Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
Lunde · 27/10/2018 18:00

A sushi place in Sweden. Somebody had thought it a great idea to put really thick chunks of raw carrot and banana into maki rolls. So they were both hard and mushy ... and sweet.

Grumpbum123 · 27/10/2018 18:01

Local pub served me a cold jacket potato with 3 prawns on top and day glow orange sauce and my friends beans microwaved into a crusty blob.
When we complain they offered to redo it I opted for a plain potato for £7

grumiosmum · 27/10/2018 18:02

dontalltalkatonce the family all got food poisoning after eating at Wagamama in T5. It took me ages to persuade them to try eating at a different branch again, as normally I like their food.

Lots of complaints on here about Jamie's Italian. I only ate there once, shortly after it opened, and really enjoyed it - must have gone downhill fast!

Snowdrifthill · 27/10/2018 18:09

Jamie's Italian in Liverpool. Smug staff, a long wait and really low quality food. I'm still a bit cross about it.

lanbro · 27/10/2018 18:15

Frankie & Benny's, avoided one branch, which has since closed, but used to enjoy the metro centre one...until my daughter's birthday when out of 4 meals served only 1 was edible. Upon complaining we were spoken to so rudely we just up and left, never been back.

Local pub, usually delicious but had a chilli so spicy I was really ill the next day and I can usually handle a lot of heat.

Tgi Fridays, hit and miss but handy! Wouldn't go near a harvester!

BigChocFrenzy · 27/10/2018 18:16

Jamie's Italian in Reading (since closed)

I chose grilled salmon fillet with feta foam thinking I'd enjoy the strong flavours
It was incredible with those ingredients, but absolutely nothing on the plate, including the veg and potato, had any flavour whatsoever
I don't understand how they managed to remove absolutely all flavour, but even after I'd added salt & pepper, there was no flavour

Service was very poor and slapdash, too

BigChocFrenzy · 27/10/2018 18:17

easy to see the thread winner:
the worst chain in the UK is ..... Jamie's !

treaclesoda · 27/10/2018 18:18

Revolucion de Cuba in Belfast. Reheated food that wasn't actually hot all the way through. Waitress swore blind it had been cooked fresh, not reheated, somehow defying the laws of physics by being simultaneously cooked in the middle, but also icy cold. Hmm Table booked for 7pm and we didn't get out desserts until almost midnight. And cocktails as weak as water.

Nice atmosphere though Smile

anitagreen · 27/10/2018 18:20

Zizzis the customer service was shit it was that bad they gave me a very very good gift card if I ever want to return. Which I won't be

CatherineMaitland · 27/10/2018 18:22

Worst: a beautifully decorated and very expensive restaurant in Osmotherley in North Yorkshire, I've forgotten the name but not the meal, and it was in 2001. Tied with The Shed in Porthgain who charged silly prices for fish drenched in vinegar (and it wasn't fish and chips) and a lobster that had been cooked previously and then heated up again but which was sold as fresh lobster.

Also tried Jamie's Italian in Guildford and agree it was poor. I like Zizzi's though - never had a disappointing meal in one. Hungry Horse etc - they aren't good, but they ARE cheap, so I rarely feel ripped off in one. I think it's the ripped-off feeling that makes a terrible meal for me.

ShatnersBalloonFromPennywise · 27/10/2018 18:25

Wahaca (Waterloo I think it was) for me too. Some of it was burnt, some of it was cold in the middle. The staff were not really sure if it was supposed to be like that because vegetarian food 'can be unpredictable' Grin

Scoose · 27/10/2018 18:29

An Indian restaurant in Liverpool it's was awful! I'm wondering if it's the one that a pp has mentioned as it was near the Adelphi

DaisyDreaming · 27/10/2018 18:30

Oh and Prezzos which claimed to have no allergy menu but said if you asked for an item they would check if it had dairy in it, except they said it was dairy free when it wasn’t which resulted in a very unwell little one. Head office never bothered to reply to me

Henryismyfriend · 27/10/2018 18:31

Frankie and Benny's recently in Newcastle. DDs birthday and her choice for lunch/tea.
Wish we'd gone to McDonald's, the quality and service is better and the prices more realistic.
Got attitude on complaining about my inedible burger and I will literally eat anything, but I couldn't chew it it was that hard! DDs was edible at least. Felt shit because we were on a tight budget for a weekend away and we ended up with a bag of Poundland and Tesco snacks for the hotel room. Happy Birthday DD 😡

DisrespectfulAdultFemale · 27/10/2018 18:31

An Italian chain restaurant (forget the name) in Fareham. Went during a heatwave: long wait for a table although I was on my own, finally sat down at a dirty table and waited ages for it to be cleared, ordered an aperol spritz which came lukewarm because the ice machine was broken, the restaurant was out of lemons so there was no lemon for my lemon chicken. (I had ordered chicken although I wanted pizza but was told that pizza was off because it was too hot to use the pizza oven.)

I was given a spoon to eat my meal (taken from a neighbouring table of people who were already eating but not using their spoons) because they had "run out of" forks, too.

I complained and was told "we're busy tonight". Well, that's ok then.

Like they couldn't have gone to a supermarket to buy lemons and bags of ice? And what kind of restaurant runs out of forks?

Again, in Fareham. Ordered a hamburger at the bar (end of a long day and all that I wanted was a drink and a quick meal). The hamburger arrived with no hamburger. When I pointed this out to the waiter he replied that the chef knew he had forgotten something but couldn't remember what it was.

SemperIdem · 27/10/2018 18:36

Harvester, Jamie’s Italian, Frankie and Benny’s, Nando’s are all places which will forever suffer without my custom.

EspressoButler · 27/10/2018 18:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Cahira · 27/10/2018 18:37

A farm-based restaurant in Cornwall.

The food was cold, vegetables hard, and hardly any meat. We ordered from a set menu, one of our group waited 40 minutes for dessert by which time we had all finished and were ready to go. She asked multiple times for her dessert but they kept forgetting. Service was the poorest of anywhere I've ever eaten.

Member of the party wrote a bad review on TripAdvisor and was promptly banned from ever going there again 😂 I can assure you, none of us would go back. Shame really as we were told it was a lovely place to go on holiday.

Trevaskis Farm for those who would want to avoid in future!

Frouby · 27/10/2018 18:38

Cosmos. £15 for fecking shite. All you can eat shite tho. Cos one plate of food poisoning is never enough.

Went once 2 years ago for a family birthday. Swore never again. Went 2 weeks ago for a different family birthday. Absolutely 100% never, ever, ever again.

Left with headache, indigestion and a mental note to check supplies of bleach, loo roll and hand sanitizer.

Blanchedupetitpois · 27/10/2018 18:38

Curry place in Dunblane. They swore blind a particular curry was nut free. It wasn’t, and my nut-allergic SIL got very ill. Thank fuck her allergy isn’t life-threatening (though it made her very unwell).

Atalune · 27/10/2018 18:39

Frankie and Bennies is grim food wise. However the local one to us has a fantastic manager and they make such a fuss of the children. I have only been 3 times and only for kids birthdays, and each time it’s been good for what it is.

Conversely I feel like I have been totally ripped off in Jamie’s Italian- overpriced, tiny quantities and pretty shoddy service. No wonder he’s closing down!

Gileswithachainsaw · 27/10/2018 18:40

Nandos. My burger was ok but poor dd had the driest chicken breast ever and the chips were shit too. Why are chips always cold?

My worst meal was a one of those cafes that are at stately homes and are meant to be really posh. I'd have taken MacDonalds (and I hate MacDonalds) over like warm green slop with crunchy rice. Was supposed to be minted pea risotto with roasted squash or something. What I got was three small cubes of roasted squash. Cold of course . And practically raw rice in some green foamy sauce . Spread so thin on a stupid rectangular plate it was cold by the time it got to me. Didn't taste of minted peas either

BigGreenOlives · 27/10/2018 18:42

Frankie & Benny’s in Chichester stands out as being dreadful. Once & never again.

Scientistic · 27/10/2018 18:45

Pub in the peak district near Buxton. Child has an allergy. Promptly served food to us with food in containing said allergy. Refused to accept we didn't order it. Refused to change it. 'You ordered it so he has to eat it'. Landlady was a horror and staff were terrified of her! Never again, even though we visit there every year.

OneStepMoreFun · 27/10/2018 18:45

Worst ever was a small Indian restaurant in Finsbury Park (now closed down). I can't remember what starter I'd ordered - but what I got was a plate of rice krispies (not proper puffed savoury rice, but straight from the Kelloggs packet), with ketchup squirted on top, garnished with raw onion.