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?

worst experience was probably when we were in a pub with flies EVERYWHERE. They just said there was nothing they could do, then after a long wait our food came and my coleslaw was mouldy. Absolutely disgusting, i complained to an apathetic manager who offered nothing not even sympathy.

fleamadonna Please don't take this thread personally. There are probably hundreds of stories about waitresses/ waiters who have gone the extra mile and been lovely to families who have had messy babies or toddlers with them or on a special night out on their own.

I've had a few but this is my favourite: We were shown to a table in an otherwise empty restaurant. The table was dirty so I asked if the waiter would wipe it for us. The
waiter silently turned on his heel and
vanished into the kitchen, slamming
the door. A few minutes later he
came out holding a giant knife and
made a bee line for our table. The
two of us were rooted to our chairs
with fear as he silently scrapped the
crumbs off the table with the knife
and equally silently returned to the
kitchen. We bolted :)

In Paris, enough said!

Flea, I've crossed posts with you. So sorry if this has upset you. My bad experiences stand out because in general my experience of waiting staff has been really very good.

I'm only taking it personally because I finished work at 1:30am this morning and then had to be in for breakfast service at 7am this morning, with a teething toddler in between.

obviously you guys should all come eat at my restaurant

I will, as long as you use cloths and not offensive weapons to clean up :)

On holiday one night it quickly became apparent that no other diners in the restaurant were eating. The owners tactic was to keep the wine flowing and hope no one was noticing the wait. We were given bread, more free wine, mini party sized pizzas, more wine. The waiters then appeared with handheld hovers and hoovered the tables. The owner was circling the tables chatting to everyone about their holidays. He then waved over a man selling flashing lights along the beach and handed them out around the tables to children.By that time we were so tipsy we thought it was hilarious. The food was quite nice by the time it appeared, or we could have been too drunk to notice.

I deploy grenades on the really dirty tables that I can't be arsed to clean.

We were refused dessert in an Indian restaurant in Earls Court a few years ago, they were rudely upfront about preferring to free the table to sell another main course to someone else; there being little profit in dessert (hardly so, at those prices!)
And no, we weren't drunk or obnoxious, they were greedy bastards who closed down about 6 months later. There was obviously zero return business.

fleamadonna, I've also have excellent, over and above service in places. They're the places we keep going back to.

I was out for a meal with my newborn, as well as other family. Starters went well. I'd ordered a steak for my main. It was the most expensive item on the menu, done in a certain way (can't remember now) but very, very good. My baby started crying and I had to feed her instead of eating my meal. When I finally settled the baby, my meal was cold. I didn't say anything but the manageress noticed, took my plate away and said she'd get me a fresh one. When it arrived she took my baby, who was by now settled and/or sleeping away in her pram for a walk to let me eat in peace.

Another place we're regulars in got their delivery driver to drive us home when they couldn't get us a taxi.

I think Patisserie Valerie has been mentioned before, but the one on Charing Cross Road has to be filled with the most surly, unpleasant staff I've experienced. It's a shame as we eat in Chinatown quite a bit and it's nice to get a bit of cake afterwards.

The longest wait I've had was in the Alma in Crystal Palace. 3 hours to order, get one course and pay. No apology, just 'the kitchen's really busy'. Luckily it was a nice day so we just sat in the sun drinking gin.

Flea

Now defunct restaurant in Fetter Lane called Bertorellis.
Went for lunch with work colleagues. Restaurant only about 1/3rd full but waitress explained that there would be delays as they were very busy.
Ordered starters, which arrived slowly. Great wait until main courses. Waitress hadn't taken away plates from starter, but tried to put main courses on top of them.
One colleague didn't get her ordered meal - got nothing. Waitress said it would take 20 minutes to half an hour to provide her with the main course ordered but not supplied.
We gave up on puddings and went back to work, with colleague popping into Pret to get a sandwich for her lunch!

At a posh place in London which might be called Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley. The sommelier asked if we knew much about wine - I said no, not really. He then proceeded to quiz us on wine throughout the meal. 'If you can guess which grape this is, I will bring you something reaaalllly special.... if you can guess which country this is from, I'll sort something out for you that's a bit unusual'. We couldn't guess, so we didn't get anything special. (The wines we were being brought weren't from your average, run-of-the-mill grapes either, these were extremely specific and very unusual wines and I think you'd have to have been some real expert to guess them. I can tell a chardonnay from a sauvignon blanc, but these were way over my head).

I felt about 2cm tall, like he just wanted to show up my ignorance - there were about seven different glasses too, so I kept having to say 'No, we really have no clue, sorry'. It was supposed to be a very special birthday meal for DH, and I'd been saving up for it for ages. (DH is a foodie, me not so much). Anyway, he was really intrusive. I wondered whether there was another table who had said that they knew about wines, and he'd got mixed up. Or whether if just showed that we didn't 'belong' there.

The food was far from being that exciting, either - one of my courses was falafel with pink peppercorns, and I have honest to God had way, way better street food than the ones I was served. I've had far better and more relaxing meals... indeed, we went to a Gordon Ramsay place the next day, and the chef there had worked at The Berkeley previously but had left after having a big row with Mr Wareing. He was laughing at how awful the whole experience had been.

Center parcs - can't remember exactly which restaurant.
Arrived for our booked table (4 adults and 5 children) and smelt something bad.
Quite close to our table was a large pile of vomit, totally uncovered but with a couple of cones around it. I asked the waitress if they were going to clear it up but she shrugged and said they couldn't. I asked for the manager who explained that due to Health and Safety they couldn't clean it up until ten restaurant closed - in 2 hours time!!! I asked if they were actually expecting people to eat wishing yards of vomit and he said that perhaps they could cover it up with paper towels or something.
I suggested that they close just that section temporarily and clean it up and he looked at me amazed and said that yes they probably could do that. They did and we had our meal ( with large discount) just a bit later than anticipated.

A group of parents from our school once turned up en masse to the local village pub at about 7.30 pm on a Friday night to be told they didn't have any beer. Or wine. Or food.

this one

I know a couple who years ago pre children were out for dinner and waited so long for the bill they got up and left and went back to pay the next day and the manager was so embarrassed he waved the bill. It was a regular week day and they were not even busy.

A very posh hotel with a French restaurant. We were there celebrating DHs 40th. I ordered Plat D'agneaux, which I presumed would be lamb. What I got was a plate of just lamb's brains. I didn't touch it, it was horrible and when the waiter came to take the dishes away he didn't say anything, so I said I was disappointed with the meal. He told me I was stupid not to have known what I would be getting, and it wasn't his fault.
Strangely the images shown on Google for Plat D'agneaux don't comprise for a pile of brains..... During the same break they didn't bring our morning newspaper and when I asked after it I was told it had been stolen by a fellow guest who was a mega celebrity ( and with a reputation for saintly behaviour). After complaining about that too I got a full refund, but the weekend was spoiled.

It really annoys me when restaurants say "we're busy" as an excuse for poor service. If you have 20 tables in there, you should be able to cope with 20 tables worth of orders!

I was working in the kitchens of a very good local restaurant 35 years ago. The food was superb [still is] and the kitchens immaculate.
Local businessmen used it a lot and would regularly pay more for wine and cigars than the meal [its a village so unusual even then] and also local folk for 'a treat'.
It was the norm to precook the boiled new potatoes and refresh them for 3 minutes in boiling water to aid swift service.
One afternoon an elderly couple, who ate there once a week, took rather longer than usual to finish and we asked them if everything was OK.

"OOOO yes [in a Miss Tibbs style] everything's lovely". Imagine our horror when we discovered later that, instead of refreshing the spuds we had mistakenly given them uncooked new potatoes heated for 3 minutes. [and the gamely chewed them down]. Needless to say, their next weeks meal was free.

2 toddler's, 2 primary aged children, 5 adults. 5:30pm on a Saturday evening. Half empty Pizza Hut

"Sorry, we don't have a table"

Apparently, employing sufficient staff to cover a small restaurant at weekends isn't good business practice

Pizza Express over the road were ace

fleamaddona I honestly admire the majority of waiters/waitresses and you have my utmost thanks, as it's a hard and tiring job and I reallly wouldn't want to do it.

However, I do have two little gems to tell........

1. Years ago I took my son, age 10 to York for the day and at lunchtime we found a little tearoom in Gillygate. Son ordered burger and salad, I ordered tomato soup with bread. forty five minutes later the burger appeared, but no soup. My son wanted to wait for my food to arrive before he started on his, but after 5 minutes I suggested he start.

Another half hour later and after several reminders to the waitress my soup bowl arrived - with my soup, a tomato soup thumbprint inside the rim and a fly floating in it My son was delighted to be able to use the immortal line 'waiter, waiter, there's a fly in my soup!' I had to make her take it away to replace it, along with an order for some dessert for my lad as the burger had vanished into the depths, and we waited, and waited, and waited! Eventually she appeared, placed his dessert on the table...and then my soup bowl.

It. Was. Grim.