Your worst restaurant experiences ever

Cafe Society
41

My SIL and I at a IHOP. We both ordered salads.

I watched the cook put the salads up about 10 minutes later. After they had sat there for 10 minutes, I told our waitress they were there. She ignored me. It took her 20 minutes more to bring them to us.

After we had finished eating, I tried to get the waitresses attention so we could order dessert. She ignored me. I finally wrote about how horrible and rude she was on the ticket. She saw me writing, came off, snatched it and read it. Then she commented very loudly on how rude we were to write her up.

We just looked at each other and then went to the cashier and paid. I said very loudly “That is one nasty waitress we had.”

42

Last summer, while on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.

GF and I had an awesome day, filled with shellfish in buttery sauces, fresh vegetables in buttery sauces, creamy chowders, sugary desserts, and lots and lots of wine. GF woke up at about midnight so aspirate vomitus. Repeatedly, violently, all night long. She spent the entire next day in bed in out darkened hotel room. She was such a sick little kitty.

She finally returned to the living at around 3pm, we went to the beach, then decided to grab a quick bite before going to the movies that night. Something light, inexpensive, quick, and wholesome. And no wine!

There’s this place called Louis’s that I’ve been goig to for years. It’s more a favorite among the locals than the tourists, because it’s good and cheap. You can get anything from a salad to a fried shrimp dinner. The pizza is awesome. The dinner rolls are hard to describe, but orgasmic might be a good word. There’s no seating there, but if you’re lucky you can get a picnic table outside. And the place is always packed, because delicious food that’s inexpensive in a resort town is like gold.

So we got there to find an empty parking lot. Hey, great luck, right? And it looks like they renovated because now there was a full service sit-down restaurant section to it. Also completely empty. Hmm…

We went to the take out counter only to find out that their menu had completely changed. No more dinner rolls, no more salad bar, no more pizza. It had turned into a basic sub shop. The counter girl told us that they were under new management.

I ordered spaghetti with sausage, GF got an eggplant parm sub. My sausage was pretty much grade-C war surplus meat, and the sauce tasted like it came out of a ketchup bottle. The eggplant was like deep-fried dried-out paper. We figured that it had been sitting out for about a week. It was something I wouldn’t feed to a starving dog. GF’s appetite, naturally, went bye-bye.

When we went back in to throw out our trash, the counter girl asked how everything was. GF smiled and said fine. I said “Well, no, not really.” I’m not much of a complainer, but I saw no reason to pretend to be satisfied.

43

Many moons ago I used to regularly go with some co-workers to a cheap Chinese restaurant called “A Taste of China”. The food was pretty good and, best of all, it was cheap.

But after a while the place started to go downhill. The food was less good. Prices went up.

But the final straw was one particular day when picking up a bit of sechuan noodle I uncovered a sort of grave in the middle of my plate, with a BIG cockaroach entombed ceremonially in the centre.

After that, visits to “a Taste of Cockaroach” tapered off.

44

We went to a pub with another couple and their daughter (Barley Mow - local chain in Ottawa) for a snack. She and daughter ordered chicken nachos. When they came, the chicken looked a little funny, she poked it - it was mostly raw, with raw juice running down the nachos. She complained - no response from the waitress other than “oh” - grabbed the plate, took it back to the kitchen. A short time later - less than the amount it should take to make a new plate (which we thought was impressive - they seemed to rush to serve us…) -here comes the nachos. THE SAME NACHOS. The chicken had been lifted off, cooked, and laid back down on the now cold, raw-chicken-juice coated nachos. Complained to the waitress, she rolled her eyes, got the manager, who apologized and offered to NOT CHARGE FOR THE NACHOS. Not to replace them, not to beg us to not go the the city’s public health department, not offer a free meal - just taking the raw, salmonella-encrusted raw chicken juice nachos off the bill.

45

Those of you who waited for your meal/waitress to arrive/check to come why did you wait so long? I don’t understand sitting there for hours hoping someone remembers you’re there.

I’ve been a server. I can put up with a lot. But there is no excuse for ignoring a customer. Even if it’s a quick “Hi, I’ll be right with you” and she zooms on to another table with a tray full of food is sufficient. But to be kept waiting? Uh-uh…I’ve walked out after 10 minutes. I figure if you haven’t come by the table by the time I’m done perusing the menu and making my choice, you don’t deserve my money.

46

Usually, it’s because I’ve already waited 15 minutes or more for a table, and I know that every other restaurant is also packed to the rafters.

One time, though, my husband and I went to an Olive Garden (he loves their food, and I can tolerate their salad and chicken strips), waited for a table, shown a two top that would simply not hold our food all at once, and then shown to a fourtop. And we waited for about 15 minutes. We’re both diabetic, so we NEED to eat on a schedule, and both of us were kind of woozy feeling, so we really didn’t feel that we should drive anywhere. My husband tracked down the manager, who was VERY apologetic, seems that the hostess had seated us at a table which didn’t have a server assigned to it. So, our salad and breadsticks were rushed out, along with some tea, which we doctored pretty heavily with sugar. My husband’s entree was free, as an apology. The manager was the one rushing out the salad, drinks, and breadsticks, and our server was very quick, once she was assigned to the table.

A horror story: There used to be a cafeteria chain called Wyatt’s, and I used to eat at one particular location a lot. Until the day when I split open my roll, intending to butter it, only to find a LARGE cockroach (couple of inches long) baked into it. I put down my roll, called the manager over, told him that I had lost my appetite and was NOT gonna pay for anything. I had taken a couple of sips from my iced tea, but fortunately hadn’t taken a bite out of anything. The manager was very sorry, assured me it wouldn’t happen again. I made sure it didn’t happen again by never darkening their doors again.

47

Somebody’s recently had a bad restaurant experience.

48

I was working in Romania back in about 1991, when food was in short supply and restaurants only stocked enough food to feed people who had reservations. Three of us took a chance and went to a hotel to eat. Two waiters to came to our table, one of whom spoke marginal English. The conversation went something like this:

Waiter: Hello sirs! What you like?
Me: A menu to start.
W: No menu! What you like?
Me: How about a steak?
W: No steak! What you like?
Me: well, what do you have?
W: We have everything! What you like?
Me: Ummm…fish?
W: No fish! What you like?
Me: No fish, no steak? What DO you have?
W: We have everything! What you like?
Me (fading): Chicken?
W (and all three of us in unison): No chicken! What you like?

We left hungry.

49

Cheeseburger in Paradise on Maui.

The wait was going to be 45 minutes so we tried to get a seat at the bar. After about 20 minutes, finally got a seat only to be told we couldn’t stay there since daughter was underage. So we took our drinks and tried to stand by the door since the place was so crowded. Now they wouldn’t let us stand outside since we had drinks. So we scrunched in elbow to elbow and waited.

Finally seated to our table. We wait for our waiteress, and she takes our drink order. Then the table next to us is seated with almost a dozen people. They take their drink order. Then they bring their drinks. They take their food order. Then they bring their food. They finish their meal. They take their dessert order. They bring their dessert. These people finish their dessert and ask for their check. THEN our waitress brings us our drinks and asks if we’d like to order our fucking food.

It was the smallest tip I’ve ever left and I told her EXACTLY why she was getting 5% when I normally left 20.

50

One that stands out in my mind: I hadn’t eaten breakfast, it had been a long morning, and I was hungry. My co-workers decided that we would all have lunch at a restaurant we’d never been to before, a place called Otto & Thibodeaux’s. Nice enough place, it appeared, although busy. So I ordered chicken and a baked potato, and waited.

Everyone’s food arrived. Being very hungry indeed, I tore in, only to realize on first cut that the chicken was only marginally cooked on the outside; the inside was still quite pink, quite cold, and quite gross. sigh. Now, we only had an hour break for lunch, and it took half an hour for the food to arrive, so time was running short. I try and fail to get the waiter’s attention. Finally, one of my co-workers snagged him and I let him know that my chicken isn’t cooked. Without apology, he grabbed the plate and disappeared, leaving me without even my baked potato to eat. I was still, I remind you, very hungry.

He never returned. We went up front to pay, since our lunch break was over, and I, the hungriest guy in the party, never got to eat a bite. Finally, the waiter reappeared and said that next time I came in, I’d eat free. Since the restaurant closed down within a month, I never got to take advantage of that. Oh well.

51

Bolding mine.

I’m just amazed at the number of people who will apparently wait incredible lengths of time for food that never appears. I start to get antsy if the food isn’t out after 20 minutes or so, and after half an hour i will generally ask (politely) how long it’s going to be.

52

I’ve been lucky with restuarant experiences the worse I’ve had was late bacon with my breakfast.

At a Denny’s I have never been back to the ex and I went for a late breakfast. The wait was short and soon the food arrived excpet for her bacon. I had recieved my bacon but hers was absent. We flagged the waitress and asked her for the bacon and she said it would be right out. Eventually we had finished our meal and the bacon never made it out to us and the waitress had disappeared because as we were eating we kept looking around for her. So since we hadn’t seen the waitress since she dropped off our food we figured it would be along wait for the check so we just got up and went to the cashier who luckily enough turned out to be the manager.

As we were telling him that the ex had never recieved her bacon the waitress, right on cue, comes out from the kitchen holding something in her hand. She comes up to us, hands us a papertowel with something wrapped in it and says, “Here’s your bacon be careful it’s still hot.” and promptly turned and walked back to the kitchen.

The manager, the ex and I stood there for a few seconds with a stunned look on our faces. Then the manager apologized to us and told us that our meal was free.

53

Amen. It’s amazing how many are so passive in response to shite treatment that runs longer than a Lord of the Rings flick.

54

Jeez, what’s it take for you to tip nothing, a kick in the beans?

55

Three posts in a row, but I realized I’ve got to take this space to commend my folks - the king and queen of walking out of restaurants. When you read these horror stories, their’s really seems the best tactic. After all, if the restaurant fucked up so bad with their first go, why should they be held hostage for their second and third attempts? From Pizza Huts to linen table cloth fine dining, my parents have a long history of folding their cards and leaving. They don’t sneak; they politely inform the manager of their decision - but they do not pay, not even for the drinks. No manager has ever questioned this, either.

56

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.

57

Heh, good sport.

58

This restaurant sucks. They kick you in the beans on your way out. And the kicks are so lackluster!

59

Great thread. I guess I’ve been lucky, since I don’t have much to add to it.

Back in the eighties, Grandma and I had gone through a Wendy’s drive-through for lunch. When we got home and opened a cup of chili, we found it smothered in tarnished green staples. There was no attempt to hide them, just a couple handfuls of loose staples sitting on the top. My grandmother “doesn’t like to make a fuss”, so we never pursued that any further.

Then there was the time my brother and I were sitting in a booth at Denny’s facing our mom. She was talking and we were listening when suddenly she noticed our gazes switch from her face to her shoulder. A giant cockroach had strolled over from the next booth and was attempting to board. Suddenly Mom was airborne and much louder. Y’know what, maybe that’s not such a bad restaurant memory after all. :slight_smile:

My worst restaurant experience isn’t so much the restaurant’s fault; it’s just not a place I like to go. The first time I ever went to Outback was just after my daughter was born. It was so loud and everyone was packed in like sardines. The baby started crying, so I had to take her outside and sit with her, and I was so depressed in general I just decided to cry along.
The only other time I’ve been to Outback, it was the same, hideously loud and so crowded you could hardly lift your fork without bumping some stranger’s elbow.

60

My husband and I went out to dinner before going to the theater, in Manhattan. We decided to go to Les Halles, on Park Avenue, because it was near both of our offices and it was early enough for us to get to Times Square in time. We were the only customers in the place and we ordered and had to wait for some time. I figured it was because I ordered cassoulet, one of my favorite dishes ever, so we weren’t too annoyed. Finally, the food came and I happily dug into my cassoulet–to find that it was frozen in the middle. So they took it back to heat it up, which took even more time, and we had to rush to get to the theater on time. So, suck on it, Anthony Bourdain.

Years later, we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant with our kids. The food was always good, almost Chinatown quality. Our elder son loves moo shu pork, so we ordered some and helped him eat it. We all got sick afterwards. Fortunately, our son had the least serious case, but I was sick for a month. The doctor figured it was because I have acid reflux, and it started a chain reaction of some kind that just wouldn’t quit. We’ve been trying to find a good Chinese restaurant near our home in NJ, but they’ve all been bad take-out quality, and sometimes I think we should just try the old place, just one more time . . . and then I remember being sick for a month and get over it.