Tell me about the worst dinner party you've ever been to

That is appalling, chipmonkey. She'd been invited, too? And did the MIL have a meal herself?

How could her DH eat his meal when there wasn't one for her?

Reading this thread with trepidation as all the worst dinner parties I have been to were mine.....

Friend and her dh were invited to dinner with the ILs. Her MIL served up dinner to everyone else including friend's dh and then said to my friend "Oh, DIL, I haven't got enough to give you a dinner, will I make you a sandwich?" Friend was very upset but refused sandwicb and went in to the next room to play with the kids.

Similar happened at Christmas dinner. Friend now refuses to visit her ILs.

A while back (10 years or so) a group if us who only really knew each other from our local decided ti start hosting dinner parties. They mostly involved far far too much alcohol and some rather dubious food but the one which stand out were the one where one guest went out for a fag after everyone course, the one where the guests wouldn't leave, the one where the vegetarian was completely forgotten until the roast beef was served, the one where the hosts had invited two couples and clearly forgotten so trips to make their dinner into three courses between six people we stopped at the chip shop on the way home and the other couple walked in behind us!

Oh and the one I hosted where one guy spend the whole meal asking his girlfriend why she wouldn't cook good food like this - cringe cringe - and she married him!

I was invited to a dinner party that I didn't realise was a dinner party.

The hostess had written a deeply arch faux-casual style invite which failed to actually mention that dinner was going to be on offer: it sounded as though it was basically going to be a get together with some wine and nibbles. So I had a meal before I went and arrived to find a heavy duty coq au vin going on.

Several other people had interpreted the invite in the same way I had and had already eaten; hostess threw a strop because we apparently had ruined her perfect Martha Stewart-esque evening, and insisted on giving us (slightly) reduced portions, at which we picked while we watched everybody else eat.

Polly, how did you not burst into tears?

Went for dinner at a work colleague's house with my vegetarian DH. They had asked us if we had any allergies/dietary requirements before we came and I had said "DH is vegetarian, but we are happy to bring a dish to share with everyone if you are planning to cook meat"

Colleague was horrified at very suggestion and said his DW was a nutritionist who loved cooking for veggies and liked catering for unusual diets.

We turned up, drank some wine, all very convivial. Wife stays in kitchen for a very long time. Everyone gets very hungry, wine is flowing though so no-one really notices.

Finally, we all sit down when invited by husband, who says "we're having thai green curry". Everyone makes appreciative noises. Wife comes out of kitchen with 4 boil in the bag rices, tiny tiny bags and divides them between the 8 plates (there was literally about 2 tablespoons of rice on each plate). Then she comes out with a small milk saucepan and scoops 2-3 cubes of chicken onto 6 of the 8 plates before realising that she has run out. Hilariously, DH has about 4-5 pieces of chicken and is looking at me telegraphing "do they know I am vegetarian"... but is too polite to say anything.

Husband looks at wife and growls (totally unsubtly) you haven't made enough...this ALWAYS happens. This is ridiculous" before sitting down in a massive huff.

Wife says "Oh no I am happy with just rice" and sits down to her 2 tablespoons of rice.

Everyone else feels guilty because they have 2 tablespoons of chicken on their tiny pile of rice but eats it anyway because we are starving.

DH eats all his rice and sauce but leaves the chicken.

Husband glares hungrily at DH'splate for about 15 minutes, then suddenly barks "Oh - you're the vegetarian!!!"

Wife cries out "What?!? You're vegetarian?? DH, why didn;t you tell me, oh no I am so sorry" etcetc

We were and left quite soon after, went out for some food with some of the other hungryguests who are now good friends!

You can all come round to dinner at mine! (Bring your own pud)

The oysters were impeccably timed that evening

That's some kind of euphemism?

The vicar one has made me want to throw a dinner party and invite randomers just to observe!

Hmm, 2 month old ds, went to SMIL. &FIL to be introduced to there pretentious friends, bear in mind SMIL was a fantastic cook , all started well, until the main course. Mine served on a side plate, as she announced to the table " Pollydon needs to watch her weight" ladies, I was a size 12 .

SP Me too!

Thank you scaredycat

Reading this I'm not sure whether I'm glad or not about never going to a dinner party.

I feel like I need one of these experiences

Tiger I think I'd have found that funny not bad. I mean very ambitious to host a dinner party with a six week old, sounds to me like you did quite well!

Though we're not religious, STBXH and I became friends with the local vicar and his wife. I became good friends with the vicar- we both enjoy creative writing, and used to swap work, compare etc.
Anyway. We had them over one night for dinner. In front of his DW and my STBXH, he handed me a folded up piece of paper and said "I really wouldn't read it in front of anyone else." Obv, this made the others keen to know what it was.
So I went into the other room and skim-read it. It detailed a dream he had had about reaching into a woman's fanny and pulling stuff out!

The oysters were impeccably timed that evening.

Oh just realised I was also the hostess of a terrible dinner party! You'll all let me off though... I think. We had ambitiously invited some friends round for dinner when my pfb was six weeks out. It went quite well but after the main but before the pudding my dd woke up and I had to go upstairs to comfort her. My equally sleep deprived DH followed me up to help and we ended up cuddling dd on the bed. The next thing I know it's morning, and our guests have all left! I can't even remember if they served themselves pudding now!

I was at a family dinner party around Christmas time when I was 17 or 18. I was categorised as a child and made to sit in the living room with my very much younger cousins during dinner as "there isn't room for you at the table".

Between starter and mains I was dragged in to the dining room and told to "sing 'Silent Night' for the adults". I said I didn't want to sing. I was told I was spoiling the evening. Under duress, cheeks burning scarlet with embarrassment, I sang. Then I was sent back to eat with the children.

We called her Sooty

ROFL

God, you couldn't make it up, could you?
Makes come dine with me seem dull.
Brilliant.

I have two which I can never decided which was worse.

One where the hosts decided not to bother cooking anything suitable for me (I have an allergy) as it would just be too difficult and instead presented me with a take away menu upon arrival and told me to order something.

The host was hungry and my takeaway was taking longer than anticipated so she decided to serve the food while I sat with an empty plate waiting for my takeaway.
When the take away man knocked at the door, the host answered and shouted "Eternal it's your take away"
Yes, I had to pay for the take away myself, and it was horrible.

The other dinner party was the one where we arrived to find the other guests waiting on the driveway, the host was not home. After 20 minutes we finally got hold of the host, she said she would be five minutes, she was 40.
When she finally arrived home she has bags of shopping, she ha obviously been shopping.
We had to wait over an hour and a half while she got her kids to bed, then she said she would start dinner.
She refused any help and banned us from the kitchen, so we just all set there, without drinks chatting.
30 minutes later she appeared out of the kitchen with two bags of tortillas and a jar of salsa, which we devoured as we were starving.
Another 30 minutes later she reappeared with plates of sausage rolls, savoury eggs, cheese sandwiches, cocktail sausages and crisps.
One of the other guests joked that it was like a party buffet, and the host was very offended and sulked in the bathroom for an hour.
When she came out she said she was shocked at our reaction to her food as she always had such good compliments about her dinner parties.

She then announced that a program she wanted to watch was starting soon so we could either watch it with her "in silence" or go home, we all chose to go home.

When my daughter was 1 some friends of my husband invited us round for dinner. I booked a babysitter and was really looking forward to some civilised conversation that didn't revolve round small children, wasn't interrupted by having to deal with crying etc etc.

We got round there and after about 10 minutes a neighbour dropped the friends two children back from a swimming class. We had to wait around while they were fed some kind of nuggets and chips type dinner, and then a DVD was put on for them while our hosts began cooking for us. I was pretty hungry by the time food appeared, and everytime the longed for adult conversation seemed about to kick off one or other or both of the children of the house came in and started demanding their parents' attention. At no point did either of the parents say, 'Well actually we want to talk to Frau and Herr Moose. Please give us some space.' It ended up with the kids sitting on their parents' laps and/or clinging to them while directing the conversation.

The other thing I remember was dessert. The hostess said it was a special treat and it turned out to be Walls Chocolate and Mint Viennetta plus some Sainsbury's profiteroles. Herr and I can eat most things but both of us dislike the combination of chocolate and mint. I said I was so full after the delicious main course I could only manage a profiterole or two. So Herr looked daggers at me as he ploughed his way through a huge helping of Viennetta.

The friendship faded rather after that...

We went to a bbq recently where our host produced one small packet of sausages. - Between us there were 3 adults and 4 children.

I also remember one years ago where the hostess insisted on getting up immediately and doing all the dishes. Sort of ruined the ambience.