What's your worst restaurant experience?

[RainbowsAndCrystals]

Had one where I was with two friends having breakfast and coffees ... they kept asking friends if they wanted another drink and ignored me every single time.

there's been worse and places I would never go back to.

My ‘worst’ one was actually quite good in a weird way. I went with a group of mates to a Caribbean restaurant which was BYOB. The food took two hours to come (I seriously thought at one point that they were going to the Caribbean to get it) 😂 My friend was so hungry that she went and bought some chips from the chip shop across the road and me and a couple of others bought some crisps in the co-op! We were all absolutely hammered by the time the food arrived as we obviously had to stock up on more booze whilst buying the crisps. I’m pretty sure the food was nice but couldn’t really tell you 😂

Last summer at a holiday resort in UK. Went to the bar and asked for menus (party of 6) and they had no menus. Asked how we were supposed to order and told to tell them what we want and they'll tell us if they have it or not.

Would have left and gone elsewhere but getting late and a couple of young kids in party so came up with the basics and went to the bar to queue to order. Kid you not, stood in queue for 45 minutes. Get to bar, place order and then asked for drinks. Told I had to get into a separate queue for drinks which was running outside the restaurant onto the pavement. Place was run by a couple of 12 year olds (slight exaggeration) who couldn't give a toss.

My worst was as a teenage waitress. A lady had ordered a starter that came with a token handful of salad. She called me over, pointed to her lettuce and said 'I don't think that's supposed to be there'.
It was a worm. A very much alive, wiggling earthworm.
She was very nice about it and said 'at least it proves the salad is fresh'.
I was 16 at the time and utterly mortified, I must have apologised about 10 billion times before fetching the manager.

Oh, and a campsite restaurant in France where we were served rare roast chicken. It was bleeding on the plate. I'm well used to the French way of cooking things less than use, but even they normally cook a chicken properly!
They refused to take it back and said it was supposed to be like that

About 5 years ago, I went on a 2 day course for work with about 20 colleagues from across the country. The information about the venue made a big deal about their brilliant restaurant and team of in-house chefs. We were all asked to provide details of any dietary requirements in advance, so I told them weeks before the event that I was vegetarian (even specifying no fish). At the evening meal (which was being sold to us as a perk and I believe had not been cheap) by the time my table were served I was told that there was none of the vegetarian option left. Several other vegetarian/muslim people were also told the same. Apparently they were unable to make any other dishes (we suggested omelettes or cheese sandwiches) and 3 different people came to the table to suggest we eat the fish or meat 'just this once'. To make matters worse, the vegetable side dishes served with the other meals were tiny so there wasn't really an option of just having veg.

I got S. aureus from some undercooked chicken. Unfortunately it was right before I was due to go to Italy on holiday, so I had a two-week holiday where I daren't eat anything in a country with the best food in the world.

Ate in a local pub with DH many years ago. The pub was done out nicely and the food was fine, nice pub grub, but the locals were a bit rough. One man was in there with a staffy dog and it kept shitting on the floor near the bar. The dog owner was obviously a local so just walked into the kitchen and got a mop and was just smearing the dog shit round the floor! Mop was then returned to the kitchen . We now refer to the pub as The Shitting Dog.

"Another time, on the thread of a PP saying she looks 'unsophisticated' I ordered a bottle of house fizz (not champagne) and was told 'that's very expensive'. I said 'okay how much is it'
'It is quite expensive'.
I asked again how much it was, and it was roughly £5 more than Id have paid for something similar in a pub"

@BruceBogtrottersWife sounds like a pretty woman moment

Probably not the worst but pregnancy hormones made this one stand out.
A premier inn that we had stayed overnight to break up the looong drive to visit family in Edinburgh. Got to breakfast early as we wanted a quick breakfast and then to hit the road as we still had 3 hours of driving to do. We were put at a table and promptly ignored for 45 minutes. I was newly pregnant and feeling rough and desperate for some food. Everyone around us got great service, family next to us had several rounds of food but when we tried to make eye contact or got up to find someone we were ignored.
Eventually a waitress took our orders- all I wanted was a decaf tea (came without milk) and boiled egg and soldiers (toast came without butter). It was laughable to have to keep asking for such simple things!
A man was seated next to us after all of this and to his table was delivered a tray of milk/sugar etc and butters in a dish prior to him even ordering.
We were pissed off that our quick breakfast had caused such a delay to our schedule!

Rare day off with DH - went for lunch to local restaurant/roadhouse type place. 1.00pm so not too early/late and only about 6 other people. Waited for ages as waitresses chatted/ignored us. Finally (after about 15 mins) threw a menu at us. 15 mins later came back for the order - we said what we wanted and she looked at us like we were mad and screeched ‘that’s the wrong menu’. Pulled the off us (no apology) and came back with the lunchtime menu - which turned out to be basically a list of burgers. Fed up but hungry we waited again until she finally came back - ordered our burgers and she once again screeched at us, this time ‘we’re out of burgers’. Now, we were 1/2 a mile from the local butchers - you’d think someone could have popped down and got some, but no. At this stage we finally gave up and left and never went back. Funny enough it closed a few months later. Oh, they didn’t have the beers we asked for either (despite being heavily promoted)!

Not the worst, but the most disappointing.
Michelin starred restaurant on Madeira, very expensive.
A lovely slow-cooked pork belly was one of the dishes, & the fucking stupidest waiter on the planet poured gravy (sorry, jus) over it so it became soggy.

In a restaurant that provided wedges of orange at the end of the meal, along with a hot flannel to wipe sticky fingers. The wedges of oranges were all sucked out by someone else already. They had clearly scraped them from a previous customer's plate on to a plate for us. When we pointed this out, the response was, "Well, they are free". Have not been back since.

Ordered a very expensive coffee to sit at an outside table. A few minutes after it arrived, the table leg collapsed. Reported it, moved to another table and requested another coffee. They tried to charge me for both!

Waitress slipped at brunch with a tray of Bloody Mary’s which went all over DD and I and I was wearing a brand new cream suede jacket

@nansbigpants

About 5 years ago, I went on a 2 day course for work with about 20 colleagues from across the country. The information about the venue made a big deal about their brilliant restaurant and team of in-house chefs. We were all asked to provide details of any dietary requirements in advance, so I told them weeks before the event that I was vegetarian (even specifying no fish). At the evening meal (which was being sold to us as a perk and I believe had not been cheap) by the time my table were served I was told that there was none of the vegetarian option left. Several other vegetarian/muslim people were also told the same. Apparently they were unable to make any other dishes (we suggested omelettes or cheese sandwiches) and 3 different people came to the table to suggest we eat the fish or meat 'just this once'. To make matters worse, the vegetable side dishes served with the other meals were tiny so there wasn't really an option of just having veg.

I think you've already told this story on this thread! 3rd October 2017 under a different name?

My 21st birthday meal (in Edinburgh in December) I had booked well in advance, my parents and family had travelled from over 250 miles etc, all other tables were protected by glass dividers, but ours was right by the door and were freezing, and got cold blasts every time the door opened. I really did complain, we were sat in our winter coats and still cold, they knocked off the full cost of the food in the end, I would rather have been warm!

@mangoontoast

"think you've already told this story on this thread! 3rd October 2017 under a different user name?"

Always a danger with a zombie, I may well have done also as I did not realise that it was a zombie, yet my response is still true. As it is not a contentious issue I would not expect anyone to rtft 🤣