Hey, Elizabeth, you did better than I did with Pei Wei -- I always wondered if it was "pay way" or "pee wee," but either way it is a pretty bizarre restaurant name!

Do you remember that when the first Sam's Bagels opened (Coldspring Lane) they were called Sam & Noah's? I heard they changed it because in speed-Bawlermese that sounded too much like "salmonella." Now THAT would be a bad restaurant name. :P

My candidate for "almost local" worst restaurant name is "Road Kill Cafe" in Artemas, PA near Hancock, MD. Good food if you don't think about the possible source!

You forgot b Bistro - peculiar, yet very easy to Google compared to three...

What a waste of space, no wonder the sun's readership is down.

Articles like this, leave the comedy to the comedians

Night of the Cookers
Yes, I know it is a reference to something else but all I envision when I hear this name is a Disney-esque cartoon of un-attended pots and pans dancing around the kitchen with their contents boiling over and spilling all over the stove.

I don't think Chicken Steak & Chocolate Cake on York Road is a restaurant...isn't it an art gallery? But...there is a restaurant of that name in Onalaska, Wisconsin, so it IS a name for a restaurant, bad or otherwise.

I always thought Fuddrucker's was a bad name. It sounds like something naughty being done to a Warner Bros. character.

Burger Go-Go sounds like it should be located on the Block. :-)

What about the restaurant Aÿr on upper Broadway? My wife and I stopped by on friday night. It's a new oxygen bar/restaurant that sells smells! It took us a bit to figure out the name.

How about RA Sushi, it sounds like a wrestlemania event although I found it it to have superb sushi combos.

I've always heard Pei Wei prounounced Pee-Wee, as in small, which would make this the little diner. I've never eaten anything from there, but I think the name is cute.

i disagree. Chicken, Steak and Chocolate Cake is the best restaurant name i have EVER heard.

There used to ba a place on Ritchie Highway, about 2 miles into AA County, that was called "Michael's Meats & Sweets". All I could envision was trays of cuts of meats along side trays of chocolates and other candy. It just made me gag. And no, I never went in there.

Some years ago one of our copy editors spotted in the bankruptcy listings a restaurant called Ribs 'n' Things.

The Minx - My family had a summer cottage in Onalaska when I was a kid. Unfortunately, there is no restaurant named Chicken, Steak and Chocolate Cake listed on the city's website (http://www.discoveronalaska.com/stock/functions/VDG_Pub/display.php?Page_next_page=All&sorter=&arranged=ASC&last=&CatNavClicked=339&archives=) although there are two Subways and an Outback - and a Starbucks. This is a happenin' town.

There's an Adam's Ribs in NoVa somewhere.

My husband has a theory. If the English translation of the name turns out to be something like Eat Must Be First, the food must be authentic.

General Tso's chicken may not be authentic Chinese (maybe Chinese-American), but Eat Must Be First has always been very good take out.

I always thought "Fuddruckers" sounded vaguely like an obscene Mad Magazine Fold-In from the inside back cover.

One of the best place names (and worst puns, hence inclusion on the "worst" list) I ever saw was a Polynesian restaurant on Long Island called Fu's Rush Inn.

Cinghiale, which is hard to spell, pronounce and Google. Taking it out of the Baltimore area: Goofy's To Go, Bumper Bob's, Slammin Sammy's, Awful Arthur's, Dirty Dick's, Bob's Grill-Eat and Get the Hell Out and as always Hooter's.

There used to be a place in Canton called Semolina's that often got morphed into Salmonella, too.

To Piano Rob -- a Google search found several listings for "Chicken Steak & Chocolate Cake" at 716 2nd Avenue North, Onalaska, Wisconsin 54650.

There is a place in Rehoboth call Crabby Dick's. I couldn't bring myself to go in there.

Forgot about "Uncle Bud's Catfish & Such" in TN. It was the scene of an unfortunate incident involving white gravy and salad. We never did figure out what the Such was and didn't investigate either!

What about all those "Lake Trout" restaurants all over Baltimore. Funny thing that we don't have lake trout around here...

Thanks, hmpstd. I don't know how I could have missed that.

Pei Wei is the longest lived and most powerful of the northern Chinese dynasties that existed before the reunification of China under the Sui and T'ang dynasties.

I've always loved Peter's Inn in Fells Point, and the name makes me laugh. My now-husband took me there for our first date and my mother was thrilled when I told her....

The Wharf Rat.

There used to be a Kosher Chinese restaurant in Burbank, California, right around the corner from the Warner Bros. Studios, called Ghenghis Cohen.

There used to be a restaurant in Washington DC's Chinatown called Big Wong. They had good dim sum, but got repeatedly closed down for health code violations.

There used be a chain called Wiener King. The franchising company, Wiener King Systems, still exists.

And the cafeteria where I work has been called "The Alfred G. Packer Memorial Ding Hall."

The parent's of the 8 y.o. I spotted wearing a Crabby Dick's T shirt must have been so proud of their daughter! Almost as proud as the parents of the kid wearing the Hooters shirt! Ah the summer sights of Ocean City, MD (hon)!

Here in Maine there's a river called the Dead River. It runs through Ellsworth to points Downeast. The river is actually quite scenic—but that name? Anyway, in Ellsworth there's a restaurant that fancies itseld as an old style British pub. Can you imagine eating fish and chips at The Dead River Pub?

There used to be a carryout a block from the Los Angeles Times building whose sign proclaimed "Kosher Burritos." Can't remember whether that was its name or just advertising the principal dish. Its main ingredient was pastrami. Kinda hard on the digestive system.

I have worked with a guy named Wei and a woman named Weiwei, and both said "way," so I think it must be pronounced "Payway," not pee-wee. Too much like the three little pigs!

Okay, it's in San Francisco but I thought it should be mentioned as a really bad name - The Fly Trap Restaurant on Folsom Street

yeah, but Chicken, Steak and Chocolate Cake has been closed forever.

Nobody can bring themselves to mention Dick's Halfway Inn on Philadelphia Road?

I think it's a play on pee-wee, as in the diner is a smaller version of a P.F. Chang's restaurant (which owns it).

Since people seem to have jumped out of Baltimore and entered innuendo-land, I have to mention Beaver Liquors in Avon, CO (right near Beaver Creek ski resort). So bad it's good...

My brother has a t-shirt from Dirty Dick's that reads "I got my crabs from Dirty Dick's"

I've always thought the name was hilarious.

In Ohio, PA (and some other states), there is a chain of restaurants called: 'Quaker Steak and Lube'

How god awful does that sound?

As much I enjoyed their food and interior, I must throw Saute in Canton on the list. Sorry guys, but your name doesn't do your place justice!

I have eaten at Quaker Steak and Lube many times and though the name is bad, Pennsylvania is the Quaker State. Plus, they have amazing chicken wings.

Mr. Old Fart--wonder how many here got "The Alfred G. Packer Memorial Dining Hall" reference? Hint: think Donner Pass ...

On Route 198 in Laurel, there is a restaurant called Tubby's. I've never gone there but the name would make me feel ten pounds heavier after a meal.

EL's recent Albuquerque post now has me reminiscing back to my NM days...there is a good place called Juan's Broken Taco.

It always made me think that my meal was going to be a big mess when it got to the table.

Gosh, the things you learn on D@L. Cannibalism - weirdly apropos for a food/restaurant blog. Don't know if I'd want to go to any Colorado mountains - looks like they make people do odd things. Then again, London did have Sweeney Todd ...

Thanks, fellow bloggers, for expanding my knowledge base - and making use of dogpile.com a lot.

The Korean restuarant New No Daji, which I pronounce New No Doggie. Same with Joung Kak, a little creative pronouciation creates a lot of trouble.

Does it get any worse than a place in India called Hitler's Cross?

http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/08/24/mn_india_hitler_eate2.jpg

If we're doing creative pronouciation, then I have to mention what Hubby called Nichi Bei Kai - Meaty Baked Eye.

First, I have to say that the Weiner King in Laurel (next to Citizen's Savings and Loan) was my first job when I was 14!!!! My mom worked at the S & L next door and got me a "hook up"! It's all networking, baby. As for bad names though, you have to remember the seafood place near the boardwalk in Ocean City: The Bearded Clam!!???

Robin,
The Bearded Clam is a biker bar on Wicomico St in OC.

And Dirty Dicks Crabs is about 3 miles from from where I live now. Its a tourist trap place, they don't do seafood MD-style so they won't see me in there.

Yes, I was there many times. They had good seafood.

I think that the two worst names for chicken restaurants are:

CLUCK U (franchise - but there is one in Trenton, NJ) and
LICK A CHICK (Bras D' Ors, Nova Scotia)

Third place would be a joint in Hamburg, MI, called
CR SMOKIN' CHICKS

What is it with chicken that some folks think warrants obscene or suggestive names???

JTT Newtown, PA

When we were in The Bearded Clam in OC MD they had "bearded clam " strippers propositioning our husbands at the bar to go in the backroom for lewd acts for money. Giving the wives free shots to get them drunk!! Really BAD!!! Will never go back and I make sure I tell everyone about it!! Can't believe they get away with this stuff!!!

Hmmm...Where is this place located? I never knew such things happened in OC. I must investigate. :-)

Could a place named "The Bearded Clam" possibly be anything other than as described?

The funniest one I've seen is "Mc Wank's", at Watson Lake in Canada.