Worst Restaurant Experience?

1) the UK - was in a cafe... Waited 20 mins for the waitress, finally arrives to start taking our order. Half way through, mobile starts raining in her pocket - she pulls it out, has conversation with some bloke she'd obviously just met, he was calling to ask for a date. She agreed to the date,most the phone back in her pocket and continued taking order, no apology or acknowledgement given.

2) parents owned a chipper next to Chinese takeaway 30 years ago - blocked drains, had to get the drain guys out. Next thing you know the drain guys are calling the inspectors - they found cat bits in the drains. They never told us until sister agreed to a debs date with the Chinese guys son...

3) pub in the UK, ordered lasagne - noticed bits of plastic wrap mixed into the sauce

4) cafe in Paris - waiter smirking at my bad French. Embarrassed, I went across the road to a Japanese place, my Japanese is better than my French thankfully

amdublin wrote: »

Not a gross story for the customers but gross on my part.


When I was 17 I worked in a really posh hotel restaurant. Myself and few of the other young waitresses used to eat off any uneaten food of the plates that looked nice before scraping the scraps into the bin.


Looking back how gross is that! At the time we were poor students and didn't give a sh1te.

Whats so bad about that? People are too obsessed with germs and hygiene these days, if Im in a restaurant and the table beside me leaves food that look tasty and hasn't been overly fingered/eaten then i take it when nobodys looking.

Brownie in starbucks this morning, some woman beside took two bites out of it and left. Its worth about 3 euro so wasnt letting it go.
In nandos last week a couple beside me left an almost full bowl of delicious chips behind, I took them from their table before the waitress cleared them away.

Visited a place in Smithfield recently for food before going to the cinema. Was really impressed at the menu in this place beside the cinema, great selection and the place seemed really busy. I ordered wings to share with my boyfriend and the steak sandwich. The wings were tasty and all was good. The steak sandwich came out and it was basically a burger with tiny bits of overcooked steak thrown in there. I couldn't tell the different between the steak and the chorizo (that's how overdone it was). The burger bun on top was SO stale. It was soft on the top and rock hard around the sides. It was also covered in this sauce (which wasn't as described on the menu) I couldn't even eat the 'Steak' sandwich. Such an insult to steak to be served up that crap. I never send food back but really felt it was unacceptable so I did. The staff were nice about it, but overdid the apology and made it into a big deal (which I didn't really want it to be) but I can see why they did and the female manager agreed that what I was served was unacceptable. It really put me off the place and I won't be returning. Haven't ordered a steak sandwich anywhere since either.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Have you definitely ruled out "parents drag out urban myth to stop daughter dating Asian guy"?

And if it happened, why assume the teenage son was in on it?

The auld "cats in the Chinese takeaway". Haven't heard that in a while.

Two things worth mentioning:

1. Anyone who has ever owned a cat will tell you it would be less hassle to just buy in some cheap meat than to catch a bunch of the speedy, vicious little bastards.

2. Why would they be in the drains. Were they flushing the leftovers down the jacks?

Click your fingers at the waiting staff.

Bummer1234 wrote: »

Was once in a restaurant near times square in New York and it was a Very cold Decembers day, It was one of them places where we had to give our names and we will be called in about 45 - 60 mins, So we went of shopping until then,

We were then seated beside the stairs where it comes up from the street,

Waiter was very giddy...So giddy infact that he would wreck anyones head....

Anyway... A very cold breeze was coming up the stairs and was freezing us,I asked for another seat as it was cold and he said they where busy and no other seats where available..At this stage I was starving so wasn't up for going elsewhere and waiting,

We ordered,Our food came not long after and not even a minute had passed where our mains came, I looked at him and saying "We are not really ready yet" but he leaves the mains on the table anyway,When it came to eating the mains it was cold and i was fed up with been frozen.

I know they get paid mostly on tips over there but they got feck all off a tip from me....

Go to restaurant, order food and then are not ready to eat? Were you saying Grace or something?

Turning it around slightly - I'm a chef in a restaurant - so my worst experiences tend to be with customers, especially the over fussy ones who love telling you have prepared / cooked something wrong. All they generally do is highlight their ignorance.

Chinese restaurant in Portugal, which I had done a bit of research on and it had come highly recommended.

Prawn starter arrived and they hadn't even cleaned them correctly, meaning the waste pipe was still present on the prawn.

Left there and then.

Was in a local restaurant with my good lady, ordered a warm nourishing soup as it was a cool night. When it arrived, to my horror I discovered a fly floating in it. Called the waiter chappy sharpish and said "look here, old chap, there's a fly in my soup" To my amazement he replied, "Be quiet Sir, or everybody will want one!" My good lady and I saw the funny side, and how we chortled!

I remember visiting a greasy chip van in my local town after the club, it can get be fairly hectic at 2am. The ould fella working in there was taking my friends order, then excuses himself. Heads out the back of the chipper and relieves himself. Comes back into the chipper rubs his hands on his filthy apron and goes...

"Right curry chips was it, here you are"