. This is just insane. This is a monster. I f*** with that. Yeah, I'm into that. Oh my god. I think what's really doing it is these breadcrumbs on top. Adds such a good texture, and it works so well with the crust that's there. Crazy textural experience. Because you've got the bottom of the crust on these pizzas is like traditional brick oven style, where it's crispy on the bottom, but it's also crispy on the top. And then you get the crunch of the pickle. This is like the most explosive pizza bite I can think of. And yet, it's actually not overwhelming. Like, I feel good after eating that. Yeah. I think Pizza Purist will have something to say about this. I'm very much more on the line of like, is it good and does it hit on the notes that's required of a great pizza? And I think yes and yes. Now, despite our high praise, if I were to compare this to the best pizzas I've had, I would have to say this is a strong A tier. Not punching quite as high, but still very respectable. And we move on. We're at Phoenicia Bakery. This is a bakery. It is a grocery store. It is also a deli. It is also a place that serves chicken shawarma. It's viral because of my friend David Douglas. One of his biggest videos of all time was about the chicken shawarma. We're trying it. Cheers. I gotta say, this is actually something that I order all the time on Uber Eats. It's one of those like simple things where it's a gift that keeps on giving. It's healthy chicken filled with fresh vegetables, freshly made in-house hummus. It's good. It's like not like blow your mind, knock your socks off. It's just like a place where you can get a healthy meal and it tastes good. Among chicken shawarmas I've had, it's not really anywhere near the top. It's tasty and I think the sauce is really carrying it and it needs it because the chicken is pretty dry. I don't think I'd line up out the door or make a drive into this specific spot to get this specific thing. This is like, I need a quick lunch that like I can eat and not hate. It's not necessarily like a knock your socks off. What do you think? C, B? I honestly am probably thinking C. I think this is like mid. Yeah, normally it's like a B or an A for me. This is definitely a C. I'll come to you to grocery shop. That I will do. Very good grocery store. Highly recommend. Moving on. Now we move on to a Michelin-starred barbecue place. Interstellar for their peach tea glazed pork belly. It's a lot. Sort of like a visual ridiculousness because you literally get this giant platter of basically a whole pork belly chopped up. I can't look at this in question if it's gonna be good or not. It looks fantastic. I'm just gonna go in. Whoa, that is bonkers. That's like eating candy. Vic, you don't look like you like it. Let's hear it. This is an interesting profile to me. I think what I'm used to with pork belly is like Asian pork belly. And this is just really sweet. It works for a barbecue. You get a good candied glaze. I don't know if I would line up and grab this. I think this is a cool side to have. Curious to see what you think. I love it. What this reminds me of is like a Texas version of red cooked pork. This is expertly prepared, but it's also gonna be a make or break for a lot of people. Because if you don't want like explosive, fatty, salty, literally smashing you in the face, you're not gonna like this. So I think like it really depends on the person. Do I think it's worth waiting in line for? I don't know. Like I feel like this is in between a B and an A. I think for you it's a B. Yeah, I think it's still very, very good. Could either go B. It could either go A. It really depends on who you ask. I like it. That said, in the pantheon of great barbecue, this is a B tier for me personally. But now we move on to a true viral legend, the giant donut at Round Rock Donuts. They've been around for 100 years. So they must be legit, right? We pulled up and there's already a line. Gonna be a line to the bathroom after eating this. This already looks like I'm halfway there just visually. It's just a giant donut. I mean, how good is it really? Is this really worth standing in line for 30 minutes to an hour just to like get a pre-diabetic coma for breakfast? I'm gonna go for the chocolate one first, even though it looks a bit like a poopy butthole. That's actually pretty fire here. You wanna swap? Chocolate one is better. The problem with the glazed one is there's so much dough. There's not enough glaze to dough ratio. Overall, great donut. Like honestly, no notes really. How much better is it than like any of the other good donut shops? Like the local ones that just say donut on the sign, right? Like how much better is this comparatively? Not much. I don't think I'd wait an hour for this if this line was down the road. Luckily, this didn't take too long. If you want Round Rock Donuts, like you're not gonna get a bad donut. It's not gonna be anything different than any other good donut you've ever had if you've ever had one, right? Like I'd be willing to give it an A tier maybe. I think it's more B. I'm like, would I take my friends and family here and be like, guys, we gotta go line up? Not really. Yeah, it's a B tier. You don't have to go. You'll be okay. B tier. Next up, another Michelin-starred barbecue spot, but we're not here for brisket. We're here for supposedly one of the best burgers in all of America. But is it really as good as people say? I mean, it's just a burger. That is unbelievable. Whoa. I don't think anything could have prepared me for what that tastes like. It's so juicy, but you still get the crunch of the bun a little bit. People have always told me, oh, but you gotta try the burger. You gotta try the burger. And that pisses me off when people do that. Because I'm like, it's a burger. I'm sure it's great. I just don't need to. And I'm realizing that I was a buffoon. This isn't just a burger. The beef in this is actually fully cooked. It's just really high fat. And because it's been cured in salt, but more specifically smoked for so long, created a pink cure on the inside of the burger, which in turn gives you this smoky, almost pastrami-like flavor. It's unbelievable. It's so tender. It's so juicy and fatty and perfect. And I don't know. It has me questioning, is this the best burger in America? I truly don't think you can get a more flavorful burger. You'd be hard-pressed to find one. This is an easy for me S tier. I would wind up for this one. No question. I'd tell all my family and extended family to come down as soon as they can. So, S tier. We move on. As far as I know, there's not a single place in Texas that has traditional barbacoa. That was until I saw a Tacos El Granpa going viral. This is a father and son duo making hyper-traditional barbacoa in giant pits, using up to eight to ten lambs per pit, seasoning them simply, wrapping them in maguey leaves, cooking them for tens of hours. So, it sounds like they're doing it the right way. But let's see if these lines are really worth it. Here we go. We have the taco assembled. I'm just going to go bare bones. Nothing but consomme, a little bit of garbanzo bean, no salsa, straight up. Cheers. Cheers, Josh. Bro. That's pretty good. The garbanzo beans are insane. I mean, it's like ridiculously tender. Extremely, extremely juicy. Should I go all in on the... I want to have some of that too. I want to do some spicy stuff. All right, here we go. This is with their spicy salsa matcha. Holy ----. That is so ******* good. Austin is known to have great tacos, but I don't think Austin's taco scene is that good. This one place is a huge exception to that. Whether you like lamb or not is irrelevant. Anybody could come here and enjoy and love this taco. It's not gamey. It's beautifully fatty. Melts in your mouth. It's seasoned nicely. I don't know anyone that has these insane pit setups putting out a taco like this. And this video is all about not just things that have gone viral. What is so good that I'm willing to sit in line and wait for a bite of something, right? There are very few things. I ******* hate waiting in line. I'm waiting here. This is one of the top tacos in Austin. So where does that place that on the list? I feel like out of everything I've seen, we've got somebody here that's been making barbacoa for 45 years. If there's a weekend available to you and you want an unrivaled taco, you're going to come here. And more importantly, you're going to be coming to an S tier. So we move on. So we're two cities down. I'm going to be honest. So far, these RO places have been living up to the hype. So we're turning up the heat and heading to the city that's built on virality. Los Angeles, California. To make this test right, we're putting one of LA's top food reviewers in the hot seat. Al Kev eats. He says he never gets paid for reviews. I don't take any money for reviews. And he's very confident that his palate lives up to the hype. So we're specifically testing his viral recommendations. I'm going to give the final verdict straight to his face. Is this where the Internet's food critics finally get exposed? And this one's going to be big. Cheese steak bagel showdowns. $80 fish sandwiches. And we're starting at the Michelin Bib Gourmand Bia's Tacos. Supposedly, Bad Bunny loves this place. And when he put it in his Super Bowl performance overnight, this place was a hit. So we have their signature tacos with a crispy cheese skirt. Now, Kev was a pretty big fan of this place when he tried it. The texture of the cheese and the beautifully barbecued meat just bounces off your tongue real nice. Definitely a top 10 taco I've had in LA. Let's give this a rip. It's a little dry. I'll give it one more rip with salsa and then we'll move on to the next one. Much better. So the salsa's actually seasoned really nice, but this I felt was a little under-seasoned. It's funny, the last time it was too limey. This time, I don't think there's enough lime. Let's do the asada next, maybe? This mango habanero salsa is my favorite thing here because it's really spicy. Can we just admire their crispy cheese on this? It's like a potato chip. These are good. The tortilla's nice. It's got good elasticity. It's got good chew. The fillings, on the other hand, I feel like are bland. That's exactly my take, too. I think the tortilla's the best part. I think the cheese skirt is executed quite literally perfectly. It's so crisp. It's not burnt. It's got that deep, salty, cheesy flavor. The salsa is something you cannot skip. It's tough. It's in between a B and an A. Now, while the texture's all there, I did feel that the flavor was a little bit muted overall. It's just not enough salt, not enough depth of flavor, and these tacos look like they should punch you right in the mouth. I mean this with a lot of love. I do think that they are a B. We move on. We're at Matu Cheesesteak. They serve one thing and one thing only, a cheesesteak, but not just any cheesesteak. This is probably the most turnt-up cheesesteak you can get. This is a 100% grass-fed New Zealand wagyu beef, and it's the beef trimmings of one of the finest steakhouses that there is. So you have really high-quality beef. You got Cooper sharp cheese, grilled onions, a long hot pepper from the East Coast. It's on a beautiful, fresh-baked, seated roll. It's glistening in the sun. It looks good. Couldn't this be our first S-tier in LA? This is the East Coast versus West Coast competition we were talking about. Will Matu live up to the hype, and can they beat Danny and Coop's? Kevin is setting our bar high. Holy f***. My eyes are watering. It might be because it's really f***ing good, or also because it was really hot and it burned my tongue. This is probably the best I've had it. I have no notes. The bread is f***ing phenomenal. It's got the perfect amount of chew. It still has that softness that gives away. It almost puffs air into your mouth as you bite down into it. The cheese is beautifully salty. Despite all the cheese and just fattiness going on in here, the flavor of the beef shines through everything. I mean, it explodes with rich, roasty beef flavor. But overall, it's just the balance and the intensity of flavor. But number one, most important thing, the one thing I always f***ing complain about, what about the salt level, Josh? And I gotta say, the salt level is perfect. It is right at the line of where it needs to be. For me personally, I think this is better than the Danny and Coop's by far. I would come here before Danny and Coop's 100 times over. Danny and Coop's is good, just not this good. This is an S-tier. Next, we have the cheese store of the rich and famous, or Beverly Hills if you want to call it that. This place has gone viral for giving so many free samples, you might not have space for their sandwiches. You come here, they've got cheese everywhere. They've got jams, jellies, every cracker known to mankind. You got f***ing prosciutto hanging from the ceiling. It's the most chaotically beautiful shop I can possibly think of. So we're gonna try some cheeses, and then we'll see what's next. Oh, that makes my toes curl. That tastes like brown butter, almost. But I also like the little protein crystal pops in there, the crunchiness, that's nice. Love that, okay, banger. Next up, fresh Alpine cheese. Wow, holy s***, that's insane. And to finish this off, he gave us an 18-month-old gruyere. Yeah, it like melts. You chew and there's like a soft bite to it, and then all of a sudden it just melts like ice cream on your tongue. It goes from solid to like cream sauce immediately in your mouth. Unbelievable. So at the end of the day, this is a cheese store, but they said that their sandwiches will win them the gold. Is that true? Pretty ballsy for a cheese store to be putting out a hot sandwich. Yeah, that's my favorite sandwich here. Oh my god, that is f***ing beautiful. I gotta give that one a clap. This is totally different than Matu. It's not the same at all, but it has that same like boom effect, where you ate it and you're like, you're like being electrocuted by so many beautiful flavors. What I love is this like spicy, like tartness from the Dijon mustard that's like perfuming your nostrils and your mouth. The onion is just so lightly present. It's not in your face, but that rich beefiness, it's creamy. Whatever cheese they're using is un-f***ing believable. A little funky and cheesy and creamy, almost like a cream sauce. Top 20 sandwiches I've ever had. I think this is f***ing amazing. This is an S tier for me. Wow, we're doing good here, guys. On to the next. We've made it to the most viral sandwich shop in the world. Period, end of story, no contest. Al Antico Vinayo. God, that's a mouthful, huh? And we're having the most popular sandwich here, La Paradiso. I'm not convinced this sandwich is that great. Is this all just hype? Because to Kev's credit, he said he was actually not impressed. This was actually my favorite one when I had it in Florence. It's the least favorite one I had today. Let's just go in. Cheers. Very sweet. What are you getting sweet? I don't know. Oh, the pistachio. Why is this not popping off for me right now? Texture of the bread is actually fantastic today. I agree. The bread's amazing. The sandwich itself is good, but it's not blowing me away. I also feel like it's 80% bread. I keep eating it expecting more. Yeah, you're trying to find what it's missing, and it's just keep missing. Yeah, actually, yeah. So much about this sandwich is really fun and exciting. The bread is amazing. The mortadella is great. I feel like this one in Italy, when the ingredients are at the pinnacle of quality, this would be significantly better. This doesn't really blow me away. It's going to be a B for me. I'm happy with this. I can make this at home, but it's not blowing me away. One of the most viral places in the entire video, and we've got a B. Next up, Howlin' Rays, who somehow has made a Nashville hot chicken sandwich that's more famous than any that I've ever seen coming out of Nashville. These guys are viral Hall of Famers for lighting people's mouths on fire, while also being supposedly delicious. Kev says medium is the perfect balance, and he is beyond a stand. This is the best sandwich you can possibly get. We've got their medium plus Nashville hot chicken sandwich. Slaw, pickles, comeback sauce on a buttered bun. I'm not going to lie, this one looks good. But I'm a fried chicken sandwich connoisseur, so we'll see where they land. The chicken is a little dry, but not in a way that's like totally taking away from it. The bun is immaculate. The pickles are perfect. I love the sauce on this. What I appreciate is the flavor of the actual oil that they dip it in. It's not just straight cayenne. There's garlic in there. There's like fragrant chili flavor, almost like you would get in a chili oil. Totally agree. The more I get to the center of the sandwich, the more it becomes an S. The outside 20% is just like chicken and bread, but the inside, you get way more pickle, you get way more like crunch. Howlin' Rays as a restaurant to me is an S tier, but this chicken sandwich right now is hitting at an A for me. I know Kevin was pulling for the S, but I got to set the record straight on this one. We've got four restaurants to go, and they're going to be some of the biggest viral taste tests in America. I know we're in LA, but the first one is actually a bagel. A lot of people are claiming that this bagel is better than any New York bagel. This is still undoubtedly a top three bagel you can get in LA. And I feel like I see a new video about them popping off every day. We've got two variations. We've got the classic Lox bagel, which is lox, tomato, capers, onion, pretty typical, little olive oil. But this other one is their honey butter, which I think is a bit of a sleeper. So, we'll try these both and see where they land. Wow. Did you hear the crunch? That's insane. Before I rate this, bagels are really important to me. My dad's from New York City. Every year when I was a kid, I would go to New York City, go and get a bagel with my dad. It's one of my favorite foods of all time. And out the gate, this is far superior to any bagel I've ever had in New York City. And everybody says you can only get the best bagels in New York. I don't think that's true anymore. I'm not even going to talk about the toppings. The toppings are great and they're amazing, but the bagel itself, the outside, is the most crispy, crackly, little crunchy, almost like a cracker. The inside is so succulently soft and moist, like the finest, like, almost like sourdough bread. You know how it's got that wetness to it? Yeah. And it's just beautifully aerated. It's not dense. The chew is immaculate on this one. Oh my god. Honey butter. Cheers. All right. That's f***ing absurd. It doesn't get better than this for me, personally. This is them flexing it. Just honey, just butter. Nothing else. They're really letting the product shine for what it is. It doesn't need a ton of toppings because the bagel is so damn good. I have nothing else to say. Immediate S tier. The best bagel I've ever had. It's my favorite place. It's 100% worth waiting in line for. Just, if you're going to do it, buy some extra so you have some take back home. This is a good one for you, Kev. This is making you look good. I have reviewed over three restaurants. All right. On to the next. Quite possibly the greatest chicken shawarma in all of America, Mia Mia Shawarma. They only open two days per week. Not only are their videos getting tons of views, but the line is possibly one of the biggest lines I've ever seen. I mean, even Kevin had trouble speaking after eating one. I'm just kidding. That's f***ing crazy. It's the best shawarma I've ever had in my entire life. It's so creamy, not dry at all. The outside is so crispy. A little bit of spiciness. A little bit, yeah. We made a version of this on the second channel with the Mia Mia Shawarma guys. Really good. And honestly, the flavor of that did get close to this, but man, it being on the trompo makes such a big difference and also just all the product, everything in here. I mean, since we've had this before and we're friends with them, we are actually disqualifying them from the rating, but I did want to say that this is a place that I really would wait in the line that tells you all you need to know. This next one is the most expensive viral item in this video and it's just one sandwich for $80. This is the fried fish sandwich from Daybird topped with caviar. Now, despite the steep price, Kev says he was impressed. Yeah, this is the best fish sandwich I've ever had and I could swim in that tartar sauce naked. I just don't see a world where this lives up to the price. I just spent $170 on this, okay? We're here to put this to the test. I kind of feel the caviar is getting to this stage where it feels a little overrated. This is definitely a marketing play, but I still think it's delicious. That is not just any ordinary tartar sauce. It's a yuzu tartar sauce, so it's going to be sour, but it's absolutely delicious. All right, I have a lot of thoughts. Let me address the caviar really quick. Completely unnecessary. Completely. It does nothing. Get this without the caviar. If you take away the caviar, it's a pretty good fried fish sandwich, but unfortunately, the fish was under-seasoned. It just really didn't hit for me. You couldn't even taste the caviar on this thing. I think it sits at a C-tier, and the stakes for Kevin and all these other food critics, influencers everywhere has never been higher than at our next spot. Now, this Smash burger Kevin inadvertently made probably the most viral in the country. It is Easy Street Burgers, and Kevin gave it some major love. Back at one of my favorite burger spots, if not my favorite. Even Keith Lee went here and loved it. This is the best burger I've ever had. I want to start with the jalapeno monster because there's nothing you can hide with this. There's no bacon that's going to cover up the flavor or their lack of seasoning. If there is lack of seasoning. I honestly don't even want to try it. I just want to see you try it. Claiming that these are the best burgers they've ever had, I would expect honestly an S-tier. So this may be the biggest test of the entire video, and there's already trouble on the first bite. It is missing a bit on salt, if I'm being honest with you. What I will say, I almost don't care because the texture is unbelievable. The crispness on the Maillard is almost like a cheese skirt level of crunch. And the inside is actually not too fatty, which I really appreciate. I do want to try the bacon one. Oh, yeah. This is really good. It's kind of what I expected, right? Like the bacon is leveraging the flavor quite a bit. Had they seasoned this perfectly, this would be the perfect burger. I'm not going to say, oh, it's under seasoned, therefore it sucks because it has everything else is dialed. Had they just added a touch more salt, this would be an S. But I'm going to give my honest review. Usually, when I get a low salt, it usually doesn't break the B-tier. It's never happened actually, until today. This, I think is worthy of an A-tier. And if they're hitting it with the salt, it's easy S-tier territory. Still remarkable burger. If there was a line, I'd stand in it. But that being said, we still have a question to answer. I am a little surprised about what I'm about to say. There was an astounding number of winners, which proves one point. Maybe you don't need to be a chef or have worked in restaurants or have a professional opinion to know if something is delicious. And there are also tons of people that make videos that are helping restaurants and the restaurant industry. And they're actually lifting them up in a way that I think we've never seen before. At the end of the day, it's not a restaurant that goes viral. It's the people behind the scenes, the hard work and passion that goes into making food worthy of millions of views. Love ya. Subscribe. Bye.