"Hey! I'm Guy Fieri, and I'm roooooolling out to look for some of the greatest Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives!"
— Guy Fieri, host, at the beginning of every show.
A Food Network series starring Guy Fieri, as a spin-off from his Guy's Big Bite series. Guy travels the United States in his Cool Car, looking for places that are either a diner, a drive-in or a dive.
The show has a couple of Spin-Off series: Triple-D Nation, in which Guy revisits restaurants to see how they have done since their first appearance on the show, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: Takeout (see Real Life Writes the Plot below).
His next show, in keeping with with Added Alliterative Appeal, is Guy's Grocery Games.
Diners, Drive-ins and Dives provides examples of:
- Alliterative Title: The title of this show. Now often shortened to "Triple-D", and continued with "Guy's Grocery Games" (Triple-G).
- A number of episode names are also alliterative such as "Biscuits, Bagels and BL Ts" and "Pizza, Pork & Paprikash".
- Always Identical Twins: Played for laughs in one episode where the two chefs were identical twins who kept switching on Guy without his knowledge, although one of them the Identical Twin ID Tag of a beard as opposed to his clean shaven brother.
- Big Fun: Guy's TV persona is all about this.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce:
- Most of the BBQ joints featured on the show have a variant of this.
- One episode's restaurant serves the "Triple 6 Wings", buffalo wings with a sauce made from habneros, Scotch Bonnets, and ghost peppersnote . Guy made some of his camera crew eat a wing along with him. They all regretted it.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Guy, and frequently the cooks he visits. Having two of them in the room often results in Ham-to-Ham Combat.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: A lot of the people Guy interviews ends up using one of his catchphrases. And there are a lot of them.
- Bowling for Ratings: Played With. Guy visits Bryant Lane Bowl in Minneapolis, MN, which is a diner... and a bowling alley. But it's hardly the working class dive as it serves pad thai, buffalo burgers and smoked salmon salad.
- Brain Freeze: Title of a Season Four episode about - what else? - ice cream. And yes, Guy did get a brain freeze.
- Brits Love Tea: Lampshaded. The British-born chef at the Tick-Tock Diner in NJ uses a tea pot to hold his cooking oil.
- The Cameo: At one restaurant, Food Network chef Rocco Dispirito pretended to be a foreign waiter occasionally wandering into the shot. Lampshaded by Guy who states that he looked like Rocco.
- Catchphrase: Guy has several of these:
- This is bananas ... and in this case, bananas is good!
- This is legit!
- That is MONEY!
- Holey Moley Stromboli!
- Taking the bus to FLAVOR TOWN!
- That is IN IT to WIN IT!
- That's OFF THE HOOK!
- It's on like Donkey Kong... grab a hammer, jump over the barrel and save the girl!
- Winner, winner, ______ dinner!note
- Shut the front door!
- That's all she wrote?note
- Celebrity Star:
- Rosie O'Donnell shows up in at the diner in Miami.
- Ace of Cakes star Duff Goldman shows up to take Guy to his fave pit beef joint when Guy visits Baltimore.
- Michael Symon shows up at Lucky's Cafe to share some biscuits and gravy.
- Kid Rock takes Guy around to several of his favorite places in his hometown.
- Mario Batali stole Guy's car in a New York City-based segment.
- Andrew Zimmern meets Guy in a pizzeria in Minneapolis to try a pizza with fried eggs.
- Gene Hackman makes an appearance at a diner in Santa Fe which he frequents. What makes it even more notable is that the episode aired after Hackman had retired from acting, meaning it was a rare chance to see him after his final movie, Welcome to Mooseport had come out 3 years earlier.
- Dennis Miller shows up in one episode and ruthlessly pokes fun at Guy, with Guy's older son Hunter there to watch the carnage.
- Gene Simmons from KISS appeared in an episode and even did his tongue trick for the camera as he was eating the food.
- Earl Campbell of the former Houston Oilers was in one episode and Guy was almost speechless and tongue tied.
- Comfort Food: Featured by various establishments, but highlighted in the Season Three episode, "Like Mama Made".
- Cool Car: Guy drives several vintage cars in the intros and outros, his red 1967 Camaro showing up most frequently.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: The Tiolis Crazee Burger serves an alligator burger with a gravy consisting of dried fruit, heavy cream, and curry. Subverted as Guy actually really liked it (which was a huge surprise to him).
- Crossover: There's an internal crossover with Guy's Grocery Games, featuring four of the most popular chefs from this series.
- Dagwood Sandwich: The "Hemi" burger at The Penguin in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Deep-Fried Whatever: The episode featuring Joe's Gizzard City - Guy created a battered and deep-fried burger that was later named "the Triple D Burger". Joe's already carried deep fried Twinkies called "Frinkies"
- Does Not Like Spam: Guy does have some dislikes when it comes to food, such as eggs, sweets, and breakfast items. But that doesn't mean he's unwilling to try or appreciate them.
- Driver Faces Passenger: Invoked in the intros and outros, as Guy spends as much time (if not more) talking to the camera as he does looking at the road, especially in the later seasons.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The show was initially a lot more low-key, had a muted color palette owing to DV cameras made at the time, and Guy was a lot quieter.
- Filling the Silence: If Guy isn't talking, then the stock music is usually blaring.
- Foreign Queasine: Inverted. It's the LOCAL stuff like pig's ear sandwiches and menudo (pig's feet and tripe) that can stop Guy in his tracks.
- Unlike most (if not all) other cooking shows, occasionally Guy eats something that he simply doesn't like. But he generally makes it so humorous that the chef doesn't seem to mind. In Minneapolis, for example, Ann Kim of Pizzeria Lola and Andrew Zimmern team up to persuade him to eat an egg pizza (he doesn't care for eggs, especially runny eggs).
- Food Porn
- From My Own Personal Garden: Joe's Farm Grill in AZ grows their own veggies. As well as Lucky's Cafe.
- From the Mouths of Babes: Once in a while, a child will amaze Guy when they give a very astute review of the food they are eating. Played for laughs in a stinger when Guy asked one boy what he thought about the economy leading to some amazingly cute Little Professor Dialog
- Hash House Lingo: Guy orders a "B-17 for the Snagglepuss table, stat" in the first episode.
- Hidden Depths: Underneath his Boisterous Bruiser persona, Guy is very well-versed in many different facets of cooking, and occasionally drops very obscure or insightful knowledge.
- Kitchen Sink Included: Lampshaded by Guy whenever there is a large number of ingredients that go into a dish. Sometimes refers to adding his flip flops.
- Large Ham: Guess.
- Meat Versus Veggies: Averted. While a big meat eater, Guy has raved about vegetarian dishes, such as the spinach quesadillas at The Cove in San Antonio, TX and the vegetarian Pho soup at The Fly Trap in Ferndale, MI.
- Nice Guy: No pun intended. Guy is nearly always cheerful and upbeat, heaping compliments upon pretty much every dish he tries. This also extends to most of the chefs and cooks on the show, with it being very clear that they love what they do.
- Oh, Crap!: "Nobody said anything about Ghost Chilies!"
- Orgasmically Delicious: Guy has been known to mutter "Hold Me!" after something especially good.
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Out of Order: See Bonus Material and Missing Episode. - Real Life Writes the Plot: Due to the Coronavirus pandemic closing most restaurants and making travel harder, Guy started a Spin-Off show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: Takeout, in which some of his favorite past restaurateurs send Guy the ingredients to a dish so Guy can cook them with his sons while talking with the chefs on online video. Each episode featured four chefs and then he and his sons chose a winner for best dish.
- Real Men Cook: As one can imagine, a lot of the cooks on the show are male.
- Real Men Hate Sugar: Averted. Guy loves his pancakes and (deep fried) cinnamon rolls. In general, he says he's not a fan of sweets, but he'll still gladly have some if it's offered by his host.
- Regional Speciality
- Running Gag: If there is a large pot, expect Guy to put his head at the top of the pot and speak in a low voice, "Luke, I am your father."
- Guy will try to distract the chef by asking them a question that requires them to turn from what they are doing so Guy can sneak a taste of the food they are preparing.
- Secret Ingredient: Guy often tries to find out what the ingredient is, but the cooks are adamant about keeping it secret.
- Shameless Self-Promoter: In numerous segments, Guy is wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of one of his business ventures, from his restaurants to Santo tequila (a joint venture with singer Sammy Hagar) to Hunt & Ryde winery (named after his sons Hunter and Ryder).
- The Stinger: They usually show a fun clip that just shows Guy goofing around between takes or even within a take that wasn't meant to air right after they closing happens with him announcing the name of the show while driving in his car.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: Barely averted, but some of the greatest chicken Guy has ever tasted was from Uncle Lou... created, served and attended almost exclusively by an African-American with grandma's recipes. To put icing on the cake, Lou is almost a real life version of Chef, down to the voice.
- Supreme Chef: Jamie's Bar and Grill blows Guy's mind, making a beef sandwich with mignon prepared every morning, chopping each spice by hand, smoking his own prime rib, cooking through weekends without being open for business, and so on. Then there's Lucky's Cafe, a place that makes absolutely everything from scratch - the corned beef, breakfast sausage, pickles, ketchup, etc.
- Tastes Like Chicken: Lampshaded. When a chef makes grilled octopus he tells Guy that it "tastes like chicken!"
- Title Drop: Both in his opening and closing statements.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Guy has many, but has shown a particular affinity for corned beef hash and Mofongo.
- Travelogue Show: The Route 66 is a great example of the "Travelogue" part of this show. But this is mostly downplayed.
