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!

Happy Valley, Hong Kong and an enormous cockroach jumped out of the aircon unit and landed right in the middle of my fried rice ...

Honeymoon in Paris 6 years ago. Sat down in this lovely little cafe/restaurant for dinner. The waiter brought over the menu which was basically a large chalkboard with all the items written on it, one side French, one side English. He sat it on the chair of the empty table beside us and we ordered two glasses of wine which he went to get whilst we looked at the menu.

He came back over carrying his tray with two glasses and two bottles of wine and as he approached us he noticed that the large chalkboard menu was about to fall, for reasons I will never understand, he lunged forward to try and catch it and all of a sudden it was like the world was in slow motion, the tray tipped, the wine bottles and glasses started to fall, this poor French waiter was trying to catch and balance the chalkboard and the bottles but it was too late, the bottles and glasses fell to the floor, one bottle and two glasses smashed everywhere, the other bottle was almost full and it landed and proceeded to pour Cote-du-Rhône all over the floor, the entire restaurant fell deathly silent and we just sat there staring at the carnage, I have literally never had a more awful, cringeworthy experience in my life, I still cringe thinking about it. We had to sit there whilst he and the female bartender cleaned up all the god awful mess.

It was such a shame as the meal in the end up was fabulous, the bartender brought us over two creme de menthe cocktails in the house after to apologise but honestly I still think about that poor waiter to this day!

Semen in curry is a well known urban legend

Went to an expensive gastrompub for my birthday dinner, ordered steak it said it came with mushrooms, onion rings, tomatoes, chips, sauce and a side salad.

got deliverd a steak with a tiny couple of bits of salad beside it ..that was it literally, no sides, one steak about two lettuce half leaves all lonely on the plate...

So I complained and the waiter said they’d Ran out of all th sides, he took it to the kitchen and the chef then quit. He came out shouting that he could not work in these conditions and fucked off out of it, so they gave me the steak back as they now had no chef. As I was with others and their food was fine I just tooo it. I expected a discount and they argued it was full price. I ended up paying it and just leaving. They went bust shortly after.

Once in Chinatown in London waiter appeared, after we’d been served food, and told us we needed to move tables, grabbed our plates and marched us up 2 flights of stairs to another table.

Another time I was at a country pub and ordered bread with oil and vinegar, they served thick sliced white bread. Queried with the waitress who looked at me like I was mad, it was bread, I’d ordered bread..

OP I wonder if this sandwich place didn’t see serving sandwiches as it’s primary business?

I've posted about this before.

We went to a nice Italian restaurant for Valentines Day a couple of years ago. It was honestly like Fawlty Towers, we were laughing by the end.

We arrived to be completely ignored by the man at the door, eventually someone else came and seated us. Threw menus at us, "what do you want" for a drinks was asked to my boyfriend but not me, he asked for a pint, off the gentleman went and when he returned my boyfriend asked if I would be allowed a drink, I asked for a rose and his response was "WELL WHAT ONE" (we hadnt been given drink menus). He returned sloshing the pint at me and the wine at my boyfriend. We then ordered food, and I watched in interest as a an older lady at the back o the restaurant spooned my carbonara from a massive metal tin. It was rank. The waiter then arrived to take our plates (he took mine while my boyfriend was still eating) and then returned to silently pour us two shots of limoncello (I lived in Italy so I knew what he was up to but imagine just handing out alcohol!) We gave up, laughing at this point and got the totally incorrect bill.

I did email the people and their response was "if you didnt like it you dont need to come back". We didn't.

Another time a waitress smashed a glass and a shard landed on my pal's foot, she didn't even look at her as she lifted it.

Weirdly enough I went out for a pretty standard pub lunch yesterday, a soft drink each. Something was wrong in the kitchen so the utterly bizarre limited menu was on - we had had fish and chips at work at lunchtime so we just wanted something light, but there wasn't anything that wasn't chips or pasta. In the end I asked if I could have a giant pretzel (common up here) and some halloumi fries - my pretzel arrived uncooked and without dip, and I was given five massive batter balls with raw halloumi inside. I asked if my pal could have his chocolate brownie that I'd ordered (and paid for), and the barwoman reacted as if we'd asked her to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Reminds me of one I had.

We went out for drinks for a pals birthday. Young man comes and takes the order, disappears, about 20 minutes go by but we were busy chatting and didn't realise. He then comes back and says "How are your drinks" and we said we didnt have any. He comes back saying hes dropped the slip behind the bar, so sorry, will get the drinks sorted ASAP. We were fine, these things happen, and he offered us a round of shots to apologise - which he brought over, caught his foot on a chair and fucked all 9 tequila shots down my leg, lime, salt, the lot. He was mortified, I said it was fine (I'm a pretty chilled diner, dont see the point in causing a scene on a nice night out) and he was so embarassed he just put his tray down and completely disapeared. Another waiter took over to clean up and sort out. I still imagine that poor boy hiding in the kitchen saying eh wasn't coming out until we've left - we've all been there!

Alicante City, an independent Italian restaurant, didn’t get a menu, served by the owner, who told us the “menu”. Then argued with DH over his main course choice, he chose the same a me, owner said no, DH you have the wild boar. DH said no thanks, I will have the same as my wife.

Starter was a huge platter of antipasti. No idea of the price.

I have a disability, so we left early as I was tired. When we left, he asked what he had done wrong 😂 very strange experience that we have laughed about ever since. It wasn’t expensive as it turned out around €50 just very strange.

Went for a staff night out at a very busy and popular bistro, food good, and 3 of us ordered sticky toffee pudding for dessert. When it arrived it tasted awful! Like marmite (and I actually normally like marmite but not in dessert).

We tried to send it back but the manager was having none of it and told us that’s how it was supposed to taste. We asked nicely for ice cream instead but he refused.

After we paid the bill, including full price for the inedible sticky toffee pudding, he came back to tell us that the chef had put beef jus on them instead of toffee sauce and he seemed to think this was hilarious.

We did have a bit of a laugh about it, but I was quite pissed off he never offered us a refund for the 3 desserts or even just some ice cream as previously requested.

Tossers.

Sat having dinner with my mum, ordered Prosecco, waiter spilt one all over me lurched backwards spilling the other all over me.

It was fine, it happens, I've done it when I was a waitress..

Except then he brought us some Bellinis at the end of the meal to apologise - and soundly split them all over me too 😂 I stank of wine at the end.

Poor sod

Valentine's Day in the early 90's
Restaurant (Italian) we'd been to before & liked put on "special set menu" and crammed in more tables.
We were inches away from a grim couple who spent the whole meal snogging over the pasta (it wasn't pretty)
I've refused to go out on Valentine's Day ever since, (however we are still married to each other 😇 )

A restaurant in Greece.
It was fairly busy, but a waiter showed us a table and took our order.
After almost an hour of seeing others being served who had come in after us, but our food not appearing, I asked where our order was. It's on its way, the waiter replied.
Another 45 minutes went by and still no food appeared, so we stood up to walk out.
The owner appeared as if by magic, blocked the door and started shouting at us really aggressively and told us that we couldn't insult him by leaving.
My DH ended up shoving him out of the way so we could get out.

My DH and I were on holiday in a tiny Norfolk village and decided to eat at the local pub one night. It looked lovely from the outside, but when we walked in it was completely empty. The tables had very professional looking menus on them, offering quite fancy dishes. I opted for a Mediterranean pasta (I can't remember exactly what it was supposed to be). The landlord apologised and said his "wife is not around tonight" but he'd see what he could do. He disappeared out the back, then a short time later I was presented with the most enormous plate of plain rice with a few ravioli parcels mixed in!! WTF?! No sauce of any kind, just a plate of plain rice AND pasta! DH had a steak which he said was amazing, but I'm not sure what was going on with mine! We felt so awkward that we didn't even say anything 🤣

A beach in Thailand.

Dh and i sit down. Get given menus. Waitress tells us "we have chicken rice" then walks away to let us peruse the menu. After a few minutes she comes back with a notepad to take our order.

Dh tries to order fish, gets told "we have chicken rice". I try and order a curry, get told "we have chicken rice". We both end up ordering "chicken rice" (chicken rice wasnt even on the menu).

We then try an order drinks. I try an order a coke - no coke! I try an order a fruit juice - no fruit! I ask what drinks they do have. Water or beer. So we order that.

Two plates of chicken rice come out. Its nice.

Another group enters restaurant. Waitress gives them the menu whist announcing "we have chicken rice" before walking off to let them study the menu. A few minutes later we watch them trying to order. Everyone eventually ends up having "chicken rice".

Waitress clears our plates and gives us dessert menu. When we try and order something off it, turns out they actually have no desserts.

So we sit there drinking our beers, watching new customers come in, get handed menus only to go though the whole "chicken rice" saga.

It was just utterly bizzare. Giving everyone a menu that they couldn't order from.

Many, many years ago I lived just up the road from a rather swish restaurant and wine bar in Notting Hill. It was very popular with film and television people.

I went there one night for a drink with my boss. He was thrilled that a very famous comedienne with a weekly tv programme came in with a group of blokes; he couldn’t take his eyes off her ( she was stunningly beautiful). I thought he was in love! Until she vanished under the table and proceeded to make one of the group very happy.

I suppose this might be outing, but I doubt she is on Mumsnet.

Worst meal experience was at a wedding in a posh hotel when we still hadn't been served our starters and the top table were on to their dessert. We were on the last table (table 9 out of 9 tables - and sat next to the photographer and other hired help who the couple had felt they should provide a meal for).
When our soup arrived it was in different bowls than the rest of the wedding party and there were granules of powdered leek and potato flavour stuck to the bottom of the bowl.
My vegetarian roast had a pig-in-blanket sat on top of my mash and the Yorkshire pudding stunk of beef dripping.
We never got any desert.

This happened 30 years ago but it still makes me laugh...
In my early twenties I lived in Israel for a year and worked on a kibbutz. My best pal was a Liverpudlian girl married to a kibbutznic.
One day we desired to go out for lunch - I ordered a vegetarian pizza and my friend ordered her food, she ordered it in English with her Liverpudlian accent ( waiters spoke English fluently) but when my pizza arrived it had meat on it - I complained (nicely) to the waiter who for some reason was pissed off and started talking about me in Hebrew to another waiter.
My friend then said to him - in perfect Hebrew - "My friend is not a stupid English girl, she just doesn't want a dead animal on her pizza"
The look on their faces was absolutely priceless!!!!!
(I did get my vegetarian pizza) 🍕

Similarly.

A team night out about 20 years ago.

We were in a pub/restaurant with about two dozen of us present.

One of our new hires went to the toilets and, on his way back, bumped into someone he knew from college and who he had some major beef with.

Apparently some jibes were exchanged and the rest of us found out when the pair of them came through the main floor in a whirlwind of punching and kicking like something out of a cartoon.

They demolished a couple of tables and threw glasses and bottles which smashed up the bar ending up with both of them locked together in a heap on the floor.

One of our managers and a colleague went to break them up but our manager got a black eye and a split lip for his troubles.

Our new hire hadn't lasted two weeks as he was sacked and the company had to shell out thousands to pay for the damage as well as being barred from booking any more nights out there.

Reminds me of a work lunch (taking clients out) with my boss.

(boss) can I please check - I’m allergic to eggs. Is there egg in the pasta?
(waiter) no
(boss) could you please double check with the kitchen? I can get really ill.
(waiter) ‘yes’ - pops away, comes back. ‘No egg in the pasta’

can you guess where I’m going with this?
(boss) my throat is swelling and I can’t breath (face going black)…

I wanted to try something different once (for a change) so ordered whitebait - I got a plate FULL of tiny fish, heads included and nibbled my way through doing my best to hide my mistake/embarrassment 😂😂

I went as a secret shopper to a quite expensive sports bar, and as asked to ordered a hamburger and chips. I had been before. When the good arrived the chips were almost white and not cooked. After a while I asked about the chips and was told by the waitress that it was a new sort of chips because they hadn’t had the delivery with chips. I said but they are not cooked? She insisted strongly it was a new sort (they looked just like the usual ones). I wasn’t supposed to make a fuss so mostly listened to her.

Then the table next to us gor their chips and they were cooked. I pointed at theirs and asked what sort that was then. She then said oh yeah, we managed to find the old ones in the freezer.. She must have cringed when she read my report of her replies.

Eating out is always an adventure when you're vegan. Recent one in the UK, me analysing the unhelpfully vague menu -

Me: Hi, is this dish vegan?
Waiter: Yes, a perfect choice!
DP: Do you know which of the vegetarian starters are vegan?
Waiter: 😅...What does vegan mean?

Went to a local really quite upmarket Italian. The owner made us wait at the door because he said the people seated at the table beside ours were very fat and we wouldn't be comfortable. He then insisted only he could explain the menu to us - and he was very busy so we didn't see the menu for 30mins, we had to beg for the drinks menu when the owner finally got around to presenting us with the menu he just read it from the board. I have no idea why it is so popular - the experience was very Faulty Towers and that is not what it was known for - even the food was a bit ordinary.

That's happened to me too! What is it with restaurants and whitebait? They seem to want to compensate for the tiny size of each individual fish by serving you an entire shoal of the things.

We (me, DH and ds 6) were once staying at a lovely but very isolated all inclusive resort on a Greek island, one day we felt the need to escape so walked along the beach, probably 2 to 3 miles before the biggest storm arrived. We went off the beach to a beach side restaurant, the only place for miles. There was a couple on a moped, who also came for shelter in the very heavy rain which had started. The restaurant was run by an older Greek couple, who didn't speak much English. Because of the rain we had to move into the front of the building, because all the seating was wet due to the heavy rain, it felt a bit like their living room/ office. We all had drinks and a laugh about the situation we found ourselves in, because of the rain the restaurant then lost power and after about 45 min the couple on the moped made a break for it, leaving us. We decided that we couldn't walk back, so asked the owner if he could help book a taxi, he looked at us like we were crazy, spoke in Greek to his wife and then gestured that he would take us. He drove us back to the hotel I love the Greek islands and Greek people, they are amazing.