# Your worst restaurant experiences ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 6, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596 "2009-05-06T22:06:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/101 "2009-05-08T08:26:52Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > FINE! > > It was bad in everyway expressed in this thread so far. > > - Wait time of an hour to get seated (they don’t have much competition there and so feel no need to staff I guess) > > - Expensive > > - Time to actually get food - another hour. > > - Bad tempered waitstaff. > > - Poor service. I actually had to go and get refills a few times and was yelled and glared at each time. EACH time. We were charged for each one. > > - I had steak and potatoes. The potatoes were cold and the steak was borderline uneatable. I managed to eat about a third of it and it was very tough but the other 2/3 was pure gristle/fat/whatever. > > … This has me slightly concerned. I have a reservation this fall to go hiking across the Grand Canyon, and I was lucky to get it. There’s an old lodge at the bottom, and they bring down food on the daily donkey express, so I also reserved a steak dinner. I hope the catering does not come from the Arizona Steakhouse. ---
**Author:** ![abel29a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@abel29a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel29a)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/102 "2009-05-08T11:11:05Z")
I think this is my only really negative experience, but its bad enough that it should last me quite a while 🙂 Was at a sea-side restaurant a few years back. Decided to sit outside to enjoy the view(about 10 tables or so were outside on a balcony of sorts). It had been a rainy day, so the people at the restaurant had put up a plastic sheeting earlier in the day to create a roof over the balcony. About ten minutes into the meal, just as I was manouvering a rather large helping of fries towards my mouth, the plastic ceiling caved in! Needless to say, there was a lot of water sitting on top of that plastic from earlier in the day, and I got instantly soaked 🙂 The worst part about it is that I was in a state of shock, so I proceeded to eat the now soggy wet fries still clinging to my fork - I can still remember the taste… ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/103 "2009-05-08T11:50:01Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > I used to be a waiter. No matter how bad they are (and thankfully that’s extremely rare) I don’t think I could ever leave nothing. Okay, you’re right… a kick in the beans would do it. I don’t believe it. You may tip 1% then, but you’d still tip. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/104 "2009-05-08T11:59:29Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > That’s rough, but please tell me that later in your visit you had several amazing meals in Spain, a country who provided me with several of the finest dishes that I have ever eaten… > > (though to me, Barcelona had better food in general than did Madrid) Hells yeah. 🙂 Madrid (with the exception of the Reina Sofia, anyway) was an awful experience, but we had only planned to stay there for a day anyway. But the rest of Spain was beautiful… some of the best meals I’ve ever had were in Cadiz, Ronda, Seville and Barcelona, and I’d happily do it again as long as I was flying into any airport but Madrid. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/105 "2009-05-08T12:04:39Z")
> [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](#): > > The bad one - was eating at a local greasy spoon Chinese place. As we were eating **we notice a cockroach** run out from under my plate and hide behind the salt shaker. Needless to say, my appetite was ruined and we never went back.\*\* As we were paying\*\* at the counter the hostess asked if we liked our meal. “Actually, it was not so good,” said my companion, “there was a cockroach on the table.” > > “Yes,” the hostess replied, “we sprayed the kitchen yesterday and they all come out.” The two segments I bolded confuse the heck out of me! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/106 "2009-05-08T12:19:00Z")
Again with the SIL in a Dunkin’ Donuts. We go in and the waitress asks if we want coffee. She wants coffee, I want tea. 10 minutes later the waitress brings two coffees. I say “Excuse me, I wanted tea.” She takes away the coffee and 10 minutes later brings my tea. We both order donuts–a crueller for me, chocolate frosted for her. The waitress leaves. Me: I betcha $100 she screws up the donuts. SIL: Sucker bet. I get my crueller, SIL gets a cremed filled with chocolate on top. She does her broad Swedish accent: Ezcuz me, I wanted a cho-c-olate topped dought-naught. I dought-naught plain with ze choc-o-late on top. Not with the filling. A hole in ze mittle and choc-o-late on top. Thirty-five minutes to get two donuts and a coffee and tea.l ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/107 "2009-05-08T13:46:28Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Tully\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@Tully\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tully_Mars)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/108 "2009-05-08T14:32:11Z")
This didn’t happen to me, but I was an amused observer: Essex House hotel, Lancaster, Ca. The only appealing thing about this place was that they had free continental breakfast at 6:00 AM. I could get a bowl of cereal and some coffee before heading off to work in the morning. I chose to skip the runny, watery scrambled eggs and the undercooked bacon in the chafing dish. An early sign that the place was in financial trouble was when they started cutting their breakfast pastries in half. The little danishes were only 3 inches in diameter in the first place. The buffet was attended by this surly Hispanic guy. He served up coffee refills with an attitude. The cash register (it was a free breakfast) was attended by an elderly lady with an attitude an and oxygen tube. On morning, a lady in typical business attire came down for breakfast. She put two halves of a danish on her plate and asked Mr. Surly if he could heat them up for her. “No,” was the reply. "Why not?’’ “Because everyone would want theirs heated if I did yours.” “But, it’s so stale,” she picked it up and dropped it onto the plate with a thunk. “They should be stale, they’re left over from yesterday.” She set the plate down on an empty table and stormed off to find a manager. I finished my coffee and left for work, so I didn’t see what happened next. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/109 "2009-05-08T14:45:17Z")
There are many great places to eat in Alexandria Bay, NY. One place we had never been was in the cutest little cottage right on James St. - I think you had to walk up some stone steps. It actually looks like someone’s quaint old fashioned parlor inside. The food was great, but it was August and there was no air conditioning. And the place just reeked. Like cat pee to the tenth power. (I don’t know that it was actually cat pee, but I noticed the same horrendous odor in an old, old hotel in Atlantic City. Humidity? Mold?) So there’s a dilemma about going back. Good things. Bad things. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/110 "2009-05-08T14:52:48Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I’d say the “venomous/non-venomous” part may be important, wouldn’t you? 😃 > > (Though I suppose few snakes that small would be, but still.) I’d be more concerned about the “poisionous/non-poisionous” part. After all, the snake head is unlikely to bite _you_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/111 "2009-05-08T15:56:47Z")
I don’t have any of my own but I worked in a hotel/restaurant. Sixpence None the Richer came in for breakfast back when Kiss Me and There She Goes were big. We had an inexperienced cook working by himself. Waitress took order in timely fashion and gave it to the cook. He proceeds to make each order one at a time. Meanwhile I’ve got banquet rooms to set up and I go away for maybe 30-45mins. When I come back to the kitchen for more supplies they still haven’t been served. They happened to be the only customers we had had at that point. I remember thinking I hope they aren’t going to be doing any talk shows soon. ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/112 "2009-05-08T16:00:21Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > Why? > > You don’t hope they punished the person who actually burned the kid, but you hope they financially destroy the people who own the restaurant? I don’t understand at all. THANK YOU! I was reading this thread waiting for someone to mention this. Wishing the demise of someone’s business because of an accident? A very serious one, yes but ruin them over an employee’s error? I was not getting on board with that wish at all. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/113 "2009-05-08T16:11:59Z")
Another time we had this very talkative, gossipy waitress. She had about 4 or 5 tables. She had a habit of not immediately putting orders into the kitchen. So she would get to gabbing and then realize, “Oh. I’ve got to put this order in.” Well she had one guy waiting for a while and he asked about his food as I was walking by. She said she forgot to put the order in and went to go do so. Some time after this I’m walking back through the restaurant and I hear her say, “Oh! I forgot about this order. Let me put this in.” Customer says to me, “I hope that’s not my order.” I go ask and I have to come back and tell him it is. He immediately starts packing up and gets up to leave. He is pissed off. Luckily for me GM is walking by and I explain the situation. She couldn’t even convince him to let us pay for a meal at another restaurant. He wanted nothing to do with us. No threats to tell all his friends not to eat here or anything. Damn! ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/114 "2009-05-08T16:17:20Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Again with the SIL in a Dunkin’ Donuts. We go in and the waitress asks if we want coffee. She wants coffee, I want tea. 10 minutes later the waitress brings two coffees. I say “Excuse me, I wanted tea.” She takes away the coffee and 10 minutes later brings my tea. We both order donuts–a crueller for me, chocolate frosted for her. The waitress leaves. > > Me: I betcha $100 she screws up the donuts. > SIL: Sucker bet. > > I get my crueller, SIL gets a cremed filled with chocolate on top. She does her broad Swedish accent: Ezcuz me, I wanted a cho-c-olate topped dought-naught. I dought-naught plain with ze choc-o-late on top. Not with the filling. A hole in ze mittle and choc-o-late on top. > > Thirty-five minutes to get two donuts and a coffee and tea.l Dunkin Donuts has waitresses now 😕 I know I have lived in CA for a while, but this is just bizarre! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/115 "2009-05-08T17:02:40Z")
Dunkie’s orginally had counters where you could sit down and be waited on. The cafeteria style service is more recent. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/116 "2009-05-09T02:31:39Z")
I thought I posted this one before, but I can’t find it, so here it goes: My mother and I were staying in Madrid and looking for a quick bite to eat one night, so we went to the restaurant on the corner of the street by the hotel. We sit down and order two items on the menu. Sorry, says the waiter, we don’t have those. Well, how about these other things, we ask? Nope, says the waiter. We leave. We go literally next door to the next cafe. And the exact same thing happens. We ask about several dishes on the menu, none are available. Again we walk out. We try the _next_ cafe down. No paella. No gazpacho. No pizza. No fish, no chicken, no salad. Well, what _do_ you have?, we ask. Garlic potatoes. So we order garlic potatoes and a bottle of wine for dinner. The plus side to this whole incident was I got to see my mother get drunk for the first time in my life because she felt we had to finish the two dollar bottle of wine they gave us. We both got the giggles and staggered back to our hotel, laughing about the night Madrid ran out of food. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/117 "2009-05-09T05:57:56Z")
We were invited to a birthday dinner for a friend at an Olive Garden. It was 45 minutes from home and it decided to snow that night. Visibility was way down by the time we get there. So we show up in time to squeeze into the waiting area with half the city. (why is this restaurant so insanely popular? why?) Our group waited over an hour and a half for the table. They seated us and the server disappears. We got to order drinks 15 minutes later. 15 minutes after that the drinks show up and we get to order. The salad arrives in a timely manner but the food takes another 45 minutes. No one should be forced to spend three hours in an Olive Garden. To be fair, they were busy, but still. I hate eating around here. It’s either insanely crowded mediocre chain food or bad Chinese or $60/plate spendy food. We always seem to end up at the same independently owned Mexican place. I’m getting tired of Mexican food. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/118 "2009-05-09T06:52:14Z")
This was really mild - probably not the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had, but one that I remember because of the nature of the apology… It wasn’t a fancy restaurant, it was a Nandos. I ordered my meal with the “upgrade”, which was caramelised onions. We paid, sat down, the meal came out sans upgrade. Reviewing our receipt, turns out they didn’t charge me for it either so I figure the server simply forgot to add it. No big deal at all, particularly considering how new the restaurant was and therefore how inexperienced the staff were. I asked the man at the counter about it (he happened to be the manager), and he was very polite and friendly and took the meal back, added the upgrade and refused to charge me for it although I said I expected to pay. I thanked him sincerely, because I didn’t expect that. Then he soured my impression by mentioning that the lady who took the order was adamant that I did not ask for the upgrade when I made my order and that he believed her but hey, he was going to give it to me for free anyway. I guess I was supposed to think he was a good guy for that, but I was annoyed that he was acting like I was getting away with something when I damn well did order the upgrade in the first place - my friend confirmed that I did. I wasn’t looking for a freebie, I would have been happy to pay, I just wanted the damn caramelised onions without a side of The Waitress Says You’re A Liar. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/119 "2009-05-09T08:05:27Z")
I have had a few really bad experiences, from the time my family (extended so there were about 15 of us) went to a very nice expensive place, paid a fuckload of money for some really great food, we walked outside and 3 of us at the same time said “that was nice, what are we having for dinner?” the portions were child sized. the worst though, hands down. Burger King in Renton, I was starving with that post work out hunger you get and knew there was nothing at home but cold cereal so I stopped for a whopper and fries. The food poisoning was truly spectacular, at one point 2 things happened simultaneously that had never happened to me before, 1 I went to use the restroom at a subway (hey I thought they had chicken soup) because I had to fart and at this point I trusted my asshole about as far as I could throw it. thank god I didnt try to squeeze that one out at the table, I swear a gallon or more shot out of my ass in the space of 1/10th of a second. 2 I achieved self propelled lift off. ---
**Author:** ![Anduinel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Anduinel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduinel)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596/120 "2009-05-09T08:46:21Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Awww. Poor baby mousie! My reaction as well. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-restaurant-experiences-ever/495596.md?page=7)