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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:
idontlikealdi · 19/12/2023 15:57

On a school trip to austria many many years ago, lots of us went as vegetarian as reports from previous years about the meat options being really bad. First night we got a boiled hear of cauliflower with something brown on top of it. I have no idea what that was.

Chicken soup was a vegetarian option that trip too.

A burger in Bansko that had claimed to be a beef burger. I asked the waiter what meat it was and his answer was 'same like cow but very different'. Fuck knows what it was, I didn't eat it.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 19/12/2023 16:06

Just exited a function at a restaurant. 'Yes, we can accommodate gluten free'.

Platter 1 - chips and breaded chicken
Platter 2 - chips and breaded mozzarella sticks
Platter 3 - chips and breaded mushrooms
Platter 4 - chips and whitebait coated in flour

'The chips are gluten free?'

Well, they might have been before you put the onto the same platters as all the fucking gluten, but they certainly aren't now, are they?

IHS · 19/12/2023 16:14

I went into a pub once and asked for the chicken pie. What arrived was a piece of puff pastry floating on what appeared to be clear chicken soup. I refused to eat it. It was chef's speciality apparently and they were very offended that I sent it back. Just a bog standard pub as well, not one of those fancy ones.

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IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 19/12/2023 16:23

Finn Air, about 20 years ago - beefier/Hallal/Kosher option was 2 Ryvitas and a kiwi fruit.

Felt considerably less hard done by when all the people who'd had chicken started being sick though!

Park Lane Hilton - last year - industry awards do. Veggie option was half a cauliflower, roasted. No spice, no sauce, no sides. Nothing.

Original poster
CrapGoat · 20/12/2023 17:04

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads I am SICK of seeing cauliflower! I was proud by proxy of a woman on here who'd taken her vegan DD to a nice restaurant for a family event and had rang ahead to ask if vegans were catered for. When they got there and the offering was a cauliflower 'steak' with a few measly vegetable sides she told them it wasn't good enough and she insisted they provided her with a proper meal.

From memory it was a similar price to the pies/steak whatever everyone else was having too!

I do remember getting a plate full of roast green chilli peppers once. Was out for a boozy lunch and I was starving and sozzled after a couple of small wines!

OP posts:
Minglemangle007 · 20/12/2023 17:15

Friends house after she decided to learn to cook but thought salt was the work of the devil. Sooooo pasta boiled in plain water with no seasoning accompanied with a tin of chopped tomatoes and teaspoon of dried herbs, fortunately I was pissed.....

Also heard her roast dinners were something to behold even though I repeatedly told her potatoes need to be boiled in salted water if they were to stand any chance of crisping up.

DragonflyLady · 20/12/2023 18:42

Put on the Dietary Requirements form prior to an event that I was low carb. Lunch was meat and potato ie, I asked for the low carb option - it was the pie filling 🤔

Notafanofchristmas · 20/12/2023 18:45

Coeliac.

And nothing, many times at many places as while they did have gluten free options, when asked, everything would have been contaminated.

I take snacks everywhere now.

Lifeetc · 20/12/2023 18:50

Tuns pasta bake with prawn cocktail crisp "crumb" and apple pie for pudding
I was vegetarian at the time and allergic to apples.
This was at a good friend's house "made specially for me"

Lifeetc · 20/12/2023 19:04

Or my last hospital stay
Cream crackers,butter, yellow cheese
Beefy crisps
Cheese savoury sandwich
"Pie" no given flavour
I'm (now) vegan, and had my food allergies on my bracelet thing they put on you.
I wasn't allowed to leave until I had eaten something (gastro surgery) so my partner had bring food in.

Irridescantshimmmer · 20/12/2023 19:11

It was when I was a kid. It was barley cooked in water only, no other ingredients and without salt.

I'm diabetic on insulin and had only been diagnosed by a few years, so I had no option but to eat it!

I remember being at primary school and the sound of the 'slops' hitting the plate, as I had named it at the time, was just as revolting as the taste! It was not cooked by the school, kitchen as no school would put kids through that!

The sound of the other kids shouting "ewwwwwwwwwww" and I don't blame them!

It was grey in colour and the stuff of nightmares, though I laugh about it now. Must admit, I was never sent to school with that again thank goodness!

chickabilla · 20/12/2023 19:39

When staying with my then boyfriend's grandparents abroad, they decided a suitable vegetarian option would be rice that had been cooked inside the carcass of the chicken that the rest of them ate. I pushed it around the plate a bit and ate broccoli. Yum.

Cheeseplantalltheway · 20/12/2023 20:06

Friends invited us to Sunday lunch. I was given a baked potato and dry broccoli; everyone else also had a delicious looking homemade chicken pie.

I could not have the pie as can't have dairy, which they knew. I don't think I could have dessert, either.

That was a sad day. Was so hungry and couldn't wait to get home and eat something!

gotomomo · 20/12/2023 20:10

In Germany after my dd (who has decent German) said she was vegetarian, the waiter proudly said they had a vegetarian menu, 5 minutes later he returned with a sheet of paper - option one jacket potato with cheese, option two 2 jacket potatoes with cheese! Thankfully she's not dairy intolerantGrin

Having eaten her potato the chef appeared and announced he had veggie burgers too, too late

ChristmasCanFucawfee · 20/12/2023 20:11

Old housemate once made me her “risotto”: plain white boiled rice mixed with a big handful of grated cheddar and some microwaved mushrooms mixed in. Absolutely awful.

Wednesday6 · 20/12/2023 20:17

It's usually soup that went wrong in pubs

ManonDe · 20/12/2023 20:21

Not me... but years ago I made friends very quickly and deeply with a neighbour. I thought we were essentially friend soul mates. She invited me (and others) and DH who is vegetarian around for Sunday lunch. Made a lovely roast. DH had said he would be happy with sides as he knows it can be a faff to make a veg meal for people who may not do it very often. He is not at all fussy just does not eat meat. She served us a prawn starter - nothing for DH- then served us roast pork and plonked a plate of raw carrot sticks in front of him with a jar of mayo and said; 'If you are going to be a fucking vegetarian you can fucking eat carrots'.

It was quite an aggressive and performative display- like she expected applause.

sadly it took a few more months before I finally grew a set of ovaries and cut it off with her. At which point she became so aggressive that I had to talk to the police about a restraining order.

Dutch1e · 20/12/2023 21:01

No dietary requirements for me and I'm a very un-picky eater but I will never forget sitting for hours alone at a childhood friend's dinner table while I choked down the whole cow tongue on my plate.

No veg, no starch, no seasoning or condiments. Just a boiled cow tongue. I can still feel the rubbery texture of the taste buds between my teeth 40 years later.

Sadists.

Newuser75 · 20/12/2023 21:06

ManonDe · 20/12/2023 20:21

Not me... but years ago I made friends very quickly and deeply with a neighbour. I thought we were essentially friend soul mates. She invited me (and others) and DH who is vegetarian around for Sunday lunch. Made a lovely roast. DH had said he would be happy with sides as he knows it can be a faff to make a veg meal for people who may not do it very often. He is not at all fussy just does not eat meat. She served us a prawn starter - nothing for DH- then served us roast pork and plonked a plate of raw carrot sticks in front of him with a jar of mayo and said; 'If you are going to be a fucking vegetarian you can fucking eat carrots'.

It was quite an aggressive and performative display- like she expected applause.

sadly it took a few more months before I finally grew a set of ovaries and cut it off with her. At which point she became so aggressive that I had to talk to the police about a restraining order.

That's horrendous!

DuesToTheDirt · 20/12/2023 21:10

On a long haul flight, the veggie meal for lunch turned out to be pasta. Dinner was a different kind of pasta, with a different pasta sauce, and a side dish of pasta salad. I had always thought that airline meals were planned by professionals Confused.

ChessieFL · 20/12/2023 21:26

Once when I was in hospital, the meal included a side of broccoli. Fine, I like broccoli. Except when I tried to
pick it up with my fork, it just disintegrated and slid straight back through the fork. It was almost liquid it had been cooked for so long. It tasted disgusting as well. I’m not at all fussy but even I couldn’t eat that.

paulhollywoodshairgel · 20/12/2023 21:36

I went to a guys house for a meal and he served me spaghetti in sweet and sour sauce inside a giant Yorkshire pudding Envy

sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea · 20/12/2023 21:52

Most memorable was the time I was on holiday with my parents in the 90s & we were all vegetarian at the time. The hotel was very proudly hosting a Christmas gala dinner, and we'd booked ahead for veggie meals.
Nine courses, and the only thing we were served was a bread roll & a tinned fruit salad. We got very, very drunk instead.

The worst meal though was Easter lunch with my then inlaws. Boiled lamb, boiled leeks, not really boiled potatoes, and yorkshire puddings so hard I cracked a tooth. I discreetly spat every mouthful into my napkin and fed it to their two dogs who were under the table.

Oldraver · 20/12/2023 22:15

DS had a 'dairy free' meal on flight back from the US.

It was a plate of brown rice and stewed greenstuff, probably cabbage or spinach, though was artfully arranged

The flight attendant just kept on saying... "I'm so sorry" as the plate just looked a mess. She gave DS her chicken

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 20/12/2023 22:30

I’ve just remembered another one. A homework assignment in France was to cook crepes on Mardi Gras with my parents (I was 8, so my job was to translate) and my mother, whose skills have admittedly improved since then, produced the worst first pancake I have ever seen. Imagine one black and stuck to the bottom of the pan in the centre, while resembling those really puffy pizza edges on the outside. She scraped it out of the pan and I can’t remember whether we actually made proper pancakes, but my written report on the cooking included a picture captioned “quelque chose”. That means “something”.