Bracket Challenge: What is the best takeout restaurant along the Wasatch Front? Elite Eight round

Healthy plant based fast food table scene. Overhead view on a wood background. Cauliflower crust pizzas, bean burgers, mushroom tacos, bell pepper nachos and cauliflower wings and sweet potato fries.

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SALT LAKE CITY — After more than 200 local takeout restaurants were recommended to KSL.com, we're now down to the final eight of this year's bracket challenge.

And if you look closely, you'll notice that every No. 1 and every No. 11 seed moved on from Wednesday's results.

As you may recall, the No. 11-seeded restaurants were write-in restaurants not already included in the initial plea for local joints; but none of these restaurants are a surprise, either. At least two of the No. 11 seeds are so much part of the Utah culture it's sometimes easy to forget that they're locally owned.

In a perfect food bracket — if there is one out there — these eight local restaurants would have likely been the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, so the fact they all made it through to the Elite Eight round is no real surprise. Not all of the eight that advanced would be my top personal choices to move forward, but I would never turn down an opportunity to go to them either.

I'll probably never get over the fact that restaurants like Pretty Bird and Lucky 13 got beat out — I'm not mad, just disappointed. Nevertheless, onward we go.

Today's bracket challenge starts out by deciding the most popular Mexican restaurant — apparently only one can exist here, though there's so many great options in the state. Red Iguana has been a tough competitor all the way to this point, but will Cafe Rio swarm with its delicious pork barbacoa? Maybe Red Iguana's mole has an extra kick to come out as the victor in the end.

The rest of the pairings are so completely different from each other that it'll be difficult to select your favorite. Do you want a Philly cheesesteak or a delicious slice of pizza? What about BBQ or a pastrami burger? Or maybe you're dreaming about Hawaiian-style food as you compare it to Utah County favorite's burger joint. These are not easy choices.

Regardless, get voting already! Vote 10 times an hour or 50 times a day — I don't care. I am not getting any kickbacks for featuring any of these restaurants, so I have no personal investment in who wins. I do love food, though, and I will continue to try to find more great, local places to get great takeout (or dine in).

Go find a place you've never been to on this list and make it your new favorite; I'm sure they'd love to have your business. Have you still not voted yet? Get on with it already.

If you can't see the survey below, click here. To see the results, click here.

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Click on image to enlarge. Percentages shown next to a restaurant are the percentage of votes that restaurant won by in the previous round.
Click on image to enlarge. Percentages shown next to a restaurant are the percentage of votes that restaurant won by in the previous round.

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Josh is the Sports Director for KSL.com and beat writer covering University of Utah athletics — primarily football, men’s and women's basketball and gymnastics. He is also an Associated Press Top 25 voter for college football.

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