To be fair, Waffle House completely overhauled their menu ~2 years(?) ago.

Gone is the 90s yellow a la carte one. Gone even is the replacement that at least kept the classics on the back.

Now it's $8+ meals, with token hashbrown options at the bottom.

Used to be, you could get a perfectly serviceable meal there for under-$6. E.g. double hashbrowns ($3) + single hamburger ($1) + drink ($1.5).

Now the closest thing to the same meal is double the price. Double hashbrown $5. Single hamburger doesn't exist, and hamburgers start at $6.

I also love Waffle House's food despite, maybe even because, it's 'bad'. Their waffles are legit good; the rest is coffee shop slop of the highest order. Recommended. (Glad Bourdain had the guts to say this)

Waffle House is open late and the food has lots of carbs and fat.

Which means it's good drunk food available when the drunks want to eat.

I live 1,000 miles away from the nearest one, but I sure did love a late Saturday night at Waffle House when I lived in the south.

Where I am now, a "109 spicy special,"[0] hot off the grill, a single serving bag of nacho cheese Doritos and Pepsi does the job too.

[0] https://bwog.com/2007/01/how-spicy-is-your-special/

I contend Anthony Bourdain didn't actually know good food from bad. I have nothing against him, I enjoyed his show, it was quite engaging, and I wanted him to dispense good information--so I could use it--but his recommendations, for instance in the NY City area, were awful. (he prided himself on not describing the food he was trying, all he ever would say it is, "that's good".)

His career as a chef was at a brasserie serving brasserie fare which is basically like working at a French diner, not necessarily anything that's going to educate your palate.

Again, not criticizing him, I'm actually envious, I wish I could be happy eating mediocre food, my life would be much simpler.

The elevation of haute cuisine as “good” and common folk food as “mediocre” is strange to me.

Sometimes a cheap-ass $5 meal really does satisfy people far more than a Michelin star restaurant. Humble bragging about only being able to enjoy non-normie food sounds silly and unrefined, really.

I'm not referring to that. I'm referring to things like "what's the best pho" or pizza or pupusa or ramen

I do think as a chef learning haute cuisine is learning useful things about cooking and what makes some bread better than other bread, and what consistency a sauce should have and how to achieve it.

In that vein, Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza is excellent for what you get. And who doesn't put on a LOT more cheese before cooking?

Little Ceasars is worse a in that it’s a bad pizza that gets worse over time. It sort of tastes like nothing until it cools, at which point it tastes like cardboard.

It's absolutely inedible the next day as well. Next day cold pizza for breakfast is the shit, but Little Caesars turns into cardboard and slime.

That doesn't mean he would have liked little ceasers. If anything, it really seems like you don't understand his point about the charm of waffle house.

I read this in Bourdain's voice.