To ask for your worst dinner party experiences?

[Smileandtheworldsmileswithyou]

I know there have been threads on this before, I just absolutely love them for some reason. These and the CF ones are the best! I'll start with mine. I had recently moved with my husband to a new country and my new boss invited me and a few other people from work to his house for dinner. When we arrived he was completely pissed, literally stumbling around drunk. He spent ages showing us a lizard on the wall which we all politely commented on, and waited and waited for the food...He then dropped a box of brownies all over the floor that another guest had brought as a gift and laughed about it for ages. Finally we were asked to sit down for dinner, but he said he couldn't carve the chicken so asked me to do it for him. He then came into the tiny kitchen to watch me try and carve it up and told me how I shouldn't worry, he would make sure I passed my probation at the end of the year. He then persuaded my husband to go in and finish off the job with the chicken before asking him if I was happy at work and if I liked him. We finally got to the table and he starts drinking my wine which I just ignore. He then tells everyone that he has made the bread rolls himself, even though I saw them in a packet in the kitchen. He told us a big elaborate tale about where he found the seeds for them. Dessert was finally served at around 1am, by which time everyone was desperate to get the hell out of there. He said we should take it in turns to host, funnily enough no one ever did take him up on that!

My ex and I were invited to another couples house (good friends) for Sunday lunch.
He had done all the cooking and kept telling us he makes a great roast before we ate. He had made lamb which I hate, put a huge amount on my plate, had cooked all the veg in with the meat with what looked like a full bottle of cooking oil. Used a ladle to dish the veg up which also spooned up all the oil and poured it all over my plate. It was disgusting honestly. I tried my best to eat what I could. Pudding was chocolate log with cream - great I thought. It was served in a bowl full to the top of single cream, it was all soggy and so so sickly 🤮

Zombie thread.

Yes, but such a good one, and one I missed the first time round!

Years before we met, DH had had a girlfriend who he'd dumped very suddenly (that's another story). Now she had a new boyfriend who wanted to meet the man who had once broken his partner's heart. The result was an evening that could have been a film...

All this happened in Hungary. The new partner of DH's ex-girlfriend was an Argentinian businessman who had bought up vineyards around Budapest and was hosting us two plus another couple of random people (a young pianist and someone who I think was a composer?) in the rustic farmhouse in the vineyard.

Dude was identifiable at first sight as a barrel-chested bully but DH wanted his ex-GF to have found a nice man so tried hard to like him. Also tried to show that he was at ease by immediately claiming the massive carved seat at the head of the table (that's a nice chair! I'll sit here'), thus making the bully's chest swell further.

To keep it brief, at one point during the evening the bully insisted on dancing salsa with me, breathing into my ear about how sensual I was, and I couldn't think of anything better to do than step on his toes. Dude said things to DH (at the time, a philosophy grad student) like 'when I was your age, I had made x number of thousands of dollars, how many have you made?'

Later still, we found ourselves in the man's car while he sped round the vineyard to make us sample his wares in the caves. And not only the wine, but also what they call 'palinka', the spirit distilled from the grape leftovers, which is lethal.

I was by then pouring all the drinks served for me on the ground or into flower pots, but I still woke up with the worst hangover of my life, never superseded. Only time I threw up. At least we could laugh about it together as DH twigged in hindsight that he'd, err, misjudged the situation.

Ex-GF and bully got married, then divorced; he did all he could to traumatize his kids in the process ,but somehow she kept them sane and is now happily remarried.

The uni friends who said you host this week, we will host next week. We were all on a budget , but none of us completely on the bread line. I made home made fish cakes, with potatoes in a lemon and herb butter and mixed fresh green veg, and a dessert. On their turn, it was a tin of baked beans, a tin of cheap hotdogs chopped up and mixed into the beans and a couple of processed cheese slices stirred in. Between three of us. I was starving.

Went to friends for what I thought was drinks , turned out to be for dinner and we had already eaten , had to force it down .

My sister in law invited me and my husband to Xmas dinner.
We arrived to find no delicious food aroma or any sign of anything being prepared.
After a cup of tea, she went into the kitchen to sort the lunch out,
and could we go sit at the table ready, which we did.
The table was bare except for the place mats and cutlery.
Ten minutes later, we heard the microwave ping, followed by her coming into the dining room with four microwave ready meal chicken dinners!
That was it, no starter, no pudding, just a ready meal and nothing drink apart from water!
I asked if we could maybe open the wine that I'd brought, to be told they were keeping that for new year Eve!
A short while after we'd eaten, we went home, got a couple of steaks out of the freezer and cracked open the alcohol.
We rejected future invites.

Zombie thread.

To be blunt, so what? It’s an entertaining thread. If the person resurrecting it had started a new thread, you can guarantee at least one person would have commented along the lines of ‘this again?’

I once visited a new friend for lunch along with another friend. She asked me ahead if there was anything I couldn't eat, so I told her I was allergic to celery. Lunch was... celery salad...! It seems she remembered 'celery' but not the allergic part! I don't know who was more mortified, her or me. She did rustle up some very nice houmous though.

@hulahooper2

Went to friends for what I thought was drinks , turned out to be for dinner and we had already eaten , had to force it down .

I did this for lunch once. Worse, I was late because I was having lunch first!

This is actually a wedding but it was evening time: we were only invited to the evening do. I was several months pg and had been at work all day so we both arrived absolutely starving; I was excited at the prospect of food as the bride was a real foodie and her (Italian) father had once run a restaurant…we arrived to find that in addition to having to buy our own drinks, the “food” provided for the buffet was basically beige crap from Iceland that you wouldn’t even want to feed to a dog. We left as soon as we could to go to a local Indian restaurant.

I went to my future Mils house for an introductory dinner. Mil had 32 cats. Every item of food on my plate had cat hair on it. I tried to just smoosh the food around and fill up on water. Then I noticed a cat with its mouth around the kitchen tap licking the drips.

The most hilarious moment was when she told of future DH for not using grape scissors. She apologised for how uncouth he was, as if we were not in a room full of cats walking on every surface in a room that stunk of cat piss.

Not a dinner party but. About 10 years ago I was roped into fundraising with my old swimming team from the 1980s. Good cause but strange bunch. One of them hosted a dinner night with formal dress code. Rented a Masons club at £19.95 a ticket. DH wouldn't come so I sold tickets to my DM, 2 x DSis and even my DN. Three course dinner. Whole lot was from tins, including tinned steak in gravy for main course. DN is veggie. I ended up having to ghost the lot of them, for other reasons than tinned steak.

when I was a kid my godfather used to go hunting and threw big dinner parties where they served all kinds of game from that week's hunt: boar, deer, rabbit, pheasant etc.
while the adults were all oohing & aahing and excitedly tucked into their meal (no doubt delicious to them) my sister and I absolutely hated the disgusting, chewy, spicy food and just sat their sulking, wishing we could have eggy bread.

feel free to think "urgh, spoilt brats", but we weren't.
I grew up in communist Hungary and we were nowhere near rich, but my godparents were upper-middle class with friends in high places so able to afford these parties.
And they loved us a lot and wanted to share what was undoubtedly special & luxurious for the adults, bless them. Shame that we kids hated it.

In date order

1. Invited early to dinner party and ended up doing all the cooking as host felt ill. Host then recovered and took all the credit. I looked a mess as I'd been busy in the kitchen and hadn't freshened up or had time to get dressed up. Most of the guests were horrible and no one spoke to me. I think I was invited just to cook the food.

1. Special meal to celebrate engagement kept getting cancelled as people couldn't make it. Finally it went ahead but there was a huge power outage and we couldn't cook the meal. Everyone kept drinking in the candlelight then the engaged couple had a huge drunken fight, split and then the power came back on.

1. Invited to dinner and one guest didn't arrive. We delayed and tried to get in touch but they were uncontactable. Meal was lovely but everyone was really worried about the missing guest. Missing guest fell out with hostess for unknown reason and has never spoke to her again. We thought she had been in an accident and only knew she was okay as she'd posted something on facebook.

I've been seriously put off eating at friend's houses because of questionable food hygiene practises.

I went with a boyfriend to his friend and partner’s for dinner. The partner and I were introduced, and she then spent the evening calling me by different names (none of them my actual name). After dinner, they lit the biggest spliff I’ve ever seen and passed it round until they were completely stoned. No conversation- just staring into space.

I just left after a while and walked home.

I’ve never been to a dinner party

I do remember Christmas dinner with then boyfriend and his parents - not only was his mum not a good cook, but she’d managed to serve basically everything I don’t like on one plate.

I was polite and forced as much down as I could but I made swift work of the cheese and crackers afterwards!

@hansgrueber

There have been a few times we have been invited for dinners different people’s home - only for there to be no food!

NWe were invited to dinner at a fairly grand home during our working with the military period, no table laid, no signs of any food other than nibbles with the drinks, neither host nor hostess left the room. After an hour or so the hostess stood up and announced Dinner is served, and led up all outside where the chippy van was parked! It turned out to be a brilliant evening.

Fr4iend's wedding anniversary; husband tells her he's taking her out for a fab surprise and it's formal dress; black tie. She buys a new very glam dress, gets her hair and nails done, spends hours getting ready; and finds he has hired a chauffeured limo to drive them ; he tells her its because they are going to drink champagne and dance the night away.

  The chauffeur drives them to the local  McDonalds and through the window she can see  friends, also dressed to the nines, killing themselves laughing round the plastic tables. Dinner was burgers and coke..

DD was 6 or 7..we'd been invited for a meal with a few couples DH used to do one of his hobbies with. I was looking forward to it as we didn't get out much and I'd been dieting so was hoping for a good meal. Starter was a shellfish gratinee..very tasty. Then onto one of my all-time favourites - pasta carbonara.
Really rich..going down a treat until I suddenly turned clammy and faint and nauseous and had to dash to the loo. Spent the rest of the evening in there..in the immortal phrase "going both ends". Dd recalled just the other day being sent in to ask how I was - only to see me puke in a potty.

Dinner with now ex H, our friends (she was my MOH,, he was our photographer) and another friend of everyone (humanist celebrant) to nail down a few details of our wedding. We were not pretentious about it but realised about 8 weeks pre wedding that no one really knew what was happening, including us :o

MoH and Celebrant, who had been friends since school and were now 40ish had a MASSIVE row. I mean apocalyptically bad. MoH was known for being firey but in her defence, she really didnt bite back. She held it right in despite Celebrant being an utter arsehole. In the end Photographer took him home.

Wedding went ok as ex H read the riot act to Celebrant who admitted he had been a cunt and apologised to all concerned.

As for the food......if you have a mix of meat eaters, veges and vegans go for Morrocan! Lamb tagine, vegan vegetable tagine and harrissa spice cous cous.....LOADS left and delicious if I do say so myself....you will never leave my house hungry! However, you may need to be rolled home :o

My friend and I arrange to meet at her house for an evening catching up after years of not seeing each other. She invites me from 6.30pm, knowing it's a 90 min drive for me to get to her house. When I arrive I'm offered a cup of tea. No sign of food but I thought maybe she was thinking takeaway. At about 9pm she serves doritos and a jar of salsa. I left at 11pm and had to stop at the services for food

DH and I went to a friend's BBQ when I was pregnant with DD1. And at the permanently starving stage, which lasted almost the whole pregnancy. DH's friend is lovely but was being OTT about cooking everything separately but then keeping it all warm in the oven to serve altogether. Ok, but it was taking forever. I had to go in the kitchen and beg for one of the burgers in a roll from the oven. Luckily I was granted special dispensation on account of my condition.

I have a few:

1. Meeting then exbfs mother for the first time decided on getting a curry from a takeaway. New house hadnt tried this place before. She insisted on paying and going to pick it up on the way. Shed been told in advance that me and my son couldn't eat spicy but a korma would be fine between us. She got the spiciest things on the menu including the rice and naan breads. I saw the receipt it had as extra instructions to really make sure its spicy.

1. A wedding i attended were i didnt know a lot of people. We had a lovely lunch (even with the grooms dads gfs moaning about everything that was served). We left the dining hall so it could be prepped for the night time do and filed into a courtyard and a small through corridor. 20 minutes after the meal they started serving the evening buffet. (The evening do was supposed to kick in till 6ish and it was 1.30) everyone panicked as we realised this would be the last food served all night and started tucking away extra food for later. No food for the evening do and as the bride and groom were off doing photos they didnt realise until about 8pm that the buffet was missing. Luckily son was little at the time and I travelled a long distance so had extra snacks in my bag.

1. Informal dinner party at a friends. Shed been cooking all afternoon. Her husband had been off picking up the guests and running errands. I get dropped of to friend covered in food and clearly panicked. 3 guests were sat watching her have a melt down and drinking her wine. Myself and another guest picked up on the way from mine rolled up our selves and washed up and helped to cook. More guests arrived and people were eating. We 3 got none as no one thought to save us any food while we sorted out the kitchen. We sent her husband for pizzas.

4. New work new colleagues one invited me for a sunday bbq along with the rest of our shift. Arrived 5 minutes late due to a crash on the motorway we had to get around. A few other guests arrive at the same time for the same reason. No answer to the door and its locked. We can smell the bbq and can hear people in the back yard. Someone from our late group rang the host. We hear the phone go off and suddenly the musics turned off and hes shushing people. He rejects the call. Everyones just looking around in shock he was pretending no one was home! After 10 mins trying to rung the other people we knew had already arrived we all went off to a local pub for a sunday carvery and to dicuss how weird it was. No mention of it monday and everytime it was brought up he changed the subject. The other early guests hadnt a clue what was happening until someone went to leave and found the front door locked and the key in his pocket.

@BuggerBognor

It was one of mine

Boxing Day dinner a few years ago. All in laws and a couple of friends - about 15 in total. I felt a bit rough and breathless, took 2 paracetamol and cooked roast Turkey, rare beef and all the trimmings and made lemon posset. Slapped the Turkey down, poured the wine...then woke up in hospital with double pneumonia. Apparently I keeled over as soon as I sat down.

DH ladeled out lots of the food to the guests to take home before heading over to the hospital. They still return odd bits of Tupperware to me even now. I love entertaining but this still mortifies me.

BB you shouldn’t be embarrassed by this at all! Sounds like you did a fantastic job when you were clearly really ill

Meal with BIL and his lovely wife at their home. Arrive for lunch at 1pm (as advised by them), meal is served at 8pm as apparently we were coming for dinner

I now make sure via my husband that expectations are crystal clear as both BIL and FIL love to host but don't appear to be too bothered about 3 meals a day at sensible times

Not a dinner party but we were meeting at FIL's house after getting off the ferry at 12 (arriving at FIL for 12.30). I asked my husband to message shall we have lunch separately or do you want us to bring anything for lunch? No, no, it's all in hand says FIL.
4pm on the way back from the pub, everyone piles into the fish and chip shop. We're going out for dinner at 7!! Really annoyed me as we'd asked specifically because I know that they're not lunch eaters. I very much am though, especially with an 11 week baby!
We tend to stay over as they live far away, Every time FIL does cooked breakfast with all the trimmings - eggs, Black pudding, mushrooms, beans (I only like bacon and sausage) food is dealt out equally so I have one small bit of bacon and one chipolata, fine but then they say oh let's not worry about lunch as we had such a large breakfast. I now take snacks in abundance when I go there

DH invited a business acquaintance and her DH around for dinner. He cooks and I get on well with almost everyone so I was quite happy about it. DH went to a lot of effort for the dinner, he is a great cook. When they arrived they brought wine, fizzy red wine, not a typo, I had never heard of it personally, but they were very enthusiastic about it. I am a chatterbox, but did I struggle to make conversation, Her DH only wanted to talk about football or wagons (HGV’s) DH & I don’t know much about these. His wife kept telling me, I was so much like her, which got really grating & to be honest quite worrying after the 6th time of being told! Still not forgiven my DH yet. Thankfully we haven’t hosted dinner parties for many years, going to keep it that way too!