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?

Wow, I have had so many bad experiences in the past, my DH won't complain, so I know when it really is bad as he stands up and says, "see you outside!" He just hates it. Most recent has to at a well known chain, it was a Sunday, there was me, dh, dd 14 and dd 10. We were told on arrival that there was a 15 minute wait for a table, no problem we said, as we had just popped in on the off chance, so when it took nearly 30 mins, we didn't mind as they were busy and we had found some seats at the bar.
Anyway, once we were seated, we ordered drinks, a waitress returned 10-15 mins later with drinks and asked if we were ready to order.....ok, not bad so far, we were told to help ourselves to the salad bar, which we did, 40 mins later and no sign of dinner- or our waitress, they had apparently changed shift, so I asked a waiter to check on our order, he too seemed to disappear for a while, eventually he returned, red faced, clutching a tray with our food-hooray!
So we start to eat, mine was a pasta dish, awful, cold and sticky and just yuck, the girls dinner looked ok but it was stone cold, as was Hubby's steak and chips, I called our waiter over and he was so embarrassed but clearly not his fault as when I looked, our original waitress, along with 3 others were having a good chat together while meals were piling up on the hatch, so I asked for the manager.........she was one of the 3 chatting and actually finished her (apparently hilarious) conversation first! So when she finally came over, I explained all the meals were inedible and we would not be paying, I asked for the bill to cover our drinks and salad bar.........
Manager: "but the salad bar is free, it's included in your meals"
Me: "yes, but I won't be paying for the meals but we have eaten the salad, so what do I do?"
Manager: "well, you will have to pay for your meals then"
Me: "No, they were inedible, you can see each meal is still complete, I am not paying for them"
Manager: "Then I will call the police!" (???????)
While our waiter got redder and redder in the face, he went off, only to return with another manager, I explained again, and again asked about the salad bar, to which he replied, " well obviously there is no charge!" He apologised to the point he was nearly grovelling! We thanked him, tipped the waiter for fab service-I also instructed the nice manager that his tip was earned by him and him only and was NOT to be shared and left.
Will not be returning!!

On a more positive note, we have a stunning pub/restaurant in a nearby village, it is just amazing there, if we have out of town visitors we always go there, all the staff are just so nice and friendly, never had a bad meal or bad service in nearly 15 years!

As camel said, customers can be memorably awful too. I recall trying to wait a table with a local business owner and his date. He had been awful through the whole evening, sneering at staff and looking down on people. When I took their cheesecake out, I discovered he had removed a (screwed in) painting off the wall from the hall and placed it on their table. Tbf she seemed impressed by this. I was

Lunch while shopping in Leeds with a friend. We'd been to this place before but this day was a right shocker. Waited for an absolute age for the food to arrive when a waitress came and put the plates down now either she shod have gone to spec savers or else got a new job as she hadn't noticed the state of food she was carrying

New potatoes sprouting shoots some well over an inch long! These were well arranged around the plate edges my Cajun chicken was sat in and amongst salad which should have gone to the bin several days before, brown lettuce wrinkled cherry tomatoes and cucumber that was so mushy in the centre it must have been sliced days before it made its way to my plate. The waitress had gone to another table so I went to the bar and asked for the manager, she was on the phone but came across fairly quick. She asked what the problem was to which we just pointed she did a double take, grabbed the plates and shot off. Someone else came with menus and said to order something else but a few minutes later the
Manager came back to say sorry that the chef had gone there was no more food and gave us our
money back. Unfortunately we had a bottle of wine to get through and having not eaten we were famished so had to make do with a couple of bags of crisps!

Jamies Italian at Westfield Shepherds Bush. We were sat outside, and while there were other diners, there were no waiting staff covering the area. So we got ignored (despite going inside and asking for a menu several times).

When the waiter eventually did come to bring our menus he pushed open the door into a table which knocked a bottle of red wine all over the people sitting there.

I've actually never had a good Jamies Italian experience.

When a Spanish waiter shouted at us because we wouldn't have the sea bass. He had obviously been told to "push the Sea Bass". Six times he recommended it, six times we turned it down, we tried to order something else and he claimed they didn't have it, that happened twice so we decided to leave. He shouted at us and stormed off shouting and waving his arms around to the other staff

Years ago we went to (what was meant to be a) fairly decent restaurant in edinburgh for my BIL 21st birthday. We specifically booked a table with wheelchair access and when we got there they put us on a table right at the back of the restaurant so everyone had to stand up for us to get a wheelchair through. Then at the end of the meal they gave my BIL birthday cake to another table, to a middle aged woman, even though the cake said happy 21st birthday Neil. the other table were eating the cake by the time we noticed! We complained a lot and never went back. Hopeless.

I've found that the cost of a meal doesn't always make much difference to the service on offer. My local Morrisons supermarket has very friendly, helpful and pleasant staff in their cafe.

Years ago I remember two waiters crashing into each other while coming out of the kitchen while carrying plates full of food. I can't remember anything else about the meal other than being fascinated by watching just how far peas and potatoes can roll when dropped from a reasonable height!

We had booked a nice local restaurant for our wedding reception. We'd had several good meals there before booking obviously.
We went in on a pre arranged date to try out our menu choices for the day and it was abysmal. Food was cooked badly, arrived at different times, service was poor and my poor parents who had joined us for a preview were absolutely horrified.
There was much worrying about how to reschedule the entire event. I called and left a message for the owner who called me back, had us and friends in again and was more apologetic than you can imagine and on our wedding day he and hois team were awesome.
It was the most nerve wrackingly awful meal of my life though.

A group of us went to a pub for some lunch. A couple of the group ordered burgers and after taking bites realised that the bread buns were mouldy The waitress was mortified to be fair and did sort it out very swiftly. Pretty gross though.

And then my friend's birthday a couple of months back...went to a fancy hotel bar for drinks. She ordered a burger and fries. The fries were the worst I have ever seen, rock solid and dry as a bone inside. When she complained to the waiter and asked for them to be replaced he just sort of shrugged and said "well, they're all we've got". He did replace them but didn't apologise or anything. (And he was wrong anyway because the replacements were fine!)

I took my dd and nephew to A certain well known Restaurant the other week. They got my order wrong but were very very apologetic, and polite, so I still gave the waitress £5 tip, and I would go back there without hesitation.

Lighthouse it wasn't he of the pink house, was it? My friend was humiliated in his shop once ..... Not by him I may add, think his staff had delusions of grandeur.

Pizza Hut in London (don't ask me which one). Waiter took ages to take our order and we tried to collar him a few times but he just either ignored us or couldn't hear. Then my friend said "excuse me" again and he turned round and said very loudly in the snottiest tone: "I can hear you. I can see you. I'm very busy and will get to you when I have time". We walked out and went hungry

Sunny, where was that? I'm in Leeds and I'd like to know to avoid it!

On a first date (and last) we went to a trendy local restaurant. They said he restaurant part was closed (Wtf? it's Friday evening?!?) but we could sit in the bar and order there. I ordered a chicken dish with veg and rice, so far so good. What looked like the dishwasher, who was about 15, came out with our meals. "uhhh, sorry, we're out of vegetables and we're out of sauce" turns around and walks awy. So i had a plain chicken breast with plain white rice. The rice was overcooked and mushy and not properly drained. I didn't want to seem a twat with my date so I laughed it off.
We go up to the bar to pay and despite only 10 people in the entire building, we waited for almost 10minutes standing andvwaving the bartender down to no avail. I looked at my date, he looked at me, we looked at the door and walked out.
Restaurant was one of the first to close in the economic downturn...
(p.S. the date was a lovely bloke we were just not for each other)

Waiting a really long time then the pizzas coming out looking like charcoal, the worst part was that I spoke to the manager and he said he couldn't see a problem and that's how they should look, couldn't believe it! I told him that in all our times of eating there we had never had pizzas look like that, he replied that all of the others have been undercooked then felt like complaining and asking for a refund on all the pizza we had eaten there previously instead!

I understand mistakes are made and problems arise, its how they are dealt with that matters. I took this one to head office and had a very good response, they took many steps to ensure this doesn't happen again and implemented some of them in all of their restaurants (can't remember exactly, but was more than just the pizza)

Oh and on the way out we noticed a few people with pizzas that the manager would refer to as raw! I felt like telling them

Chain restaurant - service so poor the manager ended up giving all 20 of us a free three course meal.

Another chain restaurant - didn't have half the items on the menu. Ordered starter - burnt. Waited for 45 mins to order mains and then half an hour for them to come - burnt. Staff were rude & couldn't be bothered.

Same chain restaurant - another burned meal. Had clubcard vouchers - manager said they were being declined. Wouldn't phone help desk and wanted payment. I refused as meal hadn't been great and they would not resolve clubcard vouchers. Manager 'waived' bill. Two minutes after we left I got an email saying they had been redeemed.

Another chain restaurant. Sat down and continuously hassled, I mean every minute or two, for every course, about food we wanted to order, even though we were still clearly looking at menu. The food was nice though. We would have left a tip but they didn't bring the change or receipt back after we paid (they normally ask you to do a survey and give you your change leaving the plate there if you would like to tip)

We were hiking/camping one time and arrived at our campsite in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain. The only place nearby was a Little Chef. Given the rain we were quite happy to spend a few hours there in the warm and dry so it was funny rather than frustrating watching the car crash of service that took place. The owners only had the franchise for a month but had obviously been reading their franchisee's manual as when anyone complained this was quoted back to them... Waited 45 mins for a meal? The manual says 45 mins is fine! Did they reuse tea-bags? No, the manual says they can't do that! Apart from us, I don't think anyone left happy.

Booked a table months in advance for 14 at a local Italian restaurant (not a chain) for my mum's 80th - having been shown a lovely private dining room upstairs. Family arriving from all over Europe - food all pre-ordered.
On the day I go in to decorate the table - no lovely private dining room - we are crammed onto a table for 10 with another table wedged on the side and we are right under a speaker. Too late to do anything about it by that time. And that evening -surprise - 2 larger parties have the private rooms.

I eat out regularly with friends - but won't ever go there again - all the other places in town get my custom.

We ordered bacon rolls in a local (tiny) cafe - 5 rolls, 1 each for me and 2 small DC plus 2 for DH. 2 rolls arrived. We gave them to the DC. Just as DD was about to bite, we noticed mouldy roll. Removed them from DC and told waiter. 2 more rolls arrived. Gave to DC. Mouldy again. Sent back. 1 single roll arrived, not mouldy. Gave to DD ( youngest) she ate it. Waited 20 mins, no more rolls. Asked. Sorry, just coming. Waited 10 more minutes. Asked again. Sorry, we have run out of rolls. OK, bread will do, or just bacon. Sorry. No bread. Bacon (from our rolls) fed to dog. No more bacon. Gave DS a biscuit that had come with coffee. Walked out, expecting to pay either nothing, or for 1 roll and 4 drinks. Tried to charge us for 5 rolls.

Tiny, tiny cafe in which we were the only customers. Truly awful.

Browns, Oxford, one Christmas. We'd booked for 8 pm but didn't sit down until 10 pm because the idiot manager had sent one of the chefs home because he apparently wouldn't be needed. On a Saturday night in December. Fuckwit.

They grudgingly gave us ONE free bottle of prosecco but we'd hoovered that up (a group of five girls) within 20 minutes. The place was heaving with disgruntled diners waiting for their tables and drunken students called Caspar having drinking contests.

Because of the time of year, we had no chance of getting in anywhere else, so we had to wait. At least we could laugh about it.

To add insult to injury, they'd run out of lots of dishes and it took an hour for the food to arrive. I don't like to ill-wish people, but I hope that that restaurant manager subsequently chose a different career.

We once had such jaw droppingly awful service we thought we had stumbled into one of those restaurants that give you awful service on purpose. This was twenty odd years ago in Warwick and I can still remember the name of the restaurant even though I was no more than 15.

We found the whole thing hysterical.

We were the only folk in there and the waitress took ages to come and take our drinks order and give us menus. When our drinks were ready she shouted to us that they were on the bar and we could come and get them!

Mum had ordered a salad and it was covered in chili sauce and quite inedible, so she sent it back and ordered something else to much huffing and puffing.

When we were finished the waitress put a tray on the table and asked us to stack our plates on it!!

When she came back to get it she said "and I'll be expecting a big tip"!!

It was really quite surreal and we spent the while meal sniggering.

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

Do they? I've lived in the US and never heard of this reputation.

Have to say all my friends and family tip whenever I have eaten out with them.

I know many other nationalities that would never dream of tipping as its just not the done thing.

I have to say I used to work with a lot of Canadians and Americans here in the UK and they all said that Brits were renowned for not tipping, they thought it was the height of rudeness and would always tip, for each drink in all bars when we went out.

twice my db and SIL went to a pub and booked sunday lunch for them and us.
both times they made a point of telling staff one member of the party was in a wheelchair, both times they were shown the table we would be at.
both time we turned up and......someone else was at 'our reserved table" both time we were offered a table that involved stairs.....
,my child is not a darlek their wheel chair cannot climb stairs

the next time we went else where

Pub chain, very rainy night. Dh and I ordered and sat down. Staff were mostly by the door smoking only because of the rain were stood in the porch bit filling the entire dining area with smoke.
After 45 sat in the smoke and still no food we complained only to be told 'its an hour wait'. Pointed out pub was empty and we'd been there 45 minutes. She looked blankly at us and reiterated the hour wait. Not wanting to find out whether that was another hour from then we asked for a refund and went the chippy.

I did complain, I was sent £30 in vouchers which I used in a different branch.

On a more mundane note our local restaurant of the chicken variety ran out of chicken on a Saturday evening not long back. They didn't bother with signs etc, just waited until you'd sat in the long ish drive through queue to mention it.