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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what is the worst restaurant you’ve eaten at in the uk

386 replies

Whereisthecoffee · 27/10/2018 15:41

Inspired by another thread , tell me about the worst restaurants you have eaten at in the U.K.
thanks

OP posts:
Cameron2012 · 28/10/2018 18:23

Rick Steins Fish And chips in Padstow.
Decided to eat In the adjoining restaurant instead of sitting outside.
Paid an extra £5 each to sit on a wooden bench next to strangers and have our fish and chips served in the same takeaway box that we would have got in the chippy.
Me and the husband couldn’t stop laughing when we heard a woman plaintively saying ‘ don’t we even get a plate?’
Never felt so ripped off.
Oh and anywhere that we have eaten in central Paris, overpriced and waiters who look at you like shit on their shoe

Isitmybathtimeyet · 28/10/2018 18:24

@Kitschbitch it depends on what you like but West Hampstead, a short bus ride away, has lots of good places to eat. My current favourite is Ham - have a look online.

ALongHardWinter · 28/10/2018 19:12

Boobahs Now you mention it,the name Rich's does sound familiar.....

ingenvillvetavardukoptdintroja · 28/10/2018 19:24

Surprised about Trevaskis! Been eating there happily for 20 years!

Sugarsnappy · 28/10/2018 19:44

Frankie and Benny's in Edinburgh. I knew it wouldn't be great, but it took hours and the food was terrible and expensive. Even when they knocked a bit off it

namastayinbed · 28/10/2018 19:52

The duplo restaurant at Legoland. Wasn't even cheap.

SoulToSqueeze · 28/10/2018 20:44

@PiggyButtons ugh Dragon BBQ! Absolutely disgusting. I found a bit of plastic in my food and they weren't bothered. Frankie and Benny's in Broadway Plaza is shit too. Terrible staff.

TakeAChanseyOnMe · 28/10/2018 22:16

I’ve been to Jamies Italian a few times, mainly when it just opened. It was reasonably decent food, albeit very over priced, especially when there’s so many Italian restaurants around. Then it seems they started cost cutting and have gone rapidly downhill.

seizedfromthegrave · 28/10/2018 22:18

A cafe in Mallaig. Had a few people in. Not busy but not empty. Watched people ordering etc. Waitress came for our order. Ordered fish and chips. She told us we'd have to pay up front. I asked why, as no one else had. She told us it was at her discretion and she didn't like the look of us. Yes, married couples in their 30s are often dodgy. We left and got incredible fish n chips from a take away.

RedPandaMama · 28/10/2018 22:18

I used to really enjoy Frankie and Benny's but went recently and they've changed the menu, it's now expensive (for what it is, a bit crappy inauthentic American Italian chain) and all the food was lukewarm and tasted like microwave.

Tutulafromage · 28/10/2018 22:46

TGI Friday’s....went for an Xmas work do. Had a burger and had the worst food poisoning ever....I was sweating in December and I remember hallucinating from the fever! Was still ill come New Year’s Eve.... that burger ruined my Christmas!

Serin · 28/10/2018 22:48

itssquidstella As I said the glasses were filthy, the cutlery had dried food stuck to it and both DH and DS1 were sick 4 hours after eating the sea bass. Had heard such good things about it but would never return .

Glossymare · 28/10/2018 22:56

Probably not the worst, but I was so disappointed by the food in the rainforest cafe in London. Utterly overpriced shite!

thenightsky · 28/10/2018 23:38

Frankie and bennys at East Midlands Airport

God, I'd forgotten the breakfast I had there that gave me a bad stomach before I'd even gone on holiday!

DaysOfCurlySpencer · 29/10/2018 01:10

The Orange Tree pub in Baldock. Great real ales and the first couple of visits the food was OK. Didn't give up for a long time as the atmosphere and garden are nice so in that time I have been served:

A giant Yorkshire pudding that was cremated and impossible to cut.
Fish that was raw in the middle
Fishcakes that clearly contained no fish
Veggie sausages that were so overcooked the knife bent
And cheese on toast with cheese so melted that all that was on the toast was a layer of grease.

At one time I was given a cup of undrinkable instant coffee because the coffee machine wasn't working, every other time the coffee was stone cold and served in hideously repellent orange cups.

I have left more food in that pub than I have eaten.

DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops · 29/10/2018 09:57

Salieri on The Strand. Went late last summer, it was lovely. Went again in July and despite their insistence that nothing had changed, it was grim. Chicken & mushroom pasta in creamy sauce looked like the chicken and mushrooms had come out of tins and the "creamy sauce" was oil. It tasted shit & was so over-priced!

Kokoro Japanese in Guildford. I was horrifically ill after visiting & I'm pretty sure it was their Katsu. Similarly a much raved about garden centre cafe near me. Had horrific food poisoning. Won't eat in Toby Carveries either- a friend once carved into a turkey there at his work xmas do & it bled!

Prezzo is a shit chain. Meh menu, crap food, bad service. I've never forgiven the one in Egham for replacing a nice Brasserie Gerard, either. The one in Aldershot, when I last had the misfortune to visit, served us food incredibly slowly but brought our alcoholic drinks over immediately except for the tap water jug. I had reflux & just wanted a glass of water before I ate or drank anything. On the 3rd reminder, it arrived well after the booze & olives we had asked for and hadn't touched. Even the magic words "I really need water to take medication" didn't hurry them. Also avoid Harvester & Pizza Hut as just grim. The Jamie's Italians I've been to have been ok but a bit bland and pricey, it's never been my choice to eat in there. I've had some nice meals in Bill's, but I'm careful about what I order and in which branch.

DP is Aldershot based atm and the chain restaurants there bar Prezzo seem ok. V clean and nice staff. I will go to the nandos there pre cinema and we do drinks & puds only in the F&B there, which is friendly although I don't like their mains menu. I usually find most chains passable, just not special. On a sliding scale of how smart and ambient they are. Carluccios Waterloo is another bland offender and Brown's is pretty average.

If you'd asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said Ask Italian but I'm loving my local one now!!

DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops · 29/10/2018 10:14

Also, nothing wrong with Joe Allen's in the West End but I found it over priced & serving a very average menu, with nothing that tasted great. I wouldn't go back. I may be overly miffed with this because it was my birthday treat meal from DP. Who from the huge hints I dropped knew that I was desperate to go back to the Gay Hussar before it closed and that I was happy to part pay and go on an early bird deal because I loved it there and love
Hungarian food. He booked Joe Allen's because he'd been once before and quite liked it ... he apologised after taking me.

Also not keen on Ben's Canteen in Clapham. I hate eggs so "brunch" rather fucks me over anyway. Friend chose it, went on a Sunday. Asked for a particular meal without spinach (allergic) - spinach can't be removed, comes with it in. Asked for the least eggy dish they had with the eggs removed. Pre made mix on Sundays, no can do. Ended up with a salad I wasn't keen on. Cost a bomb so was only ordering 1 course and a tea. Refused to evenly split the bill as I'd ordered the least & was underwhelmed.

dentydown · 29/10/2018 10:22

A Chinese in China town London. Basically people stand outside and ask you if you want a restaurant. Being students we said yes. We were lead into these premises and they shut the door. Apparently for the heat. The waiting staff waited at the table for the order. Diet Coke was value coke. Could taste it! Food was nasty. We paid and left feeling a bit! We were escorted out by the staff as well. We did wonder if it was a front for something!

PeridotCricket · 29/10/2018 10:48

Restaurant on Skye - by the ferry port in Uig.

God knows what they were thinking. Incredible setting but very few choices of places to eat. They could have made a killing on good solid normal food.

They had tarted it up to have foam of mushroom with venison veloute and beetroot tartin.

Half the menu just didn't make sense so really hard to order and what there was was just really insane. It was like someone who had never been taught how to cook had watched a few episodes of masterchef and thought 'yeah, I could do that'.

There was a poor lorry driver waiting for the ferry who read the menu with disbelief and said - do you not just do steak and chips...??

Nellyelora · 29/10/2018 10:59

I went to Bubba Gump in London last year. That was very disappointing. Food smelt amazing but was incredibly bland and the service was awful.

I've eaten at 3 different Jamie's. First two were nothing special but I enjoyed the meal I had at the Kingston branch, although the portions were tiny.

I've never had a bad Nandos. In fact that's the one place I go to if I'm really hungry and want something I like and to be served fairly quickly. However, I'm not expecting Michelin star food for £10 for chicken, chips and a drink and having to collect my own cutlery.

All Bill's I've been to have been 'meh'. I really don't get the love for that place and seriously eye roll if anyone suggests it (friends love it).

Our local Harvester is awful. We have to eat there a few times a year as PIL love it but everything I order is bland and cold rather than lukewarm. Pretty sure PIL think I'm the fussiest eater ever as I always have to complain about my meal being cold. Only silver lining is that PIL always pay.

kittykarate · 29/10/2018 11:33

Too many bad meals to mention - but just had a pretty poor one at Prezzo for someone's birthday at the weekend.

  • They had lost our reservation, so seemed to be more bothered trying to blame us for booking on the wrong day, and then worrying that they might have a 'ghost' reservation for 9 people blocking them another night.
  • My pizza 'The Vesuvio' was missing the spicy peppers. So basically margharita with pepperoni? Couldn't flag down the waiter to talk to him about this, so just sucked it up.
  • 4 people ordered the Chocolate Dome dessert. 3 arrive, but the sauce is not hot enough to melt the chocolate dome. The brownie is really cold in the middle. 4th person asks where their dessert is. "It's coming". 5 minutes elapse. Waiter collects the sauce jugs from our table but nothing else, so we start to think they had run out of jugs. 5 more minutes and he arrives with a flourish. He starts to pour, initially all that appears is a clear liquid... then this curdled white mixture plops onto the dome. It honestly looked like jizz. Waiter was like.. I'm sure it will taste nice.
StormTreader · 29/10/2018 11:43

A small Greek place in Brighton is probably mine.
Went for a weekend break with my friend and this place was almost next to the B&B. They had 2 "mezze" options, when we asked what the difference was between the cheaper and more expensive options we were given a blank look and a vague answer along the lines of "depends how hungry you are". Asking for advice on which one to go for got "order the one you want".

We decided to treat ourselves as we were on holiday and thought maybe we'd get better quality options or something.
We got a couple of small average starters, and then a dish that could best be described as "chip shop saveloy on a lot of fries" which we barely touched as it we were expecting a lot more and better options to come out. We got one or two small plates come out and then the staff bringing them said "I think thats enough for you now." and that was it, £50 each, thanks, bye.

What annoyed me the most though was I left an honest Tripadvisor review (as I tend to do about very good or very bad places) about what had happened and they posted a response that I had no way of replying to claiming the whole thing was a pack of lies and none of it had happened.

ThistleAmore · 29/10/2018 11:43

Hutcheson's in Merchant City, Glasgow.

Went for a celebratory family event (landmark birthday).

Asked to be seated in the downstairs area, as a few party members had mobility problems - seated upstairs. The tables were so close together that I struggled to shuffle my (size 10) bottom between them to get to the loo.

The waiting staff were all about 10 (no ageism intended, but they had the 'deer in the headlights' look of a group of youngsters who had been parachuted in to a job they had once read a book about, but hadn't ever actually experienced in real life).

We waited an hour for drinks orders to be taken, and a further 40 minutes for food orders to be taken and served. When the food was eventually served, orders were wrong three times, my vegetarian dish came dressed with lardons (!), cold food was served on cold plates and when it was sent back, had very obviously been microwaved.

Drinks were spilled over two members of our party (hardly surprising, given the lack of room to serve).

Halfway through, I asked (quietly and discreetly) to speak to the manager, who, while wringing his hands apologetically, offered to take 20% off the bill, which I agreed to (as I couldn't really see what else we could do). When the bill came, not only had the 20% not been discounted, but A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TABLE'S ORDER HAD BEEN ADDED TO OURS. When I (once again) asked to see the manager, I was told that he wasn't available, but 'in the spirit of goodwill' they would remove the other table's order. WTAF?

We calculated the total of our order minus the 20% and left it, in cash, and left (oh, and they lost my mother's scarf in the cloakroom!).

To add insult to injury, three days later, my OH realised that the refundable deposit taken on booking to secure a large table hadn't been refunded. He called the restaurant and had a 20-minute argument with a staff member, who accused him of lying, before the refund was finally made.

It was so awful, we actually laugh about it now, because it's easier than crying. Wink

Lucisky · 29/10/2018 12:02

Prezzos in Gloucester (I have been to some decent Prezzos, but not this branch). My sil ordered pasta with salmon. When it arrived there was just a couple of tiny flakes of salmon. She complained, so they took it away and returned it , except now it had smoked mackerel in it. It was so insulting to think that they thought she wouldn't know the difference. They weren't the slightest bit fazed by this, just shrugged and took it off the bill.
A tea room in Stow on the Wold. Went in for a much anticipated cream tea. The cream was the stuff you squirt out of an aerosol. I complained and said that a cream tea should include clotted cream, and was told I was wrong! I detest squirty cream anyway, and it just deflated to a pool of milky water at the bottom of the ramekin.
A pub in Chepstow where a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich was the merest scraping of cream cheese on unbuttered stale white bread with one tiny slice of salmon.

Witchofzog · 29/10/2018 13:00

A local pub which changed hands a year ago. Went in with some friends. Waitress was stroppy from the get go. When the food came out much later only half the orders are there, not including mine, and my friends was stone cold. I found the waitress and explained about the cold food and also asked how long mine was going to be as I needed to leave and get a train soon. She totally gas lighted me and kept shouting: "Don't you dare speak to me like that" when all I was doing was speaking normally. My friend approached her after and she did a similar thing so we complained to the manager while thw waitress watched while rolling her eyes and chuntering to herself and got a free meal for next time which we didn't use as we knew if we got her again she would definitely spit in our food