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!

ROSIE'S DINER

On the way to the Grand Canyon.

I don't even like talking about it. I have no idea how we ever made it out of there alive.

Sorry.

ROSIE'S DEN.

Just remembered my own "cream tea" story.

We stopped at a tea shop in a very well known Welsh sea side resort which was advertising "cream teas". It's popular all year round with visitors from all over the UK.

So we go in, I sit down and DP heads off to the loos. Whilst he's gone the waitress comes to take the order. I order two cream teas. Waitress looks a bit puzzled but writes it down and heads off.

2 minutes later she's back - about these cream teas.... Do you mean you want a pot of tea for two with cream rather than milk? No - I want a cream tea. It transpires she clearly hasn't the faintest idea what a "cream tea" actually is. I explain that what we want are scones with jam and cream and a pot of tea - you know the "cream tea" you're advertising on the board outside.

She disappears off and comes back shortly with two cream teas. Result! Ah no - Apparently I should have ordered scones with jam and cream as none of the staff there know the term "cream tea".

Somewhat bemused we eat our (very nice) scones with jam and cream and consider ourselves well and truly told!

We booked a table at a small Italian restaurant that I’d heard great things about, for our anniversary.

As we were looking at the menus in the bar area, I asked for a glass of wine. The owner looked a bit put out.

During dinner, my husband ordered another one for me and she barked, “What another one?”

We only had the two drinks…

Fire alarm went off and staff couldn't find the key to turn it off. Finally , they managed to stop in 15 minutes. We got free bottle of wine as inconvenience.

Not a bad meal but several years ago DH and I were having lunch at Harvester. We were in a booth which had shelving behind it (quite high with about 5 shelves and each shelf had vases/glassware on it glued down). I sat down after going to the salad bar and a massive ceramic chicken fell from then top shelf and smashed on my head. I was in complete shock but the staff and manager were just laughing. Didn't even get a free drink out of it. Bastards.

Out for dinner at a country pub near us. Had a good reputation. Dh ordered a steak and I ordered pork. The food comes out and the steak is clearly burnt. Not chargrilled but burnt and well done all the way through. Not what dh ordered so he sent it back.

Landlord comes out with the steak. Explains very crossly that his wife cooked the steak, they’ve all tried it and there’s nothing wrong with it and plonked it back down on the table.

Needless to say Dh couldn’t eat it. When we left we said obviously we wouldn’t be paying for a meal we couldn’t eat and had apparently been passed round the staff and he threatened to call the police on us. So we just laid and left.

Absolutely barmy.

*Paid and left.

No idea why I’ve jumped from present to past tense either.

Posh gastro pub in a posh village near Lichfield. We had come down to view houses after I secured a new job. We decided to have a nice fancy pub meal. It wasn't cheap: wine 28 a bottle, mains 20, etc. Well the service was insane. Waited over an hour for mains, asked several times and brushed off, then this furious waiter charged over, exhaled fag smoke all over us and banged our food down. Mine was a fucking mess and (no joke) tasted of wet dog. See pic - I honestly think the meat had rotted on those bones, not cooked on them!
Manager was an absolute prick when we said weren't really happy and essentially told us not to return.

Years ago
Country Village restaurant in Greece
No one else there
Ordered food
Woman arrived with toddler, obviously known to waiting staff
She proceeded to lift the toddler onto the nearest dining table and change its shitty nappy.....
We left😱

Went to frankie and bennys once and there was an almighty fall out between the staff, they were yelling at each other across the room

I do think things are often lost in translation in England/Wales which you wouldn’t expect - but it is a different country after all!

We stopped off at a lovely stately home with gardens in north Wales once and went in the cafe there. We were the only customers and the cafe seemed to be entirely run by a group of 15-18 yr olds probably getting a bit of pocket money in the holidays. We ordered and dh asked for cheese on toast - this wasn’t on the menu however they did have cheese paninis/cheese sandwiches/cheese on jacket potatoes etc so dh asked the young waitress “could you just do me a slice or two of cheese on toast?” to which she looked utterly confused and repeated back to him “Cheese?…on toast??” Dh said “yeah, you know -just cheese on toast?” So the girl nodded and trotted off. Our food came out and you guessed it- DH’s was literally lukewarm buttered toast with cold grated cheese on top! We just waited until she’d gone and then burst out laughing - I guess he did get what he asked for!

However the rest was nice and they were sweet kids so we left ‘em a tip and the girl came running after us saying “excuse me but you’ve overpaid by £5!” - I told her it was her tip and she went “really? Wow - thanks!”

Bless her 🥰

It's giving me Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes 😳

We went to a U.K. restaurant on a city break which was in an old church and oddly enough was part gaming arcade. They had like a hell theme if I remember correctly and a small tattoo studio in the corner. The food was amazing, enough to discard the mouse that was running around on the floor under the customers dinner bench/gaming seat!

I went to the bathroom which was large and beautifully decorated. As I sat down for a wee, this strange music started playing up and I heard a loud voice in a croaky woman’s smokers voice go ‘you alright love??’ I could have sworn it was only me in the bathroom! I responded ‘hello??’ And got nothing back. There was no one in the bathroom when i came out of the cubicle checked it was so creepy. Whilst I was washing my hands I noticed through the mirror that the ceiling was moving. The full ceiling was a screen of a live animation of a sun with a face (think teletubbies but adult). It was just watching me smiling down.

I later found out it was the sun which had asked me if I was alright! I was very tired and hungover so was not in the mood to even comprehend how bizarre it all was but we still talk about how good that meal was two and a half years later. I believe it’s closed down now!

Gosh I think I know where that is 😬

Is it The BH?

@InsertSomethingMotivationalHere

Mines quite light hearted

Went into a Frankie and Bennys on a new retail park. New restaurants and shops opening throughout the week.

Was told "we're not open just yet, but you can be looking through the menu if you like"

I'd assumed they'd be opening with a few minutes, and not infact the following week.

We were on holiday and at we sat down the waiter brought some small glasses and a carafe of blue liqud. He set the carafe down in the centre of the table and off he went. We all poured a little into each glass, assuming it must be some sort of aperitif. Then tasted it and it was evil - like oily perfumed water. The waiter came shrieking over - "not to drink, not to drink - it's a decoration!!!"

We all lost it and could not stop laughing - more at the waiter than the drink itself as he so clearly set it out with glasses - bonkers!!

We call pubs/restaurants like the first one 'We be not loiking strangers round these here parts' (has to said in a West country accent)😂

@Carlycat it was horrendous. My husband thought we were gonna end up in one of Rosie's pies.

She hated us so much. We came in, little bell above the door went and 2 people at the old style bar swung around to stare at us.

Next thing 3 more locals walked in, sat at our table in front of us and stared.. my husband wanted to leave but got bullied into ordering a pie from Rosie.

I was in the toilets crying/hiding.

I totally left him to be murdered.

Thankfully he's alive.

😳

There's a lot to dissect there, mainly that I'm a terrible wife and also if you're ever driving to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas.. keep driving on past Rosie's!

On holiday in Turkey. We went into a coffee shop and ordered our drinks, then later on we went to pay the bill. The owner said no charge and we went outside wondering why it was free. It turned out it was a shop selling coffee and they thought we were sampling it to buy a pack of coffee beans.

Both of my weird experiences were work meals.

Number one was in Poland, where our colleague really fancied an Indian. Google maps said there was one Indian takeaway on one side of the city and one Indian restaurant somewhere in the middle, so off we trotted. We found the restaurant but actually getting inside involved ducking under a chain and edging around a car. The restaurant itself was very nicely decorated but completely empty except for a very young waiter. The starters were like a very bad attempt at home cooking. Then we waited and waited for the mains. At no point was there any sound or smell of cooking. The mains eventually arrived and we're very nice. We reckon the "restaurant" was a front of some sort, the teenage waiter had a go at making our starters and ordered our mains from the takeaway.

The second one was at Jaimie's somewhere near the Shard. There were about 30 of us so they seated us in a side room. The staff kept forgetting we were there so we waited a very long time to order and be served drinks. We'd pre-ordered food but it still took at least an hour and a half to get starters. When my main course arrived, I got a quarter of the way through without encountering any meat. I nicely asked to have my vegetarian lasagne swapped for a beef one. The waitress looked confused and said that they didn't have vegetarian lasagne on the menu

*were

and some sort of front