Amazing Appetizers Featured on 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'

Appetizer apathy is real. That sigh you let out when your server asks if they can get you started with any appetizers? They know. They know that it’s the same buffalo wings and soggy calamari everywhere you go, and they just don’t cut it anymore. So, we’ve rounded up 20 of the best apps featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives so you can stop ordering clams casino in a landlocked state and dive face first into a big bowl of corn cheese. Or crank the fries past 11 and upgrade to lobster poutine.

If you find yourself in Houston, Texas, swing by The Toasted Coconut for the pork dumplings. These crispy, steam-seared wraps are served with their own tare and chili oil, and as if that wasn’t enough, they’re topped with a house-made chili crisp that’ll be sure to leave your taste buds begging for more.

Do I need to say more than “deep-fried meat and cheese stuffed potato ball"? If you’re in Point Pleasant, you already know where to go. Heights 167 serves these crunchy and creamy croquettes stuffed with cheese and picadillo seasoned beef with a sidecar of its Green Magic jalapeño sauce. Don’t ask me to share.

If you didn’t already have Boise on your food bucket list, Tango’s is all the convincing you need. These handmade Argentinian empanadas are stuffed to the limit with shredded chicken thighs, chipotle salsa and caramelized onions in a crispy, deep-fried shell. Empanadas travel exceptionally well, so you might want to grab a few of its 52 varieties for the road.

Some would say, “Don’t ever judge a book by its cover," but I would tell you, “Don’t judge a deep-fried cheese-stuffed spaghetti ball.” And especially don’t judge one named after the serrano and chipotle sauce that they’re drenched in (yum!) before being rolled in panko and deep-fried.

Mouth: watering. For most people, 24-hour marinated steak and onions griddled with kimchi would be enough, but Crowbar & Grill insists that it be served on a mountain of some of the most beautiful hand-cut fries you’ve ever seen.

After seeing everything else so far, are you really that surprised to see catfish-stuffed fried balls of cornmeal batter on here? If the dusted in-house seasoning and Comeback sauce somehow left you wanting, how about a side of whipped sorghum butter? Actually, we'll take two.

Pressure-cooked crispy pork belly on pillowy steamed bao more your thing? Step right up to the Bao Wow sandwich at High Camp Taphouse in Sisters, Oregon. Drizzled in blue cheese sauce that's tinted green via cilantro and scallions, these slabs are a meal unto themselves.

No one can challenge Canada when it comes to poutine, and at the family-owned Pelican Grill in Ottawa, Ontario, you’re going to find the pinnacle of the art form. Not satisfied with only cheese curds, it's turning its bisque into gravy with the help of mascarpone and brandy, drizzling it onto a mountain of fries and flanking it with a split lobster. Good night.

As stated earlier, we are in desperate need of a cure for the common buffalo wing. I propose that instead of trite wings fried in old oil, we start with crispy, smoked wings by someone who cares enough to make his wings into tasty lollipops. And a blue cheese dressing you could eat with a fork doesn’t hurt either.

Bacon may have had its heyday, but sweet summer corn is here, and that means corn cheese is right in the pocket. The Bun Shop in LA’s Koreatown has your fix. Corn charred in a wok hotter than the sun and finished with cheese on cheese, it hits all the right notes for a fresh app in your rotation.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a slab of cheese and a slice of ham sandwiched between plantain buns, battered, fried, split and stuffed with shredded skirt steak, sofrito and black beans. Yeah, me neither. Hop on this wild ride at Milly’s Empanada Factory in Miami, Florida, and hold on tight.

Buffalo wings officially on notice: The Asian sticky wings from Alkaline in Norfolk, Virginia, are coming for your lunch, dinner and cold breakfast. Not only are you getting the wings, but the batter is drizzled into the fryer to create additional crispy bits for munching. If that wasn’t enough, each wing is brushed by hand so that it stays crispy instead of being sogged up with sauce.

Ever wake up after a long winter in Alaska, tired of eating salmon and want something wildly different? Bear with me and head to V’s Cellar Door in Juneau for the Korean chicken fusion nachos. Imagine pear- and gochujang-marinated chicken thighs shredded, sauced and salsa’d with everything under the sun. One patron said it best: “I want to put more of this in my mouth than I can with my hands.”

It’s hard to justify fries (justifry?) when they get shoehorned onto the plate with nearly everything on the menu. But the fries at Block 16 in Omaha, Nebraska, are topped with 12-hour confit’d whole duck, griddled with cheese curds and sprinkled with crispy duck skin cracklins, duck fat mayo and gooseberry gastrique.

Pterodactyl sized and stuffed with pork, shrimp and noodles, the wings at Thai Mee Up are like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Straight out of the late Jurassic, these massive whole wings are deboned, stuffed, steamed, breaded, fried and served up alongside plum sauce and watercress salad. Plus, this spot is right next to the airport, so feel free to island hop on over for a nice light lunch.

Another hard appetizer sell: cornbread. The abundance of free bread, the inclusion of it as a side or component of your meal, makes it hard to want to order it as an appetizer. But there’s a reason restaurants put it up, and at The Noble South, you might not order anything else. Skillet baked in bacon fat and kept moist thanks to the awesome power of mayonnaise, this one is as worthy as they come.

Does the phrase “tender, smoked, charred and chopped meat candy” do anything for you? If so, you’re going to need to hit Butcher’s Kitchen Char-B-Que in Reno, Nevada, as soon as possible. The picturesque piggy nuggets come with a guajillo-pineapple house barbecue sauce that, sadly, is not available by the pitcher.

We’ve had duck fries, we’ve had bulgogi steak fries and now, ladies and gentlemen, we have bison fries. Specifically, the shredded bison short ribs marinated with Calabrian chiles, squeaky stretchy cheese curds and red chile gravy fries from ACEQ in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico. It’s everything you’ve ever needed in and on your fries, now with bison.

Did anyone have Alabama barbecue sauce in Vermont on their list today? Just me? Getting an extra bit of twang from gochujang, the sauce is served with Bluebird BBQ's smoked pitmaster wings. Smoked wings, by the way, that are deep-fried and dusted before heading to your table with that heavenly sauce.