Pinky’s Westside Grill: Following the Chef, Not the Sign

We Followed the Chef: Pinky’s Westside Grill and the Mystery of the Missing Penguin Magic

We didn’t go to Pinky’s Westside Grill just because it was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

We went because we were trying to solve a mystery.

A few weeks earlier, we’d visited Charlotte’s Penguin Drive-In after discovering it had appeared in Season 1 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The problem was that almost nothing we found matched the restaurant Guy Fieri had visited. The food was different. The vibe was different. Even the restaurant seemed determined to pretend its DDD history never happened.

So I started digging.

Every trail led back to one name: Greg Auten.

And eventually, it led us to Pinky’s.

Following the Trail

The deeper I dug into Penguin’s history, the more one thing became clear: the food Guy Fieri featured wasn’t really about the building.

It was about the people making it.

Greg Auten was the chef featured in the original DDD episode. After the original Penguin chapter ended, he eventually landed at Pinky’s Westside Grill.

That changed our plans.

Instead of treating Pinky’s like another restaurant stop, we treated it like the next chapter in an investigation.

Before the trip, we tracked down the correct DDD episodes, compared menus, and made a list of the dishes we wanted to try.

Yes, we took notes.

No, we are not normal.

First Impressions

We arrived around lunch and waited about two and a half minutes to be seated, which feels unnecessary to document, and yet here we are.

The restaurant was busy but comfortable. Zach picked an outdoor table — warm but not breezy, which actually worked.

There was also a guy at the hostess stand who was being slightly weird.

Inside, a portrait of Guy Fieri watched over the room, and the menu clearly marked the dishes that had appeared on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Unlike Penguin, there was no pretending the DDD connection never happened.

We didn’t do the full tourist routine — cameras out, hovering over every table — because the place was too busy for that kind of thing. We got what we needed and let people eat.

The Food

After all the research, we came in with a plan.

Zach ordered the Green Chili Pork Sandwich with Jamaican relish.

I ordered the Asian Pork Burger.

And because some things are mandatory, we ordered the corndog shrimp.

Our Reactions

The Green Chili Pork Sandwich

This was Zach’s pick, and it ended up being the winner of the day.

The Asian Pork Burger

This was my pick.

Unfortunately, it was also my least favorite thing we ordered. The burger was softer and wetter than I wanted, and it isn’t something I’d order again.

The Corndog Shrimp

This was the item we were most curious about because it has survived on the menu all these years later.

For good reason.

The shrimp is wrapped in corndog batter, deep fried, and served with waffle fries. It sounds ridiculous. It looks ridiculous. It works.

So Did We Find the Missing Magic?

Not entirely.

That’s probably impossible.

Restaurants change. Staff changes. Cities change. Twenty years pass.

Pinky’s felt alive in a way Penguin didn’t, though — clean, well kept, staff that actually seemed happy to be there. For the first time since we started chasing this story, it felt like we’d found a direct connection to the restaurant Guy Fieri actually visited.

The corndog shrimp lived up to the hype. Zach’s sandwich was excellent. My burger wasn’t a repeat order, but overall the experience felt much closer to the story we’d been researching than what we found at Penguin.

And honestly, that’s what we came looking for.

Would We Go Back?

Yes.

Just with a different order.

The corndog shrimp is staying on the list.

The White Trash Burger and Crab Puppies are already on deck for next time.

Total with tip was about $45 for the two of us, which felt reasonable considering we’d turned lunch into a full-scale investigation.

And if you’re curious where the original Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives version of Penguin Drive-In went, Pinky’s is probably the closest place to start looking.

Turns out we were never chasing a restaurant.

We were chasing the people behind it.

More Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Adventures

Pinky’s wasn’t our first Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives stop, and it probably won’t be our last.

If you want to see where this story started, check out our visit to Penguin Drive-In, where we went looking for a giant jukebox and accidentally stumbled into a mystery about one of Charlotte’s most famous DDD locations.

We’ve also eaten at Harold’s Restaurant, adding another Guy Fieri-approved stop to our growing list.

You can find all of our featured restaurants, roadside food finds, and reality TV locations on our Reality TV Roadmap Page