I'm referring to shows such as "Drive Ins, Diners, and Dives", "Man v. Food", or any other show on The Food Network, Travel Channel, or the like? If so, what was your experience like?
Just this past weekend the wife and I spent some time in the NW Suburbs (Chicago) and decided to head to a spot we've seen on a local program called "Check Please". The premise is that three strangers submit their favorite spot to each other, and each person check's out the other two's choices. Then they all sit down with a host and discuss what they had, what they liked about the place, and what they didn't like. The restaurants do not know the people have been there for the show until after the fact, so they get no special treatment or attention. Since it's local (Chicago PBS), we've made it a point to try a few places. We've also made plans when traveling to hit up places we've seen on other shows. Basically every time it's been a big hit.
Last Saturday was Kuma's Corner. It's near Belmont and Elston for you Chicago peeps. It is basically a burger place, but with a heavy metal flair. We saw it on "Check Please", but it was also on the Food Network recently. They declared it the IL representative of "50 burgers from 50 states". It's basically a tiny bar. The fire code posting said 41 people were allowed in the building at a time. While waiting for a table, I counted a little over 80, not including 6-8 workers.
The place opens (or so the sign and website said) at 11:30 on Saturday. We show up at 11:28 and it's an hour and a half wait for a table.
We decide to do it, and fortunately someone clears out of a spot at the bar just a few minutes after we arrive. We are sitting near the kitchen and can watch them making all the food (it's open to the bar area). Awesome looking EVERYHING. Homemade mac and cheese with a huge list of toppings to mix in, pulled pork over french fries, and massive burgers with very unique combos. Basically every burger is named after a heavy metal band, and they tend towards hot and spicy toppings. You can get everything from bourban glazed pears to goat cheese, to poblanos, to fried eggs on your burger. The servers were very tattoed and very friendly. We had some mac and cheese as an appetizer (took a TON home, huge portion) and each got a burger. Mine had fresh jalapenos, pepper jack, and thick cut bacon. It was awesome. The place has a very unique atmosphere. Most of the customers are 20-30s, but there were some suburban families there. Heavy metal music was cranked, all the servers fit the scene, lots of dark artwork and photos, quite a unique place. Worth the experience, and I'd recommend it for any burger lovers, or even heavy metal music fans (I'm not one, but it wasn't so over the top as to be annoying), who have the chance to stop in.
Some of the other places I've been able to hit up that were recommended from similiar shows are Ben's Chili Bowl (Washington DC, before Obama put Ben's on the map), Peter Luger's (Brooklyn), Charlie Trotter's (Chicago), Lou Mitchell's (Chicago), Superdawg (Chicago), and a few others.
I'd be more than happy to give more detailed descriptions of some of the others if anyone is interested.