And the jamocha shakes - yum!
Stanley Tucci and some Hollywood friends (incl. Meryl Streep IIRC) made the exact same mistake while traveling through rural France, as he explains in a funny story in his (very enjoyable) book Taste: My Life Through Food. He hints that the owner of the restaurant knows that tourists always make that mistake, and is secretly pleased to see their appalled-but-trying-to-be-polite reaction to the dish.
I actually don’t dislike Arby’s. I haven’t been to one in a long time just because there aren’t any all that close to me, but I liked them well enough the last time I went to one.
Ah. The Western Bacon Cheeseburger (if they still have it ) is one of my fast food guilty favorites. I can remember eating one when I was driving to a Bob Seger concert at the Fabulous Forum (got last minute tix from a friend). Didn’t lose a drop. Of course, I wasn’t driving a stick at that time.
I almost couldn’t think of an example, but the posts about Arby’s reminded me of Roy Rogers, which, the couple of times I’ve had it, tasted like an Arby’s burger that had been left to cure a couple days too long. Ironically, if they made a cheesesteak out of their meat it might taste very good, but I am not prepared to taste any sort of gaminess when eating a beef sandwich per se. I’ve even gone back, thinking it was an anomaly, since why would people willingly eat there if it was that bad, and the food looks good and otherwise “feels” fresh, but no, that’s what their beef apparently tastes like.
My latest mistake was trying a Poke bowl at a low volume counter service restaurant. The sobu noodles were old, the fish questionably fresh and the spice profile and oil unfortunately chosen. Wrong restaurant on the wrong coast. Really, I think the concept should stay on Hawaii.
Another I remember is a Pesto and Noodle dish. Homemade noodle as thick as a thumb and undercooked. Pretty sure I do not like pesto except a little bit on crackers with great cheese plate. I love fresh basil and basil in Pho but not an abundance of it.
The Western Bacon Cheeseburger is still a staple at Carl’s. $4.69 with a coupon from the current flyer.
Arby’s used to be a go-to, but I’ve boycotted them ever since they ditched the Arby-Q sandwich and skin-on fries. Almost monthly they’d run a 5 for $5 special on the Arby-Q, and they reheated quite nicely in the micro.
This may be mine as well. They had a “pizza bar”, with different variations of the worst pizza I’ve ever et. And yes, I had the mac & cheese pizza.
And this is my other one. A Small Mom and Pop diner in upper Michigan (Oscoda, I think) where I stopped for breakfast about 40 years ago. I still remember the cold, hard toast and the slime of the eggs.
mmm
I once ordered a pickled lime at an Indian restaurant. It was the saltiest thing I have ever tasted, and I once ate a big, heaping bowl of salt.
Do I understand that sign correctly? You can trade chickens for guns? (Or vice versa?)
I just got back from two weeks in Louisiana, and it’s amazing how many places down there sell used tires, often in combination with other stuff like food, as you mention. I don’t think you could even buy a used tire here at home (Massachusetts).
Huh, i might like that. Well, i don’t do shots, and don’t like vodka, but i do like chicken jelly.
My worst dish…
The most disappointing was sweetbreads. It didn’t have much flavor, but the texture was incredibly disgusting. Like little bits of brain or liver enveloped in a sea of translucent goo. I wasn’t able to get it down.
I suppose two other memorably bad dishes were some mystery meat at a buffet in the Czech republic, and breakfast at a Japanese bed and breakfast.
The mystery meat was largely broken bones. But what bothered me was the weird, funky, musty flavor. The Japanese breakfast was tea (good) white rice (unexceptional) bits of strong pickles (not to my taste, but i ate them) and a tiny plastic container of natto. There are people who love natto. But it is gray, and has the texture of snot, and smells nasty. It’s one of the very few foods i haven’t been able to put in my mouth. So i gave it whoever sat next to me, who was happy for it. And i had a profoundly unsatisfying breakfast of white rice.
It is, indeed, quite salty. I usually eat just a little bit of it every few bites of an Indian dish.
Oh, yes, he would have. 
Oregon is also an open-carry state, so I’m quite used to seeing people with their hunting rifles slung over their shoulders during deer season out here in the sticks. I’m not bothered by that in the least.
Nonetheless, it was disconcerting to see someone fussing with eggs and hash browns at a grill with that big ol’ pistol prominently displayed, evidently for the benefit of less-than-savory customers who might be entertaining thoughts of grit 'n split, I guess.
Let’s just say it didn’t foster a warm sense of coffee and community. My husband and I roared about it when we got home. And then ate a proper home-cooked breakfast!
Mine was in Hoi Anh in Vietnam. It was a chicken curry and this was one thin chicken, and they only served the joints. The rice was burnt and ruined (somehow). I complained about the chicken.
“Ah but the bones represent strength!” I was told upon complaining.
“They don’t represent food though, do they?”
Now it would take a lot for me to negotiate down the price in a local restaurant in a developing world country. But they actually seemed happy to get half the price off of me and my friends.
I had some of the best and the worst food I’ve ever eaten in Vietnam. But the bad food was usually local specialities. Like the one remote village where we had to order by imitating the noise of the animals to much laughter all round. But at least the bad food was well intentioned.
The bone chicken was taking the Michael.
The Arby’s near us is fairly reliable if you stick with their basic roast beef sandwich, but when they get into more exotic fare, like the brisket, you’re taking a risk. Unfortunately, we don’t have many choices within a reasonable driving distance.
Not quite a restaurant: durian fruit, sort of processed, in a tube, from a Malaysian street vendor. Tasted like vomit
Restaurant: Sushi restaurant, sea urchin. Tasted like the chlorinated glop in your swimming pool filter
For me, it’s the opposite. The roast beef has been disappointing the last few times I’ve been there over the past twenty years. The other stuff, like the brisket sandwich, is reasonable. The roast beef just tastes like reheated deli roast beef on a bun to me. When I rarely go there, it’s for anything but their roast beef. I do remember liking it in the early 90s, so maybe my tastes have changed.
Poke has become a fast food staple in some areas of L.A. I’ve had some really good ones. Lots of mid-range restaurants have versions on their menus, too.
I had a burger at a McDonald’s in Mississauga, Ont. There was so much salt on the burger it crunched. They claimed that the recipe called for that much salt and they were required to follow the recipe. I think the only reason they had customers is because it was a “playland” and the local families had few places to take their children to use up their energy (why we were there).
The absolutely worst thing I have been give was fried chicken at a Church’s in GA. The chicken had been abused before it was killed and the breast meat was horribly bruised. Hard to believe nobody caught it as they were prepping it for sale. I think the employees just didn’t care and had shrinkage problems. It was a single bite, spit back into the box. Unfortunately, we were on our way someplace so I was eating in the car. I didn’t bother to get my money back but I also make sure I never go to a Church’s and that my friends don’t either.
I don’t think I’ve seen used tires at a regular tire shop here (California), not that I’ve looked for them, but I have seen them at junk yards like Pick-N-Pull. Which makes sense; if a car comes into the yard with tires on it that still have a lot of life left, they might as well resell them to someone who can use them.
They don’t sell food, though, so I will end the hijack.