Worst eating out experience?

bigdunc

bigdunc

bigdunc

Associate
Joined
30 May 2004
Posts
668
Location
Uk
Mine has to be one time we went out for a pub meal. We had a starter (3 of us) which took 40 mins to turn up even though the place was nearly empty but the main meal was the real problem. We all ordered steak and asked for it to be cooked medium. When it eventually turned up (nearly an hour later) all 3 were cremated but the chips, that were obviously frozen chips, were still raw. We complained and sent them back. About 5 mins later the meals were returned and the chips were still raw. They had just put the chips back in the fryer for a few more minutes because they still had my fork marks in a few. At this point we asked what the problem was and they said they only had 1 chef (in the loosest sense of the word) working. We then decided to cut our losses and just paid for the starters.

Anyone else with any horror stories?
 
I have to be honest, with a thread title like that, expect interesting replies.

The worst experience I have had, whilst at a restaurant, would have to be at a local Best Western hotel. I won't go into any detail other than the fact I was served stale shortbread.
 
My worst experience (although I'm not sure if it's classed as eating out) was in a McDonalds drive through. I got an egg muffin that had at least half, if not all, of the egg shell crushed and sitting on top of the egg. Unfortunately, I didn't notice until biting into it.

I don't really get an problems in proper restaurants.
 
I've been quite lucky really, my worst was ha-ha bar and grill in york, I ordered a rare t-bone 16oz and got like a 5oz rump didn't look rare but didn't cut into it and besides the point! I seem to remember the missus having the wrong combination of weight cut and cooking time too.

After we pointed it out they cooked us another and let us have them for the price of the cheaper steaks they brought to us first, so it was ok but we weren't in a rush luckily, although I guess you don't go for a 16oz steak if you've got somewhere to be quite soon after.

The other was Las Iguanas in Nottingham, my girlfriend is allergic to nuts and I seem to remember the menu guiding roughly which dishes were suitable, however when telling the person taking the order she had a nut allergy the guidelines on the menu seemed to go up in smoke and had to keep to'ing and fro'ing from the kitchen to see what parts of the meal she could actually eat, she wanted a burger which is usually no problem but it turned out all they were prepared to give her was the actual patty, wouldn't give her sauces on the fajitas etc was a bit of a PITA especially as it held up the order so long and made the missus feel really bad because of it. Why list dishes that contain nuts if you then say that the restraunt is not prepared to serve other dishes without said warning on them too?
 
Last edited:
I had a chicken salad recently that was a nice crispy, fresh salad with strips of chargrilled chicken, lovely and charred on the outside and raw in the middle :(

Classy restaurant as well by all accounts :/
 
It would have to be Planet Hollywood at Disneyland Paris as it's the only meal I've ever had that had both me and my then girlfriend laid up for two days with a nice healthy dose of food poisoning. Still, at least I got to Disney.
 
Last edited:
MrMoonX said:
Jamies Italian Guildford, worst meal ever, service was crappy then they get all narky looking for a tip, yeah right!
Click to expand...

They are shocking in there, we popped in for a bite on my brother's birthday. Slow to greet, slow to bring drinks, generally arsey, slow to serve food, and like you say - expected a tip!

Gratuity: £0.01.
 
Eaten out quite a lot over the years, it's fairly rare to have a *bad* experience in the UK at least. Plenty of overpriced, not great quality food mind. Had some steaks that were just poor quality meat, tough, gristly. Went to a Korean place when wasn't in the mood for going out and found out didn't like Korean food. Went to a 5 star attached to a hotel one time, starter was great, main was dire. Few customers.

Worst one was in Amsterdam*, was there on business. Special was Roast Boar ribs, my fault for ordering. Quite tasty, but tougher than boot leather. Chef was an idiot I think. Need to cook ribs slowly at low heat for hours, he used high heat for 10 minutes.

I've had Delhi Belly in Africa (but not India!) - but that's not unexpected. Had "American Rice" on a sleeper train in Thailand - was fine (bland), but would feed a family of 8 for a week. Hate eating out in America, far too much food - then they look offended if you cant eat it all (didn't you like it? sure it was nice but only wanted half that!)

*Holland seems to be awful for food, consistently worse than anywhere else in Europe i've been.
 
Last edited:
Heh, just remembered an "Italian" in Bradford. Had a chicken liver starter, expected you know a few well cooked livers. Had a plate piled with must have been 20-30 livers all overcooked and half a gallon of cream. It was okay, but a bit rich...
 
latest that springs to mind was at some chinese buffet 'all you can eat' place in china town, london.

I know it's never going to be great, but this was sub-standard compared to many of the 'all you can eat' buffet's I've been to before. Everything was overly greasy and the basic bare minimal stuff. They even had the cheek to charge for tap water.
 
J-FRO said:
latest that springs to mind was at some chinese buffet 'all you can eat' place in china town, london.

I know it's never going to be great, but this was sub-standard compared to many of the 'all you can eat' buffet's I've been to before. Everything was overly greasy and the basic bare minimal stuff. They even had the cheek to charge for tap water.
Click to expand...

Not wonkis was it? Love that place. "You sit down". HK diner round there is good, try the bubble tea.
 
Moley said:
Two words:
Marmite muff.
Click to expand...
Lol, took a while for that to register :)

My eating out experiences have been quite good. The only time I've had to properly complain was a large pub/restaurant that I've been to many times before. The food took ages to come out and when it did had clearly been sitting under a hot plate for most of the time. The food was like plastic and I've not been back since.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom