For me, it’s cheesecake topped with graham cracker crumbs. It does taste okay, but the sandy topping means there’s no chance to enjoy the contrast between the crunchy crust and smooth filling.
I won’t be able to put my finger on this one, because I’m not really sure the proper way to prepare this dish but … Chicken Tikka Masala.
I saw it prepared on some food show or another - maybe Guy Fee-Eddy - I it sounded and looked delicious. I’d heard of it, but never seen it before. Sounded interesting. I found some Tikka Masala simmer sauce and gave it my best shot and it was really good, but I wanted it prepared like it’s supposed to be prepared. So I ordered some take-out from the one Indian restaurant in my town and I don’t know what the fuck I got. The sauce was some weird beige color and I got three souffle cups with some esoteric sauces that I had no idea what to do with. I started doing some dipping and then I figured maybe I was suppose to dump it all together and goulash that shit. Wasn’t a good idea.
Anyway, I still haven’t had it proper, just my shitty simmer sauce version.
Anything claiming to be one thing but not actually being that thing. For example, a Reuben is a very specific recipe calling for a very specific set of ingredients, prepared in a specific way. If I order one, I’m expecting a hot, grilled sandwich with corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing, on rye bread. If you bring me some bullshit with turkey and French dressing on a kaiser roll and try to tell me it’s “your” version of a Reuben, I’m going to tell you to shove it up wherever your species traditionally crams things.
Oatmeal cookies with raisins in them. Actually, any recipe that has raisins in it. I detest the little shriveled up grapes.
My wife is doing the Weight Watchers thing, so basically any recipe I make has to be made with low-fat or fat-free ingredients, which usually taste like ass compared to their fat-full counterparts.
I’ll begrudgingly allow some beans in chili but when you start putting crap like corn, or god forbid mushrooms in it, you no longer have chili. If the finished product is whitish in color, you also do not have chili. I mean, I guess you can call it whatever you’d like; I won’t be eating it.
Peas in guacamole. Grounds for leveling NYC.
I am mostly vegetarian, but I loves me a good Reuben. Arby’s offers a Reuben (of a fast food sort), but they put it on plain rye bread, not toasted or grilled or even warmed. For me, this ruins the sandwich. I’ll pass.
There’s a local fast food place that offers gyros, but they don’t have the cucumber sauce. What’s the point of that? I’ll pass.
Why bother offering stuff if you can’t be bothered to do it right?
Guacamole made with sour cream, mayonnaise, or godforbid yoghurt. There ought to be a law.
True. Also cranberries IN the stuffing. Yechh.
Chile with beans is a great dish, plenty of taste and fiber. But it needs to be so labeled.
Nuts in anything. It’s disconcerting to be eating a nice soft loaf or cake then have some weird crunchy thing in your mouth. Especially walnuts.
Corn in anything. Same kind of idea, you’re eating something nice then get this weird little thing that kind of explodes in your mouth.
^^ This, in the “recipe names mean something” sense. There is nothing I hate worse than carbonara with a cream-based sauce, or bolognese that is marinara with some meat thrown in, or a caesar salad with no anchovies, chicken on top, and something other than romaine lettuce. Can you make a really good pasta sauce with bacon, cream, and parmesan? You bet! But it ain’t carbonara so don’t call it that!
B’wha? People do that?
Stretchers and binders (bread crumbs, stale bread, eggs, etc.) in hamburgers and calling it “hamburger.” You’ve got a meatloaf there, son/lady. It may be tasty, but it’s not what I want when I want a hamburger. Do. Not. Put. Anything. In. My. Hamburger. But. Beef. OK, maybe I’ll make an exception for a Juicy Lucy or something like that (patty, cheese, patty smooshed together so when you bite in, you get an oozing cheeseburger sort of effect), but at least that’s labeled as a “Juicy Lucy” so you know what you’re in for. It astounds me how people can fuck up a simple dish like hamburger over and over.
Heh, carbonara is actually the second dish that came to mind for me, but I think we’ve lost that battle. 
I like a very simple ambrosia. It contains orange wedges (very carefully sliced out from the membrane divider-thingies so it is only the soft insides of the orange). It contains grated coconut.
Your favorite recipe may be just as time-honored, but if it calls for the inclusion of cherries, grapefruit, marshmallows (bleah!), or anything else that isn’t oranges and coconut, I will consider it ruined and I won’t be interested in eating it.
Celery in tuna salad. Bleach! Foul weed 
I don’t subscribe, so it won’t show it to me (and even if I use incognito mode, it’s smart enough to block me out), but I see the URL and I’m just shaking my head here.
Those were probably 3 kinds of chutneys, which one typically gets with all Indian food.
At the SDMB, ground zero for OCD-ness, not surprising. 
This is not a variation, but something I leave off-- Hollandaise sauce for eggs Benedict. That stuff is disgusting. I feel like I’m going to choke to death and have a heart attack every time I just look at it. Ruins good eggses, it does!!
I’ve found that if I don’t want it, I have to ask for it on the side (when ordering in a restaurant). If I ask then to hold it, there’s a good chance they’ll forget. The last time this happened, I scraped as much off as I could, and even though I got at least 90% of it off, it still ruined the eggs.
I do all kinds of variations on the typical Benedict accompaniments, like turkey or mushrooms or spinach, but no Hollandaise sauce, si vous plait!
A Monte Cristo is a savory sandwich. It has ham and turkey and cheese as a filling. Yes, the bread is dipped in egg batter and fried. But it is not French Toast. Do not serve it with jam or syrup.