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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
thenightsky · 27/10/2018 17:28

A gastro pub local to me (Inn on the Green in Ingham). It took skill to serve a risotto as cold as that. Bleugh. And when DH said it was too cold to eat, sullen waiter/landlord, just snatched the plate away and never returned. We walked out.

oldnewbie · 27/10/2018 17:29

One that always sticks in my mind is the garden cafe at the Natural History Museum. Ordered tea and a slice of coffee and walnut cake. The first forkful of cake revealed a huge patch of green mould on the underside of the cake. I took it back to the counter and complained, and the assistant scraped the mould off and proceeded to hand the cake back to me! I called Kensington and Chelsea Environmental health food services while still at the counter!

ALongHardWinter · 27/10/2018 17:31

A restaurant at a cider farm in Somerset (I forget the name) about 12 years ago. My DD and I both ordered a vegetable pasty,chips and peas. When they arrived,my DD's looked lovely,but the pasty on mine was overcooked to the point that it was actually burnt. I don't like burnt food,and there was no way I could eat it. I dug my knife into it. Or rather tried to,as it was rock hard. We called the waiter back and I told him the problem. He seemed surprised,but he took it back,saying he would get me another one. 5 minutes later,he came back and placed a plate in front of me. I swear it was exactly the same pasty. When I said this,he strongly denied it,and said 'Well,are you going to eat or not?' So rude! I declined and said to take it away,and that I wouldn't be paying for it. He didn't like that. I said why should I pay for something that was inedible?

MorbidlyObese · 27/10/2018 17:31

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

yawning801 · 27/10/2018 17:33

A pub about twenty minutes away from me. Cold food, forgotten food, raw fish fingers, and tiny bullet-like inedible chunks of pineapple on the pizza I had! (I am prepared to be told IABU for having pineapple on pizza... I am armed with the pineapple!)

TheTurnOfTheScrew · 27/10/2018 17:34

A gastropub in Didsbury, S.Manchester.
Waited an hour for steak and chips. It transpired that the steak had probably been cooking for the whole of that hour, despite me requesting it medium rare. Sadly, the chips hadn't, because they were still frozen in places.

Would have eaten better at a Beefeater for half the cost.

abacucat · 27/10/2018 17:34

Went to a place long closed where DP ordered risotto. He was given what tasted exactly like tinned rice pudding with cheese and mushrooms on it. When he complained he was told that that is what proper risotto is like.

hello1233 · 27/10/2018 17:35

@itssquidstella I love Dylan's too! It was lovely

Frankie and bennys and Toby carvery are disgusting

thenightsky · 27/10/2018 17:37

Oh and also an Italian in Brighton called, I think, El Dumo or something. I sprained my wrist trying to cut the pizza. I think it was made of wood.

MrsDrudge · 27/10/2018 17:37

Jamie’s Italian in Birmingham a couple of years ago. Surly staff, slow service and small tepid portions, stale bread.Food served on a plank balanced on tins of tomatoes and other “wacky” pseudo Italian antics were just incredibly annoying. Awful place.

Chottie · 27/10/2018 17:39

I've eaten in Jamie's Italian in Brighton and Cambridge several times and have always enjoyed the meal. :)

ciderhouserules · 27/10/2018 17:42

6 of us - Went to a local pub/restaurant chain and ordered a curry. Paid beforehand, then they forgot the naan bread. Dh went to query that and got charged again (50p!) which soured it somewhat. Honestly for 5-p you;d think they'd pass it over, but no. They insisted we hadn't paid for it.

Most of the food on out little Italian island = generic Italian pizza/pasta and all pretty crap. Only the red wine and the bread was good.

Likewise the 'Neapolitan' Pizza in a restaurant outisde Pompeii = nice base swamped by tomato passata and a leaf of basil.

A carvery near home - roasts, veg, roasties with a cube of gravy...

Amaaboutthis · 27/10/2018 17:44

Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's. Over-salted food, terrible table in a long, narrow dining room, rushed and arrogant staff, awfully slow service, astronomical bill.

I went there many years ago and it was one of the most amazing meals I have ever had

Bill’s is always terrible, I hate Nando’s and most chains are inedible.

Gottensomedraws · 27/10/2018 17:47

Gino D’Campo restaurant in Corn Exchange Manchester - average food - style over substance. all glasses on table had lipstick marks, when we asked for clean ones, they replaced with five more lipstick marked ones. They couldn’t see the problem. Waiter stood over us the whole time we were discussing the wine menu - after we ordered a bottle he came back every 5 minutes to take an order for another bottle - it got very uncomfortable, they were just pushing drinks sales all the time.

DaysOfCurlySpencer · 27/10/2018 17:47

Two Brothers in N3. It had been good until one night we got a takeaway. The fish was rotten and slimy, the chips were secondhand and cold. I didn't eat mine but my companion did, and spent the next 2 days being ill. Not been back since, surprisingly.

April2020mom · 27/10/2018 17:47

This Italian restaurant in London I visited once. The name was La Porchetta. The food was horrible and the service terrible. I ordered a veggie pizza but it took ages to come. Not impressed given the traveling time to actually get there. Plus it was my birthday and we wanted a nice dinner out in the capital. Plus there was a bad smell permanently in the room. I was put off.

AGHHHH · 27/10/2018 17:50

@PiggyButtons nah it was outside on one of the main streets, near a cinema.

I went for another Chinese there in China town and it was also gross!

Aprilsinparis · 27/10/2018 17:50

A restaurant in Ilfracombe Devon. The food was appalling, and when we complained, we were made to feel in the wrong because we asked for our money back.

nancy75 · 27/10/2018 17:52

Jamie’s Italian at Gatwick, do got given a bowl of pasta with the fork already in it - when he picked up the fork the whole congealed bowl of food came with it. We called the editor over who confirmed dp had been served a plate of food that had been cleared from another table ( it was a second hand dinner!)
When the bill came we were charged for several things we hadn’t ordered alongside a couple of things we did order but that hadn’t arrived. They actually argued with us about the bill - one of the things they said we’d had was a bottle of wine. We had no wine glasses, no bottle and yet they still argued. We don’t even drink wine!

eternalopt · 27/10/2018 17:53

Martini restaurant in bath. Anniversary meal. Husband ordered steak with pepper sauce. They gave him blue cheese sauce and he hates cheese. Complained and they took it back.... scraped it off and brought back the same cheesy steak now smothered in pepper sauce on top. Challenged them and they admitted it and agreed it was unacceptable. Third time lucky we had what we ordered, by which time I'd finished my meal about 20 mins previous. Really spoilt things and no discount was offered. Appalling customer service.

dontalltalkatonce · 27/10/2018 17:55

Pret a Manger in T5 Heathrow. The Wagamama in there is so bad even the security staff tell you it's vile. We found out the hard way.

Notreallyhere23 · 27/10/2018 17:55

A little local cafe where our table of five each gave our order to the waiter (who’d asked what we wanted) and then he said ‘sorry, I forgot to listen’. That was more funny than awful though.

The local harvester has served me raw chicken on 2 occasions. I still go because I sometimes crave a very certain combination of salad bar but I don’t order chicken anymore.

Frankie and Bennies where I had something with so much barbecue sauce on it was starting to burn through my mouth.

The worst was a premier inn restaurant where we’d been travelling all day with small kids and the restaurant were apparently caught off guard by a table of 8 who’d arrived Hmm. Despite us being the only other table there we waited 2 and a half hours for crap food, way past the time we wanted to get the kids to bed- we were over a barrel though as we couldn’t face going into the city centre on a Saturday night with the kids and we thought that it really couldn’t be much longer every time we asked, the restaurant was really not busy! I just wanted to cry we were all so tired.

Tartyflette · 27/10/2018 17:56

abucacat It sounds like they adapted a recipe I saw once in the DM many years ago. The recipe was called 'Hot Prawns' and the ingredients were
-prawns
-tomato ketchup
-tinned rice pudding. (eg Ambrosia)
Mix together, heat and serve. Yum.

thebear1 · 27/10/2018 17:57

Toby carvery breakfast was truly awful. Dried out greying scrambled eggs and something called breakfast gravy.

PawneeParksDept · 27/10/2018 17:59

Jamie's Italian, grim. Awful food, awful decor, overpriced and staff spoke to you like you were privileged to be receiving their time.

I think I've fallen victim to the same Indian mentioned above if it is it was shut down by DoH

Also Pesto, 3 Of us went in, women in our late 20s when we complained about the food the manager came and literally spoke to us like we were naughty girls in Year 10 who'd taken time out of GCSE prep to cause trouble, felt so embarrassed, wish now I'd actioned it to their HQ, but I don't even know if they are still going.