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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:
nomilknosugarplease · 27/10/2018 20:00

I have a crap palette and can’t even tell what food has been cooked well and what has been cooked badly - everytbing tastes the same to me! So much so that there’s a running joke amongst my friends and family that if I complain about food then it must be absolutely awful. So...

  1. Chiquitos. Horrible. Honestly horrible.
  2. A restaurant in Tetbury that has top reviews on Trip Advisor and is quite expensive. A friend took me there and my food was hideous
Adnerb95 · 27/10/2018 20:01

Can't remember the name but the restaurant at Luton airport - it's the first you come to when entering the departure lounge.

They managed to do EVERYTHING wrong. Food delivered late, wrong order brought, mushrooms were disgusting (off I think) and even got the bill wrong. No-one seemed to know what they were doing. Tables were left uncleared even when they had just brought the food - nope, walked off empty-handed!! Just unbelievably bad. We ended leaving most of the food and ate on the plane - yes, it was that bad that airplane crud was preferable.

Badbadbunny · 27/10/2018 20:02

Reading this thread makes you realise why MaccyD's are so popular - at least you know what you're going to get due to their standardisation/consistent service. Maybe not the best, but unlikely to be disappointed by over-priced, badly cooked feeble attempts at a meal.

blamethewitchescat · 27/10/2018 20:02

Frankie and Benny's the food is awful, music too loud, birthdays every 5 seconds, complained the last two times and will never eat there again. Years ago they used to do a cheese bake thing as a starters which was basically a shit load of cheese and bread, it was lovely.

Newyearwhoohoo · 27/10/2018 20:04

Jamie's Italian Westfield. TINY vegetarian ravioli main course and it was Luke warm. Starter dish of pesto and bread in another tiny dish. Dessert was an average looking and tasting ice cream. Not worth the money but I had gift vouchers so at least I didn't pay.

Jamie's has had its day, sadly.

rightreckoner · 27/10/2018 20:06

Frankie and Benny’s is indeed dire.

And yes the River Cafe is practically inside out it’s so far up its own arse. I know it’s all about the quality of the ingredients but really how nice can a plain lamb chop be ?

AFrayedOfHell · 27/10/2018 20:06

I had horrible chicken in a restaurant in Canary Wharf. I left most of it, my plate was taken away and then the chef came out and told me off! And not quietly either. I'm embarrassed to admit I apologised to him. It was 20 odd years ago, wouldn't put up with it now.

IvysMum12 · 27/10/2018 20:07

Damson in Heaton Moor, Stockport.
Dreadful food and appalling service. Waiter really offensive.

calilark · 27/10/2018 20:13

that fancy Bedruthan Steps.hotel in Cornwall. I went there for a birthday treat lunch with DH and mum, and the lunch was awful. The most miserly crab sandwich with about 3 strands of crab in the middle on cheap dry supermarket sliced brown, and a couple of tiny bit of salad from their salad bar thing. I actually cried with disappointment (and probably hunger!) I was 4 months pregnant and it was my 30th birthday and supposed to be wonderful, especially given it was pricey.

AuntyJackiesBrothersSistersBoy · 27/10/2018 20:13

Chinese buffet in Media City Manchester. Atrocious. Couldn’t get out quick enough.

Yourcupwillneverempty · 27/10/2018 20:13

Harvester. I used to LOVE it there and it was great for the kids, very young ones you just get a roll and salad bar for as soon as you get in so no waiting around, older ones get to do the drinks machines and have a lovely sundae that's huge. We've been in a virtually empty one several times and had to wait... wait... wait... for them to take the food order, to bring it, for the dessert order, for the bill. We thought it was just our local one but we went to another and walked out without ordering anything we were waiting that long.
Same with TGI's, we waited an hour between ordering and being served food, luckily no toddlers then but we went back and waited 20 minutes for menu and drinks order before we just left.
Cheap and cheerful places must realise that they're popular with young families because it's quick and easy food in a laid back setting, I don't expect gourmet food or to be brought an extensive wine menu, just to get in and out, fed and watered and on our way!

SherlockHolmes · 27/10/2018 20:14

Went for a Mothers' Day meal at a local pub.

Had a nice meal, just chatting etc before paying the bill when my aunt noticed something that looked very like cat shit right in front of her on the table.

Turns out she'd put her bag on the floor (into said pile of poo), then put her bag on the table to get her purse out.

Owner wasn't that bothered. I emailed when we got home and got a complete refund. We never went back, funnily enough.

Rudgie47 · 27/10/2018 20:18

I've had some weird food throughout the years. I cant eat from buffets now as the last time I had food from one I had food poisoning!. Never again, I was even throwing up the lining of my stomach and all I could hear was laughing.
I once went to a country pub in Ledston and ordered a lasagne. It came and looked really nice I started eating it and guess what the meat was? corned beef! I've never heard of that before. Never want it again either
At another country pub place,I had a bean enchilada and the tomato sauce was just ketchup mixed with warm water.
Now I will only eat out at places that have really good reviews and a very good reputation. I think a lot of pubs etc that serve food are just crap.

twilightcafe · 27/10/2018 20:19

My one and only meal in Frankie and Benny's. It wasn't worth complaining as it was clear the staff didn't give a damn. Cold pasta, tomato sauce which was reheated tinned tomato, dirty table, kids pack that had been coloured in my someone else's child.
That was four years ago, and a look on Trip Advisor shows that things haven't improved.

twilightcafe · 27/10/2018 20:24

Chalkhill I, too, know about the tea shop in Stratford run by children. Went once. That was enough.

LaCarmencita · 27/10/2018 20:24

A restaruant known as Preview near Vue Cinema in a city in the West of England. It was not expensive, but I did expect better quality than what they served. It was a buffet, meant to be with a varied menu from around the world, but basically was like one choice of Chinese, Indian and Mexican and a few English classics. I would not say the food was horrendous but it was not nice either and the place had been hyped up (went when it had only recently opened). A disappointment. Except the desserts were very good, if not a wide range.

I did go to Zsa Zsa Bazaar in same city fairly recently- the atmosphere was a bit too chaotic for my liking but the food was good. That is what I would call an international buffet.

LeiasBuns · 27/10/2018 20:25

That world buffet place at the O2. Absolutely grim.

FatherBuzzCagney · 27/10/2018 20:28

An Indian restaurant in Cambridge. Went to the toilet and accidentally ended up in the kitchen . To my horror I was confronted with mice and cockroaches.

Was that on Mill Road and was it covered in fake plants by any chance areyou? It's shut now, thankfully, but I got terrible food poisoning there.

HarveyNickNacks · 27/10/2018 20:29

An Indian restaurant on The Strand. The food was the blandest I think I've ever eaten. The service was excellent and everything was edible but just tasteless.

All you saying Harvester are making me smile. Our local Harvester is OK, nothing special, just OK. We used to go there every few months with my DB and his family when my DNs were smaller as it was child friendly.

I don't know if any of you watched Back in Time For Tea? When they got to the 1980s they sent the family to our local Harvester accompanied by Marcus Wareing!! The chef must have been shitting himself!! And it is a him - he went to school with DH.

HarveyNickNacks · 27/10/2018 20:30

thing obviously...

Iamneverfull · 27/10/2018 20:33

Prezzo at a christmas party, 3 hours and we gave up waiting for our desert, most people had the wrong meals.
Jamie Olivers..just awful!
Bills, had the Macaroni cheese and it was pasta, oil and breadcrumbs

TheWickedWitchofWestYorkshire · 27/10/2018 20:33

One was a restaurant attached to a pub. On a date, my big dh and I went there. He said something funny, I laughed out loud and got a dirty look from someone on a nearby table.
Another time, a different pub restaurant didn't apologise when I said my fillet of fish had too many bones in. Instead she just told me, rather patronisingly, that fish do have bones in, what do I expect?!
The worst one though has to be the pub that got my order wrong 2x and my dh's nachos, that took over an hour to arrive, were just a bit of melted cheese on top of some Doritos. We didn't complain because we thought it was hilarious!

Freefalling123 · 27/10/2018 20:36

Another vote for frankie and bennys here - awful food, awful atmosphere, embarrassing when it’s a birthday (on another table!) and sell, just dreadful. They can barely give it away these days looking at their Marketing
Also, I don’t get the Nando’s hype. Or TGIs (another embarrassing one when there’s a birthday)
And Pizza Hut is to be avoided. Last time I went a child sneezed all over the salad bar
On the plus side, the kids love Bella Italia, girls night out is las iguanas for the cocktails but the xinxim is lush too , and loved Gino d’Campos on a recent break in Harrogate

greenlanes · 27/10/2018 20:37

I have not read the thread, but it has to be a meal at one of the Marco Pierre White "cheap" restaurants back in the 80's when as a vegetarian I was served a plate of beige (at enormous cost). I queried the beige with the manager, to be asked "Madam, what do you eat? A salad?" Fuck that, thank god for Ottolenghi and (vegetarian) life moves on!!

TheFormidableMrsC · 27/10/2018 20:43

I used to work in the city. After a very long evening of overtime, a colleague and I dropped into an Indian restaurant near Shoreditch as we were starved. Had a lovely meal actually! The next day when I got off the tube, it was being swarmed over by environmental health people. It closed immediately. They had found rat droppings in food storage containers and the kitchen was utterly filthy. I think they got away with it for so long as it was largely frequented by drunk blokes late at night who just wanted to eat! We were lucky to not fall ill after that, we were both fine. I second Frankie & Bennies, that used to be such a nice place to eat with the kids, but now it's shite. Also, a village pub near to me (Herts), that was so very popular and then was taken over. They advertised a fantastic new menu and we went to give it a try. I ordered a gourmet burger. I kid you not, it was a dry bun, with a Birds Eye patty in it, no salad, onion, relish or cheese, accompanied by soggy chips and they wanted to charge £15 for that. I sent it back. I've never done that before, but it was such a bloody rip off. Same pub served my friend a "gormet, spicy chicken salad" which was essentially a plate of iceberg with unseasoned chicken breast cubes in it. Urgh. Pub was taken over again shortly afterwards, much better now. Oh I could go on and on with this one...!