Monday, February 28, 2011

Gut-Busting Restaurant Challenges for Free

It's only a matter of time before Vegas bookies start taking bets on gastrointestinal gambling. Where can gluttons for glory find the largest, most intimidating food challenges imaginable?

Coupon Sherpa found 40 gut-busting restaurant challenges last year, but we weren't satisfied. In 2011, we've loosened our belts another notch and more than doubled the list to end with 83 truly frightening foods. Fresh inductees include a 10-pound cheese steak, 4-pound sushi roll and bona fide Guinness World Record holder.

The rules are simple: Only eateries that refund the full price of a meal make the list, although the "Honorable Mentions" section includes dishes too dastardly to pass up. A further sampling of the most unrivaled challenges:

Piranha's Bar and Grill in Nashville, Tennessee
Food Challenge: The Titan Cheese Steak at Piranha's is worthy of a demi-god even before it's blow to overzealous proportions. The 10-Pound Cheese Steak Challenge takes shaved beef, cheese, coleslaw, fries, onions and peppers and throws them on a bun the size of a child. Winners get their money back and a $100 cash prize, while losers pay $50 for the meal. To date, only one person has finished: A woman weighing under 100 pounds, who tamed the sandwich on New Years' Eve.

Drinker's with three locations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Food Challenge: The Drinker's Challenge has nothing to do with liquor and everything to do with its equally-intoxicating food cousin: tacos. Demolish 33 soft-shell tacos with ground beef, lettuce, tomato and cheese in 13 minutes to get the meal for free, as well as a T-shirt, your name engraved on a plaque and one bottle of Joe's Taco Sauce. Walk-ins are welcome if you begin by 11 p.m.

Rupali in Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Food Challenge: Eternity in the real Hades seems like a weekend in Aspen when compared to the Curry Hell Challenge. This British curry house whips up chicken curry spiked with a secret combination of chillies and potential death, then serves it on a bed of rice. Rupali claims Curry Hell holds a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the hottest curry in the world. Finish the entire dish for your money back, a signed certificate and your picture immortalized in the restaurant and online. Ask your server for pricing.

Mama Campisi's in St. Louis, Missouri
Food Challenge: The Mama's Challenge is less about pasta and more about one enormous wad of meat. Finish a large bowl of spaghetti topped with marinara and a meatball slightly larger than a softball to get the meal and a T-shirt on the house. With something that over-sized, you know it's made fresh by several hands. At $21.99, it's also one of the more modestly-priced challenges around.

The revamped list also features several challenges from outside the United States, as well as dishes more devious than the typical pizza, burger and fries (including a fiery tequila). Each one will make die-hard fans of the Travel Channel's "Man v. Food" salivate, along with anyone who has bested a friend while eating wings or yearned for a hot-dog devouring contest. Download "Place Your Bets Again: 83 Gut-Busting Restaurant Challenges for Free Food" to delight your readers with tales of nausea, stomachaches and bragging rights.

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