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.

On holiday on Greek island we ordered our food. Waiter brought our drinks, then brought us some more. Then my boyfriend said hang on a minute isn't that the chef? I looked round at the table he was pointing at and the chef was sitting down getting stuck into a plateful of food and we were just sitting there like fools. However we were young, so when we questioned the waiter he just said whats the hurry and brought us the bottle of rum and some nibbles. Turned out to be a great night (hic) and when we got the meal it was lovely so we went back a few more times.

Service.. Got told by the barmaid at the GRAND HOTEL in Tynemouth that we should be grateful that she was serving us as there was a wedding on. In fact the hotel couldn't serve us any food either as they could only cope with a function or the paying guests but not both.

Went to a wedding when I was about 12, and was staying at a bed and breakfast that my DM thought would be a nice Welsh place (it was in north Wales).

Arrived and the place was very rundown, one of the weirdest looking places I've ever been to. It was ran by 2 (admittedly pleasant) chinese guys.

One of the scariest nights of my life, but that's another story for another thread.

We got down for breakfast at around 9am. We waited, and waited, andwaited... and waited. We had ordered coffees and full English Breakfasts (there were 4 of us). It was 9:55am before even a coffee arrived. Said coffees were stone cold (and mine was far too strong). When breakfast finally arrived at after 10am it was very cold as well and just, although edible, nothing of "good standard".

Needless to say when the bill for the night and food came my DM refused to pay full price and (quietly) argued with the guy for 5 minutes.

We tell the story laughing now.

I went to a Lebanese restaurant with my ex. The food was lovely, but my ex did nothing but criticise the way I ate.
First dish was olives, with stones in. Served with little tooth picks. I pick up a tooth pick eat an olive, put the some on the side plate. He starts going on about how I should use a fork and not spit out the stone. He then takes the tooth picks away from me making me use the fork. I try to stab an olive with a fork but oil, firmness of the flesh and the stone makes it resist the blunt fork and it pinged across the room. Que more rantings about how I’m an embarrassment and uneducated.
Then he made me eat hummus and bread with a knife and fork.
More complaints about how I wasn’t eating the food properly. So I did the fork in he left hand, knife in the right. Small portions of Food on the back of the fork. That was all wrong! More ranting about how the fork is in the wrong hand.
It went on and on. The waiting staff were looking over. It was “see they’re looking at you because you are so shit”. I believed him at the time, but now I realise it was because of the way he carried on, watching me eat and moaning about it! They probably couldn’t believe what they saw!

Was on holiday in Cornwall years ago went to a huge Wetherspoons-type pub for dinner. I ordered nachos and after they arrived I realised the sour cream was off. I'd already eaten a few by this point so I went to the bar to complain. I was told to go round and speak to the kitchen myself(!) which I did. They bought out this huge tub of sour cream, shoved the sell by date in my face saying 'look it's in date and fine'. I pointed out the tub was still sealed at which point they just closed the door in my face and refused to talk to me anymore. I got horrendous food poising, it ruined my holiday.

Another time I was put with a friend for a meal then a film. The food was ok but when it came to pay we were just ignored. We tried to flag someone down for 40 minutes before going to the bar and trying again. We just left without paying. No one noticed!

Oh dentydown, what a total and utter effing pig your ex was. Hope your'e okay now.

New restaurant near me by the sea. We went on day two (big mistake). I ordered salt and pepper prawns and squid for mains with salad and fries. Mmm. Was told sorry they had no prawns left.

Dh ordered a special "chefs special made to order" Thai green curry with both chicken and prawns. He got his prawns.

I questioned this with the waiter. He said that the curry was sent in and was heated and the prawns for my dish were fresh and they'd run out... so much for dh's curry being made to order...

I had a great experience at one of jamie olivers places in London in February this year though. I'd just found out I was pregnant. And was feeling horrendously sick. Lunch was needed but not wanted if you see what I mean. The waiter asked if there was any thing I wanted. I cried. Dh explained the issue. The waiter went away and spoke to the chef who came out spoke to me and sorted me out with something totally off menu.

I was once brought a Sunday dinner which had a Yorkshire pudding so overdone it was actually smouldering a bit. Goodness knows how they managed it but the waitress looked at me as if I was being very picky when I politely asked for another one.

Another time I was staying in a hotel and ordered beans on toast for breakfast, I tucked in to discover the toast was jet black and rock hard underneath. I must look like I enjoy my food well done/cremated.

Me and ex dp went to a thai in brighton for an early-ish dinner. We were one of the first in the restaurant, we ordered and they bought over our food. Both of us started coughing quite dramatically, my asthmatic DP was wheezing. By this point the restaurant was full, and everyone was coughing. It turned out the extractor fan in the kitchen had broken and was pumping out the fumes from the spicey cooking back into the restaurant. They informed everyone they had to leave, but as we had already been given our food we had to pay the bill, despite DP having a full on asthmatic coughing fit by this point!

In PREZZO I have actually got up and collected our food myself off the kitchen pass as it had been there 10 mins and the poor chef had rung the bell 4 times . None of the waiters actually noticed !

We stayed in a beautiful 18th century coaching inn in Abingdon near Oxford. My husband had booked us the honeymoon suite as a surprise. He'd chosen the accommodation as breakfast was cooked to order until midday and we enjoy a lazy morning.

First day we came down for breakfast at 10.30, no problems.
Second day at 11. Staff were clearing the restaurant, but we were still served our breakfast.
Third day we sat down at 11.15, so still well within the breakfast service time.
We were told breakfast had finished .

When pushed we were offered a very simple alternative. I asked for croissant and heard the poor waitress getting shouted at by the chef in the kitchen.

Then the chef then came out to tell us NO!
The kitchen was closed.

We complained to the management who said they would look into it. That was all. No apology for the upset. Being confronted by an angry chef when he should have been cooking our breakfast was not my idea of a romantic break.

The accommodation was lovely the food was superb but the chefs attitude was awful.

I'm guessing someone had changed the service times on the website without informing the chef......

A group of us went to a local pub which was well known for its nice food - we ordered mains, but after 45 mins they still hadn't arrived. We politely queried the delay with the waiter, who assured us the food was coming.

When an hour had passed, my DH and FIL - not the most patient men at the best of times - called the waiter over to cancel our order, and let him know that we were leaving to go and get a takeaway. The waiter apologised profusely as we stood and gathered ourselves - and then the chef appeared.

She ranted and raved at how rude and arrogant we were, that our food was ready (not to the naked eye) and what was she supposed to do with it.

My DH said, somewhat unnecessarily, "Feed it to your dog, if it's been waiting as long as us it must be starving."

As we beat a hasty retreat, the woman screeched after us in French accent, "I HAVEN'T GOT A FUCKING DOG."

The Witchery in Edinburgh. DH and I had been wanting to go for ages, then BIL gave us a £60 gift voucher for Christmas so we booked a table for our 20th wedding anniversary. V excited as we don't do posh dining very often.

It was bloody awful. I had Oysters Rockefeller - the oysters came out topped with a couple of raw baby spinach leaves and a splodge of béchamel. We both had steaks, supposedly 35 day aged. Mine (cooked rare) was as tough as old boots. I had béarnaise sauce - there was about a tsp full in a wanky little copper pan. The steak was accompanied by a piece of marrowbone which slid around the plate, and we paid £4 each for 2 sides, one of which was 8 chips and the other was again a tiny copper pan of lettuce peas and bacon. We didn't bother with dessert.

The presentation was dire, and the food was spectacularly awful. Our bill came to £260.00. We used DBil's kind gift on a bottle of fizz, bought a rather nice bottle of red and vowed never to darken their doors again.

We were disappointed at the time, but laugh about it now. The restaurant obviously rests on it's laurels and relies on the tourist trade. Style over substance.

Raglan that's such a shame. I've only eaten at The Witchery once, years ago, and it was a wonderful meal. It was a very long time ago though! It's so disappointing when you save up and plan for ages to eat somewhere and the reality is a complete let-down.

Frankie and Bennys

Told we had to wait about 15 mins for a table so did we want a drink while we waited. Other people came in and got seated before us, we didn't bother as not in a rush. Went to the bar after an hour to ask about a table, they asked if we wanted a drink while we waited. Said no, we've already been waiting an hour

Got a table, ordered starter and main. Starter came and went, waited about 1.5 hours for main. Noticed as the kitchen is open at the front, all the chefs leaving, lights turned off etc!

Left and sat in car for 5 mins laughing waiting to see if anyone came out after us. Starving so went home and had toast. Which was better than their shit starter.

@movingtowardsthelight I had a similar sort of experience.

DH and I never get to go anywhere alone. We have three DC (10, 7 & 5) and our finances don't stretch to nights out, babysitters or couple's weekends away.
However, last year DH was best man at a wedding which required an overnight stay at a hotel. I was ecstatic. PIL had the kids, I got my glad rags on and we had a lovely time. The thought of an evening with just us and a lovely full breakfast made for us was wonderful.
The Hotel breakfast was served until 11am. We went down at 10am. And there was hardly a thing left on the breakfast buffet. A slice and a half of leftover bacon, half a tomato, dried dregs of beans and a scoop of scrambled egg. I asked a member of staff where the food was and she told me the chef was cooking more. So we waited. And waited. I asked her again. She assured me it was on its way. By 10:45am I went and found another member of staff who informed me, that no, that was all there was. The chef was tidying up, service was over! I was so upset I actually cried a bit to DH. I know. Pathetic, right?

So we had to just leave to get home for the kids, and we were starving. We had no money left to get a breakfast elsewhere. And we didn't get a refund on breakfasts as we "should have come down earlier" and "well there was food there".
Yeah. A couple of scraps that wouldn't have filled a side plate.
So much for the Holiday Inn, Dumfries!

I have two.

The first was a lovely piece of fish, maybe sea bass or bream, nicely cooked but when I delved in further it hadn't been gutted! All the innards were still there! When I queried it with the waitress she responded that it was described as a 'whole sea bass' and that meant it wasn't gutted. I have never heard of that before and I still think she was wrong...

Then there was the time DH and I had our first night away from the children since the youngest was born. We booked in to eat at the hotel restaurant at 7.45pm. We had pre dinner cocktails, opted to sit outside but our food didn't come. We asked about it had an apology and a free drink. In total we had three free drinks and our food only appeared at 10pm by which time we were drunk, starving and freezing. I had been looking forward massively to a good night's sleep but instead I had to lie awake sleepless because I'd drunk too much and eaten too late. I think the free drinks were a good gesture, but actually all I wanted was my bloody dinner.

One last one - asked for a gin martini with an olive. When it arrived there was a scummy layer of oil and mixed herbs...wrong sort of olive!

@Frogtits - do you mean Wong Kei's chinese restaurant? That is famed for its rude waiters! Dh and I got engaged there.

He went there for his stag do - a meal with friends - and whilst they had no problems, another party was thrown out because they wanted to put two tables together so their (large) party could sit together - and the waiter said 'Absolutely not' - and threw them out when they tried to do it themselves!

At a restaurant in Disneyworld.

45 minute wait for starters and had to ask for the drinks menu and then ask again to order drinks.

Steak turned up, well done and cold (asked for rare). Sent it back and 10 minutes later when everyone else had finished eating they produced another well done steak.

Went to find the waitress to ask for the steak to be removed from the bill to find her bitching about me and swearing to the manager.

Got the bill and a 20% tip had been added. Asked for tip to be removed, told not possible. I told them either they removed the poor food and the tip or we walked out and paid for nothing.

They removed the tip

I went to one of the pizza chains - I think Pizza Hut - with my mum when I was a teen. The waitress seated us and then disappeared. Whenever we saw her and waved she would give a 'Just a moment' gesture and never materialise, even though the restaurant was almost empty. We found it quite funny and weren't in a rush (these days I would be out like a shot to moan on social media ).

Eventually she took our drinks order. When it came it was wrong, but we liked the wrong drinks so took them.

Then we ordered our pizzas. The waitress's incompetence was seeming less amusing as time went on. After 40 minutes she came over and said the kitchen was out of one of the toppings - she'd clearly only just put in the order and found out.

We said we were leaving, and all she said was, "You need to pay for those drinks" as if we were trying it on. We got the manager over who apologised and said we did not have to pay for the drinks.

I wonder how long she lasted...

I should add that neither of us drink so it was two soft drinks she thought she were trying to steal. Probably about £4 for the pair.

New sushi place in Sussex seaside town. I was there with two friends. We ordered some mixed Sushi to start: no rice. In an actual sushi restaurant.

We were a bit hacked off but persevered with sashimi. During the course of the evening we were given countless wrong dishes and, when other diners walked out, the staff offered us their food.

Yes we ate them. The food was actually amazing. The service was bonkers.

Bill was completely wrong at the end. Think they charged £80 for a bottle of beer.

I'm genuinely looking forward to going back if it hasn't closed down. It was the funniest evening.

I just remembered another. I went to Cafe Rouge with my mother years ago. We both ordered steak and chips and waited a blue age for them to come. In the meantime a table of 3 who came in after us were served two of their meals and left waiting 10minutes or so for their third meal. The waiter and manager realised they had given the other table our meals and took them off their table, the manager confirmed which steak was well done and which rare and the waiter tried to serve them to us. When I refused the manager denied any of this had happened in spite of it all being done in front of us.

Luck : yes he was a pig. I was 19 and didn’t see it. He seemed to do it to have some sort of power over me.
He would limit me from going to toilet, and do all sorts of strange stuff to exert his control. It was very clumsy the way he went about it.
I was relieved when he moved away. I had started a new job and he wanted me to give it up and move hundreds of miles away. I said no.

We booked into a local Chinese restaurant for a rare meal out - a huge deal for us as our dds were small and we didn't usually have a babysitter. We'd been to this place before and loved the food. But this time we were booked in at the same time as a local sports club were having their annual dinner and award ceremony, taking up ALL the rest of the restaurant. We were the only people who weren't part of the event - and our food arrived just as the speeches and presentations began. Chairman at the front booming into a microphone, in-jokes, uproarious laughter, rounds of applause as each award was presented... dh and I couldn't hear each other speak. The food wasn't even decent either - presumably the chefs had cooked "properly" for the event and had just thrown ours together. We complained to the manager who basically said we'd just have to put up with it - was angry at us for complaining. I'm still annoyed at the fact we just meekly paid and left, but we just wanted to get away.