I’ve heard of – even seen – some of the monster dinners offered by a few US restaurants. Typical is the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, offering its 72-ounce (4½ pound) steak, which is free if you eat the whole thing (including side dishes) within one hour, in accordance with the rules.
The speed record for eating this monster steak is held by “a 500-pound Bengal Tiger owned by Benjamin Heiple of Florida. His meal was limited to the steak only and he dined in the front of the building. The technique was the simplest we’ve ever seen: sniff, lick, gulp! It took him less than 90 seconds.”
There’s also Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, with its 6-pound “Olde 96’er” burger, featuring “6 pounds of meat, one large onion, two whole tomatoes, one half head of lettuce, 1 1/4 pounds of cheese, top and bottom buns, and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish, banana peppers and some pickles”.
If you finish it (plus the side dishes) within 3 hours, you get it free, and your picture goes on the restaurant’s Wall of Fame. (I daresay you also go to hospital shortly thereafter – for a heart transplant!)
Now it seems an English restaurant wants to get in on the act. The Daily Mail reports:
This might make you feel sick just looking at it… especially if you are a vegetarian!
For here is a plate of meat that has over twice the recommended daily intake for a grown man.
And you are supposed to eat all 5,300 calories – or 3lbs – of it in one sitting, if you can.
If you do finish the ‘If You Dare Grill’, you’ll be given a T-shirt… and a free dessert!
The plate comes with the full rack of ribs, the steak, an 8oz gammon steak, two lamb chops, two pork loin chops, four home-made sausages, two eggs, two pineapple rings, four onion rings, four mushrooms, a grilled tomato, coleslaw and chips.
Restaurant owner Andrew Danniells [shown above] insisted it is all about having fun.
He said: ‘I smoke but could that cause a heart attack? They say red wine is bad for you too. Red meat is good for you and if someone wants to eat all that, it is going to be a big bloke anyway.
‘We are ordering the T-shirts in extra large and above as if someone is not that size when they sit down to eat, they certainly will be afterwards!’
There’s more at the link.
Y’know, looking at those pictures, suddenly I’m not hungry any more . . .
Peter
I'll grade Bridgewater "Needs Work."
The Big Texan, by their rules, is very challenging. Denny's 96'er is on the level of Grandma Max's "Big Max:" theoretically possible, but not my speed.
However, give me a day of fasting (and substitute the cole slaw and grilled tomato for something that food doesn't eat), and I think I could totally kick this plate's butt. (Of course, I'd likely end up donating the dessert to my wife.)
Give me a day of hard physical labor and a skipped lunch and I might be able to down the third one. The other two are probably too much(the burger especially).
I was in Amarillo at the Big Texan for dinner one night during my move from Las Vegas to Texas, and I saw two friends accept the challenge. One was victorious, one failed miserably. The victor, strangely enough, was the skinny one of the pair!
3 lbs? Piece of cake.
I've eaten at the Big Texan so many times that I've lost count. I generally prefer the 36 oz. ribeye, and I take my time to enjoy it. There's nothing free about the "free" 72 oz. Even if you succeed, you'll pay for it another way.
And Christina, I've seen tiny women destroy the meal while their big husbands sat beside them lagging. I think smaller people are just hungrier.
There used to be, may still be as far as I know, two places in San Antonio that offered 72oz steaks. They had similar names. One was the Red Barn and the other was The Barn Door.
I ate there many times in the 70s and 80s but I knew better than to try the 72ozer. A work friend did, however, and he ate it all. There was no time limit as I recall but then it's been 30 years or more.
The Red Barn had excellent Potato soup as well.
Pah! That's about the same size as the black angus steaks we put on our Big Green Egg (best smoker/grill on the planet). Not that we eat it all in one sitting…
I don't bother to go to a restaurant to eat a steak when Will's uncle butchers an angus every year and we get a bunch of the meat. You should see my freezer.
On that third one: substitute baked beans for the peas and fried bread for the chips (fries) and it would make a decent breakfast.