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?

The worst service was as a teenager going to a restaurant for my mum's birthday. A waitress dropped a glass water jar and a splinter of glass shot into my foot (was wearing open toed sandals) which spurted blood everywhere. There was quite as lot of blood on the floor and the manager and waitress said they couldn't mop the blood for health and safety reasons so told me to do it. I was a bit but mopped it up with some napkins.
They didn't offer any apologies or free drinks money off bill. They may have offered a plaster but that was all. We never went there again.

Worst service: joint between the Peat Inn in Fife, which is/was supposed to be a top restaurant. We were sat at a very rough filthy table in a crowded corridor with no tablecloth. Fair enough, it was obviously supposed to be rustic. I ordered lamb stew. It was full of gristle and carrots to fill it out, and had hardly any potato to soak it up. So I asked for some potatoes as a side order to go with it. 10 minutes later the waiter came back "the chef says its meant to be eaten without extra potatoes because that's the style of the dish blah blah". "No, I want extra potatoes as a side order" I said. 15 minutes later they arrived. By this point the gristly stew was even more inedible. It was vile, fatty and with unidentified unchewable hard lumps of something. I gave up and didn't eat it. Expensive and overcrowded, obviously couldn't be bothered because they were packed.

I also went to an over-rated little country inn place once and ordered a "bacon and salad herb sub roll". A supermarket roll with two rashers of bacon and absolutely nothing else appeared. Not even chopped. There was a small piece of lettuce lying beside it on the plate. £7.95!

Best service: DH and I were on holiday in France and got hungry one Monday evening while driving to the campsite. We stopped at a restaurant in a small village. We marched in, to find one family sitting down to a meal. Emboldened, we sat down at the nearest table and were surprised when one of the other table came over to tell us what the menu was. Baffled, we ordered, although we didn't speak French. The dinner came and it was exceptional. You could not have tasted better at a Michelin 5 star restaurant, although the ingredients were quite simple. It was just delicious. We had pudding too. It was equally good. There didn't seem to much choice, as far as we could tell, because our French fellow diner/waitress had limited English - she was really helpful when she realised we spoke no French. The people were delighted and smiling when we told them how much we had enjoyed it, and we left a nice tip.

Later at the campsite, we told other campers about this great restaurant we had stumbled across. And were told everything was closed, it was a local bank holiday. We had walked in on a family eating a private meal on their one day off, interrupted them, and sat there virtually silently, demanding to be fed. What must they have thought of us? And they couldn't have been nicer! Maybe they thought if they just fed us and humoured us, the lunatics might go away and leave them in peace!

My worst one was at a chain pub with my sister and our kids. The waitress quit mid-shift after taking our order but before relaying it to the kitchen; we waited for well over an hour but it was busy so we just assumed there was a long wait. We got our entire meal for free so it was almost worth it!

It was revolting and made me feel physically sick, in fact it's quite possibly put me off cauliflower cheese for life

Sorry but I can't get past this op.

I've had poor service loads of times but like you am too soft to complain.

We went into a small local restaurant one evening at about 7.45. Place was over half empty, and the waitress asked if we'd booked a table - we hadn't. She then said " but our last booking is for 8.30 tonight"
DH - "Yes, so can we have a table for two please?"
Waitress - "No, our last table is coming in at 8.30pm"
Bemused looks from DH and I, and we just left. She blatantly didn't want us there, but we never worked out why! Maybe they only order in enough food for people who book in advance? Luckily we then found the most amazing Chinese restaurant a short distance away, and the original place has closed down.

Local chain restaurant with free salad bar and begins with H...
Turned up at 5.30 on a Saturday, two couples, each with a toddler, so we asked for a table for 6.

Waited for an hour and a half for a table while tables of 4 went in in about 5 mins.

When asked why it was taking so long,apparently they only have two tables for 6 in the whole place and we had to wait until they became free.

Unfortunately for us, the tables had only been on starters when we arrived.

Had we been told this we wouldn't have waited but we kept being told our table was almost ready.

Our toddlers were so well behaved but still, why they couldn't push two tables together to make a table of 6 I'll never know

Not a restaurant, but a shop. It was so weird that I had to add it...

In a department store in Kingston, Surrey. I had tried a skirt on and went to the counter to buy it. I waited for the three bored-looking sales assistants to notice me whilst they were talking amongst themselves. I was the only customer there. Finally one of them looked up at me as though I had interrupted an important meeting and said "yeah?" quite abruptly. I asked if I could pay for the skirt. She looked at me and said, voice positively dripping with disgust: "Oh? I thought you were putting it here for me so I could put it back for you, or something!!" I just stared at her in disbelief, and her colleagues at least had the sense to look embarrassed. It was so strange. Why would I have stayed at the counter if I was waiting for her to put it back? And why did she act like I had actually offended her, after I told her that her assumption was incorrect? Really, really weird.

The worst I ever had was in an apparently notorious restaurant in London's China Town. We were a group of about 10 and the staff pretty much shouted at us from the minute we walked in - no small talk. It was late, freezing outside, we'd been to a show and were all hungry and just wanted to eat and get back to where we were staying so we went with it. They split the group up between a couple of floors so some of us ended up sitting next to random people on different tables. They were barking 'You! Upstairs! You! Over here!' When the food was brought out it was literally slung in front of us without a word. It was so bad it was actually quite funny!

I worked in a lovely restaurant years ago that barely ever got bad reviews, and one busy Saturday night a colleague and I noticed one of the couples we had in were looking really glum, agitated and pissed off. We had no idea what was wrong as they hadn't complained about anything. We were worried something was wrong with the food etc.
My colleague kept going over and saying "is everything ok? ... Can we get you anything else? ... Was the food ok?" To which the woman eventually replied: "Everything was fine thanks. It's just a shame the same can't be said for the state of our marriage." We were just

Chain restaurant, completely empty except for another couple and a small group in the bar. Ordered a dessert and drinks. 20 minutes, nothing. 30 minutes I went to ask what had happened? Stood at the bar for 10 minutes. Man came out and asked what problem was - I explained 40 Minute wait for 5 minute item. Man from couple chimed in they'd been waiting an hour. Staff said, "as you can see, we're really busy."
"No," I said, "I see 8 people at 3 tables. I'd like my cake or a refund"
"If that's busy, I'd hate to see you quiet!" Chips in the man from couple.
"Well, arguing with me won't get you food any faster." Says staff man.
"Perhaps we could speak to the manager? " I suggested.
"You are love" he said. Back and forth a few times on the "this isn't acceptable, you have my money I'd like my cake" and his response of "you'll get it, in due course"
By this point DH has appeared. "This is clearly not going anywhere. Give me your head office address and we'll let them know there's an issue with staffing and how disappointed we are"
"No. There isn't an address"
"Of course there is. A phone number would be better though" I said.
"No. I don't give that out."
"Excuse me? What is your complaints process then?"
"You speak to me"
"Then....?"
"Nevermind" says DH "I've googled it. Let's go"
"YOU CAN'T PHONE THEM!"
"why?"
"Well you can, but they'll just pass it back to me, so you're wasting your time. I'll tell them it's busy and you weren't willing to be reasonable"
(Couple man burst out laughing at that point)
"You can't phone them. Or write. I'm the manager, I deal with all complaints. Leave me alone."

We left him alone. Did write to head office, spoke to regional manager and got the refund. Allegedly manager was no longer manager at that branch as ours was not the only complaint. We passed and he was still there, waiting on tables.

(Sometimes we say to each other "I'm in charge here. Leave me alone!" Because it makes us laugh now. At the time I was so taken aback I couldn't say any more!)

Like a PP, we've never had a great experience with Spanish restaurants. Food is often really late, the staff are either arrogant or clearly overworked/understaffed, food is hit and miss but more often the latter. Tapas were traditionally a tiny plate of savouries to cap your wine glass and came with the drink. So, yeah, not really a main meal and I don't get why getting a few chunks of potato in brava sauce or a plate of five olives is supposed to be worth half a meal.

I once waited an hour for a coffee in Australia, on the outskirts of Perth.

By the time it had been fifteen minutes I was too curious to leave, I had to wait to see how long it would take them! They were so nice about it through, apologising, cleaning the coffee machine, no worries etc. Good job we were on a road trip and not in a hurry, in fact that was the activity for the day

Bet I know which department store that was Robotic (begins with a B?)

Two worst meals out:

One time my garlic bread had gone off, to the extent that it was growing blue fur on it. Mentioned this to the waiter when he came over to see if everything was OK with the meal and he shrugged and mumbled something about a bit of penicillin not causing any harm. Except obviously it's unacceptable to serve mouldy food (and I'm allergic to penicillin!). That was one of the very few times I can say that I've been put off my food and unable to carry on eating - we did get that taken off the bill.

The other time was just bizarre. DH and I had saved up to go to a v posh, independent restaurant that had outstanding reviews. It was a Tuesday night, and there were only about three other couples there, and it seemed to be two members of staff. Everything was slow - but we didn't overly mind that, as we weren't in any hurry. We did mind food that was clearly sub standard for the sort of restaurant they were (eg using tinned pineapple, not fresh; bits of shell still left on seafood), and DH's starter and my main course were actually inedible. We complained at the end of each course, and the waiter just sort of smiled and shrugged. At the end of the meal we said that we weren't paying for these dishes and he got really angry with us. The other member of staff came over and said we had to pay, but we could leave our phone number and he would ask the manager to call us tomorrow to talk about the meal and agree whether he could refund anything. Uh, no. We scraped together all the cash we had to just about cover the bits of the bill that were edible and left with them shouting at us. We saw another couple take advantage of the commotion to slip out unnoticed too. What was so odd was that our experience was so completely at odds with all the reviews we had read, and the local reputation the place had. I suspect that something had happened and they were short-staffed; thought it was a quiet night and it would be OK; but the staff on duty were woefully out of their depth. We never went back to find out...

Closer, yeah that's the one. This was years ago but I still remember it because it was so bizarre.

I've also had a rather funny experience in a chain pub in Richmond, where they gave DH and me our salads, but no cutlery. The guy returned a couple of minutes later saying they had run out of cutlery and it would be five minutes. We were so hungry, but had to sit there and wait for forks, as we couldn't eat salad with our hands. When the cutlery was done they forgot to give it to us, so we had to ask for it.

Went to a lovely country pub for my sisters birthday many years ago. It was a family favourite.
There were five of us. The food came for four of us but mine did not appear. My da went to the bar to ask where it was. The manager disappeared and there followed a very loud series of bangs, crashes and the clear sound of a huge fight in the kitchen. Lots of swearing and finally a huge crash. The manager reappeared looking very flustered and disheveled and announced that the chef had left. Then he sat down at the table and sobbed his woes out. I never did get my meal but it was worth it for the experience. It has gone down as family lore!

A group of us went out for a work meal - very big deal, restaurant had insisted we each order in advance from a selection of three starters, three mains, three desserts a week in advance so they could prepare. Fair enough. We were the only people there as a private function.

When we got there, it seemed fine but a little disorganised, but eventually most people had got a starter, some had got mains. They had brought large platters of veg out for each table to help themselves, but as the food was coming out at different times, the veg was getting cold. Some people hadn't got their starters when some of the desserts were arriving, and the staff were getting more flustered, so we started to take matters into our own hands and balanced the veg plates on the radiators to keep warm, as we had been told no more veg, this was the lot.

Eventually everyone had had a starter and a lot of people had finished dessert (although one of the desserts was apparently off, so they had to re-choose) but three people had no mains. The manager came out to help the servers and refused to believe they hadn't eaten their main course, and what dessert would they like, getting a little bit antsy as though we were lying. After about two hours after everyone else, they produced more mains. We retrieved the veg from the radiators...

Meanwhile everyone else was drinking beer because they had finished hours ago, with various beers going out of stock,, and eventually the manager came out to apologise that in fact they actually had no beer left at all.
The three people whose mains were late were then told there were no more pre-ordered desserts left, but that they could have cheesecake.

2cm strip of Yorkshire pudding with blob of squirty cream and three redcurrants.

We moved on to a bar that had beer.... But we still laugh about it now. I can still see the veg on the radiators and the guy refusing to believe we hadn't eaten.

Mine was in a local independent pub in our small town. We were regulars and the Landlord knew us.

I was vegetarian at the time and when my starter arrived they'd mistakenly given me the meaty version. I pointed it out but the Landlord's bizarre response was to totally flip. He stood and literally screamed at us in the middle of the pub, just yelled and yelled and yelled. The whole pub fell quiet and everyone stared at their plates while listening to his tirade.

When he finally stopped I was shaking, said to dh that I couldn't eat in that atmosphere. Dh went to pay for our starters and I stood outside. Landlord recommenced yelling when he realised that we were leaving, I could hear him even from outside.

That was about 12 years ago and we haven't been back (unsurprisingly!)

At a chain pub in the 90's, I ordered breaded garlic mushrooms.

Except biting in to one of them, I found it wasn't a breaded garlic mushroom.

No, it was a breaded hair ball.

Sadly, of managing chain restaurants as of so many other things, anyone sharp enough to do it well is sharp enough to do something else which is better paid and has better hours. Very few people wake up in the morning with a sudden urge to manage a Harvester. Because chains have lots of branches a particular instance can go very wrong in the interval between head office visits, and even if they know, in areas of high demand for staff (i.e. London) there's not a lot they can do.

This should be fixed by franchising, but unfortunately possession of a large redundancy cheque and a dream don't make you competent, and on the rare occasions people do succeed with a franchise their first move is to buy another, and the talent gets diluted down as people who aren't very good (see above) end up as the day to day managers.

Robotic i must admit that b... Department store still isnt that good. Mil and i walked out of an italian chain within them after 30 minutes of waiting and no one came near us not even to order drinks. We been given menus and shown to the table so they knew we were there. Never been back to the chain of italian food since begins with c.

Nandos - Charged us for a bottle of wine that was more expensive than the one we got, got a food order wrong, forgot about one meal and eventually it was served 30 minutes after the rest, served a maggot in the coleslaw. All in one meal! And compensation was a voucher for a meal at the same bloody restaurant, as if we'd want to go back!

Advocadotoast, it was some years back but it was called the Blue Bar Cafe, near the City Variaties Theatre

Yesterday went out with old school friends and their families for a meal in Oxford. It was five families all with kids, so a big group.

However friend had book in advance, asked for specific no of high chairs etc, so they knew what was coming. Also restaurant was billed as "family friendly".

(all kids were v well behaved etc, aged between 1 and 8 - just setting the scene as to who was there!)

Ordered drinks first - they wouldn't let us order food at same time. Drinks to ages, friend's wine didn't come. Finally ordered food after say 30 mins (could have been more). Took an hour at least for any of it to come. another friend's dh went to move car and came back, still no food.

Eventually most people's food arrived. Not the vegetarian meals (two people chose this). Had to ask for it several times, finally arrived when rest of us were finished . They were only burgers in the first place.

Friend who booked had ordered cheese on toast for her dd aged 1 - it was on the
menu. First arrived with half the toast not covered. friend took it back. Then it came weirdly floppy with no sign of grilling. I think her dd just ate the dad's chips in the end!

They did come and apologise and gave us free coffees (which we had to take away as it was so late!). I think that was because they heard us mentioning trip advisor a few times.

The thing is, when you eat with kids what you really want is to order quite soon and get your meal within a reasonable period. Brightly coloured walls and so on don't really make a difference.

The Oxo Tower. Appalling service, indifferent food which wasn't served at the same time, despite booking 6 weeks in advance we couldn't have a window table even though half remained empty all evening. Utter let down.

The time our brand new chef served up hot on the outside, raw in the middle burgers and chips to a group of thankfully very polite young men stands out for me
I was mortified - I'd just taken over as restaurant manager and was doing my first weekend shift in charge. It was the end of the day and we were winding down the food service when these poor guys came in.
They showed me the food, I apologised profusely and went up to talk to the chef (kitchen was upstairs and we communicated through the dumb waiter), only to find he had smuggled his mate in through the fire exit and they were sat in the kitchen getting stoned!
I had to send him home, phone the landlord to come back early, shut the restaurant and then make 5 lots of burgers and chips for these blokes who were so patient and lovely despite ending up waiting nearly an hour and a half for edible food