A brand new episode of my Patreon-exclusive podcast, the PATREON CHECK-IN was posted yesterday. It's nearly an hour of me discussing the channel, my thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom, answering your listener mail, and reading your comments. The Patreon is only $3, and it helps keep content like mine alive! For your consideration: www.patreon.com/any_austin
I absolutely love this I personally barely played Skyrim mostly because I don't have the systems for it and my laptop is not suited for gaming. This was still rather entertaining and enjoyable and I'm quite interested in your visits to the other establishments in the area of Skyrim. I'm also intrigued as to what other games/ worlds you'll visit should this series continue. A quick video place/ general suggestion would Telma's Bar in Twilight Princess.
"i won't say that to her face...but i'll say it near her face and hope she overhears" this is the best line i've ever heard and a masterwork of characterful writing
to be fair, the alchemy shops have a much larger variety of poisonous plants in an area where they prepare consumables. but there, it's actually necessary and you can expect that they'd be particularly careful about cross contamination.
You know Ruby Nash from Fallout New Vegas with her radscorpion venom casserole? Maybe the WS has their own house special cooked with deathbell for some added kick
Your deadpan comment to the guard telling him to order and make himself useful actually made me wheeze. I love your different lenses looking at games like this!
@@asen4774Definitely. If you're ordering food at a diner and the chef is 200lbs+ felon with tattoos, youre gonna be eating the best thing youve tasted all week
As a fellow food service worker, your nonchalant use of the lingo and knowledge of basic expectations in the operation of a restaurant clues me in strong that you've done time in the industry yourself 😆
Love this concept, it's like Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares in Skyrim. You could do a hotel inspector series which evaluates the inn rooms for cleanliness, ambience etc. as well. I don't think the stone beds in Markarth would be up to any industry standard haha
Good evening. I'm a regular guest at the Bannered Mare in Whiterun, and I have been a member of staff in the past, meaning I can share a bit of insider knowledge with you. All of the meat there is stored in salt, until Saadia washes and either boils it or fries it to remove the excess salt. Most of the cuts are treated this way, however the fresher ones have been known to be used quicker, before the salting process, during busier times. As for the ventilation issues, they have existed for a long time, however due to the nature of the fire (constantly smouldering as opposed to an open inferno) the smoke is able to exit through the side door when it is used. In my time there I advised Saadia to prop it open during the busiest hours of the day to lessen any smoke build-up for her own personal work experience. She was relatively new when I worked there, same as me, so we had quite a few discussions about Hulda, privately, and I can tell you that she only snaps and gets bossy as there is more piling up to be done. After our shifts she is quite pleasant company, and due to her line of work she picks up a ton of news to share in the form of stories. Thank you for leaving your review, and safe travels to your next stops, wanderer
I can’t say I had as good of an experience. I’m an alchemist and stopped in for the night, but the bard was incredibly aggressive in his flirtations, said I was “his already, just didn’t know it yet.” I was extremely uncomfortable and most of the staff was very apathetic. Apparently this is not uncommon behavior for him. The waitress I had also kept glancing at the door like she was worried there would be another inspection or something and was not willing to answer any of my questions. It’s a nice enough place, not nearly as gloomy as I’m used to, but the staff really leave something to be desired. It’s such a shame. Maybe after some staff turnover it’ll be more pleasant to visit. 4/10
I'm a regular patron of the Bannered Mare given my affiliation with the Companions, and I find that despite me having a drink in every Tavern in Skyrim, I can't think of a better place to stop and rest a while. Hulda, the owner, can be a little prickly when a lot of people pour in, but she never fails to tell a good story! Or serve a good mead. After everything calms down, she's actually a very delightful person to talk to, which is something I look for in a tavern keeper. That bard, Mikile, though. he's only ever given me trouble once... probably because I threatened to bash his skull in if he talked to my wife like a wench again. I'm told that it's normal for him to speak in such ways, but I haven't really noticed it much after our little incident. The waitress, Saadia, is a curious lass. She has nothing but respect and a self-imposed duty to do her best, but isn't much for talking. She's always dodging conversations and will sometimes tell me not to ask questions despite me not asking any! All in all, The Bannered Mare is a good place to stop for a drink. The people are nice, the staff are quite tame compared to the rest of Skyrim's tavern staff, and it has the best room to rent, in my opinion. It also gets the bonus of being my wife's favorite. 8/10
I love this content, I never knew I needed this. Such a fun way to look at these worlds that devs clearly spent time creating. I bet they appreciate people taking time to examine these areas that would ordinarily be glossed over by the average gamer
You should do a video as a highway inspector and review the official trails and roads for merchants to take and see how difficult the path will be for them to take
For the gastronomical adventurer, I highly recommend the mods SUDs (Skyrim's Unique Drinks) and Cheesemod for EVERYONE. The former adds a signature drink to every individual tavern in the game, and each reflects the tone of the area. Cheesemod adds over a hundred varieties of cheeses to the world, from the grotesque cottage cheese to a nutty cheese log, to regional varieties depending on what they feed their cows (probably). I'd love to see @anyaustin incorporate these into his videos. :D
Aside from the disproportionate slander that you gave cottage cheese, I have to say that Sheogorath might be entertained by the sheer variety of cheese.
Whats actually funny is all the way back in 1996, The elder scrolls 2 daggerfall had a mechanic that basically told you a shops quality when you walked in. When you entered a message would pop up and it would range from "relics remain where they were once tossed, piles of ancient odd and ends sit coated in dust" for the poorest quality shop (best prices for buy+sell) and "the scent of incence and sound of music soothes you as you walk in, riches are stacked neatly for display on neat shelves" for the best (best quality items, worst prices) Maybe in TES 6 we will see health inspectors
Drove me nuts he didn’t fail them immediately for that tbh. He gave them a c+ when there was raw meat next to employee drinks that was room temp at best. Honestly I don’t think this guy is licensed to do this
It’s actually interesting how much attention to detail is put into the locations of the game and that the Morthal inn was the most organized place out of all of them. It really gave the impression that the owner was trying hard to make do with the limited resources available and compensate. So much environmental storytelling that really makes the world feel more alive
My main problem with these establishments is how the food sitting out has been there for approximately 12 years. It’s no wonder I keep getting rockjoint 😒😒
note on the moor side inn, they have what appears to be freshly trapped/killed pheasants and rabbits hanging behind the innkeep, implying that they are butchering game in the same area as dining, which raises a whole list of concerns. also at the winking skeever, we can see highly poisonous deathbell flowers being grown in planters which could be disastrous if someone had a few too many glasses of wine and wasn't paying attention to their child.
as a taproom bartender (and self-appointed critic of bar and restaurant layouts / operations) i deeply appreciated your unique observations and understandings of service industry ins-and-outs Bless u, babe
Your only plus for the silverblood inn is the building... but is the entire town is build on ruins of dwemer buildings. They are basically minors that moved into the more complete topside buildings, and they never built or considered whether the place was good for a bar. Basically, this is a "everything good came from prior management" situation. Technically, they just moved into an abandoned building.
@@mrb692 morthal is one of the smallest hold capitals, honestly not much larger than riverwood (the starting town), whereas whiterun is a proper walled city
@@hitmanx200 he does, and he also refers to whiterun differently later, but it's still funny that these two phrases are the first ones he uses to describe the places
I am kinda sad after watching this. I would binge videos like this, and I feel empty since there isn't more of a these. Great humor, man. Keep it up, you're awesome
I'm curious what he thinks of the battle restaurants in pokémon, or even the restaurant that doubles as a gym. Riddled with health and safety violations, I bet.
There's something magical about looking for the mundane in video games. I personally enjoy looking for the local language scripts and fashions and how the latter can inexplicably look cooler than in real life.
The fact that the month is Sun's Dusk in that save, I think he recorded this using his actual main character for playing the game 😂 From Dragonborn to health inspector!
@@Eira_ I don't think it would be too bad, it's actually the town cistern. No one has plumbing, and they dump the buckets in the waterway out into the lake. That's actually a good video topic! "What is the ratway, cause it sure as oblivion isn't a sewer."
NATIONALLY ACCLAIMED RESTAURANT CRITIC MISSING Restaurant critic Any Austin has gone missing among scandalous speculations. After having completed a recent “world tour” of Skyrim establishments, nationally acclaimed critic Any Austin has been officially declared missing, according to the Jarl’s Office of Whiterun. “He was perfectly polite and lovely to talk to, and he cares so much about keeping Skyrim restaurants safe,” says a staff worker of the Bannered Mare, who asked to remain nameless. “I hope they find him.” Some of those questioned by our staff pointed out in low voices that the final restaurant reviewed by Any Austin was the Silver-Blood Inn, which he rated an F, calling it “filthy” and that it should be “shut down”. Said Corpulus Vinius, owner of the Winking Skeever in Solitude, “[The Silver-Bloods] can be quite barbaric,” and that Any Austin was in general “much too quick to judge perfectly functioning establishments.” He refused to speculate about the missing person case itself, citing instead that “I would never be caught dead in Markarth, mind you, but even I know not to piss off the Silver-Bloods.” Kleppr, proprietor of the Silver-Blood Inn, refused to comment. The cause of Any Austin’s disappearance remains unknown, and we wish the investigators luck in their search. This piece written by Skyrim Associated and distributed by Sign of the Steed Publishing. The Winking Skeever can be found just inside of the main gate of Solitude. It is always open, offers exceptional fare and also features inn rooms at a reasonable rate.
Are we gonna talk about 16:27, when he pulls out an axe presumably to murder the barkeep for having such a shitty establishment? The way the screen immediately cuts to the next scene makes me think he went sicko mode on everyone in the Silver-Blood Inn
@@samk8005 the ledgers are usually in the owner’s personal room or upstairs And the only cities that have them are solitude, riften, whiterun, markarth and windhelm (according to the wiki)
This is an interesting one because, unlike the economic survey (in most games probably), this is actually something people writing and designing these areas would have thought about somewhat; the vibe each restaurant is supposed to give off, the way it's organized and run. I mean they probably weren't expecting health and safety code checks but tbh they thought more about ventilation than i would have expected
I love how obviously you've worked in food service lol. Your comment at around 11:00 about how if there's a rush half the dishes will be in the pit gave me nightmare flashbacks to the sunday morning brunch rush at the Nostalgia Cafe
I feel like the ventilation _might_ be dealt with by the fact that it's a thatch roof. If you look up (At least in Breezehome, I haven't really checked the taverns), you can even see the sky. So the smoke is likely not getting trapped, though it may still build up in the upper areas faster than it can escape.
One more bonus point for Morthal about the animal skin hanging on the wall: I think it's not only decoration, but keeps the tables warmer, since the skin will stop wind from blowing through the cracks on the wall. I mean, I'm pretty sure those wooden walls have some draft coming through, so it's a nice little thing Morthal does to make the place even more comfortable. :) Also, please keep making these! This was so fun to watch!
As a bartender who's worked in restaurants, this video slaughtered me. I've worked in places just like the Winking Skeever and Silver-Blood Inn. Could not stop laughing.
Frigging finally, the youtube algorithm gives me something unique and interesting. I love this, it really highlights a lot of the worldbuilding going on in Skyrim that I hadn't noticed. The attitude of the employees in Markarth matches up with the space they run.
i love this series and especially the overarching meta that austin is a sort of gordon ramsay-like figure who effortlessly transitions from census taker to restaurant critic to health code inspector with each series
Yeah, I would say its right on the borderline of what you could call "cozy" Smallish areas in bars are good, it encourages socialization and bars are well known for being social places.
@@SharpForceTrauma Exactly, I feel like it’s a spot where a lot of conversations about the town and surrounding areas are happening all at once. Possibly a little noisey, but it’s because that’s where everyone meets at the end of the day.
Instantly subscribed because of the nature of this video and checking that you do similar content about the mundane and everyday part of video games, but also it's an insight into game design and world creation, with that tone of irony, is brilliant. Exactly the stuff I would end up discussing with friends for jokes so it's nice to see this lol
you make "games" out of the games you play and that is so cool. my brother would do something similar growing up. very interesting and very imaginative and i love it so much. "playing" like this extends the "shelf life" of the game - by doing this, you never get bored and kind of keep finding out more about the world of the game. i just love it so mucccchhh and i dont even play skyrim. thanks for the vid lol
I’d recommend Windhelm or Raven Rock. Both have grand dining areas and both were fairly impressive when compared to the others. Also if I remember correctly there’s a bandit bar/restaurant at one of the forts which would be kinda of funny to review.
Ya know the meat smoke being ventilated into the rooms at the bannered mare might explain Nazeem constantly asking if you’ve been to the cloud district. Must be smoking that beef pack every night.
I liked this video a lot. Any video where you analyze the setpieces and environmental storytelling is fascinating. By now, everyone and their mother knows everything there is to know about this game's mechanics, characters, and lore, but in the employment breakdowns and in this type of video you showcase a whole world of handcrafted background content that is almost never explored.
3:56 fun fact: that was actually standard in medieval households. People would take advantage of how Smokey their kitchens got to smoke and cure foodstuffs in their rafters and above their stoves - hence the hanging cloves of garlic in Skyrim and other medieval inspired stuff. Probably not great for the lungs tho
I definitely would like to see this series continue at some point. The different judgements were very unique, and speaks to personal experience in the field. "Back of house operations" isn't a phrase trudged out by just anyone.
as a video game nerd & also lifetime restaurant employee in both FOH and BOH, this is the exact type of content i am starving for. fucking amazing lmao i was laughing the whole time. pls do more Health Code reviews of games!!
Absolutely love this series. Great presentation, starting from the center at Whiterun and slowly traveling North and West to make your way towards the capital. Feels very organized and like a road trip, good presentation. Reviewer was very friendly, lovely chit chat with tye employees. You were there to do a job, but tried to keep things friendly. Wonderful customer service. I have to say, I think I'm going to give you an A. Have to dock a few points do to lack of direction since there's no garentee for a part 2. Give me that sequel and we can bump things up to an A+
I'm surprised with the results, never noticed how under-organised the winking skeever was. I hope you will do the Retching Netch in the future, I love that place even though it's covered in spider web
@@jackreacher-ov6pzme and my spouse visited there on our honeymoon trip, really uncomfortable experience overall. Wish we had seen this review earlier because the establishment is not worth the coin they charge
I was hoping you’d approach the restaurants like Gordon Ramsay in kitchen nightmares/hotel hell, but this was great too :3 reminds me when I worked at a restaurant and inspectors would pop in randomly, they’d be so casual and kind, but I’d still end up anxiously pacing around the walk in cooler ^w^ great video 👍🏻
Great video! My main note on Skyrim's food safety is that raw meat should always be stored on the lowest shelf in case it drips juice, which is a health hazard especially considering that many establishments have goblets stored directly underneath. If one of those goblets gets contaminated and goes out to a patron, they could get sick
Twas very entertaining. Gosh, I would love a tourism review for Isle Delfino. Exploring all the attractions and local amenities. Hopefully I can suggest this on a later poll.
I love content like this which appreciates and explores virtual spaces. Skyrim has had a lot of care put into the "set dressing" of the areas and this is a really fun way to explore it. Looking forward to more.
Never played skyrim and never watched this channel, so I'm not entirely sure why it showed up in my recommended, but this was a wildly fun watch, I love it
Please do more of these ♥️ You could do places to stay, like rooms/hotel style. Realestate Skyrim (looking at the buyable houses) rating them, based on different factors. Idk just please do more hahah
I would really like to see you visiting the Retching Netch in Ravenrock, if you decide to look into a few more establishments. It would be quite interesting to see, how different the Dunmer run their places compared to the people of Skyrim.
I would love more of this kind of video. Not necessarily restaurant inspection, but how effectively the background "set dressing" convincingly creates a lived-in space for games.
This genuinely makes me so happy. I used to work in food service, and while I wasn't there for very long (it was a part-time job while I was preparing for graduate school) it was definitely an Experience and I totally got the same dedicated worker sort of vibe from this whole video! Love your super professional and serious delivery on these reviews.
This series is so good! I know it would’ve been too much for this video but I really wanna see you judge the rooms you can stay in, because there’s actually quite a variety. You could add something like tourist destinations nearby or something as well.
Storing raw meats above any kind of Ready-to-Eat foods is a health code violation, and the Bannered Mare is the worst offender so far. All of the cheese, tomatoes, sweetrolls could very well have venison drippings on them. If it were me, I would throw it all out. You're 100% correct that they need dedicated cold storage for raw meats. In fact, none of these restaurants seem to have any sort of temperature controlled storage. So either they rotate their entire inventory every 4 hours, or we're looking at an impending mass outbreak of food-borne illness. Of course, it may not be such a big deal in this world if you can instantly cure every sickness by gnawing on a hawk feather.
This is actually very helpful for me. I'm making a house for my personal mod and have been struggling with the kitchen. This video will help me figure out some dos and don'ts. Thanks!
I love your content and this style video is genius. I know this isn’t necessarily a playthrough style series but I would love clips of your travel between cities. Like b-roll on a travel channel show. Doesn’t need it, but it would fit the feel.
Always feels weird hearing my name pop up in videos like this, I keep forgetting there is a Jonna in Skyrim! That being said, I love this video!! Excellent as always.
This is fantastic content. It feels like combining the employment reports and odd places by studying these small spaces for details left behind by a dev team.
