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!

Please-name the restaurant! @Allthegoodnamesarechosen

Another works meal.out one.. He previews year we'd been to a restaurant and the meal was excellent so we booked the following year. They showed us to our table and we noticed that there were no lights and the seats were in really poor condition, such a change from the previous year. As the afternoon progressed it got darker and still no lighting. By the time dessert came it was dark and we asked for the lights to be out on As we couldn't see our food. The next thing we know is that staff came in with lit candles which they put on the tabled but not enough of them to see properly.

it closed down a little later

If it was many, many years ago i'm thinking could it have been Marti Caine? (RIP so if so naming her wouldn't be a problem? )

Busy local place, short staffed with a Basil Fawlty type leaping about apologising and telling everyone how he was very busy doing everything. He noticed that the lightbulb in the fitting above us had gone out and rushed over with a new one and jumped on the table to change it nearly standing in my soup.

An ice-cream parlour that we stopped in after a family trip.
The place was completely empty throughout our time there.
There were no labels on the ice-cream tubs so my mum asked what flavours there were.
The young lad serving started basically guessing flavours at random based on the colour.
Erm...banana? Raspberry ripple? Coffee?
And so on. When we got the ice-cream it bore no resemblance to the flavours we were told surprise surprise but was otherwise ok.
Meanwhile my dad asked if they did any other food besides ice-cream. Despite a large sign on the wall saying "panini and fries £4.99" the young lad looked at him like he had 3 heads and said "no"
He finally suggested a Mars bar from the display case.

We were never sure if the place was just new and not properly staffed or whether it was a front for something else...it's closed now!

Just before Christmas during a very cold spell four of us went to a well known fish restaurant in Devon for lunch. It's a beautiful spot, perched on the side of a hill overlooking the coast with sea and estuary views on three sides.
We walked in, were shown to a table and took our coats off. We immediately realised our mistake. The place was freezing. Put our coats back on, the waitress apologised and said there were problems with the heating. No kidding.
We stayed thinking it would get warmer as more people arrived, but several groups walked in, sat down and walked straight out again. The waitress brought rugs to put over our laps and we all ordered the shellfish soup starter to warm us up. (which was delicious but barely dented the chill.)
A party of six or eight arrived and they were immediately given the only two heaters in the place, a small fan one and an oil-filled radiator which had previously been in the middle of the room. So it felt even colder!
We stuck it out (the food was excellent) but couldn't wait to get back to the car to warm up. It's probably fantastic in the summer but we will remember it for all the wrong reasons. And they could have comped the drinks or something.

@siroodlesofnoodles

Your husband is safe now!

www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/founder-of-rosies-den-a-popular-roadside-cafe-dies/

Hod dog sausages served skewered to a full size sword.
I couldn’t stop laughing.

Once went to a restaurant with friends and they had a ‘buy one get one free’ cocktails deal on, so I ordered and passed one to my friend and was reprimanded by the waiter that we weren’t allowed to do that and she needed to order her own drink 🤔

We ignored him, surely if you’re paying for what they’re serving it’s up to you who drinks what?!

Went to a local pub for Sunday lunch. Dh, our two daughters and two grandchildren and me. The deal is you order at the bar, set up a tab and pay as you leave. After ordering our food, we waited, and waited and waited for it to be served, other diners who came after us were served their meals without a problem.
Some of our meals eventually came out but in random order, veg and gravy served before the meat, these were then taken away, the meat then came out but we had no veg or gravy to accompany it. DH went to bar to aske what was going on, he could see into the kitchen. The kitchen staff were arguing among themselves, one of them stormed off, another swiped plates of food off the serving hatch. DH came back and said I don’t think we’ll be getting our dinner here.
We stood up to leave when the manager came over, full of apologies and gave us a full refund plus an extra £20.00 for our inconvenience.
The thing is we hadn’t paid, you pay as you leave. We think the manager knew this and gave us the cash to stop us leaving a bad review.
We live in a seaside town so went to the chippy instead.

Sorry, I should explain we weren’t going to do a runner, we were going to pay for the drinks we’d had but not pay for the meals. Because we hadn’t actually had any food. The manager obviously looked up the table number and the tab number.

I found a snail on my pizza. Not only that but it had a beautiful shell, aquamarine and pink colours, I've never seen a snail like it in the UK at any other time. The waitress went white and even the manager swore he was so shocked at the sight of it. It was like a cartoon snail from a fantasy book.

We went to a tea shop on the Isle of Wight. DH ordered a cream tea but I'm not a fan of clotted cream. They had individual scones and butter on the menu and because I'm greedy I ordered two cheese scones.

The waitress said she wasn't sure if that was possible. When I asked why she said because a portion is one scone. So I said understood that and I was ordering two portions. She said she'd need to check with the manager but she really didn't think It could be done.

DH and I sat in confusion until she came back and announced "well you can have two but you'll need to pay for both".

When we said that fine (why wouldn't I have expected to pay for both?) she seemed most put out.

We went to an amazing place in malta. It was tiny - only 3 or 4 tables and run by an old man who was both waiter and chef, and also sat down to eat with his guests. No menu - he just improvised cooking with whatever he'd bought that morning. He was so sweet and hospitable and a wonderful chef. I kind of wanted to get up and help him out - it seemed like a lot of work for just one old man.

Also similar weird experience with drinks.

A v fancy Michelin starred restaurant near us. Went for lunch with DH when I was pregnant. Lunch included a glass of wine. DH drank my wine as well as his own as I obviously couldn't drink it. They charged us for the glass of wine as it was one per person. No amount of explaining that it made no difference who drank the wine as they weren't missing out would make them listen.

I was quite joyful when they lost one of their 2 stars a little while ago.

A Wowcher deal!

Went to a new restaurant locally. Got served Iceland takeaway ready meal (I know it was as it's the same to one I have at home it's my favourite) no complaints from me. My DH got his fave which was the madras. No complaints from him either.

My husband ordered a beer and it came and it was a beer in a full sized Prosecco bottle.

We had a right laugh. The staff were so kind and lovely and funny.

We went back for the same "home" experience.

They have closed now which is a shame but I do understand why.

This is so true of what I have found also.

That’s just disgusting. 🤢

I agree. Wonderful people 💕

Shameless placemarking

We went to the Rollercoaster Restaurant at Alton Towers following a recommendation from my SIL. She'd explained about the format, how you ordered your food on a tablet, one course at a time and it arrived at your table via little rollercoasters, often in a bit of a state because at times it had travelled upside down. Seemed a bit of a novelty and a laugh for the kids so we thought we'd give it a whirl. When we rocked up it was so dark inside and so loud in there I could barely hear what the waitress was saying to us but we got on with ordering our main course and waited for the food.

A couple with a small child got seated next to us and evidently had struggled to hear the waitress also as they ordered all their courses in one go. Basically the kitchen just dispatch it as soon as they get the order, so their faces were a picture when the ice cream came down the track first, quickly followed by burger and chips. There was the mum desperately trying to entice the child to eat the main course while the ice cream sat there melting. Think she gave up in the end! And the food was dire, it was probably a blessing we couldn't actually see what we were eating.

A few years ago on valentines day we decided to go out for dinner last minute and ended up in Frankie & Bennys (not a lot of choice in the area, it was a shithole).

The place was packed and we were seated practically elbow to elbow with tables for two in a row. So we were sitting, chatting, waiting for our food and one table on one side was perfectly fine, the other, it was just awful. The woman obviously had the hump and was sitting stony faced, he looked embarrassed and they just sat there in silence.

I felt awkward as fuck and felt off being cheerful and chatting chatting chatting when their atmosphere was emanating out from them!

I don't know what the issue was, I asked DH yesterday, if he overheard because I didn't, but he said no, he didn't hear a word from them the entire time. We finished up and left quickly because it was just so awkward sitting next to them 😂

We should have gone to Nandos. Maybe she wanted a proposal and didn't get one or maybe she was just pissed off at being taken to F&B's!

@Lemonlemon88 scary that you were served peanuts but I did laugh at "rashy sweller", great description!

I took my daughter to a local cafe during the Eat out to help out scheme. We sat down and the waitress immediately asked what we wanted. I asked for a menu, only to be told they didn’t have menus due to COVID. When I asked what they had she said ‘Allsorts’. I hadn’t eaten lunch there before so had to sit guessing what they sold before finally giving up and ordering a tuna sandwich.

The food was actually delicious and we’ve been back a number of times. The menu is quite extensive for a small cafe and I’d never have guessed some of the items they serve.