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Original poster

What's the worst meal you've been served? Especially but not limited to those with restricted diets?

207 replies

CrapGoat · 17/12/2023 23:13

I mean if you're coeliac/gluten free/vegan/allergies or anything like? But others as well.

I went to a well-known Fish and Chip restaurant with family recently.I cannot remember how the vegan option was described, but what I got was a small lasagne dish containing some gloopy tomato sauce, inset with three or 4 slimy aubergine slices. A side of new potatoes (about 6, which in fairness were at least quite nice).

Completely tasteless and I was straight in the cupboard for snacks when I got home as I was so hungry. Vegan doesn't equal-no appetite/doesn't like food/is happy with a tiny dish of slop.

I suppose I should be grateful for anything at all with that type of restaurant, but vegans/other people who don't eat certain things aren't hermits-we often go to places with/for other people!

T'was the best part of £20, too.

OP posts:
DilemmaDelilah · 18/12/2023 07:03

Also (not really complaining but struggling to understand why) as a type 2 diabetic trying to manage through diet and medication, in hospital, there are NO diabetic friendly meals? Breakfast - cereal or toast. Lunch - soup or orange juice, small portion chicken curry and rice (or similar) pudding, ice cream, sweetened yoghurt, rice pudding, apple crumble. Supper - jacket potato, cheese and salad, ice cream or yoghurt. Snack - cheese and biscuits, fruit. They check your blood sugar frequently and tell you if it it's running high - but the only way to keep it down is by either hardly eating anything at all - or bringing in your own food.

MrsRetriever · 18/12/2023 07:05

A hotel in Poland in 2001 (on a school trip, hence the lack of choice/organised catering.)

A bowl of meat stew, no veg or accompaniments. Vegetarians got white rice with grated cheese, and the vegetarian who didn’t like cheese got a bowl of rice.

MrsRetriever · 18/12/2023 07:12

@Bandolina i had a similar experience when working with a BME community group a few years back - they warned me the catered lunch was from a proper Asian place, to which I said I had a good palate and liked spicy food. I was specifically warned off a mixed vegetable dish which I thought looked innocuous. Ten minutes later I was streaming from eyes and nose & in rather a lot of pain, and had to sit with a glass of milk

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General food
notprincehamlet · 18/12/2023 07:17

Not bad just odd but years ago while staying in a Russian hotel I had the vegetarian option which one evening was a plate of carrots cut into rounds and covering the whole plate with a tiny baked apple in the middle. Another evening it was a plate of mushrooms.

Lastqueenofscotland2 · 18/12/2023 07:25

Vegetarian, by an aunt who hated catering to any special requests (wouldn’t cook for a coeliac family member for an example)
I received… three parsnips.

fiorentina · 18/12/2023 07:33

Vegetarian - whilst travelling many years ago in Hungary - a plate of sliced tomato.

Butteredtoast55 · 18/12/2023 07:35

Local pub under new management which used to do great food. As a veggie I had one option - pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan. I (wrongly) thought they couldn't mess that up. Congealed cold pasta, stuck together in one solid, starchy mass and a tin of plum tomatoes on top, with some grated cheddar in a dish. This wasn't that long ago either.

Deathraystare · 18/12/2023 07:44

I have been to Poland, Russia and Albania. They were a little thrown by my vegetarian request but although quite monotonous was perfectly fine. At that time I did not eat fish either. I just needed to keep refusing the soup in Russia with obvious ham lumps in it!! In Albania it was a feta like cheese with spinach (or similar) and rice. We did have a cheese borek a few times too. In Poland there was a lot of potatoes!

But the worst one was an Indian restaurant in Hove. I normally had a medium curry but fancied a Korma because there was coconut in it. It was sweetened desiccated coconut! Not what I was expecting!! I could not finish it.

oldcrinkle · 18/12/2023 07:44

I'm vegan but at the time was vegetarian.

On holiday in Romania.

A plate of runner beans. That's it, that's the meal.

I hate runner beans. I went hungry that day!

Ginmonkeyagain · 18/12/2023 07:45

Not me but a vegetetarian friend in Madrid (yes. I know!). He was presented with a dish of cold spaghetti topped with apple sauce. The restaurant was very proud they did food for vegetarians. 🫣

ANightingale · 18/12/2023 07:51

A salmon pasta dish in a pub - chain pub, can't remember which one but Harvester/Toby type. I don't know what was wrong with it but it smelt like cat food. I am the least fussy eater in the world but I couldn't eat it. I complained and got a voucher for a free bottle of wine on my next visit, which never got used as I couldn't face eating there again (and I don't go to pubs other than for a meal).

Jins · 18/12/2023 07:56

I was having day surgery but ended up being admitted to a ward. I’d been on the ward long enough to discuss medication allergies and the fact that I’m coeliac.

Evening meal arrived - a sandwich. Made with normal bread. Understandable I guess as the meal orders wouldn’t start till the following day but it was swapped for two tiny pots of jelly.

I was given medication I’m allergic to as well but that’s another story and no, I didn’t take it

sashh · 18/12/2023 08:10

MrsRetriever · 18/12/2023 07:12

@Bandolina i had a similar experience when working with a BME community group a few years back - they warned me the catered lunch was from a proper Asian place, to which I said I had a good palate and liked spicy food. I was specifically warned off a mixed vegetable dish which I thought looked innocuous. Ten minutes later I was streaming from eyes and nose & in rather a lot of pain, and had to sit with a glass of milk

Sri Lankan by any chance?

jazzhands84 · 18/12/2023 08:18

Boiled potatoes, baked potato and chips on one dish. Isle of Man, I have not forgotten or forgiven this.
I should be grateful because the same kitchen managed to give food poisoning to 50 people the following year, hospitalising two of them.

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 18/12/2023 11:42

lol, you’ve bested me @Lastqueenofscotland2! I only got ONE parsnip.

CMOTDibbler · 18/12/2023 12:15

I'm coeliac, and travel for work a lot. I'm very easy going, and quite happy (well not, but accept) with a green salad and ice cream if thats what is GF. But have had melon starter, dried out chicken breast and steamed veg, then melon for pudding at a posh dinner. Or the same fruit salad as appears for breakfast.
But hospital is the worst. When I had ds, he was premature and in SCBU. When I'd given birth I got tea - no biscuit or toast. I'd have sent dh to get something but he was with ds in SCBU. Went to the ward, no food. Lunchtime arrived. Apparently I should have gone and told someone 3 hours ahead that I needed a gf meal. Dh went and got me a jacket potato from the canteen to eat before he went home to sleep. I dragged myself round to SCBU, then eventually got told to go back for dinner - which, surprise, surprise I needed to have told them I needed - yes, you had to tell them for every single meal.
Thankfully, a SCBU mum told me I could use the fridge and microwave in the parents room there so I could actually eat once dh brought in some food.
On a different hospital stay, the ladies on my bay were so shocked by no meals for me that they had a whip round of the food they had to put something together for me as I hadn't had anything for 3 days as I had a sequence of surgeries and got moved between wards - and your food order was for the next day, and on that particular ward...

Deathraystare · 18/12/2023 12:38

@DilemmaDelilah
Mum was told to avoid too much salt in hospital. Dinner was salty ham!

Deathraystare · 18/12/2023 12:41

@fiorentina

You don't know how 'lucky' you were. One person I read about holidaying in Hungary had a lovely plate of vegetables with lard poured over the top! Guess they went hungry!

Bluevelvetsofa · 18/12/2023 12:57

Austria in the 90’s. Vegetarian daughter ate an awful lot of lettuce with vinegar and fries. There were, at least, cakes in the kondetorei.

Sirian · 18/12/2023 13:16

You’d think hospitals would be better at catering for medical conditions! I went into labour in the early hours of Wednesday morning and gave birth later that day. I told the hospital upon arrival at 2am on Wednesday that I couldn’t eat gluten. But when my evening meal arrived on the ward at about 6pm on Wednesday it was not gluten free.

Apparently I told them too late that I needed a gluten free meal. 16 hours was not sufficient notice - I should have told them the previous evening. Before I went into labour. So I’m supposed to be psychic and call them on Tuesday night to tell them I’ll be going into labour on Wednesday morning and I’ll need a gluten free meal on Wednesday night. Absolute madness.

The meal I was served was what was ordered by the previous occupant of my bed on Tuesday night. Because apparently that’s how it works - whatever is ordered on Tuesday night gets delivered to that bed on Wednesday night. Never mind if you’re allergic and it contains nuts or dairy. Or if you have coeliac and it contains gluten. Or if you have religious requirements and it’s not halal or kosher. Or if you’re vegan and it contains meat. Whatever was ordered on Tuesday night gets delivered on Wednesday night, no exceptions.

So there I was - just given birth, still unable to walk after the epidural, undergone surgery to fix my injuries, hadn’t eaten for 24 hours, trying to look after a baby while feeling sick and dizzy and shaking because I was so hungry. Food arrives and they just shrug and say “sorry you needed to have ordered gluten free yesterday. We’ll bring you a gluten free meal tomorrow”.

Natsku · 18/12/2023 13:22

That is such a ridiculous system Sirian
I might moan about the lack of meal choices in hospitals in Finland (there's no menu you to order from, you get what you're given) but at least you always get the correct food for your dietary requirements, and when I've come onto a ward after a mealtime so too late to get the meal they always find some gluten free for me to eat, even if its just gf crispbread and some yoghurt (and the maternity ward had a snack fridge and cupboard in the dayroom where you could help yourself to crispbread, cheese, yoghurt, fruit etc. whenever you wanted.

speakout · 18/12/2023 13:22

Just about anything my mother cooked.

A typical meal would be mashed potatoes made from powder, with lumps of dry powder for added texture. Served with tinned hamburgers ( yes that was a thing) which had visible lumps of gristle and vein.

soonbespringagain · 18/12/2023 13:26

I was once at a work function and they served blue steak. It was in a puddle of thin, watery blood gravy. They didn't ask if anyone had a cooking preference on steak, it was just brought to the table. I just cut it into pieces and pushed it round the plate.

This was over 15 years ago and no joke I've barely eaten red meat since. Seeing it all pink and bloody just turned me.

FilippityFiloppity · 18/12/2023 13:35

The wedding where vegan DH was served six quarters of cherry tomatoes in a puddle of olive oil was fairly memorable.

At a more recent wedding, my dietary requirements clearly hadn’t been passed on. They tried three times to serve me something I couldn’t eat, politely argued with me about what the dish contained, then brought out their list to show that I couldn’t have the requirements I was saying I did because it wasn’t on their list. In fairness, they sorted me something else and didn’t do too badly, but the back and forth was a bit ridiculous.

Also the work function where I was served an entirely separate, labelled with my name salad due to my dietary requirements. Part way through I commented that it was some of the best dairy free cheese I’d ever tasted. Then the penny dropped. Luckily, it’s not life threatening, just extremely uncomfortable.

Natsku · 18/12/2023 13:40

Just remembered my brother's wedding. My mum has coeliac disease (was before I was diagnosed so at least I wasn't affected this time) which of course my brother knew, he told the caterer who assured him he'd have gluten free options for mum. Buffet time and the "gluten free" option was normal bread rolls, dry. The caterer must have mixed up gluten free with dairy free so thought no butter will make it all fine. Poor mum.