To ask whats theme worst service you've ever experienced in a restaurant or cafe?

[JellyDiamonds]

I wonder if it can beat what happened to us this afternoons?

Went out for Sunday lunch at a mid price range gastro pub type place. We used to be regualrs there and its always been excellent, however today it seemed to fall apart. Lots of new staff who I'd never seen before. We arrived, were seated with menus and drinks were orders taken. The drinks arrived quickly but my coke was flat and I had to send it back, a fresh drink was then brought to me but no apology was given and it seemed to get worse from there.

We sat and waited for our orders to be taken (menus obviously laid out in front of us), and we waited and waited and waited. In the mean time a family on a nearby table were starting to get really stroppy with the waiting staff because they'd also been sat there a long time and no one had taken their orders. We continued to wait, countless staff passed us and I'm not sure how they couldn't have noticed we were ready to order, but they ignored us. I could also see and hear a couple standing by the till arguing with the manager about poor service.

Eventually after waiting for over 30 mins a waitress appeared and admittedly did apolgise for the wait and took our order. Food arrived pretty promptly and my roast potatoes were burned, but worst of all was my cauliflower cheese. It was basically just lukewarm cauliflower with cold cheese sauce poured over the top, it obviously hadnt been put in the oven to brown off as it should be. It was revolting and made me feel physically sick, in fact it's quite possibly put me off cauliflower cheese for life. I didn't mention it to the waiting staff because I could see and hear other customers laying into them and didn't want to make a fuss. The waiting staff were all obviously inexperienced, I watched a young lad almost drop a bowl of soup over a childs head because he wasn't balancing them on his arms properly (I used to wait on and there is an art to carrying lots of plates, but you need to be taught it before actually waiting on). All the while manager just stood there, not directing the staff or stepping in to help.

So anyway it was shite and I'm actually quite shocked at the service ive received. I've always been lucky in restaurants and have always had pretty good service so this was an eye opener.

Can you beat it?

Not a restaurant, but I went into Clarks to get shoes for DD. it was a Tuesday morning, we were the only customers.

The three staff members stood chatting, ignoring me for a good 5 minutes. When I asked for some help I was asked 'did you take a ticket?' With added extra rolly eyes.

I handed them the shoes I wanted and left.

In New York, ate at a place called ruffles which was near my hotel, not only was the food average the waiter was nowhere to be seen the whole time and only showed his face to drop off and collect the plate. I wanted another drink but couldn't because he disappeared.
I think it may have been because we were british and Brits have a reputation to not tip but we were going to tip if he actually gave good service!

Eating our starters a fairly pricey priced restaurant when the waitress brought out our mains. We pointed out we were still eating our starter and she shrugged and said, the chef has made it, I can't take it back.

I remember getting packet cheese sauce in a macaroni cheese once. It was a tourist type place and packed out, guess they didn't need the return business.

Once we t to a Little Chef where the service was so slow that a group of 12 managed to escape without paying. One of them had crutches and a plaster on his leg.

We booked a table but when we got there they had given it to someone else (and so on).

These sorts of places are gambling on the British reticence to make a fuss. I've grown much less tolerate of poor service. It's not the fault of the staff, always, but that's still no reason to be treated badly and put up with it. If you sit in an American restaurant you'll see that if people aren't served quickly enough, they just get up and leave: there's a lot to be said for that as a policy.

You should get a menu within a couple of minutes of sitting down, if you weren't given it immediately, and your order should be taken as soon as you're ready to order. If not, leave: it's not going to get any better.

We went for dinner in San Francisco on New Years Eve, our original booking was cancelled last minute and this was the only place we could find.

Our allocated waitress had zero interest in serving us and focussed solely on a table of four who were ordering lots of champagne.

We got our drinks, but then had to go over and ask her to take our food order after waiting ages. She came, took DHs order and then walked off! Had to follow her almost to the kitchen to order mine, much to her irritation. Waited 45 minutes for our main course plates to be cleared whilst she was sitting AT the table with the champagne guzzlers (OUR bubbly had never made an appearance). Then, instead of offering us desserts, we were given the bill as someone else was waiting for our table.

To make it even more hilarious, there was a mandatory 25% service charge added to the bill because it was New Years. We argued our case with the manager, but had no luck.

If all that wasn't bad enough, we missed the rest of the New Years Eve celebrations with dodgy stomachs! Very romantic!

Too many bad experiences to list - I've worked in the hospitality industry for years and I have to agree, service in this country is terrible, and peoples' expectations are sadly very low. I rarely go out to eat very often now - mainly because of poor service.

I think possibly the worst experience was many years ago in a country house type restaurant, we had booked for a birthday party for about 20 of us yet the restaurant clearly could not cope - bored teenagers who hadn't been trained served our meal, amongst many, many problems was a chicken dish - two people had ordered the same meal and it was silver service, all the chicken was put on one guest's plate, when the other guest asked where her chicken was the waiter went to the first plate and tried to take half the meal off. At that point we all left the restaurant and went to an Indian !!!

In a cafe in a place that will remain nameless we waited so long for our food - after being reassured that 'it was just coming' several times that we got a refund and walked out. It was puzzling because others had been already served and had had their meals and we were just completely ignored. They made no fuss about giving us a refund. We got some lovely fish and chips around the corner instead.

I've just remembered..
Went to a chain restaurant on a quiet evening, on a date with my boyfriend (now dh) and the manager brought us the bill as we were eating our main course!
Dh paid and commented 'Well we were going to have pudding and coffee but as you're so keen for us to leave...'
Haven't been back. It changed hands and went out of business. Funny that!

LondonLady - you absolutely should complain about the service in Waitrose, that sounds appalling, I complained about the service in a Waitrose cafe once and it was taken seriously.

please do complain about the bad service in Waitrose , I used to work there as a Saturaday job and would be ashamed if a colleague gave such poor service.

Went for a birthday meal where we were made to wait 45mins for our table (it was booked for 9pm as it was) even though the entire restaurant had 4 people in it, they took another 45mins to bring food, which was then wrong, so I had to wait another 10mins for my food to be corrected, during all this time the waiter hadn't asked if we wanted any drinks, so we went to the bar and ordered a second bottle of wine (between 6 of us).

All in all, we were there till 11pm and only had 1 course and 2 bottles of wine.

We didn't complain as when we were asked if we'd enjoyed our meal and we said no, the waitress just walked off.

Went for a birthday meal where we were made to wait 45mins for our table

Why don't people leave when this happens? Other restaurants are available.

My DD's birthday meal at Frankie & Benny's. The service & food was so poor that I told the manager I wasn't prepared to pay a penny. She agreed & waived the entire bill. I've still not been back.
The week later was my birthday. We went to an independent restaurant again the food & the service was so poor & bizarre I thought we'd stumbled into an episode of Beadle's About. Again we haven't been back. Last time I drove past it had all closed down & was boarded up.

I was with DH and DS at a Michelin starred restaurant a few months ago. We arrived and the bar area was full of used glasses which immediately set my antenna going.

Pretty much everything we ordered was so salty it was inedible and to make matters worse, they didn't clear the table between courses. Apparently it is a relaxed dining experience. Bullshit, if we are paying £100 per head, I don't want to eat amongst dirty plates from the previous course. That said we didn't eat much because of the salt.

Trust me, we didn't pay the full bill and haven't been back.

Ppolky and Ragwort thank you I think I will mention it to customer services, it's just rude and unnecessary especially for a company which usually has great service.

We went to a lovely local pub which had a good reputation for food. Dh's steak was badly cooked, burnt on the outside and rare in the middle. He sent it back. The landlord brought it back out and said his wife had cooked it, they'd all tried it and there was nothing wrong with it. He actually argued with us in the middle of the restaurant.

Dh said well I'm not paying for that. So the landlord said he'd call the police. I told dh to pay the man if he was that desperate and we left.

The annoying thing is the landlords kids now go to our school. So I have to put up with his mug most days. God knows if he remembers us.

I have also been served a meal that was mostly salt, in Leiths. The service was prompt but unfriendly, the food unpleasant.

One of many bad meals over the years, including the pizza chain that had no pizza dough.

Standards in this country are pretty low, on the whole.

I don't have much luck when trying to eat Spanish food...
Firstly there was the Spanish chain where I dared to try to order drinks...the waiter told me to be more patient because 'everyone has come in at once', yes that'll be because it's lunchtime - and 'everyone' was our table of 4 and a couple at another table . He continued to be rude for the entire meal, even his colleague seemed embarrassed. I've never been back!
Then there was an independently owned tapas bar, no longer open - maybe because the service was so awful (the waitress looked disgusted when I handed her a discount voucher from an advert they'd put in the local 'what's on' magazine, we did see the funny side of the frog in the toilets though )

I had a bizarre experience a couple of weeks ago in a John Lewis cafe. There seemed to be loads of staff milling around doing things like moving trays from one stack to another, stacking plates, chatting. And a huge queue of customers lining up while one poor staff member was run ragged serving them. I was standing with another woman waiting for hot food (and the hot food/cake counter queues was another idiotic thing) and we were both getting annoyed. I haven't been out much lately so that's one that sticks in the mind. It was just so weird that there were all these customers and the staff were busying themselves with non-jobs.

I was thrown off my two seater table in a cafe in Wells next the Sea as I'd been there long enough to drink my coffee (7 minutes) and apparently there were customers wanting to sit down... Which there weren't.

The attitude of the owner was breathtaking.

Went back to our holiday cottage, googled the name of the cafe and discovered other similar reviews... So added my own.

I wonder if it's still there...

At a lovely little B&B in west Wales years ago. There were five of us and we'd come down to breakfast having been very impressed with the comfortable rooms and the warm welcome. A very old and nearly deaf waitress asked us if we wanted the full cooked breakfast. Only one of us did, to her horror. Two of us (veggies) wanted just eggs on toast and the other two people wanted different variations again (one doesn't eat tomato or mushroom, the other can't eat bacon). The old lady didn't write any of it down. Lots of very slow to-ing and fro-ing, old lady getting frazzled. Nobody really got what they ordered, apart from the full breakfast guy! She brought six coffees too. It was pretty funny.

Didn't stop four of us returning the following year though! We were going to insist that she wrote down our order but she wasn't there, that time. I assumed shed taken retirement.

Not me, but a work colleague.

She had booked a table at a very smart restaurant in Central London, had to book months in advance, it was for her boyfriends birthday. Half way through their main course the waiter came over and told them they had to leave. Someone else had come in and they were giving them their table. Obviously a vip of some sort. They argued that they did not want to leave, but were not given much choice. Can't remember if they were expected to pay.

DH and I once went to a local steakhouse for dinner. We walked in and it was almost empty, just one other couple and what looked like a children's birthday party at a large table, with about six children and six adults in attendance.

The waitress came over to seat us, then told us that it would be about an hours wait for food because they were really busy! We just laughed and walked out. Funnily enough they're no longer in business.

A group of us (about 8-10) went to a well known chain restaurant for a birthday meal. We'd booked but were about 5-10 mins late, for which we apologised and the place wasn't packed. The main course then took ages to arrive. The irony was when we went to order dessert (more fool us?!) we were told we couldn't as we'd arrived late and other people were waiting for the table!! We did say we weren't that late, we'd apologised and were waiting a long time for the main course (I think someone had to chase it in the end) but to no avail. Appalling service. No tip there and won't go back.

I did once email Frankie and Benny's as we'd waited so long for our meal that we almost missed our film booking, I'd had to chase a waiter across the restaurant and ask for our meals and he just grunted and turned to get them, there was no apology either then or when they eventually turned up. although our waitress did only after I explained why we were running out the door (after paying!) They sent me a £15 voucher and an apology. I've done it with Pizza Hut too and got £5. I never expect anything and I make a point of saying things to staff at the time but with chains I think it's better to report to HQ.