A restaurant that brazenly promotes unhealthy food and encourages you to gorge yourself until you can fit in no more, the Heart Attack Grill in Downtown Las Vegas serves up some of the most intimidatingly huge burgers on the planet.
It’s a place where excessive eating is not looked down upon but rather is positively encouraged – and if that sounds like the kind of place you’d enjoy, here’s all the info you need about this popular yet controversial eatery.
What is The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas?
Vegas is a town that encourages you to indulge yourself without restraint, which is why Downtown’s Heart Attack Grill fits right in.
Heart Attack is a fast-food joint like no other, shamelessly celebrating gluttony, overindulgence and the unhealthiest food you can imagine.
It specializes in some of the biggest and most calorie-laden burgers you will ever come across, and revels in the fact that when you eat the food they serve, you are quite probably shaving days or weeks from your life.
Featuring a macabre medical theme and plenty of dark humor based around overeating, if you want to prove your gorging prowess by facing some of the most daunting burgers in existence, this is the place for you.
But be warned, if you don’t finish your meal, you won’t be let off lightly!
A Little History
The first incarnation of the Heart Attack Grill was opened in Tempe, Arizona by current boss Jon Basso in 2005, and from the beginning, the aim was to serve fast food that is shockingly bad for your health.
That restaurant lasted until May 2011 when it closed its doors, and a new branch opened in Dallas, Texas.
However, the Texas venture was only in operation until October that year before it was forced to close again due to non-payment of rent.
Undeterred, Basso opened the third version of his restaurant in Vegas the same month, a gluttonous eatery that has gone on to establish itself as a Sin City institution.
Location and Opening Hours
If you’re not put off by the prospect of eating yourself to death – or at least a good spanking for not finishing your meal – you can find Heart Attack Grill on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. Here’s the address and phone number:
- Address: 450 E Fremont St #130, Las Vegas, NV 89101
- Tel: +1 702-706-7568
Opening Hours:
The restaurant is open daily from 11am to 10pm.
The Theme
Heart Attack Grill features a rather unique theme, basing itself on the experience of a visit to the hospital.
The waitresses are referred to as “nurses” and the waiters as “doctors”, and they attend to you dressed in sexy medical attire. The owner, “Dr. Jon”, works there himself, and can often be found personally flipping burgers in the kitchen wearing a doctor’s coat.
Diners are “patients”, and when you arrive to “check in”, you are given a medical gown and a wristband to wear before being led to your table.
As you can imagine in a restaurant called “Heart Attack”, the place is suitably morbid. One of its catchphrases is “a taste worth dying for”, and you will find the ceiling adorned with giant bottles of meds.
There are plenty of other humorous touches too, which some will find hilarious while others may consider in poor taste – like urinals sporting the faces of Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump.
You may also notice a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” in which founder Basso is seen enjoying a meal with a host of characters including Ronald McDonald and KFC’s Colonel Sanders.
The food is no different, with appealingly (or appallingly?) named items like Bypass Burger and Coronary Dog available on the menu. Wine comes served in IV bags that are wheeled out to diners’ tables.
The Menu
The menu in Heart Attack is simple and centers on their infamous Bypass Burgers in a range of sizes from Single to Octuple.
Each burger contains meat patties, chili, cheese, caramelized onions (cooked in lard), one spoon of mayo, two spoons of ketchup and one spoon of mustard. They also contain slices of tomato – but there’s no lettuce, obviously!
You can also choose to add slices of bacon for a supplement.
“Flatliner Fries” (cooked in lard) are available as a side, as are loaded fries, onion rings, jalapeño poppers and cheese sticks.
If you don’t feel like a burger, your other option is the relatively manageable but still considerably-sized Coronary Dog.
Prices
Here’s a selection of the restaurant’s prices at the time of writing:
| Item | Price | Add |
| Single Bypass Burger | $13.47 | 5 bacon slices $0.92 |
| Double Bypass Burger | $16.75 | 10 bacon slices $2.08 |
| Triple Bypass Burger | $19.93 | 15 bacon slices $3.00 |
| Quadruple Bypass Burger | $23.21 | 20 bacon slices $3.93 |
| Quintuple Bypass Burger | $26.20 | 25 bacon slices $4.85 |
| Sextuple Bypass Burger | $29.30 | 30 bacon slices $5.78 |
| Septuple Bypass Burger | $32.30 | 35 bacon slices $6.70 |
| Octuple Bypass Burger | $35.20 | 40 bacon slices $7.62 |
| Coronary Dog | $13.47 | 5 bacon slices $0.92 |
| Flatliner Fries | $2.54 | – |
| Loaded Fries (chili, cheese) | $7 | Bacon $1.40 |
| Onion rings | $8.86 | Cheese, chili $1.30 |
| Jalapeño poppers | $8.86 | – |
| Cheese sticks | $8.86 | – |
Along with wine and beer (no light beers, mind), Heart Attack offers Mexican-bottled Coca-Cola and butterfat shakes, which come complete with a large dollop of butter on top. Smokers can also buy unfiltered Lucky Strike cigarettes in the restaurant.
All prices are subject to a further 8.38%, which, as the menu tells you, is “for our wasteful government to squander”.
The restaurant only accepts cash since, according to the sign on the door, “you may die before the check clears”.
Diners weighing 350lbs and above (before eating) can enjoy unlimited free Single Bypass Burgers as long as one drink is purchased with each burger.
The Quadruple Bypass Burger Challenge – And Punishment for Failure
One of the restaurant’s most famous attractions is the Quadruple Bypass Burger challenge.
Those who manage to finish an entire Quadruple or above are placed in a wheelchair and pushed out to their car by one of the “nurses”.
However, anybody who is unable to finish all the food they order is publicly spanked by their waitress using a wooden paddle (which you can then buy afterwards to keep as a souvenir).
And for those who think the spanking will just be a light tap on your butt, don’t be fooled – the nurses have been known to deliver some brutal blows that leave grown men wincing in pain. So make sure you don’t leave anything on your plate when you leave!
Calories in the Restaurant’s Bypass Burgers
So how many calories do the burgers at Heart Attack Grill contain?
One of the restaurant’s claims to fame is that in 2012, it was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as serving the world’s most calorific burger.
The burger in question was the Quadruple Bypass Burger, which was calculated as packing a whopping 9,982 calories.
However, at the time, the Quadruple was the largest burger on the menu. Nowadays, you can go all the way up to the Octuple version, which is estimated to contain an aorta-bursting 19,900 calories.
To put that into perspective, that’s the recommended calorie intake for a regular person for ten days – although it’s unclear if anyone has ever managed to finish one in a single sitting.
In any case, the Guinness Book of World Records is yet to validate this new burger, but since, with eight patties and around 4lbs of meat, it’s over twice the size of the restaurant’s previous record holder, it’s surely only a matter of time.
Controversies of Heart Attack Grill
Unsurprisingly, Heart Attack Grill is not without its fair share of controversy, including at least two fatalities. Here are the details of some of Heart Attack’s darker moments.
- Deaths of Blair River and John Alleman
In 2011, while the restaurant was operating out of Arizona, Heart Attack’s spokesman, a 575lb man named Blair River, died of complications arising from pneumonia.
He was 29 at the time.
Subsequently, another spokesman named John Alleman also died in 2013 while leaving the Vegas restaurant. He is supposed to only have weighed 190lbs, but he famously visited the restaurant every day, and his unhealthy diet undoubtedly contributed to his death.
After his passing, he was cremated, and his ashes are now on display in the restaurant – a fitting tribute to a devoted patron or a macabre addition to the décor, depending on your point of view.
- Diners leaving in (real) ambulances
In between he two deaths, at least two diners departed the restaurant in ambulances – provided by genuine medical professionals rather than the becostumed waiters and waitresses.
In February 2012, a customer suffered a real heart attack in the restaurant – and other diners, perhaps imagining it was all part of the show, were seen taking photos as he was carried out on a stretcher.
Then, only two months later, in April of that year another diner fell unconscious, supposedly while eating a burger, smoking a cigarette and drinking a margarita all at the same time.
And yet, despite the clear moral issues, the owner unapologetically courts the kind of media exposure these incidents bring, stating simply that the restaurant attracts the kind of people who don’t tend to look after themselves, making occasional accidents inevitable.
- Free food for customers over 350lbs
That customers weighing over 350lbs are given free food – after being weighed on livestock scales in front of the whole cheering restaurant – is considered distasteful by some due to the demeaning treatment of overweight diners and the encouragement of unhealthy lifestyles.
Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas FAQs
Does Heart Attack Grill Take Reservations?
Heart Attack doesn’t accept reservations, so you just have to turn up and wait for a seat.
Is Heart Attack Grill Kid Friendly?
Although they allow kids in – and even sell cigarette candy for children – due to the adult-oriented humor and the scantily clad waitresses, it’s probably not the best place for families.
Are You Up For the Challenge?
Perhaps you like the idea of eating until you can barely move, or maybe you’re the kind of person who can’t resist the challenge of consuming improbable amounts of food.
In any case, if you want to visit a burger joint like no other, this is one place to look out for while you’re in Vegas. Just remember to bring your appetite – or at least wear a thick pair of pants!