I cannot use ketchup in a restaurant. I used to work in one, and we “marry” the ketchups…ie take the half full ones and pour them together to make a full one. After awhile you’re just pouring old ketchup onto new ketchup and the whole thing will eventually turn to vinegar. We had one bottle explode…I’m assuming from the old ketchup. I’ve worked in two restaurants where this was SOP, so I assume all restaurants do it…not very hygenic, if you ask me.
There was one place in SC where Ivylad and I went to eat lunch…the waitress asked if we were ready to order, we said yes, she walked away. We looked at each other, got up and left. No one tried to stop us on the way out, either.
Then there was this place I took my kids for lunch. It was rather busy, but we waited for 15 minutes without acknowledgement from the waitress, who walked by several times. I know she was busy, but I’ve been a waitress and a simple, “I’ll be right with you” would have sufficed.
There have been several mom and pop places where the food wasn’t too great and we won’t go back, but fortunately, no bugs in the food.
Being an X-waitress, I have very low tolerance for shitty service. If it’s busy, cool, if the server just sucks, forget it. I refuse to go to Friday’s because after dining there about 6+ times and not ONCE recieving decent, (not good mind you, I would’ve settled for “decent”) service, i’ve come to the conclusion, it’s never gonna happen.
Also the Carls Jr. down the street from my house. They’ve screwed up my order more often then they HAVEN’T screwed it up, and the drive through takes FOREVER. It’s supposed to be FAST food, not “I could be in a sit down resteraunt at this pace!” food.
Gettin’ myself all worked up just thinking about it…
The last few times I’ve eaten at Denny’s, Red Lobster or Sizzler I’ve become sick. I will never eat at those “restaurants” again.
The last two times I’ve eaten at Applebees I found the food to be so nasty I couldn’t finish. In fact the very last time I could only eat about 3 bites. The food was over cooked, bland and hardly resembled food at all.
Applebees is on my “never again” list.
There’s a restaurant here, Cafe Annie, that I believe remains popular. While out on a date when they were fairly new ('82-83) I ordered a $39 bottle of wine.
The waiter came back to tell me they were out of that, and, engrossed in conversation with my date, I asked him to substitute something comparable.
Well, it was a fine bottle of wine, and it cost about $130. They really should have known better.
I’ve had food poisoning twice from Subway - different locations, about 2 years apart. Won’t go back - we have some great sandwich places here that I’d rather patronize.
I also dislike Taco Bell and haven’t been to one in years. I do love real Mexican food, though.
I gotta ask, like Tiburon did, what restaurant in Springfield was it, ** Octavia Smythe-Bunion I. Esq.**? Was it the one out on Clear Lake Ave? My husband and I had really lousy service when we went there last year.
It was.
How do they manage to stay in business?
I live in Manhattan, where we have more restaurants on Second Ave. than there are in most industrialized nations. If there is any aspect whatsoever of a restaurant which I find to be less than perfectly satisfactory, I never come back. I rhink of it as a form of Darwinism.
ooh… the classic “it’s supposed to taste like that”. I got that from the (supposed) manager at one of the better Italian restaurants in Seattle.
I have a long history with Italian cuisine; Mom was only the second generation off the boat. “Kid, [the guy was 10+ years older than me] I know the difference between cured and rancid”.
Haven’t been back there. Kinda feeling wistful about the previous comments about Second Ave…
There is an Italian restraunt in San Francisco that my SO and I would go to whenever we were in the city. The first few times we went there, the service was spectacular. The waitstaff seemed somewhat taken with our rather obvious young love, and went out of their way to make things special for the two of us, despite the fact that we are are young, and look even younger. We have some truely magic memories of that place, in part because of the attention of the wait staff.
And we are good tippers. We don’t eat out much, but when we do, we show some respect to our fellow service workers (nothing like working as a dishwasher to make you respect your wait staff). If we do cost saving measures (like spitting an entree), we always always tip as if we had ordered a full set of meals- and then some. The waitstaff shouldn’t have to pay just because we are cheapskates.
So one day we are out with a couple friends, also college age. We’ve raved about this restraunt for so long that we wanted to take them there. It was some obscure weeknight, and we figured it wouldn’t be to busy (it wasn’t).
Going there was a big mistake.
We explain we are a party of four to the seating guy. First, he motions for us to follow him. Great, I think, we managed to get a table with no wait time. He leads us to the bar, and tells us to stay there, presumably breifly. He didn’t come back for a long time. I can’t figure out why he did this. None of us were 21. None of us even look vaguely 21. None of us order drinks. The bartender stares at us in a surly manner. We wait for our table, embarrased that we arn’t ordering any drinks and are taking up space at the bar.
After a long period of ackwardly waiting at the bar, the waiter realized we probably wern’t going to order drinks. They pushed one together for us right in front of the door, so that everyone who comes in and out bumps into us. Great. With our spirits only slightly dampened, we order.
Food comes. Check comes nearly instantly. They obviously want us to get the heck out of there. We, for once, agree. Here comes the big shocker. As we are working who pays what, we realize the numbers are off. Yes, they automatically added the tip. For a party of four. No restraunt automatically adds tips for parties of four. No one. It isn’t done. Parties of ten, yes. Parties of six, maybe. Parties of four? no.
I have very rarely been so offended.
Although I was not planning on an extravegent tip, considering the absurdly poor service we received, I had no intention on skipping out without tipping. As I’ve mentioned before- I am a damn good tipper. Probably one of the tippers they would have encountered that night, had we received even average service. I have never ever not tipped someone.
And yet the took it upon themselves to assume we wern’t going to tip them.
Grrrrrrr…We paid up, but certainly did not leave anymore. It’s a shame we couldn’t cause a fuss, but that would just cause them to treat young people even worse in the future. It is maddening just to think about it. I’m a girl that takes dining very seriously. I’ve never ever been treated that poorly in a restaraunt in my life. It sucks that one night spoiled a place that hosted so many wonderful ones, but I can’t bring myself to go back there. There are too many Italian restraunts in North Beach for me to have to put up with that sort of thing.
I wonder why they did that; didn’t they recognize you?
Pizza Xpress in Springfield Mall. The food was no better than mediocre, the service was surly and they shortchanged me!
A pizza place in San Francisco called Golden Boy, which I had seen recommended in some guidebook or other. It was way too crowded, and after sitting at the counter for 15 minutes without even a head turned in my direction while the guy behind the counter chatted with what I assumed were regulars, I said “screw this” and left.
Johnny’s Half Shell in Dupont Circle, DC. I went there at 4 pm, figuring I’d beat the crowds. Tom Sietsema, the Washington Post restaurant critic, had said their hot dogs were the best in town, but he didn’t mention they cost $7.50 (!) and were only available with weird toppings (blue cheese??) So I ordered the fish and chips, only to be told they weren’t available. Seems there’s a limited menu between lunch and dinner hours. WTF?
And everything on the menu was way overpriced, not just the hot dogs. I told the waiter “Never mind, then”, got up and went down the street to Pizzeria Paradiso. 
Arby’s, ewww. Had a nasty food poisoning event there.
We had just moved to Westwood NJ and decided to try an Irish pub, within walking distance. (Ooh, what a find, we thought).
We sit at a table in the bar and wait for a server to appear. … and wait. … and wait. Finally, the alleged waitress materializes. We order beers, and when they come, we both order a burger and fries in a basket. Ms. NutMagnet will only eat her beef very very rare. (A good vet’ should be able to resuscitate it). I like mine on the medium rare side.
Burgers and fries arrive. I take a bite of mine and find it’s well-done. Extremely well-done. Dry, tasteless well-done. Ms. N inspects hers, declares it burnt and we attempt to flag down the waitress. After many attempts, some bordering on semaphore, she arrives. We ask for our burgers to be replaced. With thinly-disguised annoyance, she offs our burger to the kitchen. We wait. … and wait. … and wait.
She returns, unceremoniously plops the food baskets in front of us and scurries off. Ms. N. inspects the replacement and declares it burnt. I stare at my replacement. It consists of replaced meat, in the same well-done condition as the original, and the original bun, lettuce, tomato, etc. including the missing bite!
I shrug and attempt to eat this hockey puck. I try the fries. They are cold. Not lukewarm. Cold. We flag down the waitress, again. I explain the problem with the fries. I am resigned to the inability of the cook to prepare a medium-rare burger, so I do not mention it. Off she goes, yet again. We wait.
She returns, and plops down the food. I suggest she not leave yet. I look at the fries. I taste one. Yes, they are the same fries, redipped in hot oil. They are not warm, but are covered in hot oil. The burger is now cold. I suggest to the waitress that none of this will be eaten or paid for. She bolts.
The manager arrives. He is apologetic. He seems to think I’m a bit odd for not accepting the corrections, but in a fit of magnanimity, offers to buy us a drink. We leave, shaking our heads, never to return.
Nutmagnet, the thought of the same fries dipped in oil is absolutely disgusting!!! The waitress must have been cooking the food or something.
even sven, there is no excuse for how you were treated in that restaurant. One thing I was thinking is maybe to avoid this in the future, call ahead and say, “We have been to your place several times and loved it–we’d like to bring some friends to try it out, can we make a reservation” etc. Or even talk to the manager up front. They must have had bad experiences with “younger” customers in the past…again, NO EXCUSE for how you were treated. I fail to understand why they would treat any paying customers that way…maybe a new manager since the last time you were there?
We usually have good experiences in restaurants like Friday’s or Outback if we eat in the bar section. We have found the bartenders to be better at serving us than the wait staff, plus many times we have befriended the management staff and they will occasionally give us freebies like appetizers or desserts for being repeat customers.
I avoid like the plague:
- Long John Silvers - too much grease!!
- Taco Bell
- ANY buffet type place like Ponderosa or Sizzler - YUCK!!
- Hardees (anytime I have ever been in one of those places there are flies everywhere)
I have drastically cut down my visits to any fast food places after reading Fast Food Nation, and Burger King is about the only one of the chains I can stand, only when I’m desparate.
I once went to a restaurant by myself and I’m not sure what happened but somehow after the hostess sat me I was forgotten.
I was hungry and already depressed but after 30 mins of being ignored I left and vowed never to return.
Chart House.
Mediocre food.
Lousy service.
Very, very large bill.
Never again.
I avoided The Cracker Barrel forever after my older -vegetarian-sister found a HUGE chunk of meat in her -ICE CREAM-
There’s a pan-Asian place in Providence called Apsara that was (is?) very popular, especially with college students. The first time I went there, I was, in fact, a college student living at home for the summer. My father knows tons about the local restaurant scene, so I asked him what he thought of it. He said he wouldn’t go there because it was dirty. Of course, I went anyway. On my second or third visit, I saw several rats right outside the front door. Then I believed my father, and never returned. I later heard that it had been closed a few times for violating the health code or whatever, but I never bothered to confirm that.
There is a Denny’s north of Pittsburgh whos doors my best friend, her husband and I will never darken again because of an incident that happened about 7 1/2 years ago. It was about 8 or 9 at night and we wanted to grab a quick bite before running some more errands. Denny’s seemed like a good choice (what foolish children we were!). This was around the time they were getting sued for refusing to serve black people, but the three of us were Swiss, American/Irish, and English respectively so we weren’t all that worried. It took over 20 minutes for the waitress just to come and take our order, during which time they didn’t ask us if we wanted something to drink. After we’d been waiting 45 minutes with no food (we did, IIRC, have drinks) I got up and found a waitress and asked if we could please get our food.
What really bugged us what that the restaurant was almost completely empty, and they never once acknowledged our presence beyond taking our order and serving drinks. As for one of the errands we had to run, the place we needed to go had closed by the time we finally got out. I don’t remember how much we tipped, but I know it wasn’t the usual 20% or so. I do remember that, as we were paying the bill, the waitress asked how things were. I told her. Gently, but bluntly, I told her. One other irony – that restaurant was later sued for refusing to serve a black family. When I read about this, I was thinking that it was more general incompetence rather than racism.
CJ
Oh! I’m remembering more bad service!
TWICE I’ve had rice served that wasn’t cooked properly - at two different venues. When it happened at my friend’s birthday dinner, I returned the meal, and had to put up with the staff acting like they thought I was being a big sook. A sweet mention that I nearly broke my tooth got a refund issued, but no apology. On top of the hard rice, the meal itself wasn’t nice at all. I couldn’t believe it when my friend took us back to that same resturant for her birthday the following year. To be fair, it was better the second time.
I get an upset stomach when I eat tomatoes, but I can’t resist eating them if they are served to me because I love them. Therefore, I have a policy of asking that no tomatoes be served as part of the meal when I order. This one time, I was ordering a dish that shouldn’t contain tomatoes, but I mentioned it as a precaution. The lady taking my order looked at me like I was an idiot, rolled her eyes and told me “There aren’t any tomatoes in that”. I was embarrassed (she was exchanging looks with the people behind me), and I muttered something about sorry, don’t worry about it, and went to my table. When my meal arrived, the side dish was fried tomatoes.
A chinese buffet in the Cool Springs area. I once had the only MSG attack of my entire life after eating lunch there and then another time the won-ton soup had something in it that I had in my mouth and ingested before I realized it. I have a very strong stomach but whatever this was (it tasted like a rotten creature of some kind with a little hair on it. i hope this doesn’t ring any bells) but I became quite faint and lost my appetite for the entire rest of the day. This was a few years back. The place is still in operation and I’ve not heard of any other reports, good or otherwise, but I ain’t going back!