14 Restaurants With Dishes So Spicy You Have To Sign A Waiver

Some people like when their food has a little kick. Others prefer to completely eviscerate their esophaguses with spice levels so intense they require a waiver. There is an underworld of spicy thrill seekers willing to take their chances and endanger their taste buds. There are restaurants willing to take their money to turn up the heat as long as they sign a document acknowledging the journey they are about to embark upon is of their own doing. 

From wings to burgers to ramen, restaurants have challenges, contests and other promotions built around customers taking on the spiciest dish on the menu. Some offer prizes, and others just the notoriety of being able to boast about your intestinal fortitude. If you're asking yourself how fiery can the food really be? The answer is fiery enough that staff prepping the dish wear protective hand coverings and sometimes a gas mask.

If you like playing a game of chance with your insides, and ultra high spice levels, you're in luck. These 14 restaurants have the heat you seek. Get your pen ready to sign on the dotted line so you can experience an internal inferno, and may you and your gut make it out okay.

With locations nationwide, Dave's Hot Chicken is known for spicy things. The chicken chain opened its first location in East Hollywood and grew from there to operate more than 300 current locations. From mild to far beyond, there is something for everyone on the spice spectrum. Dave's is chicken tender famous with multiple sauces to dress the tenders. The menu item that requires a legal waiver is the Reaper. There are brave souls out there who publicly admit defeat in their quest to beat the heat.

All chicken items can be coated with Reaper sauce but the spice is not for beginners or sensitive stomachs. Dave's Reaper sauce is the highest level on the Scoville scale, which is a common tool to rank chilis. The score increases based on spice and how scorching the flames feel in your mouth after you eat it. The Reaper's Scoville score is 1.6 to 2 million+, which is the Extreme Hot level. Perhaps make it a group activity with Dave's Hot Box Roulette. This risky order comes with 10 tenders or sliders including four medium, five mild, and one Reaper. If you and your friends like to live on the edge, you could play some chicken roulette and let fate do its thing.

Monster Hell Ramen Challenge. If those four words don't make you shudder, Strings Ramen is awaiting you. The Midwestern based chain, named Chicago's best ramen restaurant serving warm and comforting bowls of goodness has a dark side. Strings challenge offers five levels of increasing spice and Scoville score. If the waiver doesn't give you pause, know that the ingredient list includes chilis from hell. The ghost peppers and scorpion peppers each boast over 1 million Scoville heat units, which is at the top of the Scoville scale. Don't worry, because if you conquer Strings' level five Diakyokan, you will be rewarded.

After you fork over $25 and chug a broth made with ghost peppers and some of its equally ferocious friends, you win. In addition to the impending trip to your local gastroenterologist, your bowl of hell is comped, you get a T-shirt, and a $50 gift card to come back, if you dare.

Nashville hot chicken hit the food world hard and went from trend to viral sensation thanks to social media. Restaurant chains everywhere came up with iterations to give people the spice they crave. Angry Chickz, which launched in Los Angeles in 2018, knows how to turn the heat up on its Nashville hot chicken.

Angry Chickz is home to the Angry Heat Level challenge. After signing away all liability from what might happen, from profuse sweating all the way to death, you can try your hand at pushing your body's limits. The spice hierarchy at Angry Chickz starts at Country (no heat) and works its way up to the daunting Angry option. If the sauce known as Call 911 is not enough of a punishment to your innards, this is the challenge for you.

Tenders, sliders, or bowls can be topped with the waiver-required sauce. Maybe enjoy your mac and cheese before the main event so you get to taste it before you send your taste buds to war. There's Nashville hot and there's Angry hot and they are not the same.

Just when you thought spicy food challenges were mostly chicken, San Antonio's own Chunky's Burgers takes a seat at the table. Its Four Horsemen burger is called the hottest burger on the planet and it's infamous. The fresh, never frozen half-pound burger patty comes with all the usual fixings. But that's where anything usual about the burger stops.

Chunky's Four Horsemen burger is finished off with the notorious ghost pepper. Most restaurants incorporate the aggressively spicy chili in a sauce — not Chunky's. The burger spot said "hold my beer," and didn't waste time blending ghost peppers into any sauce. Instead, Chunky's places four whole ghost peppers at the very top of the burger stack, in addition to a hot sauce, jalapeños, and more.

You have 25 minutes to finish the burger and the rules include no bathroom breaks or other sneaky ways to try and cheat the spicy challenge system. If you succeed, your picture goes up on Chunky's Wall of Fame.

With over 80 locations in the U.S., Hangry Joe's hosts a real zinger of a spice challenge. Complete with the waiver that earns street cred among food challenges, it has all the makings of a heat seeker's dream. Some adrenaline junkies who treat food challenges as sport, seem to feel let down by Hangry Joe's Angry Hot sauce. Are their expectations too high or have they just permanently damaged their sense of taste from previous endeavors?

There are no hard and fast rules listed anywhere and no T-shirt prize. You do earn a spot on their wall of fame if you succeed. For those who don't want to engage in the Angry Hot Challenge in person, there is an online option. You sign the waiver digitally, record what happens when the Angry Hot hits and send it in as proof you survived. Whether the spicy factor is hype or legit all lies within the intestinal tract of the challenge takers.

Fire on the Mountain is not messing around and its El Jefe challenge is proof. What may seem like an unassuming, cool chicken wing spot loved by Denver locals is much more. Some associate Colorado with snow but in the hot food challenge universe, Denver-bred gem, Fire on the Mountain is known for bringing the heat. The restaurant's El Jefe challenge delivers such a fierce level of heat that the snow doesn't stand a chance. You don't get a shoutout on Food Network for lackluster hot sauce.

The El Jefe sauce contains a blend of jalapeños, habaneros, extra capsicum (that makes it hella spicy), and it does require signing a release. No waiver, no wings. Don't worry though it's vegan and gluten-free. You get 3.5 minutes to finish 15 El Jefe wings. One napkin, one drink (not milk or booze), and absolutely no attempts to mask the spice with creamy ranch or blue cheese.

What do you win if you successfully withstand the raging fire in your belly? Besides bragging rights for taking down El Jefe, your wings are on the house and you'll score Fire on the Mountain merch so you can properly showboat around town.

Anything with diablo in the name screams red flags for anyone wary of spicy cuisine. The Diablo Burrito at Allan's Authentic Mexican Restaurant is appropriately named. It's as if Satan himself works the line in the kitchen to craft evil levels of mouth-scorching spice. There's a waiver, but the Diablo Burrito challenge also requires a reservation made 24 hours in advance of your battle with spice levels so serious that the waiver is two pages long. You can thank the ghost peppers for that. Just when you think you are one step closer to battling the Diablo Burrito challenge, you have to interview before your conquest.

Allan's Diablo Burrito challenge comes with a 10 minute time limit. Succeed and you get a T-shirt and your photo on the wall. If you're a sucker for a burrito and would eat one every day if you could, it's your time to shine. Beating the time of the reigning Diablo Burrito champion grants you an Allan's burrito every day for 365 days. Experts who engage in food challenges for a living couldn't even win this challenge. Allan's current record is held by someone who scarfed down Diablo in four minutes. Do you have what it takes to win a battle facing a burrito with horns made from serrano peppers?

Charleston is synonymous with Southern charm, but it's got a fair share of grit. Some of that grit can be found at Bushido Japanese Restaurant, a sushi and hibachi hotspot, home of the The Bushido Seppuku Spicy Sushi Challenge. With two locations in South Carolina, Bushido presents a notable food challenge that can reap rewards in perpetuity.

To reach legend status, challengers must polish off 10 pieces of sushi smothered with an extra spicy sauce in one hour or less. Do that and you will walk out of Bushido a different person than when you entered. The time it takes to heal your gut is a small price to pay for this honor. A clean plate gives you bragging rights, plus you win a Bushido headband.

Before you decide it's a lame piece of merch, this is a magic headband reserved only for winners. If you wear it when you visit the restaurant, you get an appetizer compliments of the chef for life. A lifetime of apps for an hour of pain, plus whatever aftershock your body experiences from the intense spiciness, seems like a reasonable trade.

There's an unexpected gem among the restaurants in St. Louis. Pearl Cafe is a beloved spot with deep Asian roots and the honor of being named best Thai restaurant in its area for multiple years. The chef is known for his talent of pulling from his Vietnamese and Chinese cultures, coupled with the Thai heritage of his wife's family, and for one of the spiciest challenges in St. Louis. It holds a coveted spot among the top 11 spiciest foods in the country.

Diners who love a good spice trap can pick any dish on the menu for the challenge. They have 45 minutes to completely finish (as in not a drop left) four courses, increasing in spice level with each plate. Spice enthusiasts only graduate to the next level by successfully tackling the one before.

The spice levels of Pearl Cafe are quantified on a scale ranging from 25 to 100, from least to most spicy. There's probably a direct correlation between each level and how much your nose runs while you drown yourself in smoldering piquancy. Get the tissues ready and buckle up for the blazing hot experience that's made a name for itself in Missouri.

Some people immediately break into a sweat just seeing the word curry. Brick Lane Curry House in New York and New Jersey takes this dish to new heights. Spice enthusiasts with a knack for food challenges have been humbled by Brick Lane's Phaal. It gets 1.2 million on the Scoville scale. and challenge participants hail it the world's hottest dish.

Looking at the ingredients in phaal, it's easy to see why it has gained a reputation for a ferocious kick not many can stomach. Bless those who try since it's made using bhut jolokia and naga ghost chili, along with 10 other varieties because why stop there? Its high Scoville ranking is justified as is the waiver required before digging in.

The staff is said to be inviting and friendly. They're also known to don gas masks and gloves while prepping the phaal. At the very least you'll have a support system while you go through the stages of spice, and maybe regret. Hopefully the cold beer you get as a reward can help quell the flames burning deep inside your digestive tract, and your spot on the P'haal of Fame gives you a timeless story to tell at parties.

Evel Knievel left his mark on the world as one of the greatest daredevils in the game. The risk taker extraordinaire set many impressive records in his life while collecting a laundry list of injuries from his stunts throughout his lifetime. Now, even postmortem, his name is linked to brazen escapades that take guts to digest, literally. The Vegas pizza joint in Las Vegas that bears his name, Evel Pie, offers a food challenge the legend would be proud of. The Reaper Challenge gives you 10 minutes to eat three slices of Evel Pie's Don't Fear the Reaper pizza, crusts included.

Milk and ranch dressing are off limits because Evel would never have taken such shortcuts. If you win you score a special T-shirt and induction on the restaurant's wall of flame. Evel Pie will also make you social media famous by sharing your win making an example of you to other food daredevils that like to gamble with their intestinal health.

All it takes is $50, a signed waiver, and a cut of your dignity to stand against The Reaper pizza that is served on fire. It's a dramatic entrance for an already spicy pie topped with a mix of Carolina reapers, habaneros, and chorizo infused with sriracha. Even the cheese is spiked with chilis.

There's a player on the list of spicy food experiences in Vegas. Shokku Ramen, which also has a Houston location, is known for an excessively intense spicy food challenge. The famous Shinigami Challenge is for warriors and warriors only. Also known as the Japanese grim reaper and the Death Bringer, Shokku sets a high spice bar with the Shinigami challenge that's over 4 million on the Scoville scale. If you want a spot on the Wall of Warriors, you must pay the price. 

Challengers must be at least 18 years old and disclose food allergies before embarking on the Shinigami Challenge. It's a serious amount of food even without the spice factor. Taking down Shinigami involves downing 24 ounces of Tonkotsu broth plus three pounds of noodles and toppings . That's three servings of insanely spicy ramen if you're keeping track.

You have eight minutes to prove yourself and a lifetime to heal your stomach. There is no getting up from the table and not a drop of food or liquid can remain. If you walk (or hobble) away a winner your meal is free. Shokku also gifts a $25 gift card to Shinigami warriors, and a spot on the wall of fame and social media pages. If you lose, you pay full price for the meal that nearly destroyed your organs.

If you have a death wish that involves burgers, you best book a trip Down Under. Australia's Burger Urge has earned its place on the map as a spicy challenge haven for those who can handle some big time heat. Burger Urge created the Death Wish Burger to establish dominance among its competitors. It's the Aged Moruga Scorpion chili that earns major Scoville stats at more than 2 million Scoville Heat Units. To add some context into how spicy that lands, it's more powerful than police issued pepper spray.

Challengers must sign a waiver and wear gloves to protect their hands because better safe than sorry. The bun is bright red like a burger version of a red flag urging you to proceed with caution. The finishing touch that really brings the vibe is the toasty, real life scorpion on top of the double patty Death Wish Burger. A burger this fired up with palpable heat brings spicy fare aficionados out of retirement.

Jake Melnick's Corner Tap may sound like a wholesome neighborhood watering hole. However, this Chicago restaurant has something devilish lurking on the menu. At Jake's there are hot wings and then there are XXXX hot wings. It's the latter that can take you out if you can't handle borderline offensive spice. The secret sauce that makes Jake's XXXX wings a formidable opponent includes a mixture of habaneros, ghost, scorpion, and reaper peppers,  all high scoring offenders on the Scoville scale. Put them together and it's 300 times more potent than a jalapeño.

May the best opponent win in this stomach churning race that requires a signed waiver.  If you do beat the XXXX, you get a special place on Jake's Wall of Flame and a cute little fireman's hat to signify you prevailing in the spicy battle. Enjoy the win and take pride knowing what kind of monster you just slayed.