What's the worst/weirdest restaurant experience you've ever had?

[BruhWhy]

We once went into a very small, posh sandwichy sort of café for lunch with the kids. The vibe felt immediately off, we walked in and the loud, happy conversation the people working there were having abruptly stopped and it was suddenly just dead silent, we were the only customers in there but it was definitely open, I checked! They stopped what they were doing and kind of just stood there behind the counters and stared at us angrily as we situated ourselves, it was SO weird.

I ordered us all drinks and paninis, the woman taking my order didn't say a word to me, just wrote down what I ordered and pointed me back towards the table we were sitting at. The atmosphere was extremely tense throughout and they kept staring at us like we'd just come in and rubbed shit up their walls.

Food came, and as the server set a plate down in the middle of the table with sauces and stuff on it, the plate broke in two. Just cracked as she put it down. She saw it crack, paused for a second, then... walked off 😳

We ate in awkward silence while they stood behind the counter looking annoyed, and then left as quickly as we could. It was so fucking weird and I still think about it 5 years later because I just can't work out why they were acting so strange!

We had similar about ten years ago in an Italian place. No one else there and the few staff looking fed up. The dish I ordered was so salty it was inedible, OH's pizza was overcooked and the tomato base looked and tasted like reduced tinned tomato soup. Altogether disgusting.

The embarrassing thing was that we'd been there before, when it had been very good, and we were hoping to treat our neighbours only to find that everything had changed. As I recall, the place closed shortly afterwards.

I lived in South Korea for a while and on a work weekend we got taken out to a restaurant by the sea. They brought a huge metal cooking pot and set it on a flame in the middle of the table, then poured live shrimps in water directly in. The shrimps tried to leap out of the pot as it heated, and some just exploded from their shells all over the table. Then they were picked up with chopsticks. I got an exploded shrimp in my hair. They also served live baby octopus to eat and that made me sad because I love octopus (alive, in the sea) and deep fried eel spines. it was an experience alright. I was very polite but apart from a shrimp or two didn’t eat anything and as the only westerner was mortified when they insisted they me fried chicken on the way home because I’d obviously gone hungry, I felt like such an idiot (but was so glad of that fried chicken)

there was also a restaurant in the Alps in France somewhere in the summer that we stopped at on a long drive, but the place weirdly doubled as somewhere they bred beagles and they served food with about 15 dogs running around and grunting at you and shagging tables, it was really weird. We just had a coffee and even that had beagle hair in it 😅

We were on holiday and went to a restaurant where halfway through the meal the staff had a MASSIVE fight, some stormed off and the remaining ones were in tears. I’ve no idea wit was about as it was in Portuguese.

Went to a cafe/restauarant on the Isle of Wight.

ordered food. It came. My SEN DS only ordered chips and got the burnt scrapings of the bottom of the deep fryer.

My mother then tried to go to the toilet inside the restaurant and the doors were locked with a padlock. She went to the bar and asked if she could use the toilet and was told; 'They are only for patrons'. She said we were literally in the middle of eating there and the owner walked off.

I have since then stalked (but never commented) on the place's trip advisor page and apparently this is par for course for this place.

Ages ago - ordered a gammon steak and when it came, it was just marginally thicker than usual bacon. No way a gammon steak.
Dd1 - then about 12 - was hideously embarrassed when I complained, but I wasn’t going to put up with it.

Another time, what was supposed to be tabbouleh, but had hardly any parsley in it. I was in a group of people, some of whom I didn’t know, and when I said this wasn’t anything like proper tabbouleh, one of them sneered, ‘What would you know about it?’
Er, having lived in the Middle East for 13 years?
That shut the rude bugger up.

Once with my exH we went to a very pricey, nice Italian place. He told them about his very serious nut allergy, wanted to check a few items on the menu, they assured him everything was fine for him to eat, no nuts on the menu, no nuts anywhere in the kitchen. Great although unusual, most places serve nuts somewhere along the way but hey ho. Main was lovely but dessert...he'd ordered some plain vanilla ice cream thinking this was the safest option, no nuts listed, double check again with waiter, all good. Immediately started having an allergic reaction. Turns out under the scoop of ice cream was a load of chopped nuts. He gave himself his epi-pen and called the waiter over to find out what sort of nuts they were (because he has varying levels of reaction depending on the nut. Almonds and some he can just take his epi-pen, peanuts and others requires epi-pen plus A+E visit for more adrenaline and checks). Bizarrely the waiter just flat out denied they were nuts at all. Got really angry, was actually yelling at us. Said it was biscuit over and over. Went to check with chef eventually, turns out it was actually peanuts. So off we go to hospital.

At some point afterwards exH tried to sort it with the restaurant before logging a complaint with the local food authority, and the manager denied the entire conversation about nut allergy and totally denied there were any nuts in his dessert. So weird. I'd like to think things are better these days with allergens more clearly stated and most people would have phones and took pictures/video as evidence, but this was back in the day without smart phones. Definitely our worst and scariest experience.

Both in France…went to a cafe on Mont St Michel where the owner and the waitress were arguing loudly. I took DS to the loo and on the way we stopped to let another customer past who was coming the opposite way. Waitress came up behind me and shoved me hard in the back, so much so that I stumbled forward. She shrugged, I shouted at her, asked the owner if he staff were always that rude, and he shrugged too. In another cafe, and the customers and the owner looked decidedly unhappy to see us. Ordered coffees and a coke for DS, who unfortunately knocked over his glass and it smashed. Owner folded her arms and glared at us, other customers tutted and shook their heads. I went up to the counter and asked for a broom to sweep up the glass and she stared at me and said no. Then turned back to speaking to the other customers. Both v odd.

Provincial French Town, Michelin recommended restaurant. No complaints about the food but the 2 serving staff were practically spoon feeding us, cutting things up for us, dashing over when we tried to top up our wine, saying it was dangerous! Had a good laugh about it later, but maybe they were hoping to gain a star through their 'attentive' service.

Sort of by accident ended up at one of those ‘sceney’ restaurants in a hip part of London. You had to walk down a ‘selfie tunnel’ to get to the main restaurant.

DH and I clearly weren’t pretty enough to be worth anything so we got plonked behind a fake palm tree, dead near t’loos. (Bonus.)

The food was beautiful to look at but very average to eat. There wasn’t a carb to be seen. It was an influencer/Instagram sort of place.

They also had a live singer on. A young woman who had a brave but ultimately foolish crack at Wonderwall before bursting into tears at the mic about ‘our dying, burning planet’.

It was really, really weird. One of those places that had been designed primarily to be seen at, rather than to eat the food.

Been racking my brains for a weird restaurant experience as I don't want to just placemark.

Can't think of one, but this reminded me of when I was being repaired in hospital after giving birth to DS and his massive cannonball head. The nurses and the anaesthetist had a big row and the anaesthetist stormed out and slammed the door I was quite out of it so I don't know if they coaxed her back or found a different one, but thankfully I did eventually get an anaesthetic

In my twenties, so a while ago, me and a friend went to a very expensive restaurant - it was very coupley, candlelit, romantic etc. The furniture was eclectic, mismatched old tables and chairs but generally a table with two chairs or 4 chairs. They seated us side by side at an old school desk, facing the room! It was so awkward but there was no other way to sit at the desk, so we sat there like two children facing this room full of romantic couples. The food was amazing and we were hungry, so no complaints, other than sitting at a desk for an evening. I've never forgotten that.

A restaurant in France. The food was lovely. Nothing special but well cooked simple food. We ordered a cappuccino. They brought us a filter coffee with squirty cream on the top.

@donttalkaboutbookclub Your story has really tickled me! The image of you and your mate sat at a school desk side by side has given me a real laugh, thank you

Not in the UK, this one. We went to a Pizza Hut and a woman nearby changed her baby's nappy on the table. Our pizza also had peas on it, but that was nothing compared the baby changing.

Went to a nice fish restaurant in London for birthday tea. Lovely starters, then between starters and main there was a huge argument in the kitchen and the chef stormed out, across the restaurant, still shouting and swearing. He literally left and didn't come back.

The mains and puddings were also nice despite the chef's absence. 11/10 would return, though only if they could guarantee the drama.

Once went to a restaurant with a big group, everyone else got their mains. 15 mins later the waiter comes over: 'I'm sorry madam there was a problem with your risotto'. Me: ' oh?' Him: 'we forgot to make it'.

Right then.

Went out locally for a work xmas party. The service was incredibly slow, and very inept, some people got served and they'd finished eating before others got their orders.
The place was not at all busy and we had agreed the numbers well in advance, we may even have chosen food options before showing up, I can't remember now.

The organiser complained to the chain's HQ and they apologised profusely and insisted we all came back to do the event over again for free. Some refused to go, so it was a much smaller group for our second attempt.

The staff were obviously not pleased to see us and were abrupt and surly throughout.
At the end the [manager?] went absolutely apeshit when some of us tentatively suggested we might have coffee, screaming at us "You lot have already had enough free stuff, if you want coffee you can bloody well pay for it!"

Haven't been back since....

In the 90’s we went to Copenhagen and stayed at the 5* Radisson in the city centre, we decided to eat at the “exclusive” restaurant on the top floor overlooking the city. There was only one starter on the menu which was oysters and the only main course on offer was a lamb dish, my husband can be a bit fussy and doesn’t really like either.

We wished we’d eaten in the ground floor bistro which served a wide range of lovely sounding food for half the price.

Vapiano in central London was the most baffling though the food is delicious and the experience was otherwise enjoyable - the arrangement just didn't quite work with two people in the party.

It's a German-owned Italian-food restaurant where you pick one of several serving areas and have your meal created in front of you. This probably works brilliantly if you're with a large group but with two of us trying to keep hold of a table and look after our bags meant that we had to do it in sequence, so couldn't actually enjoy a meal together.

Jo

Went to an family orientated American themed chain restaurant when my DC where about 5 and 6. It was supposed to be a special treat. We managed to place our order but never got any food because the kitchen staff had a blazing argument followed by full on fisticuffs that spilt into the restaurant.

I complained and we were offered a free meal if we came another day. We didn't!

Went to a Cornish restaurant of one of the chefs that was on Great British Menu.

Dessert came and the sauce over the top tasted of fish. I pointed this out to the waiter and he flat out denied it.

It tasted of anchovies and I know that because I hate anchovies.
The chef came to the pass and flat out denied it. I asked him to taste it, which he refused. Husband also tasted it and agreed.

I told him I wasn't paying for it but I'd pay for everything else.
While we were packing up, the shamefaced waiter came over; turned out that the junior chef had used the dressing for the caesar salad instead of the dessert dressing.

I was more annoyed that the chef refused to taste it and check than anything else. They were mealy mouthed in their apology and the chef never re-appeared.

I wasn't that old so accepted it and left but now I would have pointed out how crappily they spoke to us beforehand. Mistakes happen but a decent chef should have checked before telling me I was wrong.

I booked a very lovely Michelin pub. 3 months in advance. I’d been before and it’s really nice. I was called the day before saying would we go to our sister restaurant as we have refurbishments going on (weird they didn’t know this till the night before), and was assured the menu was the same, the chef was the same, the team were the same, they had all been relocated.

This was either untrue or the team had been lobotomised before we got there.

We ordered, waited for our starter, that was quite quick.

readers, our main course took around 2 hours to come out. Why did I wait??? I asked them several times and was told, it’s just coming. Then would I like olives (I hate olives, I want my dinner!!!). Then would I like to move to another table (no!!! I’m ravenous! Where’s my dinner!) several groups had arrived after us and had their entire meals including dessert while we waited.

eventually I said look you’ve ruined it, THEY have arrived eaten and left since we got here, so have THEY, so has THAT DOG sitting under the table, I am leaving for McDonald’s in 10 mins… and that seemed to finally get us some food. It was lovely. But I’d have eaten the table by that point. We didn’t pay for the mains and got 50% off the rest but would I ever trust them again to provide food? Never:

Went to a local pub known for its food. Was disappointed to see that all the nicer dishes on menu had been removed and it was pretty much fried freezer fare. Ordered drinks, 45 minutes later after neither drinks nor anyone to take good order had appeared we managed to flag down a waitress. She apologised, previous waitress had forgotten to put drinks through, so drinks would be free, great , thank you , ordered food.
When food arrived dd took a bite of her garlic bread and said it tasted mouldy. On inspection with a phone torch it was covered in tiny mould spots.
In that great British way, feeling almost guilty having been given free drinks, we just ploughed on and ate what we could of the largely undercooked meal. I told the waitress at the end about the bread in an I don't want to make a fuss but don't serve that to anyone else way. She was mortified and took two of the four meals off the bill. In the end I think we paid about £25 for four mains and four drinks .
Later found out that manager had left earlier in week, taking all the staff. Poor nice waitress was only original staff member left, no wonder she was mortified.
God knows who was doing the cooking and how does frozen bread even go mouldy , that's the biggest puzzle !

A flash storm in Spain and the plastic roof blew away. We had just eaten and paid. We ran to stay safe along with all the diners.

We watched the storm from a safer place. It was spectacular. But not for the restaurant sadly.

Not me, thank god. But I was very good friends with the young woman who got served a semen contaminated curry in 'Nam.

I remember the wtf talks. Cos who'd actually believe that staff would actually wank into someone's food because they were young, pretty and female?

Sadly I had eaten there a few times and it still haunts me.

Me and DH went to a very posh (for us🤣) restaurant for my birthday a few years ago. Happily eating our meals and hear a woman shouting "THAT'S MY HUSBAND!!" She then tipped over the table of the couple sitting next to us and launched herself at the woman. Another diner, and a waiter had to help the husband drag his wife off his OW and hold her back while they waited for the police. She very loudly phoned her teenage son to let him know what his dad had been up to
A waitress made me move to OH side of the table because of flying glass. We finished our meals after the initial fight, and then a staff member told us they would be closing, but that there would be no charge for our food and drinks.