# What's the Worst Thing You Ever Ate at a Restaurant? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [November 3, 2022, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287 "2022-11-03T13:23:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/101 "2022-11-04T11:39:24Z")
> [@pipperroo](#): > > also, the bathrooms did not have a changing table for my baby, were not very clean, and had concrete floors that were slippery when wet. There’s a Chinese restaurant I’ve been to a few times. Great food, but the men’s room cracks me up. Over the sink is a hand written sign that says, “hot water HOT”. The first time I ate there I went to the men’s to vape. Curious, I turned on the hot water. It was the hottest water I’d ever experienced out of a tap. Every time we go there I check out the bathroom. Same sign, same crazy-hot water. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/102 "2022-11-04T12:11:36Z")
Before we recently moved 20 miles away, we had a nice neighborhood sushi place - it was good, if not great, and we could walk there from our house (resulting in a few 3 sake bottle nights). One day, they had a special roll with “Okra tapanade”. I know okra has a reputation for being slimy but I usually have it in gumbo or fried and always thought that was an exaggeration. Well, I got my roll and the top was like a snail had shit out okra all over a perfectly decent tuna roll. I mean, the level of mucus was incredible. We always ate at the sushi bar and the sushi chef noticed I couldn’t finish it, asked if I liked it and I was almost speechless. He then admitted he really didn’t like okra himself. I was like "WHY? did you make a special with it? Learned my lesson, will stick with gumbo and fried okra going forward. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/103 "2022-11-04T12:31:01Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I think there might even have been pickled meat. Mmmm, corned beef, pastrami, ham, bacon. Yes, of course they pickle meat. I visited St Petersburg in the oughts, and i didn’t care for the food, either. Although i guess my complaint was that and awful lot of it was swimming in mayonnaise, which i don’t care for. We did have a really memorable delicious roast chicken we purchased at a food truck. ---
**Author:** ![CorpusNeptune](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corpusneptune/32/17561_2.png) [@CorpusNeptune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CorpusNeptune)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/104 "2022-11-04T13:03:08Z")
I had [Swimm’n Chick’n at Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells](https://www.wildernessresort.com/dining/swimmn-chickn/) a few weeks ago when I was up there. The chicken was pretty good, but it gave me pretty bad heartburn, which is weird because I pretty much never get heartburn. It really sucked to deal with. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/105 "2022-11-04T13:36:33Z")
My ex once added chili powder to a family favorite Chili Verde dish and it was so gross that I could not eat it. And I was hungry. It became a running joke, which makes it easy to remember. A bite of kangaroo at the garlic festival was pretty disgusting. Blech. Never want to try that again. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/106 "2022-11-04T13:41:24Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I once drove half way across the country and back with somebody who only wanted to eat at Cracker Barrels. The mediocrity of it was excruciating. Every meal was “I’ll eat this, but I’m not ordering it again.” I think I ended up hating most of the menu before we got home. I think of Cracker Barrel as old people food. I don’t go there very often, but their breakfasts are pretty good and I almost always order the blueberry pancakes. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/107 "2022-11-04T13:44:10Z")
I believe this is a statistical anomaly but I have eaten three times at Outback Steakhouse (three different locations in three different states) and threw up after each meal. I’ve ordered different entrees, didn’t drink alcohol, so I’ve ruled out any one “bad item”. There is an Outback Steakhouse about 5 miles from my house and I am so tempted to give them one more try. Am I asking for trouble, or is 4 times the charm? ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/108 "2022-11-04T14:45:39Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > I believe this is a statistical anomaly but I have eaten three times at Outback Steakhouse (three different locations in three different states) and threw up after each meal. I think we are both outliers, but on different sides of the curve. I’ve eaten at about 3 Outback’s (several times over a few years at one of them) and never gotten a badly cooked steak! I can’t explain it. I guess my worst meal, or at least the one I remember, was at a plated banquet at one of the first scientific conferences I ever attended. No one expects much beyond mediocrity, but I remember being served, tasting the meat, and remarking to my table mates that the lamb seemed to be a little off. Everyone looked at me and one said, gently, “That’s because it’s prime rib.” It was grey and tasted like bad lamb… Of course, my mother will tell you one of the worst meals I ever ate was breakfast one morning at the ranch we used to visit. I was probably about 5 years old, and my little sister and I were up before anyone else and hungry. So, I got out a box of cereal, milk, and a couple of bowls. When I poured the cereal into the bowl, it was apparent that some bugs had invaded the cereal. When my mother and the lady of the house came into the kitchen, they found us happily chowing down on bug filled bowls of cereal. As they hauled us off to the bathroom and started sticking fingers down our throats, I tried to explain that we weren’t eating bugs, we were eating _around_ the bugs (that being my solution to the problem). ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/109 "2022-11-04T15:10:13Z")
I haven’t decided on my answer yet- but are we talking about worst tasting as in " There is no way to cook [andouillette](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andouillette) that tastes good" or as in " That was he worst fried chicken I’ve ever had" ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/110 "2022-11-04T15:20:21Z")
It can be either. This thread is broadly defined. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/111 "2022-11-04T15:25:18Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > I don’t get how Panera Bread stays in business. Soup in a bread bowl, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/112 "2022-11-04T15:32:13Z")
A few options: - The time I ordered a salad with grilled eggplant, and the eggplant had turned. I don’t know if it was deliberately fermented, but it was definitely fermented, and not in a tasty way. - The pizza parlor in San Francisco that thought Pillsbury refrigerated rolls + ketchup + Velveeta was close enough to pizza to work. Oddly, it ain’t. - The time I was at a sushi restaurant and was served the coagulated phlegm from Bugs Bunny’s lungs after he died of pneumonia. They told me it was uni, but I know better. (To be fair, I think it was probably excellent uni, if you want to eat sea urchin gonads; I found it revolting). - The second time I was served said phlegm, because I couldn’t believe it was as bad as I remembered. It was. But the worst was in Utah. We’d just visited one of the amazing national parks, and we went to a diner for breakfast while we decided our next move. Bacon and eggs is a safe order, right? Well, no. It took nearly an hour for them to bring us our food, despite the diner being nearly empty; and when they brought it out, the fried egg whites were mostly raw, and the bacon was almost completely raw. The meal was so bad that we left most of it on the table, got in the car, and drove to Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/113 "2022-11-04T15:35:10Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > I guess my worst meal, or at least the one I remember, was at a plated banquet at one of the first scientific conferences I ever attended. No one expects much beyond mediocrity, but I remember being served, tasting the meat, and remarking to my table mates that the lamb seemed to be a little off. Everyone looked at me and one said, gently, “That’s because it’s prime rib.” It was grey and tasted like bad lamb… Banquet food is a whole different animal. I learned very early on in my coaching career to become vegetarian or Jewish when it came to awards banquets. At least then you had a fighting chance of getting something that resembled real food. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/114 "2022-11-04T15:36:06Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > (To be fair, I think it was probably excellent uni, if you want to eat sea urchin gonads; I found it revolting). I’ve tried every offering at many sushi restaurants. The only thing I don’t like is uni. I’ve ordered it three times, three different places, because I didn’t want to write it off if the restaurant didn’t prepare it well. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/115 "2022-11-04T15:40:53Z")
I’ve never had pickled potatoes, and certainly not pickled then fried ones. They sound like they could be pretty good, but I can imagine them being bad too, depending on the pickling and frying. I wasn’t being facetious- your description of undercooked meat, grated vegetable crap, beet juice, and caviar made me wonder if maybe the fried pickled potatoes were the highlight of the meal and it went downhill from there. > [@jnglmassiv](#): > > In Zurich, Switzerland, traveling with a coworker, late night McDonald’s. It was the only place open that took credit cards. We had just arrived that day and were only going to be there a couple days so we were avoiding buying Swiss Francs. I got some fossilized chicken wings and ‘fries’ that were sort of dissicated potato wedges with a scant sprinkle of Lawry’s seasoned salt, both terrible. My companion declared his Big Mac ‘god awful That’s kind of strange… I’ve had McDonald’s in several countries, and they’re all peculiarly, relentlessly exactly the same as everywhere else. They may have things like the “Lamb McSpicy” or other local specialties, but if you get a Big Mac, fries and a Coke, it’s going to be just like everywhere else. The chicken wings I guess could have been victims of the heat lamp, but the fries not being standard McDonald’s fries is unusual in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/116 "2022-11-04T15:42:02Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Bacon at a Waffle House God knows where. It was burnt to being black as charcoal. Makes up for the raw sausage I got as part of my Denny’s Grand Slam. The once every other decade I am forced to eat at a Denny’s it’s pancakes only. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/117 "2022-11-04T15:42:49Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > vegetarian or Jewish when it came to awards banquets. At least then you had a fighting chance of getting something that resembled real food. Let me guess - pasta, right? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/118 "2022-11-04T15:47:50Z")
Or fresh vegetables. In any case not rubber chicken and canned veggies. Same trick I used when I was flying across the country a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/119 "2022-11-04T15:51:43Z")
> [@bump](#): > > The chicken wings I guess could have been victims of the heat lamp, but the fries not being standard McDonald’s fries is unusual in my experience. Were those chicken wings or Chicken McNuggets? I wasn’t aware McDonald’s sold chicken wings. Was this maybe a counterfeit McDonald’s? I understand that’s more of an Eastern Europe thing though. Unlikely that there would be one in Switzerland. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287/120 "2022-11-04T15:53:16Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > I’ve eaten at about 3 Outback’s (several times over a few years at one of them) and never gotten a badly cooked steak! I can’t explain it. I’m probably also an outlier because I’ve eaten at 2 Outbacks and the first one was the best steak I’ve had at a restaurant. The other one wasn’t bad either. (I’ve cooked myself a steak that was even better, once, but I am not a good enough cook to replicate it at will.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-you-ever-ate-at-a-restaurant/974287.md?page=7)