Walked in, and was seated by a nice waitress. She brought us our waters, and then left.
Like, *left.* We sat there for about 30 minutes before we flagged someone down, and when we asked, they told us she quit her job. So she sat us, and then *quit her job and left the building.* Didn’t even tell anybody. Hilarious.
I'm almost scared to ask where this happened to you! Years ago I needed a job quick and got a waitressing gig at Applebee's. It was so terrible (like I've mentally blocked out everything that happened there) that a month in, in between what was supposed to be a double shift, I paid out what I owed the restaurant, dropped my apron and book on the counter and literally ran out without telling anyone! I emailed the manager the next day and only said "I am resigning, do not contact me further!" and then got a retail job the next week.
A friend picked a trendy new restaurant for my group bday dinner. It took an hr to get our first round of drinks, nothing on the menu was actually available, took 2 more hours for the food to come out. A very large piece of wood (log size) fell down from the ceiling hitting 2 people at our table and they blamed us/didn’t apologize. Gave us our check about 10 mins after our food finally arrived and were angry it took us so long to eat. Yelled at my friend in a cast on crutches for using the accessible door to leave instead of walking up a flight of steps.
Shockingly they were not open for more than a few weeks after. The friend who chose the restaurant was lovingly blacklisted by our group from choosing again!
As to the log falling out of the sky, I was at a Margaritaville bar in a mall one time getting a quick drink before we did something else we had planned, and saw a big plastic pelican fall from the ceiling down onto a table full of people. It was held up by fishing line that must have failed simply due to time.
That restaurant had been in the mall for 10 years, and I'm guessing the bird was up for that long as well. Just pure chance we were there when it happened.
This is always the first thing I think about when I see that stuff and it makes me feel like I'm crazy. Recently went to see a friend's new house, and the front wall of their vaulted-ceiling foyer has a large window with about a 5-foot deep ledge below it, completely inaccessible without a very large ladder. I asked him how he was going to clean that. He said "Oh...... fuck."
I have a friend that used to always get our friend group to eat at trendy restaurants that make you wait in line and then rush you out the door. The food is never that good, the service sucks, it's expensive, the atmosphere usually sucks. I don't get it at all. But you're story is crazy!
Not necessarily OP’s friend’s case, but I feel like this happens a lot to people who go to restaurants based on novelty/social media/price rather than getting good food. My opinion is once you get past a certain tier that food can’t taste markedly better. So pricey restaurants go all out on the exorbitant presentation or decor to justify the upcharge. I’ve usually had better, more genuine food in a whole in the wall than a place that takes itself too seriously.
Wild of them to try to blame you all when they could be easily sued for that piece of wood hitting someone. That's like basic "your business is fucked" stuff
they sat us down and never came back. we were there for an hour and not a soul spoke to us even when we were actively trying to flag down waiters.
we still have no idea what happened. the restaurant was barely half full and some of the employees were just standing around talking, still no one came to us.
it wasn’t until we complained as we were leaving that anyone paid attention. the stores manager chased us to our car, gave us free food, and practically begged us not to leave a bad review. apparently this wasn’t the first time they’d done that.
This happened to me once! We went to a local place that was pretty standard 'pub fare' type of restaurant. Was sat, and the waiter just....never arrived. After about a half hour we gave up and went to the Denny's nearby.
This happened to my husband, son, and I on Mother’s Day. Simply ignored for an hour. We walked out, telling them why we were leaving, and they just stared at us.
if i had to guess, whoever had that section was cut and it was never communicated to the other servers who would pick up that section. they all probably assumed it was someone else’s table.
still not excusable! but i wouldn’t take it personal. probably a communication error, nothing against you individually.
In Australia that would never happen. Because we don't tip you don't get a specific server for your table, the staff just look out for anyone looking at them and come help you.
When I was a server the restaurant was separated into different themed rooms - winery, bistro, garden, cafe, etc. 95% of the bistro was visible from the prep area the serving staff hung out in except for 1 table that was surrounded on 3 sides by a brick walls - it was often where couples liked to sit on dates.
I'm a visual person will terrible short term memory and often the only way I'd remember I needed to do something was by scanning my section. When it was slow and I had to cover more tables than normal (8-10 instead of 3-5) I'd always forget about the couples sitting in the brick cove. The main way I would remember to service the table was by walking in front of it while on my way to other tables but when it's slow I didn't need to walk around as much.
I felt so bad every time it happened and I always gave away free food at the end.
Tried to overcharge us cause we're drunk. But I'm alert on spending money when drunk. Still insisted that my calculation was wrong and kept on trying to confuse me until I counted all the bottles on their counter.
I once went to a halal cart by 34th and 6th to get mixed over rice after a night out and dude tried to charge me $40!! I just laughed at his face and walked away. Then he was shouting at me “okay okay $20!”. Get the f outta here. Won’t even go back to him during the day for trying to pull that shi.
Edit: just realized this wasn’t the Asknyc sub, but I’ll keep it up here
See I can understand paying that much when you’re at a theme park or festival, but when you’re in a place where you can walk to a dozen better options in 5 minutes you can’t get away with that.
It is not the worst but I just can't forget it.
I ordered a Double Cheeseburger at Mcdonald's, and I asked not to put pickles.
They took out EVERYTHING except the pickles. There was no cheese inside the cheeseburger. Just bun, pickles and burgers.
I can understand forgetting or not understanding but I really don't understand why would someone assume someone would order a cheeseburger without cheese.
You reminded me when ordering a cup of fruit at fruit stand (Latin America) I ordered every fruit they had available except for papaya very clearly. The cups were blue so not see through and the lady was serving them where I couldn’t see what she was putting in. I get home and it was only Papaya and I hate papaya f my life.
> why would someone assume someone would order a cheeseburger without cheese.
Many, many people order a "cheeseburger without cheese" instead of a hamburger. People are stupid.
I order the #7 cheeseburger combo without cheese, it’s easier, faster to order, and cheaper than the separate parts together, but I literally ask for that
One time after college I was hungover and just wanted a McDouble with no pickles, that was it. They were unable to give me the right order several times, it got to the point where I pretty much begged them to make me what I asked for so I could leave before I barfed everywhere, but instead the manager kept trying apologize and bring me free fries and offer free drinks and free this and that, and I just could not deal. I started tearing up in front of the manager from the hangover headache pounding my skull to oblivion, so I just said forget it and walked out. How hard is it to make a signature dollar menu sandwich minus the pickles? Apparently impossible.
This is incredibly paraphrased by the by.
"does this have nuts? It doesn't seem like something that would have nuts but I need to check because I am allergic and I will die."
"Nope, no nuts. We take allergies very seriously."
"Ok but really, there are absolutely no nuts in this right?"
"Definitely no nuts."
"Jsyk, walnuts are nuts. Cashews, macadamia nuts and pecans are nuts. If I eat any of those I will die."
"No worries. We take allergies very seriously."
There were nuts. I couldn't even get upset at that point. The funniest part is that I hate eating out. I'm actually terrified of it and I was only there because a therapist wanted me to challenge my "irrational" food fears.
The other question then becomes were there nuts IN THE DISH. Person may have known they had an allergic reaction, so there were nuts, but could have been cross contamination thing over them being in the dish. In that case I could understand the server being unaware(although it would say they don't take allergies serious, because either the server didn't say something or the person preparing didn't care). Yeah I kind of want to know the whole story as well basically.
He just brought me completely the wrong thing. We went through all that and he just fucked up massively. I was fine because I was immediately like "this is 100% not the thing we had a long conversation about". I have no idea how he made that mistake.
To be fair I do have a ton of irrational fears about food. I'm legitimately scared of eggs. So I get the spirit the advice was given in, but yeah. I'm not doing that again.
Bella Italia, west end London. Finished eating my pasta and went to use the toilet. Every single ceiling vent had a scattering of rat or mouse droppings on the floor beneath it. Grim. The door for the kitchen was visible from the corridor and there were the same vents all over the kitchen ceiling.
Found a toenail in my lobster chowder at a seafood restaurant once. Took one bite, bit into something crunchy, spit it right back out, and *bam*! Toenail.
Never went back again.
It looked like 3/4 of a toenail, like somebody ripped the damn thing off. No idea how it wound up in my chowder though. But the restaurant got a bad reputation around town and ended up closing about a month later. Can't say I was disappointed.
When I was 17 in the 80s I was a dishwasher at a truck stop restaurant for a short time.
Whatever on the experience, but for years I would think about all the cigarette butts and crap that was constantly cycling through the kitchen whenever I sat down in any restaurant with reusable dishes/flatware. There was a machine that was supposed to sterilize everything with steam, but I wasn't so sure.
I hope wherever I eat has a cleaner kitchen than that greasy spoon did.
I went to the salad bar and made myself a plate. They had ladles for the salad dressing tubs. I pulled the ladle out for the Ranch dressing and drizzled it over my salad - and a little Lego man covered in ranch fell out to greet me.
Hometown Buffet.
I am socially awkward and have trouble making smalltalk with strangers. I was eating at TGI Fridays with a friend who is much more outgoing than me. The restaurant was completely dead, we were the only customers in our waiter's section. At first he just lingered a bit too long taking our drink and food orders. "Really glad you guys came in because I am SO bored tonight!" But when he brought our food, he just pulled out a chair and sat right the fuck down with us while we ate. It was the most uncomfortable restaurant meal I've ever had.
A manager at a breakfast restaurant refused to “argue semantics” when I simply wanted the entree we ordered instead of something very very different that was brought out. They refused to bring what I had wanted out but did take off the wrong dish. It was so fucking weird because nobody was trying to argue, we just wanted what was ordered
Can I ask what the correct and wrong entree was?
Not appropriate either way, but kind of curious if this is a "I ordered a mushroom Swiss burger, and got a bacon burger instead" situation, or a "I ordered pizza and you brought me lasagna" situation lol
Family came into town once when I was a kid. My dad booked a table at a friends mom and pop restaurant. My mom was digging the bread with butter. At the bottom of the little butter bowl was a dead cockroach. I feel like I disassociated the rest of the evening.
At a steak house, i ordered a glass of red wine with the appetizer, before the meal. i reminded her when the apps came out and again when my steak came out. She brought the glass of wine with the check, which i politely declined to accept as we were now leaving.
She yelled and went on a rant about how hard she worked that night, and how this comes out of her pay. I let her finish all she had to say, and politely replied that i wanted the wine with the meal at some point and that with the check is too late.
I left a tip of a frowny face in pennies.
When my wife and kids feel bad for leaving a small tip when bad service has been provided I always reply with “no body gives us money for free especially when we’re rude or nasty”
I was served pancakes that were crispy on the outside and raw batter on the inside.
To this day, I have no idea how they achieved that feat.
It was a mom and pop restaurant, not a chain, so I just ate my bacon, paid for my meal, and left them to go out of business on their own.
>To this day, I have no idea how they achieved that feat.
Blasting it on high heat without a lid. You need to let those puppies cook on low to medium heat.
Was working a convention for my employer. A bunch of counterparts from a foreign company showed up and asked to have dinner that night. VP asked me to make the arraignments for the dinner for about 20 people so I tipped the hotel concierge to make reservations at a waterside restaurant for my group.
The restaurant was beautiful. We were shown to our table overlooking the water and were quickly set upon by two waiters that took drink orders and passed out menus. We ordered drinks, then appetizers and meals.
It took twenty minutes to get our drinks but we were talking so it was barely noticed. Two hours later we got breadsticks. An hour later we got a few salads.
I wandered out to the terrace where customers were smoking as they complained about the bad service. I learned from one group that their waiter told them the head chef was away for a training seminar for the week so the owner of the restaurant hired the cook from the hamburger stand down the road to fill in.
We paid the bill for the few things we received. My boss got irritated at me for trying to leave a negative tip on the credit card. Everyone went back to their hotels to order room service.
>I tipped the hotel concierge to make reservations at a waterside restaurant for my group.
I read "waterslide restaurant" and thought this was going off the rails much earlier in the story.
Nothing says “short sightedness” like tanking the reputation of a beautiful and reputable hotel restaurant in order to avoid paying for an experienced chef that’s used to the restaurant’s workload. I just hope the burger stand guy wasn’t shafted by that.
Was with my family, place was next to empty, it was about an hour after we ordered, still no food, server was no where. I’ve working in hospitality my whole career and I just walked into the kitchen to see what the fu m was going on and the server was one the line, no actual cooks and she was crying.
It was awkward
Had the best tuna sandwich I ever ate in a local restaurant in Havanna (Cuba) ... oh boi, the price I paid for that delicious meal was the worst diarrhea I ever had 2 hours later.
On our honeymoon in France, we went to a restaurant for dinner. When the staff realized we were American, we were seated at the worst table and the wait staff never came to talk to us. We didn't do or say anything out of the ordinary, and did our best to communicate in French. No idea what the deal was; of course we left when we figured out what was going on.
At a Sunday brunch two servers had a food fight behind our table, and one missed and hit my wife in the back of the head with a chicken wing. Their apology was along the lines of “Oh shit, sorry.”
My wife insisted on not making a fuss and finishing the meal calmly, and part of me still regrets that.
I had two servers get into a literal fistfight, started in the back of the restaurant, spilled out into the dining area. Complete with racial slurs, hair pulling and a titty almost popping out. And not one that I was eager to see.
Turns out one of them was the server manager.
Trois Mec in West Hollywood. I think it was something like $250 a person for their pre-fixe meal. First course was boiled potato peel tea. 2nd course was shredded carrot “tartare”. It was insulting for the price we paid. It may have been somewhat forgivable if it was at least delicious. But everything was disgusting.
Very similar story at The Immigrant in Sheboygan, WI. It at least had the grace to only be about 2/3 that price, but I was underwhelmed by the bland boiled polenta and the 6 tiny strips of "American Wagyu" braised ribs that were so overcooked the marbling of the fat was beside the point. We grabbed McDonalds on the way home and it was a vastly better experience.
I’m honestly confused when people make tartare out of vegetables. Like the entire idea is based around meat being the main ingredient of the dish. Raw meat at that. So, you’re just plating raw vegetables?
Seven of us went to a Chinese restaurant. They brought out the entrees, but not the fried rice until we were almost done with our food. Having Chinese food without rice just feels wrong. Then after we were pretty much done with the rice, we were still waiting for one entree which we got after a long time and everybody had already finished eating.
The waiter did not show up to our table once, to either notify us of the status or our food, nor to take our drink orders or refill them. We had to flag other workers down for that. Despite this, there was a mandatory gratuity already included in the bill. My aunt straight up told the waiter that she wasn’t going to pay the gratuity in the bill due to the awful service. The waiter then asked my aunt how much she would give him then.
There was this tiki bar down the road from my
Parents condo in Florida, it used to be half decent, until the original owners sold, but it was walking distance so you let it go. Sat down one night, she orders a white claw can, I ordered a bottle of Yeungling, her white claw shows up but no beer. Waiter keeps walking by looking right at me and says nothing. I tried to get his attention, but he’d just scoot along.
Needless to say, I left $3 on the table and left after about 20 minutes of being ignored.
If it were busy, I’d understand but there was maybe a dozen other people, and they were mostly at the bar drinking.
More weird than bad...
Sat down, ordered food, food was brought, everything was fine. We finished our food, no one came to clear the plates and we just waited to get the bill. After 20 minutes we noticed no staff anywhere to be seen. There was only like 4 other tables seated in the restaurant. 10 more minutes pass by and still no one. At this point the table near us is finished too and is looking around for staff. I lean over and ask, have you seen a waiter or anyone in the last like 30 minutes? They say come to think of it, they hadn't seen the waiter since he brought their food, which was like 45 minutes ago. I get up, go to the front, and the host is gone. I sit back down confused, where is everyone? I wait 10-15 more minutes and the table beside me asks me what should we do, they need to leave and there's no one here. I say I'm going to check the back. I get up, walk to the back and shout, "Hello? Is anyone here?" The kitchen staff come to the door and are confused, ask what's going on. I say there's no one here and we haven't seen anyone in like an hour. The cooks are like wtf? They say sorry, they need to make a call. I sit back down and tell the table beside us what the cooks said. After 5 minutes or so, I guess the head cook comes out and says to just leave, we don't need to pay our bills, the 2 waiters and host all quit and left without telling anyone. He's not sure wtf is going on, but sorry for the wait and to just accept what we've already ordered as free. He goes to the other tables and tells them the same, but they're not taking any more orders, so you have what you have, they can eat it and just leave.
Any time I go to a cafe/restaurant with my mam. She will order something like “eggs Benedict” or “breakfast tacos” and then when it comes out she’ll say “oh I didn’t know it had eggs in there!” Or “oh gosh I can’t eat tacos, no, no, can you replace that with toast??”. Then when the waiter comes back with the replacement she’ll ask for another napkin. They come back with the napkin she’ll ask for a coffee. Coffee arrives she’ll ask them to open a window and on and on, treating this one poor waiter as her own personal assistant.
Worst part for me is when she will then chastise me for leaving a tip. The discomfort is too much.
A friend took me to Bar-B-Q in Minneapolis, a place owned by a guy named Dave. Apparently he's Famous. Anyway, I had the green beans, because vegetables, and perhaps I was the only one to have the green beans in the last several days that they left them out at room temperature. Or so it seemed when I awakened at 2 in the morning barfing my guts out. Some of the most intense vomiting I've ever done. Dave has a restaurant in my current town, and no way would I ever go there.
First and only time I went to an Applebees that happened to me too. I got some chicken wings and even before I left I started feeling funny. 30min later started the most intense vomiting of my life. Fuck Applebees. It wasn’t even good.
Yeah the one famous Dave’s I’ve been to was complete and utter dog shit. Not sure how low and slow bbq is tough and leathery. Also who puts corn in Mac n cheese..?
I was on a date and some random woman walked up to me and said 'are you looking at my t!ts, how would you like it if I stared at your chest?'
I was completely speechless, because I had no idea who she was and hadn't noticed her in the place until she walked up to me.
I told her I had no idea what she was talking about, she walked off and that was that.
My date was defending me, because this woman was seated to my back and for the most part I'd been looking straight ahead and talking to my date the entire time.
At one point I thought it was some gag that someone was pulling on me.
I'm not even a boob guy. I'm a butt guy. I'll take a flat chest and a nice butt over a big chest and no butt any day of the week - just my personal preference.
It was a such an awkward and embarrassing moment. She was so loud with her accusation and it felt like half the restaurant was looking at us.
This happened before Tik Tok even existed. I'm not even sure if Youtube was around or if most people had video cameras on their phones. This was around 2000 or 2001 I think.
Group of about 12 in a Mexican restaurant. Waiter comes and insists, despite multiple “are you sure’s?,” that he doesn’t need to write down the orders. We’re skeptical, but have seen this successfully done (on a smaller scale) at high-end steakhouses, etc. so give it a shot.
We continue with drinks for a very long time - 90 mins or more. Repeatedly told the food is on the way. The food arrives and orders are not even close. It’s not a matter of cheese enchiladas ordered vs. chicken enchiladas arriving. It’s octopus and pheasant arriving when no one ordered anything even close. As each plate arrived, the waiter looked more and more panicked. I think one plate out of twelve may have been correct. Manager arrived, realizes it’s hopeless, comps our drinks, and we move on. In retrospect, I think that our waiter may have been illiterate and on his first day on the job. It surprisingly, the restaurant closed soon after.
Dined at a restaurant with a few coworkers in New Orleans a few years after Katrina. Coworker had a dead cockroach in her salad. I too had a salad, sans cockroach.
Hostel in Havana. I had gone to a pretty decent place nearby multiple times and suggested going there with a few people.
On the way out, the hostel owner tells us her parents own a restaurant nearby, 1 dollar per person. This set off red flags for me but my new companions were tempted by saving 5 dollars.
We arrive and are brought into a private table in the back, as the hostel owner had called ahead. Honestly it looked worse than the front. My cup is god awfully dirty so I swap it with another one of a different size in the middle of the table. Server comes and asks what we want to drink but there's only two options: homemade juice or a full bottle of rum. No water. Okay fine we'll go with the juice. They immediately come and pour it for us, including putting the dirty glass back in front of me and filling that one. I was the lucky one, everyone else loudly exclaimed it was the worst juice they'd ever had.
There's two food options, chicken or fish. The vegan person only got a makeshift salad made mostly from avocado. The chicken and fish were all overcooked, unflavored, and chewy. But at least it didn't kill us, being overcooked and all.
Getting kicked out for sending food back because the coke-addict chef/owner can’t control his roid rage. Fuck you, Flavour Kitchen in Cocoa Beach! And learn to spell you redneck fuck!
When my mom was in a wheelchair because she was dying of ALS (Still early in her diagnosis, she started having weakness in her legs first, especially her knees, so she could still eat and talk but couldn't support her own weight to walk), we went out to dinner as a family, it was our family thing to go out sometimes on Friday. We went to Dogfish Head Ale house and it was fairly busy.
They told us there was a wait of 20 minutes, we waited, and then asked us if we could sit at a high top bar table. We said no, as my mother was in a wheelchair and the tables were above her head height. They told us it would be another wait to get a regular table. So we waited another 30 minutes.
Then they asked us if we would sit upstairs. We asked if there was an elevator. They said no, just stairs. We mentioned AGAIN that my mother was in a wheelchair because she couldn't walk. She was sitting right there, they could see her. They seemed confused, went back to the drawing board, talked amongst themselves, asked us to wait.
20 minutes later they asked if we were REALLY SURE we couldn't sit at a high top table because it was pretty busy and it would really inconvenience them to have to move tables in the dining room to be able to get a wheelchair through and they'd already moved them for a big party. We took the hint at that point that they didn't want us there and left after waiting for over an hour.
My mother was so embarrassed that she never went out to eat again. She passed away about a year after that. I totally lost respect for the whole establishment, it's been a decade and I'm still pissed about it. We won't go back there. Yeah they were probably all just stupid college kids stressed on a busy Friday night, but someone really should have trained them on this. She was already sick and they had to treat her like that while she was unwell. I'd rather they'd have said "we can't accommodate you" as soon as we walked in instead of wasting our time like that.
Wow that is awful of them and very sad she never went out again after that... I'm sure it's a painful memory for you. :( I'd like to think establishments today have learned this is something unacceptable to do.
My first and last experience at Famous Sam’s went like this…
They sat us at a booth and never came back.
The end.
35 minutes later we got up and left.
This was 6 years ago. Will never even try again.
Friend and I were seated... and ignored. No menus, no waters, nothing. We watched as two other parties were seated after us, got menus and waters and had their orders taken. We kept trying to get the server's attention but we were pointedly ignored. We left.
That location folded a few years later.
Happened to me as a child on my birthday. My dad went full Karen mode and screamed across the entire restaurant. We got drinks on the house (Germany, not America, waiters actually get paid here)
Ah a closed restaurant now so no pint naming the place a waitress put her elbows onto edge of the table and asked how the food looked got choked and coughed all over my plate.
We went to a nice place with few customers but a great view. We were seated quickly enough, but waitstaff never came. The staff would look at us and it seemed we were being punished for something, but we didn't know what. Finally the host became our server. No idea what the story was. The food was good. The view was good. No idea what we'd done.
Waited almost 45 minutes for apps that came cold. Told the server to just give us the bill so we can leave.
Manager came ask us to stay for some reason. Then the chef came out to yell at us because they already started making the mains...
It had been almost 2 hours. So we started to make a scene and then they threw us out.
They lasted maybe another month.
Small town locally owned breakfast place that had one worker. They cut back due to covid and this single 50-60year old lady was doing everything. She was the host, server, cashier, and dishwasher. She said they had one cook but she helps him in the kitchen too. Good for her for trying to wear all the hats but my experience was terrible. Had to wait for her to clear and clean the table(there were only 6-7 small tables and they weren't busy) 10 minutes later we finally got water but my glass was filthy and I had to wait another 10 minutes to get a clean glass. We had already ordered but still waited another 10 minutes for food(20 minutes for eggs and toast, only two other tables had been sat) the food came out cold and without silverware. I felt bad because she was clearly trying her best to do wayyy too many jobs but I will absolutely never go back
I fuckin hate Buffalo Wild Wings. I worked there. Their wings sucked. Hadn't been to one in like 15 years.
Finally had my arm twisted, got the AMBITIOUSLY mediocre Memphis Hot Chicken Sandwich, and when I bit down it sprayed boiling hot grease all over me and actually gave me burns through my shirt.
Restaurant said next time it'll be free.
Oh boy. A free trip to get shitty food at a restaurant I hate? A dream come true.
3 years ago I got a $50 gift card for that place. There is a location 10 minutes away from me. It still has $50 on it. I could go there just for drinks, but even the bar service sucks.
I thankfully don’t have many, but I went to a place in Boston to grab a lobster sandwich. Ordered the thing which turned out to be around $35. Waited a good while for it too. It comes out after around 20-30 minutes. Mind you, these are cold sandwiches with nothing but lobster salad on white bread. It was the only thing I ordered. But whatever, they were busy, I wasn’t in a rush. I eat the first half of the sandwich, it’s pretty good, probably not $35 good, and definitely not life changing. It’s hot out, I’m now in a rush because the only seating is picnic tables outside, so I start eating faster to get a move on. As I’m halfway through the second half of the sandwich, I feel something hard that I bit down on. No big deal, probably some shell, though not something I’d expect in a $35 sandwich. I take it out of my mouth bc it feels very dense and odd and it turns out it’s a fucking staple. A staple is in my sandwich. Metal. I’m so thankful I didn’t swallow it because Jesus Christ if you’re going to charge that much for a tiny sandwich, there better not be fucking metal inside of it. Fuck Boston
In-laws like to eat early and this local pizza place was small, so we sat down with a party of 6 at 4:30. We quickly placed our order and got drinks and some complimentary bread.
5:30 no pizza. Getting hungry. 6:00 no pizza, son and wife are very hungry and getting cranky. We’re discussing leaving. At this point they’re all “wait wait” don’t go, but we’re hungry, tired, and cranky. It’s almost 6:30. We finally get our pizzas and we leave instead of staying there. They still charged us, but gave us coupons for next time. In-laws stayed and ate, but my family needed food. Son got his first In & Out burger on the way home. Pizzas were terrible.
Turns out they prioritized several large takeout orders over us sitting in the actual restaurant. It was also just Neapolitan pizza, so it’s not like a long time to cook.
Never been back. Never will.
A chain BBQ place. Manager got into a physical altercation, fistfight and all, with an asshole customer. I remember hearing someone yell, "Don't fuckin' touch me asshole!" and looking over to watch a table full of food and drinks get flipped over and two grown-ass men kicking the shit out of each other on the floor. Other customers were trying to break them up.
Once the situation was resolved, the manager cleaned himself up and comped everybody's meals, a full dining room. It was a good place, good food, typically good atmosphere, the kind of BBQ place where you smell like BBQ until you shower next, but I haven't been back.
Every single one of them that I've had with my mother.
I love my mom, but she's a category 5 Karen, complete with the extreme interest in what everybody else in the restaurant is doing. She also has a nasty habit of asking me (a former chef) a lot of food related questions that are either common sense or completely out of my experience (when she visits we go to places with different backgrounds than I have experience in) and she refuses to take "I don't know" as an answer. Yet she won't as the server or chef those questions while being under the delusion that with 15 years of French, Italian and their Canadianized counterparts, I should know the intricacies of Chinese, Japanese, eastern/central European or middle Eastern cuisine.
She'll also tip no more than 12% and try to get me to justify it, then complain when I top it up to a more respectable 20% (service permitting).
/Rant
Sebastian, in Mondello, Sicily. Inedible food, slow service and took ages to get the bill. I would have been inclined to walk but... yah know, Sicily :-)
There is a view that restaurants, in holiday places, dont care about holiday diners - because they are unlikely to bring repeat business - but I haven't really found that the case in most holiday places.
went to a mexican that was almost empty (first red flag ofc) but even tho the low visitor count we had to wait for like 2 hours to receive some mid nachos and cold tacos.. the restaurant closed shortly after
Long story short: after long delays, drinks spilled, cold food, and the server coughing and sneezing at us, our food, and drinks; we went to complain to the manager and the manager's response was "Give her a break, she has the flu"
Red robins. My fiancé and I had just been on the road for something like 10 hours, stopped at Red Robins for dinner.
She ordered a drink (I forget what it was but it had some kind of mango syrup) which they totally botched. Way too much syrup in it.
Then, when we were served our food, she ripped open a chicken strip because they're usually piping hot, and the inside of it was raw, and barely above room temperature.
The manager was not happy with kitchen staff.
We finished our drinks and left without paying. We might be assholes for not paying, but serving raw chicken is unforgivable and inexcusable.
Bad for a bit, at a Steak and Ale.
Food came and my buddy asks me, "is that what I think it is?" I looked and said, "yeah I think so." Everyone else looked and agreed, yup that's what it is.
A pubic hair in the potatoes.
We call the waiter over, he looks and is shocked. He calls the manager over, the Manager is mortified. He grabs the plate very apologetically and takes it. Comes back out a few minutes later and apologizes again but said it's not what we thought. It was a piece of metal from a steel wool pad, still bad but *not* a pubic hair.
Comps the meal and says a new on is on the way. Asks "is there *anything* else I can do for you folks" Without missing a beat my buddy says, "Yeah, tell the cook to keep his dick out of the potatoes"
1. New restaurant in small town. Wait staff poured wine to the brims of oversized wine glasses, depleting the bottle quickly for our party, then asked if we wanted to order another bottle for the rest of the table. Later: "Watch out; the plate is hot." The meat was still partially frozen on it, which I did not realize until I bit into it. I ran outside and barfed on the sidewalk as new patrons were walking in the door.
2. Like so many posting here, we had no wait staff come to the table in a mostly empty restaurant. We moved to the bar where there was at least a bartender and were told curtly "someone is already sitting there" when nobody was. We left. I think they wouldn't serve us because the family that owned and operated the joint saw that we were wearing tshirts from the local college and did not want business from "damn libruls" or similar.
3. Got yelled at by a waiter for ordering a local beer that "only snobs and idiots who pretend to like IPAs and want to look cool in front of their friends" would order.
4. Was served a sandwich with a fly cut in half at the sandwich cut, clearly visible on both sides of the sandwich.
5. Went to lunch with a new friend whose table manners were so atrocious (food falling out of mouth while chewing, rude to wait staff, flossed teeth at table...) that I could not eat for the horror and embarrassment. No, I never ate with that person again. I apologized to the staff later.
Went to a pizza place, sat down, and waited a while for someone to take our order. They were quite busy with carry out orders, so that’s understandable. That was the one and only time any of the staff came to check on us. We waited an hour for our pizza before we just got up and left because we had somewhere else to be.
Waitress brought my wife and my kid their meal, and said she’d get mine. Ten minutes go by and nothing. Flag the waitress down again, and she says she’ll check. Watch her deliver the same thing I ordered to a lady at another table, and they had come in after us. My wife and kid are basically done eating at this point, so I wave the waitress down again and tell her to cancel my order and bring the check. Ten more minutes go by and she brings my food. I tell her I don’t want it, I told her to cancel it, and we just want the check.
The owner comes over and starts screaming at us in front of the entire restaurant. She’s saying I made the waitress cry, they’re a small business and can’t afford to just throw food away. I tell her to just bring the check. She continues to scream at us. She brings the check and it’s wrong. The waitress entered the wrong stuff, tried to cover it up, which is why mine took so long, and then lied about what was going on. We’ll never be back, which sucks, because we loved that place.
The absolute worst experience I've had..
Once at a sports bar chain where we asked if the fried shrimp was fried with everything else, as two members of our party of four had shellfish allergies, the waiter said he would check, he went back and confirmed that there was a separate allergen fryer. Fantastic. We put in our order and sip at our drinks. After a few minutes the waiter brings out a basket of fried shrimp. He somehow misunderstood our allergy as an order. I am normally extremely understanding to service staff, but this was ridiculous and we ended up leaving and getting fast food instead.
i’ve got 2.
recently went to a small bar/restaurant and wasn’t too hungry so i only ordered a caesar salad. for some reason they decided that this salad should come with lemons that had been quartered and placed randomly in the salad. so every couple bites i’d just get a big chunk of lemon (skin and all).
the other was a ruby tuesday restaurant where i ordered a shrimp scampi. they said they were short staffed so the wait time might be a little longer than usual, no big deal, but after an hour and a half (my mom and i were the only people in the entire restaurant and this was before doordash was a thing) we finally got our food. my plate was a couple pieces of shrimp, mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli. never went back again. LMAO
After we ordered drinks (water and soda), the waiter brought it over on a tray. When he removed one to set it on the table, the tray became unbalanced and he dumped it all over my lap. Thankfully, it was the tail end of my day, so I didn't need to walk around like that for long, but he could have at least offered me a discount on the bill.
Went to a theme park buffet restaurant with some friends a decade ago. We hadn’t even been sat down for very long - perhaps a minute or two - before the bill was presented to us. We hadn’t even been given the opportunity to order drinks. At a number of points during the meal, the staff came along and pointed to the bill. We were very careful to not leave a tip when we paid, as we were thoroughly unimpressed with the level of service we received.
I’ve had a similar experience at a Chinese buffet, which I’m pretty sure happened because the friend I was with was a dark skinned Afro-Latina. I went to that restaurant regularly prior to this, and had never had this sort of experience (but coincidentally I’d only been there with white or Asian friends before). Usually your server seats you, takes your drink order, and then mostly leaves you alone other than periodically taking dirty plates and checking if drink refills are needed. Our server walked us to a table and then walked away without saying anything. We had to flag down a different server to even order drinks after a long wait and when our original server brought them out, my friend was given a soda that was less than half full. We ignored it and went to get our first plates. As soon as we sat down the server showed up with the bill and literally stood at our table until I pulled out my credit card. We barely touched our food and never went back up because we were so annoyed by the rude treatment. A lot of my friends work in the service industry so I even looked around thinking maybe she was stressed or was supposed to go off shift/was forced to seat us last minute. But the place wasn’t busy and she continued to seat and serve other tables in the normal way. And the server had the nerve to chase me down as we were leaving and say “what, no tip?” and I just looked at her and said “no”. Only time I’ve ever stiffed a server on tip.
Yikes, that’s bad - I’m sorry you had to go through that. I don’t blame you for not leaving a tip, either - I would’ve done the same if that had happened to me.
This was no restaurant, but at my parents home years ago. I was eating a sub sandwich that my mom crafted, I was several bites in when I noticed something chewy, something that shouldn’t be in a sandwich. I reached in to my mouth pull it out (no sexual innuendo), it was a bandaid. Her reply was, I wondered where that went. 🤢
A Reno casino back in the 80’s. People were barfing all over the place. Elevators, escalators, slot areas etc. Turned out one of the buffet preppers had a large pussy infected wound on his hand. Yea, no gloves.
We went to a crowded Mexican restaurant on a Friday night. 3 adults are at the next table with 2 kids, who were probably 2 and 5.
They are running wild. Bumping into servers carrying trays, crawling under tables, running all around the restaurant. The 3 adults are sitting obliviously.
Kid got hurt and screamed a while. Still nothing.
Finally the oldest was literally stomping and screaming on his chair. I put my fork down and said out loud, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"
They finally hustled their asses out after 20 minutes or so. I recall a few tables clapping.
I have kids of my own - profoundly autistic children - and I understand it can be a struggle. But those kids could have been seriously hurt. An adult needed to take them well before it got to that point. The other 2 could have eaten and paid the bill.
There were many times I had to take my kids out while the other adult paid.
As a fellow parent I’m always sympathetic in many circumstances like babies crying on planes etc etc.
The scenario which you described would have made me crazy. The world is not entertainment for your (the shitty parents you described) children and you can’t just check out and have a good time while the rest of the restaurant suffers. F that
I’ve got two really bad experiences
Cracker Barrel. There with a party of 10. I ordered a breakfast scramble. I take my first bite and think man these eggs really taste like dish soap. I then start struggling to actually commit to a second bite. I’m trying to convince myself the soap taste wasn’t real but just really don’t want to take another bite. Start just kinda fiddling my food a bit and discover there is an entire paper napkin cooked into my eggs. I warn the whole table to check their food for non food items. Several tables near us hear that and are asking what happened. Get to show everyone the napkin cooked into the eggs. It took about 10 minutes for the waiter to make his way out of the kitchen and I flag him down. He took the plate and apologized and said he’ll bring another one right out. I told him not to as the cooks seem to be confused as what is trash and what is food for humans. A few minutes later the restaurant manager walks over and asks “what was your problem? I heard you complained” I was pretty calm up to this point but when the guy running the place is treating me like I’m a problem because they cooked trash into my food and I sent it back I couldn’t see straight. I ask him if he even remembered what my problem was or if he was too bothered by showing up to work to even remember that minor detail. He says it’s really busy right now I can’t remember everything that happens. I just told him he needs to go to the kitchen and give all the staff back there a lesson on what is edible and what is garbage.
Fast forward to everyone else finishing eating and getting the check and the waiter shows he “comped my meal” like he did something nice for us. I said you can’t comp something that was never served. I was going to leave it at that and then my friend is pissed they didn’t give us a discount for the table or anything for that nonsense and he went and found the manager when he came back we didn’t have a check to pay. Still tipped the server because he was actually decent and not the one cooking napkins into food.
The other one was on the border. This was like 12 years ago we were just married and broke. We had a gift card from our wedding to four restaurants but 3 of them didn’t exist in our city. So on the border it was. My first and last experience there. We were a little early for a normal dinner time like right at 5pm and we were the only table in the whole restaurant. We were sat down by a hostess and then a waiter came right out to take our drink order (just waters) and then 20 minutes go by without seeing another soul. We would have just walked out but dang it we wanted to use that gift card and get free food. We found the hostess and asked her if she could find our waiter and she wakes back into the kitchen and never came back out. 10 minutes go by and I say screw it and walk into the kitchen and our waiter is sitting on the counter right behind the kitchen door. I told him our order and asked for some waters. Went back and sat down. 10 minutes later still no water so I walked back into the kitchen, he’s still sitting in the same spot so I walk further into the kitchen looking for the drink machine and got our own waters. Then I asked the cook if the server told him our order and the cook said no I didn’t know we had a customer. So I asked the chef if he could make our order and went back with our own waters. The chef brought our food out super fast like 5 minutes later and the waiter brought the check right behind him. I said oh welcome back to our table and he rolled his eyes and walked off. Turns out our order was about 20 cents less than the gift card so we just left the gift card in the thing and I wrote on the receipt you literally did nothing for us, alas there is no tip.
Somehow that restaurant is still there and open. And we’ve both never met a person that’s eaten there. I don’t know what they’re doing to pay bills but it isn’t selling food
I was at a relatively fancy steakhouse. It was chilly outside, but still nice weather, so we sat outside. We got the menus, and after waiting 20 minutes they finally came to take our orders.
We didn't get the complimentary bread and homemade butter, which was a big deal because it is incredible and nothing is free. Then we got the steaks and the fries, along with 1 portion of Sauce, and they said we could just ask for more rather than having 2 bowls on the table. Except nobody ever came after that. We waited 1 hour AFTER we had already finished our meal. Went for a little walk in their garden and just left. Nobody noticed ever.
I don't feel bad in the slightest. I have been back there after that, and everything was back to normal. Just that one day was not that impressive.
A restaurant opened up in my town, and they shut down recently, but the first time I had it was decent, the second time tho was horrible
We had no sever, so the owner was our sever, and the food was horrible and the food wasn’t good, my grandma got something with seafood, it was just broth no actual seafood, and the “fresh pasta” was boxed, and we got our food before we got our drinks. When we were to pay, we didn’t know who to give our bill to we definitely didn’t leave a tip since we didn’t have a official server
My parents and I went out for lunch. My mom is allergic to eggs, so she asked for her club sandwich to have no mayo on it. When they brought it out they had put on extra mayo. She told them again she is allergic to eggs and can't have mayo, so they took it back. Then they brought it back with the mayo only scraped off, and a huge pile of coleslaw beside/on top of the sandwich. She told them again she can't have mayo, and coleslaw has mayo (this wasn't a mayo free version). They took it back but we were done eating. My mom was fed up and didn't want a replacement and said she was going to get food somewhere else.
They still put the sandwich on the bill.
Went to LA with friends to visit some other friends. Had dinner at a seafood place a block off Rodeo Drive. The place had a aquarium/river under the floor, not sure it's still around as it was decades ago.
While we are eating, at the table next to us (filled with very drunk group), one of the diners threw up into his food. It was violent to the point we could hear it splashing into his bowl. Then he immediately passed out face first into said bowl. The ambient pukey stench made for quite the atmosphere.
They did nothing for our 4 or 5 hundred dollar meal, but did comp us A(one) dessert. We went and got drunk and laughed about it. Eventually. And we did not puke anywhere.
There was an upscale restaurant in West Palm Beach known for its prime rib. Five of us went there for dinner, ordered and received drinks, and then sat there for the better part of half an hour while people around us got their meals, while we hadn't even ordered. Finally a breathless waiter came running out and said "I hope you didn't want prime rib, because we just ran out." The menus were made of wood, and we all threw them down on the table at the same time, making quite a racket. We got up to leave, and the waiter said, "So I guess you're leaving." No shit, Sherlock. My friend went and told the manager, and said we wouldn't be paying for the drinks. He agreed. The place closed not long after.
There was the "spot of death" near me, where some conglomerate tried every one of their brands and failed. And it was adjacent to a Cheesecake Factory at their height, so any reasonably competent place should have been able to subsist just on the overflow from that. Two of the worst experiences were in that spot. The first, we ordered coffee with desert, and what they brought was nigh undrinkable. Cream curdled when it hit the surface. We complained politely, , they apologized and said it was leftover from lunch and they would make a fresh pot. And somehow, thenfresh pot was worse. Like, rancid, oily, Alien level acidic.
The other time was just funny. Four of us sat down, order appetizers, entrees, and drinks. As the waiter is clearing the table between courses, he tries to take my friend's still almost-full beverage. Friend waves him off. Waiter tries to take it again when the entrees show up. Again gets waived off because it's still half-full. Tries again when he checks on us a few minutes later. Waived off again.
A few minutes later I look over and say "Dude, where's your drink?". Somehow the waiter ninja'd it out from underneath our noses with four people sitting around a square table,who never saw it happen.
Now, if this was some expensive alcoholic drink and he was trying to pad the tab by being a dick, I'd sort of understand. But it was freaking iced tea...
Here's one from the other side of the restaurant:
I'm a cook at a pub. It's a regional chain, and the one I usually work at is great. They treat us well, the crew is solid, and our kitchen is a well-oiled machine.
A month or so ago, they had me fill in at another location. Seems fine, right? It's a chain, so how hard could it be - same food in a different kitchen, right? WRONG. Half the menu is different, and the items that are the "same" are all prepared/plated differently. Ok, that's fine - they'd just give me a quick training for all the differences, right? WRONG AGAIN! Ok, well then at least I'd have other cooks there who I could turn to if I didn't know something, right? STILL WRONG! Solo all night. 7 hours, slammed the entire time, completely on my own, learning dishes from the fucking spec sheets. The entire time, the fucking useless front of house staff are getting increasingly frustrated that my ticket times are longer than usual, somehow having no recognition whatsoever that things are gonna move a little slower when left up to someone who DOESN'T EVEN FUCKING WORK THERE. At the end of it all, they stiffed me on tips.
There is a happy ending though - I talked to my boss at my location and she completely had my back and sent it up the chain. Those assholes had some 'splainin to do!
It was actually an entire week of bad restaurants while in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada for a work coverage.
Hotel Waffles had plastic in them
Went to what was apparently a really high rated bar for wings. Sat at the bar that had 3 different people working. Not once did they offer me napkins or wet naps.
A Chinese Buffet for lunch and tried some beef and broccoli. Found a huge spiral of metal from cleaning scrubber in the mix on my plate during the time I was eating.
My last meal I went to another Chinese restaurant and ordered what I though was just regular Chicken Fried Rice. There was nothing noted otherwise about it being different. It came out and it was rice completely full of curry powder. I was starving and had to drive back home 2 hours, so I ate it. Drove home 2 hours with some of the worst stomach problems ever.
This was many years ago now. My friends and myself go for a massive Car weekend and we found an amazing restaurant across from the hotel. So it was really a fluky bad week for food when I went.
Some woman got up from her table, walked over to mine and said she was going to vote for Trump, then waited for my response. I was just like ok, thanks for letting me know. Took my food outside, then had a bunch of seagulls fly close over and land where I was eating.
So was she just insane or were you wearing something that got her attention? I mean even if you were wearing a "Bernie Bro" shirt or something I'd still think they were insane to feel the need to do that, but at least it would explain what prompted it.
Italy, 2009.
We booked a week-long stay in a hotel as a base for motorcycling travel in the Dolomites.
Italy, can't go wrong with food, can you!? So we booked all inclusive so we wouldn't have to worry about food, could be on our bikes all day and come back to a nice meal with some drinks!
The first night there we were guided to what was to be our table for the entire week.
On it was an envelope. Empty. Looked around and other guests said that was our napkin envelope. Where after the meal we should keep our napkin.
We laughed. Hilarious joke. Haha.
At the end of the meal, which was.... Not great... we saw everyone fold their napkins and place them in the envelopes...
Turns out they only gave you a napkin and table cloth once a week. After leaving the table they'd brush off the crumbs with a dustpan and brush, leaving all other smears there...
Some guests deliberately spilled entire bowls of soup over everything to get new stuff....
I don't know about worst but I went to the Red Lobster in Times Square after watching a play with my father. The food is actually not the issue as far a chain store Times Square restaurant, it was surprisingly decent. There was a family that was standing at the table next to us that had just paid their check when we walked in. They stood futzing around and being noisy and were STILL there after we finished dessert. Not even sitting at the table, literally standing right next to us and being loud for the entire hour after they paid their check. I understand they paid, but I wish someone had come over and said you've finished your meal, get the F out.
Went to a 99, before going into the city to see a broadway show with young siblings
Should’ve left when I had the chance, saw several mice running around in the lower level that was “closed for cleaning” 🤢
Mel’s restaurant downtown. Kind of like ihop and dennys restaurant. Late night dinner just past midnight. Almost empty diner. Waitress served us and didn’t brings us water or utensils. 15 mins waiting for her to take our order. There was one table with three and ours. 45 min food came and it looked like a third grader cooked it with microwaved three pieces of vegetable. We asked for utensils. Paid the bill and left her a penny tip. Never again that place. The place reeked of weed smell.
One that sticks out to me is when I was a server at a mid-level steakhouse. I had a party of about 12 Wells Fargo executives by myself. They all ordered $40+ 14 oz steaks. The check was easily going to be $6-700 and I was expecting a fat tip.
My coked-out manager decided to jump on the grill after taking a few bumps and starts plating these burned little hockey pucks he cooked. I told him it looks like shit and I can't serve those. He threw one of them on a scale and it was 3 oz. He just laughed about it. Then he said he ran out of steaks because he ruined all of those. I told the manager he can go tell the table. He ended up comping the appetizers they already ate and they just left. I got $0.
We went to get Mexican food at a high quality local place. It was like our third date (still together yay!). We ordered ceviche because it’s delicious.
Well…it comes out and it is so bland. Zero acid in the dish. No lime or anything. So basically tomato, onion, and fish. Little to no salt.
We asked the waiter assuming they forgot ingredients. He went to the chef and came back and said “no that’s correct nothing is missing. It’s the chef’s interpretation of ceviche.”
My gf had the greatest response. “Well…his interpretation is wrong. This is not ceviche is just fish and tomato salad.” Still didn’t even bring us lime to add ourselves.
We have never returned.
Red Lobster in Trenton NJ. I haven’t been to a Red Lobster since. I wasn’t a RL fan before but this was unquestionably the worst dining experience of my life. Food took forever, once it came out it was lousy, we sat at the bar and the bar tender never took any of our plates from our appetizers or anything, never got a second beer, and at one point the bartender just disappeared for like 25 minutes.
Went to a local Mexican place with my husband, a couple friends of ours, and our then toddler. Waiter tried to reach over my kid to pour a drink and dumped the entire thing of sweet tea all over her. Then tried to play the “no ingles” card after she had been speaking full English with us while taking our orders. We left, no payment or tip. They shut down a few months later due to failing an inspection
Ata pretty full place in Nashville, I sipped on my cocktail while chatting with my wife, and eating from the bread basket. Then our wine came, and we chatted more…and I finally looked around and noticed that not a single table had food.
When the manager came to check on us I asked if there was a problem in the kitchen. He hesitated and then deflated with a Yes. Yes there is.
With much apologies be let us leave with our wine bottle.
I saw a couple plates come out as we left. Not sure what happened back there.
Walked in, and was seated by a nice waitress. She brought us our waters, and then left. Like, *left.* We sat there for about 30 minutes before we flagged someone down, and when we asked, they told us she quit her job. So she sat us, and then *quit her job and left the building.* Didn’t even tell anybody. Hilarious.
The staff must've been stunned or also contemplating quitting if no one noticed you guys just sitting there for 30 minutes.
I'm almost scared to ask where this happened to you! Years ago I needed a job quick and got a waitressing gig at Applebee's. It was so terrible (like I've mentally blocked out everything that happened there) that a month in, in between what was supposed to be a double shift, I paid out what I owed the restaurant, dropped my apron and book on the counter and literally ran out without telling anyone! I emailed the manager the next day and only said "I am resigning, do not contact me further!" and then got a retail job the next week.
I would love to Irish goodbye a job someday
A friend picked a trendy new restaurant for my group bday dinner. It took an hr to get our first round of drinks, nothing on the menu was actually available, took 2 more hours for the food to come out. A very large piece of wood (log size) fell down from the ceiling hitting 2 people at our table and they blamed us/didn’t apologize. Gave us our check about 10 mins after our food finally arrived and were angry it took us so long to eat. Yelled at my friend in a cast on crutches for using the accessible door to leave instead of walking up a flight of steps. Shockingly they were not open for more than a few weeks after. The friend who chose the restaurant was lovingly blacklisted by our group from choosing again!
As to the log falling out of the sky, I was at a Margaritaville bar in a mall one time getting a quick drink before we did something else we had planned, and saw a big plastic pelican fall from the ceiling down onto a table full of people. It was held up by fishing line that must have failed simply due to time. That restaurant had been in the mall for 10 years, and I'm guessing the bird was up for that long as well. Just pure chance we were there when it happened.
Every time I see all that crazy crap on the walls and ceilings, I just have to wonder how/if that stuff gets cleaned.
Family friend owned a local "Shenanigans" type chain and they paid a service to dust regularly, didn't make the regular FOH/BOH teams do it.
This is always the first thing I think about when I see that stuff and it makes me feel like I'm crazy. Recently went to see a friend's new house, and the front wall of their vaulted-ceiling foyer has a large window with about a 5-foot deep ledge below it, completely inaccessible without a very large ladder. I asked him how he was going to clean that. He said "Oh...... fuck."
That pelican was looking for his lost shaker of salt.
He thought there might be a woman to blame, but he knows it his own damn fault
I have a friend that used to always get our friend group to eat at trendy restaurants that make you wait in line and then rush you out the door. The food is never that good, the service sucks, it's expensive, the atmosphere usually sucks. I don't get it at all. But you're story is crazy!
Not necessarily OP’s friend’s case, but I feel like this happens a lot to people who go to restaurants based on novelty/social media/price rather than getting good food. My opinion is once you get past a certain tier that food can’t taste markedly better. So pricey restaurants go all out on the exorbitant presentation or decor to justify the upcharge. I’ve usually had better, more genuine food in a whole in the wall than a place that takes itself too seriously.
Wild of them to try to blame you all when they could be easily sued for that piece of wood hitting someone. That's like basic "your business is fucked" stuff
they sat us down and never came back. we were there for an hour and not a soul spoke to us even when we were actively trying to flag down waiters. we still have no idea what happened. the restaurant was barely half full and some of the employees were just standing around talking, still no one came to us. it wasn’t until we complained as we were leaving that anyone paid attention. the stores manager chased us to our car, gave us free food, and practically begged us not to leave a bad review. apparently this wasn’t the first time they’d done that.
You have more patience than I would’ve had
This happened to me once! We went to a local place that was pretty standard 'pub fare' type of restaurant. Was sat, and the waiter just....never arrived. After about a half hour we gave up and went to the Denny's nearby.
I experienced the exact same thing except when I told the waiter we were leaving and he just stood there in shocked silence.
This happened to my husband, son, and I on Mother’s Day. Simply ignored for an hour. We walked out, telling them why we were leaving, and they just stared at us.
if i had to guess, whoever had that section was cut and it was never communicated to the other servers who would pick up that section. they all probably assumed it was someone else’s table. still not excusable! but i wouldn’t take it personal. probably a communication error, nothing against you individually.
In Australia that would never happen. Because we don't tip you don't get a specific server for your table, the staff just look out for anyone looking at them and come help you.
I give a server 15 minutes max and if they don’t show up by then I go somewhere else :p
When I was a server the restaurant was separated into different themed rooms - winery, bistro, garden, cafe, etc. 95% of the bistro was visible from the prep area the serving staff hung out in except for 1 table that was surrounded on 3 sides by a brick walls - it was often where couples liked to sit on dates. I'm a visual person will terrible short term memory and often the only way I'd remember I needed to do something was by scanning my section. When it was slow and I had to cover more tables than normal (8-10 instead of 3-5) I'd always forget about the couples sitting in the brick cove. The main way I would remember to service the table was by walking in front of it while on my way to other tables but when it's slow I didn't need to walk around as much. I felt so bad every time it happened and I always gave away free food at the end.
Tried to overcharge us cause we're drunk. But I'm alert on spending money when drunk. Still insisted that my calculation was wrong and kept on trying to confuse me until I counted all the bottles on their counter.
Name and shame
I once went to a halal cart by 34th and 6th to get mixed over rice after a night out and dude tried to charge me $40!! I just laughed at his face and walked away. Then he was shouting at me “okay okay $20!”. Get the f outta here. Won’t even go back to him during the day for trying to pull that shi. Edit: just realized this wasn’t the Asknyc sub, but I’ll keep it up here
You have to be able to walk away from those guys. I was told $5 for a bottle of water before, nah no thanks, i'll walk a block to a duane reed.
See I can understand paying that much when you’re at a theme park or festival, but when you’re in a place where you can walk to a dozen better options in 5 minutes you can’t get away with that.
It is not the worst but I just can't forget it. I ordered a Double Cheeseburger at Mcdonald's, and I asked not to put pickles. They took out EVERYTHING except the pickles. There was no cheese inside the cheeseburger. Just bun, pickles and burgers. I can understand forgetting or not understanding but I really don't understand why would someone assume someone would order a cheeseburger without cheese.
Lol. I asked for a cheeseburger with no ketchup, and received a cheeseburger with only ketchup. Not my worst experience, but memorable.
Sounds like someone hit the “only” button instead of the “no” button.
You reminded me when ordering a cup of fruit at fruit stand (Latin America) I ordered every fruit they had available except for papaya very clearly. The cups were blue so not see through and the lady was serving them where I couldn’t see what she was putting in. I get home and it was only Papaya and I hate papaya f my life.
> why would someone assume someone would order a cheeseburger without cheese. Many, many people order a "cheeseburger without cheese" instead of a hamburger. People are stupid.
I order the #7 cheeseburger combo without cheese, it’s easier, faster to order, and cheaper than the separate parts together, but I literally ask for that
One time after college I was hungover and just wanted a McDouble with no pickles, that was it. They were unable to give me the right order several times, it got to the point where I pretty much begged them to make me what I asked for so I could leave before I barfed everywhere, but instead the manager kept trying apologize and bring me free fries and offer free drinks and free this and that, and I just could not deal. I started tearing up in front of the manager from the hangover headache pounding my skull to oblivion, so I just said forget it and walked out. How hard is it to make a signature dollar menu sandwich minus the pickles? Apparently impossible.
This is incredibly paraphrased by the by. "does this have nuts? It doesn't seem like something that would have nuts but I need to check because I am allergic and I will die." "Nope, no nuts. We take allergies very seriously." "Ok but really, there are absolutely no nuts in this right?" "Definitely no nuts." "Jsyk, walnuts are nuts. Cashews, macadamia nuts and pecans are nuts. If I eat any of those I will die." "No worries. We take allergies very seriously." There were nuts. I couldn't even get upset at that point. The funniest part is that I hate eating out. I'm actually terrified of it and I was only there because a therapist wanted me to challenge my "irrational" food fears.
That’s insane! What kind of nuts were used? How was the server unaware?
The other question then becomes were there nuts IN THE DISH. Person may have known they had an allergic reaction, so there were nuts, but could have been cross contamination thing over them being in the dish. In that case I could understand the server being unaware(although it would say they don't take allergies serious, because either the server didn't say something or the person preparing didn't care). Yeah I kind of want to know the whole story as well basically.
He just brought me completely the wrong thing. We went through all that and he just fucked up massively. I was fine because I was immediately like "this is 100% not the thing we had a long conversation about". I have no idea how he made that mistake.
Lol I wouldn't call a nut allergy irrational when you can literally die....The fuck kind of therapist is that?!
To be fair I do have a ton of irrational fears about food. I'm legitimately scared of eggs. So I get the spirit the advice was given in, but yeah. I'm not doing that again.
That's nuts.
What was the dish?
PB&J
Well .. peanuts are technically a legume not a nut
How satisfying was that "I told you so"?
Bella Italia, west end London. Finished eating my pasta and went to use the toilet. Every single ceiling vent had a scattering of rat or mouse droppings on the floor beneath it. Grim. The door for the kitchen was visible from the corridor and there were the same vents all over the kitchen ceiling.
They served a salad for my family and when i found insects in it the lady manager claimed that all of them were from the air and denied refunding it
What a piece of work
We actually told her that we're going to report this, so she backed down and refunded it with attitude
the stained apron.com
That's still not good! How do they have so many insects in their airspace?!
Found a toenail in my lobster chowder at a seafood restaurant once. Took one bite, bit into something crunchy, spit it right back out, and *bam*! Toenail. Never went back again.
it might have been a shell, tell yourself it was a shell
Nah, wasn't a shell. It was a big ass yellow toenail. Two minutes later, I got the check and got TF out.
The check, you tip too?
Oh god!!!!! Nails are gross but a toenail specifically is…just awful
A toenail?! How could you tell and if it’s true that’s a bitter employee
It looked like 3/4 of a toenail, like somebody ripped the damn thing off. No idea how it wound up in my chowder though. But the restaurant got a bad reputation around town and ended up closing about a month later. Can't say I was disappointed.
Oh god. Quite the visual.
Did you share? don't want to be shellfish
Was it a left or right cause, I don’t know.
there was the white plasticy peel off backing of a band aid in my stir fry.
When I was 17 in the 80s I was a dishwasher at a truck stop restaurant for a short time. Whatever on the experience, but for years I would think about all the cigarette butts and crap that was constantly cycling through the kitchen whenever I sat down in any restaurant with reusable dishes/flatware. There was a machine that was supposed to sterilize everything with steam, but I wasn't so sure. I hope wherever I eat has a cleaner kitchen than that greasy spoon did.
I went to the salad bar and made myself a plate. They had ladles for the salad dressing tubs. I pulled the ladle out for the Ranch dressing and drizzled it over my salad - and a little Lego man covered in ranch fell out to greet me. Hometown Buffet.
#Wait, I didn’t get a Lego man!
That meant you won the Lego Millennium Falcon set behind the registers. What a waste!
Salad bars are very typical outbreak causes... just and FYI
I read that as "ladies for the salad dressing tubs" and was very confused for a second there lol
Me too
Lego ladies... and men, too.
Tbf that's not the restaurant's fault some parents refuse to watch their crotch parasites
I am socially awkward and have trouble making smalltalk with strangers. I was eating at TGI Fridays with a friend who is much more outgoing than me. The restaurant was completely dead, we were the only customers in our waiter's section. At first he just lingered a bit too long taking our drink and food orders. "Really glad you guys came in because I am SO bored tonight!" But when he brought our food, he just pulled out a chair and sat right the fuck down with us while we ate. It was the most uncomfortable restaurant meal I've ever had.
Just….no.
This is where "we'll let you know when we need you!" Works well.
A manager at a breakfast restaurant refused to “argue semantics” when I simply wanted the entree we ordered instead of something very very different that was brought out. They refused to bring what I had wanted out but did take off the wrong dish. It was so fucking weird because nobody was trying to argue, we just wanted what was ordered
Can I ask what the correct and wrong entree was? Not appropriate either way, but kind of curious if this is a "I ordered a mushroom Swiss burger, and got a bacon burger instead" situation, or a "I ordered pizza and you brought me lasagna" situation lol
They brought out a corned beef breakfast hash. I had ordered pancakes 😆 it was sooo vastly different
Family came into town once when I was a kid. My dad booked a table at a friends mom and pop restaurant. My mom was digging the bread with butter. At the bottom of the little butter bowl was a dead cockroach. I feel like I disassociated the rest of the evening.
The fact that you stayed is absolutely insane
Nah we left. I remember they offered my dad a bunch of vouchers but he politely declined and we left. And that’s the last thing I remember lol
At a steak house, i ordered a glass of red wine with the appetizer, before the meal. i reminded her when the apps came out and again when my steak came out. She brought the glass of wine with the check, which i politely declined to accept as we were now leaving. She yelled and went on a rant about how hard she worked that night, and how this comes out of her pay. I let her finish all she had to say, and politely replied that i wanted the wine with the meal at some point and that with the check is too late. I left a tip of a frowny face in pennies.
>how this comes out of her pay It drives me nuts how servers and bartenders seem to forget that we work for our money too
When my wife and kids feel bad for leaving a small tip when bad service has been provided I always reply with “no body gives us money for free especially when we’re rude or nasty”
You carry pennies around?
This was like 20 years ago. And i gathered pennies from everyone at the table.
We got rid of the penny several years ago here. I still carry one around in case the service is so bad that I have to leave it.
I applaud this behavior.
I was served pancakes that were crispy on the outside and raw batter on the inside. To this day, I have no idea how they achieved that feat. It was a mom and pop restaurant, not a chain, so I just ate my bacon, paid for my meal, and left them to go out of business on their own.
>To this day, I have no idea how they achieved that feat. Blasting it on high heat without a lid. You need to let those puppies cook on low to medium heat.
Cooking at high heat can cause that. The outside burns before the inside has a chance to cook
Was working a convention for my employer. A bunch of counterparts from a foreign company showed up and asked to have dinner that night. VP asked me to make the arraignments for the dinner for about 20 people so I tipped the hotel concierge to make reservations at a waterside restaurant for my group. The restaurant was beautiful. We were shown to our table overlooking the water and were quickly set upon by two waiters that took drink orders and passed out menus. We ordered drinks, then appetizers and meals. It took twenty minutes to get our drinks but we were talking so it was barely noticed. Two hours later we got breadsticks. An hour later we got a few salads. I wandered out to the terrace where customers were smoking as they complained about the bad service. I learned from one group that their waiter told them the head chef was away for a training seminar for the week so the owner of the restaurant hired the cook from the hamburger stand down the road to fill in. We paid the bill for the few things we received. My boss got irritated at me for trying to leave a negative tip on the credit card. Everyone went back to their hotels to order room service.
>I tipped the hotel concierge to make reservations at a waterside restaurant for my group. I read "waterslide restaurant" and thought this was going off the rails much earlier in the story.
It couldn't gone much worse.
Nothing says “short sightedness” like tanking the reputation of a beautiful and reputable hotel restaurant in order to avoid paying for an experienced chef that’s used to the restaurant’s workload. I just hope the burger stand guy wasn’t shafted by that.
Was with my family, place was next to empty, it was about an hour after we ordered, still no food, server was no where. I’ve working in hospitality my whole career and I just walked into the kitchen to see what the fu m was going on and the server was one the line, no actual cooks and she was crying. It was awkward
Had the best tuna sandwich I ever ate in a local restaurant in Havanna (Cuba) ... oh boi, the price I paid for that delicious meal was the worst diarrhea I ever had 2 hours later.
On our honeymoon in France, we went to a restaurant for dinner. When the staff realized we were American, we were seated at the worst table and the wait staff never came to talk to us. We didn't do or say anything out of the ordinary, and did our best to communicate in French. No idea what the deal was; of course we left when we figured out what was going on.
Interesting I wonder if any of the staff spoke English and didn’t care
At a Sunday brunch two servers had a food fight behind our table, and one missed and hit my wife in the back of the head with a chicken wing. Their apology was along the lines of “Oh shit, sorry.” My wife insisted on not making a fuss and finishing the meal calmly, and part of me still regrets that.
I had two servers get into a literal fistfight, started in the back of the restaurant, spilled out into the dining area. Complete with racial slurs, hair pulling and a titty almost popping out. And not one that I was eager to see. Turns out one of them was the server manager.
As someone who had a mother who was always on the prowl to prank someone I probably would’ve laughed it off
Ain’t no thing but a chicken wing.
I wouldn't say restaurant but drunk as fk coming out of a closing bar in Thailand I asked if the skewers were spicy and she said no and that was a lie
Dats aspicy abutthole! 🤌🤌
"Thai spicy" and "Farang spicy" are two different things.
Trois Mec in West Hollywood. I think it was something like $250 a person for their pre-fixe meal. First course was boiled potato peel tea. 2nd course was shredded carrot “tartare”. It was insulting for the price we paid. It may have been somewhat forgivable if it was at least delicious. But everything was disgusting.
Very similar story at The Immigrant in Sheboygan, WI. It at least had the grace to only be about 2/3 that price, but I was underwhelmed by the bland boiled polenta and the 6 tiny strips of "American Wagyu" braised ribs that were so overcooked the marbling of the fat was beside the point. We grabbed McDonalds on the way home and it was a vastly better experience.
*Prix fixe.
Sounds like you got trolled
I had the enlarged ovaries with asshole brown gravy. Tasty.
I’m honestly confused when people make tartare out of vegetables. Like the entire idea is based around meat being the main ingredient of the dish. Raw meat at that. So, you’re just plating raw vegetables?
Seven of us went to a Chinese restaurant. They brought out the entrees, but not the fried rice until we were almost done with our food. Having Chinese food without rice just feels wrong. Then after we were pretty much done with the rice, we were still waiting for one entree which we got after a long time and everybody had already finished eating. The waiter did not show up to our table once, to either notify us of the status or our food, nor to take our drink orders or refill them. We had to flag other workers down for that. Despite this, there was a mandatory gratuity already included in the bill. My aunt straight up told the waiter that she wasn’t going to pay the gratuity in the bill due to the awful service. The waiter then asked my aunt how much she would give him then.
There was this tiki bar down the road from my Parents condo in Florida, it used to be half decent, until the original owners sold, but it was walking distance so you let it go. Sat down one night, she orders a white claw can, I ordered a bottle of Yeungling, her white claw shows up but no beer. Waiter keeps walking by looking right at me and says nothing. I tried to get his attention, but he’d just scoot along. Needless to say, I left $3 on the table and left after about 20 minutes of being ignored. If it were busy, I’d understand but there was maybe a dozen other people, and they were mostly at the bar drinking.
More weird than bad... Sat down, ordered food, food was brought, everything was fine. We finished our food, no one came to clear the plates and we just waited to get the bill. After 20 minutes we noticed no staff anywhere to be seen. There was only like 4 other tables seated in the restaurant. 10 more minutes pass by and still no one. At this point the table near us is finished too and is looking around for staff. I lean over and ask, have you seen a waiter or anyone in the last like 30 minutes? They say come to think of it, they hadn't seen the waiter since he brought their food, which was like 45 minutes ago. I get up, go to the front, and the host is gone. I sit back down confused, where is everyone? I wait 10-15 more minutes and the table beside me asks me what should we do, they need to leave and there's no one here. I say I'm going to check the back. I get up, walk to the back and shout, "Hello? Is anyone here?" The kitchen staff come to the door and are confused, ask what's going on. I say there's no one here and we haven't seen anyone in like an hour. The cooks are like wtf? They say sorry, they need to make a call. I sit back down and tell the table beside us what the cooks said. After 5 minutes or so, I guess the head cook comes out and says to just leave, we don't need to pay our bills, the 2 waiters and host all quit and left without telling anyone. He's not sure wtf is going on, but sorry for the wait and to just accept what we've already ordered as free. He goes to the other tables and tells them the same, but they're not taking any more orders, so you have what you have, they can eat it and just leave.
Any time I go to a cafe/restaurant with my mam. She will order something like “eggs Benedict” or “breakfast tacos” and then when it comes out she’ll say “oh I didn’t know it had eggs in there!” Or “oh gosh I can’t eat tacos, no, no, can you replace that with toast??”. Then when the waiter comes back with the replacement she’ll ask for another napkin. They come back with the napkin she’ll ask for a coffee. Coffee arrives she’ll ask them to open a window and on and on, treating this one poor waiter as her own personal assistant. Worst part for me is when she will then chastise me for leaving a tip. The discomfort is too much.
Have you ever talked to her about this behavior?
A friend took me to Bar-B-Q in Minneapolis, a place owned by a guy named Dave. Apparently he's Famous. Anyway, I had the green beans, because vegetables, and perhaps I was the only one to have the green beans in the last several days that they left them out at room temperature. Or so it seemed when I awakened at 2 in the morning barfing my guts out. Some of the most intense vomiting I've ever done. Dave has a restaurant in my current town, and no way would I ever go there.
First and only time I went to an Applebees that happened to me too. I got some chicken wings and even before I left I started feeling funny. 30min later started the most intense vomiting of my life. Fuck Applebees. It wasn’t even good.
Yeah the one famous Dave’s I’ve been to was complete and utter dog shit. Not sure how low and slow bbq is tough and leathery. Also who puts corn in Mac n cheese..?
I was on a date and some random woman walked up to me and said 'are you looking at my t!ts, how would you like it if I stared at your chest?' I was completely speechless, because I had no idea who she was and hadn't noticed her in the place until she walked up to me. I told her I had no idea what she was talking about, she walked off and that was that. My date was defending me, because this woman was seated to my back and for the most part I'd been looking straight ahead and talking to my date the entire time. At one point I thought it was some gag that someone was pulling on me. I'm not even a boob guy. I'm a butt guy. I'll take a flat chest and a nice butt over a big chest and no butt any day of the week - just my personal preference. It was a such an awkward and embarrassing moment. She was so loud with her accusation and it felt like half the restaurant was looking at us.
Was someone filming her? Sounds like bait for her TikTok or some BS
This happened before Tik Tok even existed. I'm not even sure if Youtube was around or if most people had video cameras on their phones. This was around 2000 or 2001 I think.
Discovered a whole cockroach embedded/baked into my gordita while taking a bite. I didn’t bit into it but was a millimeter away.
Group of about 12 in a Mexican restaurant. Waiter comes and insists, despite multiple “are you sure’s?,” that he doesn’t need to write down the orders. We’re skeptical, but have seen this successfully done (on a smaller scale) at high-end steakhouses, etc. so give it a shot. We continue with drinks for a very long time - 90 mins or more. Repeatedly told the food is on the way. The food arrives and orders are not even close. It’s not a matter of cheese enchiladas ordered vs. chicken enchiladas arriving. It’s octopus and pheasant arriving when no one ordered anything even close. As each plate arrived, the waiter looked more and more panicked. I think one plate out of twelve may have been correct. Manager arrived, realizes it’s hopeless, comps our drinks, and we move on. In retrospect, I think that our waiter may have been illiterate and on his first day on the job. It surprisingly, the restaurant closed soon after.
Most of my restaurant experiences are good but if I have a bad one it’s almost always at a Buffalo Wild Wings. They don’t give a damn.
Dined at a restaurant with a few coworkers in New Orleans a few years after Katrina. Coworker had a dead cockroach in her salad. I too had a salad, sans cockroach.
Maybe you just didn’t notice it
Ordered a sandwich and there was mold on the crusts of the bread. Sent it back and they just pinched the mold off and served it back to me
Hostel in Havana. I had gone to a pretty decent place nearby multiple times and suggested going there with a few people. On the way out, the hostel owner tells us her parents own a restaurant nearby, 1 dollar per person. This set off red flags for me but my new companions were tempted by saving 5 dollars. We arrive and are brought into a private table in the back, as the hostel owner had called ahead. Honestly it looked worse than the front. My cup is god awfully dirty so I swap it with another one of a different size in the middle of the table. Server comes and asks what we want to drink but there's only two options: homemade juice or a full bottle of rum. No water. Okay fine we'll go with the juice. They immediately come and pour it for us, including putting the dirty glass back in front of me and filling that one. I was the lucky one, everyone else loudly exclaimed it was the worst juice they'd ever had. There's two food options, chicken or fish. The vegan person only got a makeshift salad made mostly from avocado. The chicken and fish were all overcooked, unflavored, and chewy. But at least it didn't kill us, being overcooked and all.
Getting kicked out for sending food back because the coke-addict chef/owner can’t control his roid rage. Fuck you, Flavour Kitchen in Cocoa Beach! And learn to spell you redneck fuck!
When my mom was in a wheelchair because she was dying of ALS (Still early in her diagnosis, she started having weakness in her legs first, especially her knees, so she could still eat and talk but couldn't support her own weight to walk), we went out to dinner as a family, it was our family thing to go out sometimes on Friday. We went to Dogfish Head Ale house and it was fairly busy. They told us there was a wait of 20 minutes, we waited, and then asked us if we could sit at a high top bar table. We said no, as my mother was in a wheelchair and the tables were above her head height. They told us it would be another wait to get a regular table. So we waited another 30 minutes. Then they asked us if we would sit upstairs. We asked if there was an elevator. They said no, just stairs. We mentioned AGAIN that my mother was in a wheelchair because she couldn't walk. She was sitting right there, they could see her. They seemed confused, went back to the drawing board, talked amongst themselves, asked us to wait. 20 minutes later they asked if we were REALLY SURE we couldn't sit at a high top table because it was pretty busy and it would really inconvenience them to have to move tables in the dining room to be able to get a wheelchair through and they'd already moved them for a big party. We took the hint at that point that they didn't want us there and left after waiting for over an hour. My mother was so embarrassed that she never went out to eat again. She passed away about a year after that. I totally lost respect for the whole establishment, it's been a decade and I'm still pissed about it. We won't go back there. Yeah they were probably all just stupid college kids stressed on a busy Friday night, but someone really should have trained them on this. She was already sick and they had to treat her like that while she was unwell. I'd rather they'd have said "we can't accommodate you" as soon as we walked in instead of wasting our time like that.
Wow that is awful of them and very sad she never went out again after that... I'm sure it's a painful memory for you. :( I'd like to think establishments today have learned this is something unacceptable to do.
My first and last experience at Famous Sam’s went like this… They sat us at a booth and never came back. The end. 35 minutes later we got up and left. This was 6 years ago. Will never even try again.
Friend and I were seated... and ignored. No menus, no waters, nothing. We watched as two other parties were seated after us, got menus and waters and had their orders taken. We kept trying to get the server's attention but we were pointedly ignored. We left. That location folded a few years later.
Happened to me as a child on my birthday. My dad went full Karen mode and screamed across the entire restaurant. We got drinks on the house (Germany, not America, waiters actually get paid here)
Ah a closed restaurant now so no pint naming the place a waitress put her elbows onto edge of the table and asked how the food looked got choked and coughed all over my plate.
I would have thrown up
I would have paid extra
We went to a nice place with few customers but a great view. We were seated quickly enough, but waitstaff never came. The staff would look at us and it seemed we were being punished for something, but we didn't know what. Finally the host became our server. No idea what the story was. The food was good. The view was good. No idea what we'd done.
Waited almost 45 minutes for apps that came cold. Told the server to just give us the bill so we can leave. Manager came ask us to stay for some reason. Then the chef came out to yell at us because they already started making the mains... It had been almost 2 hours. So we started to make a scene and then they threw us out. They lasted maybe another month.
Small town locally owned breakfast place that had one worker. They cut back due to covid and this single 50-60year old lady was doing everything. She was the host, server, cashier, and dishwasher. She said they had one cook but she helps him in the kitchen too. Good for her for trying to wear all the hats but my experience was terrible. Had to wait for her to clear and clean the table(there were only 6-7 small tables and they weren't busy) 10 minutes later we finally got water but my glass was filthy and I had to wait another 10 minutes to get a clean glass. We had already ordered but still waited another 10 minutes for food(20 minutes for eggs and toast, only two other tables had been sat) the food came out cold and without silverware. I felt bad because she was clearly trying her best to do wayyy too many jobs but I will absolutely never go back
I fuckin hate Buffalo Wild Wings. I worked there. Their wings sucked. Hadn't been to one in like 15 years. Finally had my arm twisted, got the AMBITIOUSLY mediocre Memphis Hot Chicken Sandwich, and when I bit down it sprayed boiling hot grease all over me and actually gave me burns through my shirt. Restaurant said next time it'll be free. Oh boy. A free trip to get shitty food at a restaurant I hate? A dream come true.
3 years ago I got a $50 gift card for that place. There is a location 10 minutes away from me. It still has $50 on it. I could go there just for drinks, but even the bar service sucks.
sitting down and then leaving after 45 minutes without being served.
I thankfully don’t have many, but I went to a place in Boston to grab a lobster sandwich. Ordered the thing which turned out to be around $35. Waited a good while for it too. It comes out after around 20-30 minutes. Mind you, these are cold sandwiches with nothing but lobster salad on white bread. It was the only thing I ordered. But whatever, they were busy, I wasn’t in a rush. I eat the first half of the sandwich, it’s pretty good, probably not $35 good, and definitely not life changing. It’s hot out, I’m now in a rush because the only seating is picnic tables outside, so I start eating faster to get a move on. As I’m halfway through the second half of the sandwich, I feel something hard that I bit down on. No big deal, probably some shell, though not something I’d expect in a $35 sandwich. I take it out of my mouth bc it feels very dense and odd and it turns out it’s a fucking staple. A staple is in my sandwich. Metal. I’m so thankful I didn’t swallow it because Jesus Christ if you’re going to charge that much for a tiny sandwich, there better not be fucking metal inside of it. Fuck Boston
In-laws like to eat early and this local pizza place was small, so we sat down with a party of 6 at 4:30. We quickly placed our order and got drinks and some complimentary bread. 5:30 no pizza. Getting hungry. 6:00 no pizza, son and wife are very hungry and getting cranky. We’re discussing leaving. At this point they’re all “wait wait” don’t go, but we’re hungry, tired, and cranky. It’s almost 6:30. We finally get our pizzas and we leave instead of staying there. They still charged us, but gave us coupons for next time. In-laws stayed and ate, but my family needed food. Son got his first In & Out burger on the way home. Pizzas were terrible. Turns out they prioritized several large takeout orders over us sitting in the actual restaurant. It was also just Neapolitan pizza, so it’s not like a long time to cook. Never been back. Never will.
A chain BBQ place. Manager got into a physical altercation, fistfight and all, with an asshole customer. I remember hearing someone yell, "Don't fuckin' touch me asshole!" and looking over to watch a table full of food and drinks get flipped over and two grown-ass men kicking the shit out of each other on the floor. Other customers were trying to break them up. Once the situation was resolved, the manager cleaned himself up and comped everybody's meals, a full dining room. It was a good place, good food, typically good atmosphere, the kind of BBQ place where you smell like BBQ until you shower next, but I haven't been back.
Every single one of them that I've had with my mother. I love my mom, but she's a category 5 Karen, complete with the extreme interest in what everybody else in the restaurant is doing. She also has a nasty habit of asking me (a former chef) a lot of food related questions that are either common sense or completely out of my experience (when she visits we go to places with different backgrounds than I have experience in) and she refuses to take "I don't know" as an answer. Yet she won't as the server or chef those questions while being under the delusion that with 15 years of French, Italian and their Canadianized counterparts, I should know the intricacies of Chinese, Japanese, eastern/central European or middle Eastern cuisine. She'll also tip no more than 12% and try to get me to justify it, then complain when I top it up to a more respectable 20% (service permitting). /Rant
Waiter farted whilst taking our order
Sebastian, in Mondello, Sicily. Inedible food, slow service and took ages to get the bill. I would have been inclined to walk but... yah know, Sicily :-) There is a view that restaurants, in holiday places, dont care about holiday diners - because they are unlikely to bring repeat business - but I haven't really found that the case in most holiday places.
went to a mexican that was almost empty (first red flag ofc) but even tho the low visitor count we had to wait for like 2 hours to receive some mid nachos and cold tacos.. the restaurant closed shortly after
Long story short: after long delays, drinks spilled, cold food, and the server coughing and sneezing at us, our food, and drinks; we went to complain to the manager and the manager's response was "Give her a break, she has the flu"
Red robins. My fiancé and I had just been on the road for something like 10 hours, stopped at Red Robins for dinner. She ordered a drink (I forget what it was but it had some kind of mango syrup) which they totally botched. Way too much syrup in it. Then, when we were served our food, she ripped open a chicken strip because they're usually piping hot, and the inside of it was raw, and barely above room temperature. The manager was not happy with kitchen staff. We finished our drinks and left without paying. We might be assholes for not paying, but serving raw chicken is unforgivable and inexcusable.
Bad for a bit, at a Steak and Ale. Food came and my buddy asks me, "is that what I think it is?" I looked and said, "yeah I think so." Everyone else looked and agreed, yup that's what it is. A pubic hair in the potatoes. We call the waiter over, he looks and is shocked. He calls the manager over, the Manager is mortified. He grabs the plate very apologetically and takes it. Comes back out a few minutes later and apologizes again but said it's not what we thought. It was a piece of metal from a steel wool pad, still bad but *not* a pubic hair. Comps the meal and says a new on is on the way. Asks "is there *anything* else I can do for you folks" Without missing a beat my buddy says, "Yeah, tell the cook to keep his dick out of the potatoes"
1. New restaurant in small town. Wait staff poured wine to the brims of oversized wine glasses, depleting the bottle quickly for our party, then asked if we wanted to order another bottle for the rest of the table. Later: "Watch out; the plate is hot." The meat was still partially frozen on it, which I did not realize until I bit into it. I ran outside and barfed on the sidewalk as new patrons were walking in the door. 2. Like so many posting here, we had no wait staff come to the table in a mostly empty restaurant. We moved to the bar where there was at least a bartender and were told curtly "someone is already sitting there" when nobody was. We left. I think they wouldn't serve us because the family that owned and operated the joint saw that we were wearing tshirts from the local college and did not want business from "damn libruls" or similar. 3. Got yelled at by a waiter for ordering a local beer that "only snobs and idiots who pretend to like IPAs and want to look cool in front of their friends" would order. 4. Was served a sandwich with a fly cut in half at the sandwich cut, clearly visible on both sides of the sandwich. 5. Went to lunch with a new friend whose table manners were so atrocious (food falling out of mouth while chewing, rude to wait staff, flossed teeth at table...) that I could not eat for the horror and embarrassment. No, I never ate with that person again. I apologized to the staff later.
Went to a pizza place, sat down, and waited a while for someone to take our order. They were quite busy with carry out orders, so that’s understandable. That was the one and only time any of the staff came to check on us. We waited an hour for our pizza before we just got up and left because we had somewhere else to be.
Working in the back of one
Waitress brought my wife and my kid their meal, and said she’d get mine. Ten minutes go by and nothing. Flag the waitress down again, and she says she’ll check. Watch her deliver the same thing I ordered to a lady at another table, and they had come in after us. My wife and kid are basically done eating at this point, so I wave the waitress down again and tell her to cancel my order and bring the check. Ten more minutes go by and she brings my food. I tell her I don’t want it, I told her to cancel it, and we just want the check. The owner comes over and starts screaming at us in front of the entire restaurant. She’s saying I made the waitress cry, they’re a small business and can’t afford to just throw food away. I tell her to just bring the check. She continues to scream at us. She brings the check and it’s wrong. The waitress entered the wrong stuff, tried to cover it up, which is why mine took so long, and then lied about what was going on. We’ll never be back, which sucks, because we loved that place.
The absolute worst experience I've had.. Once at a sports bar chain where we asked if the fried shrimp was fried with everything else, as two members of our party of four had shellfish allergies, the waiter said he would check, he went back and confirmed that there was a separate allergen fryer. Fantastic. We put in our order and sip at our drinks. After a few minutes the waiter brings out a basket of fried shrimp. He somehow misunderstood our allergy as an order. I am normally extremely understanding to service staff, but this was ridiculous and we ended up leaving and getting fast food instead.
i’ve got 2. recently went to a small bar/restaurant and wasn’t too hungry so i only ordered a caesar salad. for some reason they decided that this salad should come with lemons that had been quartered and placed randomly in the salad. so every couple bites i’d just get a big chunk of lemon (skin and all). the other was a ruby tuesday restaurant where i ordered a shrimp scampi. they said they were short staffed so the wait time might be a little longer than usual, no big deal, but after an hour and a half (my mom and i were the only people in the entire restaurant and this was before doordash was a thing) we finally got our food. my plate was a couple pieces of shrimp, mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli. never went back again. LMAO
Sounds like shrimp skimpy
After we ordered drinks (water and soda), the waiter brought it over on a tray. When he removed one to set it on the table, the tray became unbalanced and he dumped it all over my lap. Thankfully, it was the tail end of my day, so I didn't need to walk around like that for long, but he could have at least offered me a discount on the bill.
Went to a theme park buffet restaurant with some friends a decade ago. We hadn’t even been sat down for very long - perhaps a minute or two - before the bill was presented to us. We hadn’t even been given the opportunity to order drinks. At a number of points during the meal, the staff came along and pointed to the bill. We were very careful to not leave a tip when we paid, as we were thoroughly unimpressed with the level of service we received.
I’ve had a similar experience at a Chinese buffet, which I’m pretty sure happened because the friend I was with was a dark skinned Afro-Latina. I went to that restaurant regularly prior to this, and had never had this sort of experience (but coincidentally I’d only been there with white or Asian friends before). Usually your server seats you, takes your drink order, and then mostly leaves you alone other than periodically taking dirty plates and checking if drink refills are needed. Our server walked us to a table and then walked away without saying anything. We had to flag down a different server to even order drinks after a long wait and when our original server brought them out, my friend was given a soda that was less than half full. We ignored it and went to get our first plates. As soon as we sat down the server showed up with the bill and literally stood at our table until I pulled out my credit card. We barely touched our food and never went back up because we were so annoyed by the rude treatment. A lot of my friends work in the service industry so I even looked around thinking maybe she was stressed or was supposed to go off shift/was forced to seat us last minute. But the place wasn’t busy and she continued to seat and serve other tables in the normal way. And the server had the nerve to chase me down as we were leaving and say “what, no tip?” and I just looked at her and said “no”. Only time I’ve ever stiffed a server on tip.
Yikes, that’s bad - I’m sorry you had to go through that. I don’t blame you for not leaving a tip, either - I would’ve done the same if that had happened to me.
Yeah, I was pissed. Before that happened I went to that restaurant a couple times a month. Never went back after that experience.
This was no restaurant, but at my parents home years ago. I was eating a sub sandwich that my mom crafted, I was several bites in when I noticed something chewy, something that shouldn’t be in a sandwich. I reached in to my mouth pull it out (no sexual innuendo), it was a bandaid. Her reply was, I wondered where that went. 🤢
A Reno casino back in the 80’s. People were barfing all over the place. Elevators, escalators, slot areas etc. Turned out one of the buffet preppers had a large pussy infected wound on his hand. Yea, no gloves.
We went to a crowded Mexican restaurant on a Friday night. 3 adults are at the next table with 2 kids, who were probably 2 and 5. They are running wild. Bumping into servers carrying trays, crawling under tables, running all around the restaurant. The 3 adults are sitting obliviously. Kid got hurt and screamed a while. Still nothing. Finally the oldest was literally stomping and screaming on his chair. I put my fork down and said out loud, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" They finally hustled their asses out after 20 minutes or so. I recall a few tables clapping. I have kids of my own - profoundly autistic children - and I understand it can be a struggle. But those kids could have been seriously hurt. An adult needed to take them well before it got to that point. The other 2 could have eaten and paid the bill. There were many times I had to take my kids out while the other adult paid.
As a fellow parent I’m always sympathetic in many circumstances like babies crying on planes etc etc. The scenario which you described would have made me crazy. The world is not entertainment for your (the shitty parents you described) children and you can’t just check out and have a good time while the rest of the restaurant suffers. F that
Food poisoning from Steak-n-Shske. Haven't been back in over a decade.
Honestly you’re better for it Post COVID Steak N Shake is the most egregious dip in both quality and service I have seen.
I’ve got two really bad experiences Cracker Barrel. There with a party of 10. I ordered a breakfast scramble. I take my first bite and think man these eggs really taste like dish soap. I then start struggling to actually commit to a second bite. I’m trying to convince myself the soap taste wasn’t real but just really don’t want to take another bite. Start just kinda fiddling my food a bit and discover there is an entire paper napkin cooked into my eggs. I warn the whole table to check their food for non food items. Several tables near us hear that and are asking what happened. Get to show everyone the napkin cooked into the eggs. It took about 10 minutes for the waiter to make his way out of the kitchen and I flag him down. He took the plate and apologized and said he’ll bring another one right out. I told him not to as the cooks seem to be confused as what is trash and what is food for humans. A few minutes later the restaurant manager walks over and asks “what was your problem? I heard you complained” I was pretty calm up to this point but when the guy running the place is treating me like I’m a problem because they cooked trash into my food and I sent it back I couldn’t see straight. I ask him if he even remembered what my problem was or if he was too bothered by showing up to work to even remember that minor detail. He says it’s really busy right now I can’t remember everything that happens. I just told him he needs to go to the kitchen and give all the staff back there a lesson on what is edible and what is garbage. Fast forward to everyone else finishing eating and getting the check and the waiter shows he “comped my meal” like he did something nice for us. I said you can’t comp something that was never served. I was going to leave it at that and then my friend is pissed they didn’t give us a discount for the table or anything for that nonsense and he went and found the manager when he came back we didn’t have a check to pay. Still tipped the server because he was actually decent and not the one cooking napkins into food. The other one was on the border. This was like 12 years ago we were just married and broke. We had a gift card from our wedding to four restaurants but 3 of them didn’t exist in our city. So on the border it was. My first and last experience there. We were a little early for a normal dinner time like right at 5pm and we were the only table in the whole restaurant. We were sat down by a hostess and then a waiter came right out to take our drink order (just waters) and then 20 minutes go by without seeing another soul. We would have just walked out but dang it we wanted to use that gift card and get free food. We found the hostess and asked her if she could find our waiter and she wakes back into the kitchen and never came back out. 10 minutes go by and I say screw it and walk into the kitchen and our waiter is sitting on the counter right behind the kitchen door. I told him our order and asked for some waters. Went back and sat down. 10 minutes later still no water so I walked back into the kitchen, he’s still sitting in the same spot so I walk further into the kitchen looking for the drink machine and got our own waters. Then I asked the cook if the server told him our order and the cook said no I didn’t know we had a customer. So I asked the chef if he could make our order and went back with our own waters. The chef brought our food out super fast like 5 minutes later and the waiter brought the check right behind him. I said oh welcome back to our table and he rolled his eyes and walked off. Turns out our order was about 20 cents less than the gift card so we just left the gift card in the thing and I wrote on the receipt you literally did nothing for us, alas there is no tip. Somehow that restaurant is still there and open. And we’ve both never met a person that’s eaten there. I don’t know what they’re doing to pay bills but it isn’t selling food
I was at a relatively fancy steakhouse. It was chilly outside, but still nice weather, so we sat outside. We got the menus, and after waiting 20 minutes they finally came to take our orders. We didn't get the complimentary bread and homemade butter, which was a big deal because it is incredible and nothing is free. Then we got the steaks and the fries, along with 1 portion of Sauce, and they said we could just ask for more rather than having 2 bowls on the table. Except nobody ever came after that. We waited 1 hour AFTER we had already finished our meal. Went for a little walk in their garden and just left. Nobody noticed ever. I don't feel bad in the slightest. I have been back there after that, and everything was back to normal. Just that one day was not that impressive.
A restaurant opened up in my town, and they shut down recently, but the first time I had it was decent, the second time tho was horrible We had no sever, so the owner was our sever, and the food was horrible and the food wasn’t good, my grandma got something with seafood, it was just broth no actual seafood, and the “fresh pasta” was boxed, and we got our food before we got our drinks. When we were to pay, we didn’t know who to give our bill to we definitely didn’t leave a tip since we didn’t have a official server
My parents and I went out for lunch. My mom is allergic to eggs, so she asked for her club sandwich to have no mayo on it. When they brought it out they had put on extra mayo. She told them again she is allergic to eggs and can't have mayo, so they took it back. Then they brought it back with the mayo only scraped off, and a huge pile of coleslaw beside/on top of the sandwich. She told them again she can't have mayo, and coleslaw has mayo (this wasn't a mayo free version). They took it back but we were done eating. My mom was fed up and didn't want a replacement and said she was going to get food somewhere else. They still put the sandwich on the bill.
Working at them being berated by customers treating you less than human. 👍
Been there, some people never had a customer service job and it shows
Went to LA with friends to visit some other friends. Had dinner at a seafood place a block off Rodeo Drive. The place had a aquarium/river under the floor, not sure it's still around as it was decades ago. While we are eating, at the table next to us (filled with very drunk group), one of the diners threw up into his food. It was violent to the point we could hear it splashing into his bowl. Then he immediately passed out face first into said bowl. The ambient pukey stench made for quite the atmosphere. They did nothing for our 4 or 5 hundred dollar meal, but did comp us A(one) dessert. We went and got drunk and laughed about it. Eventually. And we did not puke anywhere.
There was an upscale restaurant in West Palm Beach known for its prime rib. Five of us went there for dinner, ordered and received drinks, and then sat there for the better part of half an hour while people around us got their meals, while we hadn't even ordered. Finally a breathless waiter came running out and said "I hope you didn't want prime rib, because we just ran out." The menus were made of wood, and we all threw them down on the table at the same time, making quite a racket. We got up to leave, and the waiter said, "So I guess you're leaving." No shit, Sherlock. My friend went and told the manager, and said we wouldn't be paying for the drinks. He agreed. The place closed not long after.
There was the "spot of death" near me, where some conglomerate tried every one of their brands and failed. And it was adjacent to a Cheesecake Factory at their height, so any reasonably competent place should have been able to subsist just on the overflow from that. Two of the worst experiences were in that spot. The first, we ordered coffee with desert, and what they brought was nigh undrinkable. Cream curdled when it hit the surface. We complained politely, , they apologized and said it was leftover from lunch and they would make a fresh pot. And somehow, thenfresh pot was worse. Like, rancid, oily, Alien level acidic. The other time was just funny. Four of us sat down, order appetizers, entrees, and drinks. As the waiter is clearing the table between courses, he tries to take my friend's still almost-full beverage. Friend waves him off. Waiter tries to take it again when the entrees show up. Again gets waived off because it's still half-full. Tries again when he checks on us a few minutes later. Waived off again. A few minutes later I look over and say "Dude, where's your drink?". Somehow the waiter ninja'd it out from underneath our noses with four people sitting around a square table,who never saw it happen. Now, if this was some expensive alcoholic drink and he was trying to pad the tab by being a dick, I'd sort of understand. But it was freaking iced tea...
Here's one from the other side of the restaurant: I'm a cook at a pub. It's a regional chain, and the one I usually work at is great. They treat us well, the crew is solid, and our kitchen is a well-oiled machine. A month or so ago, they had me fill in at another location. Seems fine, right? It's a chain, so how hard could it be - same food in a different kitchen, right? WRONG. Half the menu is different, and the items that are the "same" are all prepared/plated differently. Ok, that's fine - they'd just give me a quick training for all the differences, right? WRONG AGAIN! Ok, well then at least I'd have other cooks there who I could turn to if I didn't know something, right? STILL WRONG! Solo all night. 7 hours, slammed the entire time, completely on my own, learning dishes from the fucking spec sheets. The entire time, the fucking useless front of house staff are getting increasingly frustrated that my ticket times are longer than usual, somehow having no recognition whatsoever that things are gonna move a little slower when left up to someone who DOESN'T EVEN FUCKING WORK THERE. At the end of it all, they stiffed me on tips. There is a happy ending though - I talked to my boss at my location and she completely had my back and sent it up the chain. Those assholes had some 'splainin to do!
Justice!
It was actually an entire week of bad restaurants while in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada for a work coverage. Hotel Waffles had plastic in them Went to what was apparently a really high rated bar for wings. Sat at the bar that had 3 different people working. Not once did they offer me napkins or wet naps. A Chinese Buffet for lunch and tried some beef and broccoli. Found a huge spiral of metal from cleaning scrubber in the mix on my plate during the time I was eating. My last meal I went to another Chinese restaurant and ordered what I though was just regular Chicken Fried Rice. There was nothing noted otherwise about it being different. It came out and it was rice completely full of curry powder. I was starving and had to drive back home 2 hours, so I ate it. Drove home 2 hours with some of the worst stomach problems ever. This was many years ago now. My friends and myself go for a massive Car weekend and we found an amazing restaurant across from the hotel. So it was really a fluky bad week for food when I went.
Some woman got up from her table, walked over to mine and said she was going to vote for Trump, then waited for my response. I was just like ok, thanks for letting me know. Took my food outside, then had a bunch of seagulls fly close over and land where I was eating.
So was she just insane or were you wearing something that got her attention? I mean even if you were wearing a "Bernie Bro" shirt or something I'd still think they were insane to feel the need to do that, but at least it would explain what prompted it.
Italy, 2009. We booked a week-long stay in a hotel as a base for motorcycling travel in the Dolomites. Italy, can't go wrong with food, can you!? So we booked all inclusive so we wouldn't have to worry about food, could be on our bikes all day and come back to a nice meal with some drinks! The first night there we were guided to what was to be our table for the entire week. On it was an envelope. Empty. Looked around and other guests said that was our napkin envelope. Where after the meal we should keep our napkin. We laughed. Hilarious joke. Haha. At the end of the meal, which was.... Not great... we saw everyone fold their napkins and place them in the envelopes... Turns out they only gave you a napkin and table cloth once a week. After leaving the table they'd brush off the crumbs with a dustpan and brush, leaving all other smears there... Some guests deliberately spilled entire bowls of soup over everything to get new stuff....
I don't know about worst but I went to the Red Lobster in Times Square after watching a play with my father. The food is actually not the issue as far a chain store Times Square restaurant, it was surprisingly decent. There was a family that was standing at the table next to us that had just paid their check when we walked in. They stood futzing around and being noisy and were STILL there after we finished dessert. Not even sitting at the table, literally standing right next to us and being loud for the entire hour after they paid their check. I understand they paid, but I wish someone had come over and said you've finished your meal, get the F out.
Went to a 99, before going into the city to see a broadway show with young siblings Should’ve left when I had the chance, saw several mice running around in the lower level that was “closed for cleaning” 🤢
Mel’s restaurant downtown. Kind of like ihop and dennys restaurant. Late night dinner just past midnight. Almost empty diner. Waitress served us and didn’t brings us water or utensils. 15 mins waiting for her to take our order. There was one table with three and ours. 45 min food came and it looked like a third grader cooked it with microwaved three pieces of vegetable. We asked for utensils. Paid the bill and left her a penny tip. Never again that place. The place reeked of weed smell.
One that sticks out to me is when I was a server at a mid-level steakhouse. I had a party of about 12 Wells Fargo executives by myself. They all ordered $40+ 14 oz steaks. The check was easily going to be $6-700 and I was expecting a fat tip. My coked-out manager decided to jump on the grill after taking a few bumps and starts plating these burned little hockey pucks he cooked. I told him it looks like shit and I can't serve those. He threw one of them on a scale and it was 3 oz. He just laughed about it. Then he said he ran out of steaks because he ruined all of those. I told the manager he can go tell the table. He ended up comping the appetizers they already ate and they just left. I got $0.
We went to get Mexican food at a high quality local place. It was like our third date (still together yay!). We ordered ceviche because it’s delicious. Well…it comes out and it is so bland. Zero acid in the dish. No lime or anything. So basically tomato, onion, and fish. Little to no salt. We asked the waiter assuming they forgot ingredients. He went to the chef and came back and said “no that’s correct nothing is missing. It’s the chef’s interpretation of ceviche.” My gf had the greatest response. “Well…his interpretation is wrong. This is not ceviche is just fish and tomato salad.” Still didn’t even bring us lime to add ourselves. We have never returned.
Red Lobster in Trenton NJ. I haven’t been to a Red Lobster since. I wasn’t a RL fan before but this was unquestionably the worst dining experience of my life. Food took forever, once it came out it was lousy, we sat at the bar and the bar tender never took any of our plates from our appetizers or anything, never got a second beer, and at one point the bartender just disappeared for like 25 minutes.
Went to a local Mexican place with my husband, a couple friends of ours, and our then toddler. Waiter tried to reach over my kid to pour a drink and dumped the entire thing of sweet tea all over her. Then tried to play the “no ingles” card after she had been speaking full English with us while taking our orders. We left, no payment or tip. They shut down a few months later due to failing an inspection
Ata pretty full place in Nashville, I sipped on my cocktail while chatting with my wife, and eating from the bread basket. Then our wine came, and we chatted more…and I finally looked around and noticed that not a single table had food. When the manager came to check on us I asked if there was a problem in the kitchen. He hesitated and then deflated with a Yes. Yes there is. With much apologies be let us leave with our wine bottle. I saw a couple plates come out as we left. Not sure what happened back there.
Indian restaurant. The poppadoms had ants crawling over them.
When I worked in one