The restaurant industry is under pressure... and we have a few things to say about it. On this episode of Over Seasoned, we respond to The New York Times podcast The Daily's episode The Restaurant Industry Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed? and get into the big questions facing restaurants today: rising food costs, shrinking profit margins, the future of dining out, and what it really takes to run a sustainable restaurant.

From a Minneapolis restaurant experimenting with a pay-what-you-wish model to the idea that steakhouses are easy to operate, we unpack the realities of restaurant ownership and hospitality.

We get into: debates on whether delivery apps are worth the cost, why restaurant prices keep climbing, and how the pandemic changed the way people work, eat, and think about going out.

With decades of restaurant experience between us, we give you our own stories about running steakhouses, the economics of dining, and why making money matters if you want to keep doing what you love. We also tap into the growing divide between diners who can afford a $25,000 restaurant membership and families wondering how often they can afford to eat out.

It's a conversation about restaurant economics, hospitality, and the future of the restaurant industry, with plenty of opinions (naturally!), a few strong reactions, and one very expensive shrimp cocktail.

Listen to Over Seasoned for more conversations about food, restaurants, hospitality, and the people who make the industry tick.

Xavier and Tony are back on Over Seasoned to recap the dishes, restaurants, and culinary adventures that made their summer unforgettable. Summer eating has been very, very good to us... and naturally, we have a few things to say about it.We're talking Oysters Kilpatrick in Australia, live-fire cooking and freshly caught brook trout in the Idaho backcountry, grilled lobster drenched in Old Bay butter, wild mushrooms in Barcelona, and a Basque Country crab tartlet that might just make waiting in line worthwhile.Along the way, we get into the art of grilling for a crowd, cooking over an open fire, finding incredible local ingredients, and the restaurant experiences that remind you why food is worth traveling for. There's plenty of chef talk, questionable quantities of butter, a little culinary history, and the usual friendly debate over what makes a truly great dish.Plus: Check out the new Over Seasoned interactive map for restaurant recommendations, favorite spots, and travel guides from us and the other food nerds in our lives.Pull up a chair, pour yourself something good, and let's get into it.Welcome back to Over Seasoned... where the food is serious and the conversation rarely is.Explore more at Over Seasoned's website (overseasoned.us) and check out Over Seasoned TV for more food, chefs, and culinary adventures.Instagram: @overseasoned.us Website: https://www.overseasoned.us/Collab for this project: @saigonpodcaststudio

Saigon, Day Three... and it's all coming together. This episode of Over Seasoned comes to you straight from the incredible Saigon Podcast Studio, where Xavier and Tony unpack their first real deep dive into Vietnam’s food culture — from tiny plastic stools and alleyway pho shops to an ambitious Michelin-star tasting menu that somehow bleeds into a full-blown waxing poetic about herbs.

There’s more pho chronicling, tendon talk, tight-chair survival tactics, and ample Vietnamese coffee praise.

The guys also break down their dinner at Anan Saigon — a modern Vietnamese tasting menu experience blending French influence with local flavors — and compare it to some of the unforgettable tasting menus they’ve had across Thailand and Bogotá. Along the way: foie gras spring rolls, turmeric black cod, pigeon with sticky rice, and an ongoing jealousy toward the French table next to them.

Even though it's the final day... this somehow feels like just the beginning of the Vietnam food tour.

This week, The Over Seasoned Crew dives headfirst into the rise, influence, and eventual backlash surrounding some of the most important restaurants in modern culinary history... from Ferran Adrià’s legendary El Bulli to René Redzepi’s global empire of fermentation and foraging at Noma.

What started as innovation eventually became imitation, and the guys unpack how molecular gastronomy, Nordic cuisine, tasting menu culture, and “Instagram dining” reshaped restaurants around the world (for better and for worse).

Along the way, they debate the death of slate plates (thank goodness), the exhaustion of trend-chasing chefs, the pressures of culinary fame, and why so many restaurants lost the plot trying to become the next big thing (sometimes you just want a classic done... well... classically).

The conversation also gets brutally honest about restaurant culture itself: kitchen hazing, burnout, abusive hierarchies, and the complicated reality behind the romanticism of fine dining. It’s thoughtful, funny, occasionally ruthless (of course), and no doubt grounded in years of firsthand industry experience.

If you’ve ever wondered how we got from white tablecloth classics to edible moss, tweezers, and 27-course tasting menus, this episode connects the dots.

We're tuning in from Saigon after two bowls of pho, one too many iced coffees, and a full-on battle with Vietnam heat and humidity. What starts as a conversation about linen shirts and hotel laundry somehow turns into an unexpectedly deep dive into sardine fasts, shrimp tail psychology, proper s’mores etiquette, and the strange comfort of eating the same thing every day.

Along the way you'll learn about:
-> the best canned sardines they’ve found
-> laundry culture differences between Colombia, the Philippines, and the U.S.
-> growing up between Puerto Rican family parties and academic Spanish dinner tables
-> the science of a proper s’more

-> wine bottle protocol and the pitfalls of potluck dining
-> why enjoying pho on a tiny plastic stool somehow feels like a perfect dining experience

Keep up with our part food podcast, part travel diary (plus a lot of other stuff that will surely keep you entertained).

New episodes of OverSeasoned drop weekly. Subscribe so you're always in the know!

Recorded at Saigon Podcast Studio, this OverSeasoned Podcast episode starts in Los Angeles and ends somewhere between jet lag, Vietnamese coffee, and figuring out how many bowls of pho is too many.

It kicks off with a $500 dinner at Capo in Santa Monica (think: porterhouse, grilled calamari, Burgundy by the glass) and turns into a bigger conversation about what actually makes a restaurant worth it.

Not just price, but vibe, service, ingredients, and whether a place makes you feel like you belong or just ran your card.

There’s also a detour into Carbone, the rise of the $30 Caesar salad, and why sometimes you’d rather spend more once than eat mediocre five times.

Then... first impressions of Saigon, coffee culture (Nespresso debates included), what to eat, what to order, and how deep to go on pho without burning out on day two.

This one’s part restaurant philosophy, part travel log, part two guys trying to stay coherent on no sleep.

Welcome to OverSeasoned, on the road.

If we’ve learned one thing from our first day in Saigon… it’s that you don’t ease into Saigon.

You land, you blink, and suddenly you’re eating pho for breakfast, moving amongst the fluid dynamics of motorbikes, and watching someone casually break down a pig’s snout in an alley like it’s just another Tuesday.

This is our first 24 hours in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), recorded straight out of Saigon Podcast Studio: jet lagged, not under-caffeinated (hard to be in this town), and fully thrown into the deep end of Vietnam’s food culture.

We get into:

• The moment pho finally clicks (and why breakfast might be the best time for it)

• Vietnam’s wet markets: where you can buy herbs, headless frogs… or nail clippers

• Why banh mi might be the most perfect sandwich on earth

• The controlled chaos of Saigon’s streets and why it somehow works

• And a completely passionate detour into overcooked wild salmon and love for the broiler

It’s messy and meandering… and it’s exactly what day one in a new city should feel like. Equal parts discovery, confusion, and thrill.

Welcome to Vietnam. We’re figuring it out as we go.

Winter’s fading, grills are coming out of hibernation, and we are officially back in our element. In this episode of the OverSeasoned Podcast, we bounce from snowstorm war stories and restaurant hangover survival tactics to the real topic at hand: gearing up for grilling season.

What starts as a conversation about charcoal vs. gas quickly turns into a deep dive on fire-starting techniques, wood choices, dream grill setups, and why nothing beats the flavor of a properly charred burger over live fire.

We also unpack the art of hosting: what to cook for a dinner party when you don’t know your guests, how to navigate “chicken tender people”, and why a build-your-own meal might be the safest (and most subtly judgmental) move.

This episode will get you scheming your own grilling future.