Thats how I remembered it. It was in a restaurant that had a very young chef who kept the kitchen filthy. The first thing Ramsey did was shut down the kitchen and bring in cleaning supplies and cleaned it top to bottom. When he came back several months later it was disgusting again with rancid food in the refrigerator. The owner decided to shut the kitchen for good and stick with just the bar.
Alice must eat in different restaurants then me. I find I have to bump up the order one notch to get the steak I want. I can’t stand undercooked or raw food. If I want a medium steak in a restaurant I usually order medium well and it will be close. Often a medium is mostly raw. If it is very under cooked I will send it back. Doesn’t happen very often.
Sometimes my wife has to send things back because of how they are garnished. She will die if she eats a strawberry. You can find them in some weird places. Sometimes we forget to mention it and out it comes. It takes some convincing to get them to realize that pushing it off the plate isn’t enough. If she eats something that came in contact with a strawberry she will probably not die but will be very uncomfortable. At a restaurant we like they came out with a meal that had strawberries as part of the garnish. Not a meal you would expect to have them on. The waiter was very understanding. But we saw him arguing with the owner about it. He finally was convinced that pushing it off the plate was not enough. The waiter made sure to keep the original meal on the counter within our sight while another one was made. He got an extra big tip. It is amazng how unimformed some people in the food business are about food allergies.
I threw up pretty much immediately after drinking absinthe. In my friend’s sink.
I only remember sending food back like once. First they brought me out the completely wrong dish and it was something I disliked immensely so I sent it back. I twiddled my thumbs and told everyone else I was with to please eat. My meal finally came out…and it was cold. Not a little cold, but felt like fridge cold almost, and it was chicken parmesan and baked potato, both supposed to be hot. Sent it back. Came out hot but didn’t taste that great since they just nuked it. They comped the meal because it took like an extra 20 minutes and was messed up again. Everyone else was done eating by the time I got my food. I just think I won’t eat there anymore, because that place is hit or miss anyway and it was a reasonably bad miss.
I should have sent steak back a few times…usually for being overdone which I deal with (like mine medium) but once it came to the table rare. I ate the more-done edges and gave the rest to my friend’s dad, who loves his steak still mooing and he was paying for the meal anyway. I just didn’t feel like making a fuss.
Hm, once I sent back a steak absolutely slathered in the optional sauteed muchrooms and onions, something I would never order as I am deathly allergic to mushrooms … and the server even put it in correctly. We think since someone else delivered it to the table they simply grabbed the wrong steak.
I have sent back a steak that came out well done, I order it extremely rare so it wasnt simply a case of it was a little bit more done than I asked for - ill eat a medium but that is as burned as I will tolerate.
I sent back a batch of beef ribs when I had ordered pork ribs. I like the same species to get served… I would have found pulled pork bbq acceptable as an oops though that same place used to have some of the best bbq lamb [which they no longer make, BOOOOO!] that would have made an oopse that I would have found acceptable=)
I did accept a lamb dish that was accidently swapped out for a different and more expensive one, though they offered to bring me the correct one. I think I had actually inadvertantly hijacked someone elses dish as i had been told that htey had sold out of that dish. Cant remember the name of it, but the jalisco regional version of lamb shanks done sort of as osso bucco. Phenomenal!
Forgot to answer the second part. If I throw up it is because of an illness. I don’t think I have ever had food poisoning (usually an illness that bounces from person to person, not all at once). I have never gagged on anything. There have been a few times when I have been so disgusted with a meal that I lose my appitite and don’t bother sending it back.
I couple times. Thinking back, all from the same restaurant but over a number of years.
Once was an overcooked steak (well done when I asked for medium rare) and by the time my steak came back properly cooked, my friends were done eating.
Another time was a really spicy salad. I can handle a little spice but this was more than I could eat, and I was trying to eat it because it was what I had ordered but the waitress saw me trying to choke it down and offered to bring me something else so I took her up on the offer. They didn’t charge me for the first meal.
My Dad has no issue with returning anything that he doesn’t like, but it’s not often IME eating out with him.
As to being ill, it’s only happened awhile after eating and only once or twice I can think of.
I think the only time I’ve ever sent food back was due to a miscommunication - I wanted quiche without ham, and the waiter thought I wanted quiche WITH ham. (I’m a vegetarian.) I was in Albania and my Albanian consists of “yes” and “thank you”, so I was kind of at a loss. Fortunately this was at a French patisserie, the owner was actually French, and one of my friends spoke French. She explained what had happened and I quickly had a new, hamless quiche.
I really highly recommend looking up the French patisserie if you ever find yourself in Tirana, in fact. Great place. Because of the severe lack of street signs and numbers, kind of difficult to find, but worth it.
Other than that, I guess I’m either lucky or not picky.
And I almost never throw up. I have an iron stomach, I guess.
I’ve sent back meals on several occasions because of the hidden bacon problem (Jewish vegetarian = bacon is not an option) or the new problem I’ve been running into with vegetarian dishes, the hidden cilantro problem. I am to the point now where I ask “Is there cilantro in the ___?” and if the server is unsure, I ask them to ask the kitchen and still 50% of the time when I get assurances of “No, no cilantro,” I end up sending it back with a “Yes, yes cilantro, lots of horrid, evil cilantro which ruined that dish, argh!” Given how widely known it is (or should be, IMO) that cilantro tastes like burning soap to a not small number of people, I really wish chefs were more forthcoming about their use of it.
Otherwise the only other times I’ve sent things back were for adulterations with bugs: a roach in a piece of pie, that was really disgusting, (pies weren’t made on the premises at that restaurant, the bakery that supplied them was shut down less than a month later) a drowned fly in some potato salad, and one other adulteration, a staple in a salad. That was really worrisome.
As for Ramsay vomiting the seafood, my take was that the more he thought about the taste, he realized that the food was spoiled, and thought that getting it out of his system ASAP was preferable to waiting for bacteria-borne illness to set in. Maybe I’m remembering the wrong episode, but that seems reasonable to me.
About 50% of the time in fast food places. I always order plain, its pretty much a coin toss wether they actually make things plain or not so back it goes. Never at a sit down restaurant.
I once had a fly in my soup that I didn’t discover until after taking a couple of bites. When I showed the waitress, she took my soup and asked if I would like some more soup. Uh, no thanks.
Manager came and apologized, but didn’t comp any portion of the meal. I should have put up a bigger fuss, but the rest of the meal was fine. I guess I’m glad they didn’t charge me for the soup.
As long as I get what I ordered, and it isn’t worse than what mom could do, I’ll probably eat it but maybe not return to that establishment.
I will and have refused something that is supposed to be hot, and is cold. I’ll probably just leave at that point, and of course not pay. I don’t want what the cook is going to prepare for me after they or the server has already fucked up and I’ve pissed them off by sending it back.
99+% of the time they’re not going to deliberately fuck with your food, especially if they know they fucked up, but I’m not going to risk it if I’m not known at that restaurant.
If you’re the type who has watched too much Ramsay and throw a fit if everything isn’t perfect, well… good luck with that. You better be paying $200/plate if you want to be a prima donna.
In one of the British episodes, he mentions in passing that he’s been food poisoned 4 times on the show.
However, in the episode the OP is thinking of, its the American edition, and Ramsey just thinks its gross, not poisonous. I think it was staged, actually.
I have sent back food three times:
Ordered tuna “very very rare” and it came back completely cooked through and dry. As the meal was kind of a special event splurge for me, I wanted to enjoy it.
Chicken on the bone not fully cooked through. Hello Salmonella.
Steak ordered rare, served well well well done. I will eat overcooked steak it if it has any hint of pink to it, but this was beyond the pale.
I personally don’t remember ever sending food back myself. I like my steaks anywhere between medium and well-done, as long as it’s not dried up. If it’s dry, I’ll still eat it, although making a mental note to not order the steak there again. I usually order medium-well, and if the center is pink, and not too bloody, I’m happy.
S^Gal, on the other hand, likes her steak well-done, with no pink whatsoever. She’s sent steak back on a couple of occasions, because it was closer to a medium. One of those occasions, she had to send it back twice before it was properly cooked, and they knocked a bit off our bill.
Part 2: The vomiting thing; the closest I’ve gotten to vomiting immediately after eating something was when I was young. As a child, I loved brussel sprouts. It was pretty much the only vegetable I liked back then. One time, I was eating them, and had a whole one in my mouth, when I got a gag reflex that I ran to the washroom for, and spit it out, and almost puked.
I love brussels sprouts, but I think it’s how they were introduced to me. I love the taste of vinegar & salt, and mom wisely soaked them in vinegar & salt. That’s how she introduced me to cooked spinach too.
Since Hell’s Kitchen has the trashcan Gordon will spit out awful food into–I think it’s a bit showy. But! I did find on youtube one bit one time where he and some other guy I’ve never seen (a British show) were eating crazy stuff. Snake whiskey. Some buried Scandinavian fish thing. And Horse Penis.
and Gordon hurled and I do not blame him.
I have sent back chicken that was still cold in the middle b/c I don’t want to get sick. Generally, I just don’t eat whatever if it’s bad, and never go back again.
If the food was cooked all the way but cold when I got it, I don’t tip well.
I have a touchy digestive system (IBS or IBD, don’t remember which) and one of my triggers is black pepper. I always ask if a dish has black pepper, if it’s a new dish or new restaurant, and most of the time, I’ll get a straight answer. Sometimes, though, I get something that has been bombarded with pepper, and I have no problems sending it back. I have a similar problem with raw onions, but generally the server KNOWS whether a dish has onions in it or not.
I’ve thrown up a few times immediately after eating a trigger food, and also if I overeat. I don’t really overeat any longer, so now I just have to worry about trigger foods.
Every once in a while I send food back, but almost always it’s because what I received is not what I ordered. On Friday I was out for lunch, and had to send my lunch back before the waiter even put it on the table. I’m a vegetarian and the problem was with the side dish that they sent out with my sandwich (extremely yummy wild mushroom sandwich with brie and apple slices). The side dish they sent out was a soup that appeared to be chicken noodle, rather than the veggie friendly one that I’d ordered. The most frequent issue that I have actually, and it’s not super common, is that my meal appears with some kind of meat in it. As a result I do routinely check it out before I start eating. I’ve never had a problem getting my order corrected when there is an issue.
Lemme see, just a few times:
Once, I ordered a ham and cheese omelette and got a Western omelette. I don’t like green peppers. Back it went. (Turns out, the waitress had grabbed the wrong plate; presumably, the person who ordered the Western got my Ham and Cheese. . .)
Once when the baked potato was too cold to come anywhere near melting the butter I put on it
For Christmas, my sister gave us an Applebee’s gift card. When we went to use it, I ordered a steak, medium-well. I know it’s “cool” to order it very rare, but I don’t like it that way. When it came out, it was still mostly bloody.
I rarely send food back, but that’s because it’s not often that it fails to meet my expectations.
In the last couple of years I can remember only one occasion: back stage at the green room cafeteria in the Opera House. I got some steak which was so tough that it was inedible. I sent that back and changed my order to something else.
