The 24-Hour Waffle House Challenge, Explained

Call it ambition, call it hubris, call it masochism, or call it a war of attrition — whatever you call it, it's the 24-hour Waffle House Challenge, and everybody's doing it. Well, not everyone... mostly people who have lost bets, or simply possess a penchant for epicurean self-flagellation. Per the rules for eating at Waffle House and of the challenge, the challenger has to stay in a Waffle House restaurant for a full 24 hours, but every waffle they eat shaves one hour off of their time. In other words, if (by some Herculean stretch) you could manage to put away 12 waffles per hour, you would only have to stay in the restaurant for two hours. Alternatively, if you can only eat eight waffles, then you're sitting in a Waffle House for 16 hours.

The horrifying power of the human will is driven by motivations that sometimes transcend explanation or understanding. But, at its core, the challenge is a diehard celebration of Waffle House in all its welcoming, accepting, comforting splendor. If you see a Waffle House, it's open. The joint is famous for never closing, one of the last remaining stalwarts of the 24-hour diner, which makes the challenge possible in the first place. By our count, the best time to visit Waffle House for a taste of the true, primo dining experience is between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. — and, if you embark on the challenge, chances are you'll catch this window. 

The 24-hour Waffle House challenge has emerged as a popular social media trend, as folks document their tenure posted up in the restaurant, embarking on some Joey-Chestnut-level competitive eating. To accomplish the goal, challengers adopt different approaches, speed-run eating to shave off time (i.e., my goal is four waffles per hour), or take it slow and steady. 

One Reddit thread asks fellow Waffle House Challengers about their strategies for tackling those harrowing 24 hours. Some discard the prospect of eating 24 waffles before they even begin ("My gameplan is show up at 5am — leave by 10pm. Eat 6 waffles total. I'm not trying to throw up — i'm planning on being bored out of my mind all day"). Others champion an opposite, all-in approach: "The best advice I can give you is to degrade yourself and look like an absolute animal in a Waffle House. You have to order one waffle at a time so they stay soft and fluffy. When those things cool off they turn into concrete." Anthony Bourdain loved the pecan waffle; here at Tasting Table, the classic waffle is our go-to order. Either will satisfy the criteria for one-hour-removal. In another Reddit post about the 24-hour challenge, one apparent employee comments, "I had to stay in [Waffle House] for 17 hours straight the other day. They paid me 13 dollars an hour though. No way I would pay to sit in one for a day."

Around the six-waffle mark, challengers' moods tend to shift from playful to dogged, or even fearful. Baltimore Banner reporter Lee Sanderlin embarked on the odyssey as a punishment for placing last in his fantasy football league. While Sanderlin began in high spirits (quoth his viral Twitter thread, "I got some books, some magazines and some podcasts. And two waffles to start"), eight hours in, the worm turned ("Hahaha remember when I ordered a 7th waffle? Full crash and burn. Not gonna finish it. My body is in revolt/shutting down. It's time to sit out for a while"). In the end, 14 hours after his journey began, Sanderlin writes, "Miley Cyrus' The Climb is playing in this Waffle House and I think it's time to try and put down those last 2 waffles and go home. This was real. At times it was fun. But, it was never really fun."

Another notable group attempt by CrossFit Mayhem poses an "extreme" version of the Waffle House challenge, in which a group of CrossFit stationary cyclists ups the ante by adding a trip on the CrossFit bike for every waffle eaten — a test of body and belly capacity, and athletic prowess, in tandem. Around the five or six waffle mark, one contestant remarks, "I don't feel bad, but I don't feel good anymore. I don't know what that means. I feel like I'm starting to get the waffle sweats."