Bad Experiences at restaurants

[chaicow]

So, I made a reservation for a restaurant about a week ago. I've been to this restaurant before and I really liked it so I booked a reservation here for a party. The reservation was for about 30 people. So I contacted this restaurant multiple times to confirm the price and stuff and we came to the consensus that it was going to be about $15.99 per person. Fast forward one week later, one hour before I was supposed to get to the restaurant, and they call and tell me that the price was to be doubled since today is a special holiday and that it was always part of their "policy". I've never heard of this "policy" that they apparently have and they probably just made it up so that they could get more money. They would have told us about the more expensive prices when I booked the reservation if they really always had this policy. I was obviously very upset but I accepted it. However, when I got to the restaurant, they told me that the reservation was cancelled because I sounded upset. That was very rude of them and this restaurant is supposed to have good service. I then go and talk to the manager and he just explains to me why he was right and I was wrong. He was rude because firstly, he raises the price last minute, cancels my reservation just because I sounded angry, doesn't apologize for his mistake, doesn't make any attempt to accommodate me or fix his mistake, and is rude enough to blame me and explain why he was right. He should learn how to respect his customers and I don't understand why he would do this because he was the one at loss not me. He was losing a whole party of 30 people and he made a scene in front of the other customers. I don't see how him doing any of this would benefit him. I've decided that I wont go back to this restaurant because of the terrible service.

Do you have any terrible restaurant experiences?

 

[moonford]

Well, there was this one time when I had a waiter who wasn't delightful at all, so after he took our order and walked away I said "I thought I was having a bad day" he turned around and gave me a rotten look and I gave him a stern look back then he continued to walk away. You never know what's going on in someone's life though, so you shouldn't judge unless you want to look like an awful person.

 

[Nodokana]

That's very rude to do. People these day.:/

The most terrible restaurant experience for me was when I was with 10 other friends in a restaurant. When the bill came we all though it would be separate but it wasn't. We kindly asked them if we could have separate checks and they refused to and said they couldn't. It was terrible. We were all having a hard time trying to even out the expenses and who had what change. It was a mess and a waste of time. Great restaurant but never doing it again with a party that big prior to going to a big event.

 

[TheGreatBrain]

My sister went to this resturant and ordered eggs and toast. The toast had mold all over it. She showed the waiter, and asked if she could get fresh toast. The waiter brought back the same toast and you could see where she picked off the moldy spots.

 

[Nodokana]

For some reason that made me think of one of Gordon Ramsy's episodes with the moldy cupcake :s "What's wrong with it?" Said the waitress.

 

[Blythetastic]

I think the worst was also the funniest.

In high school, I was a big band nerd. I took a small ensemble music class and we did a field trip to a nursing home to play. Prior to going there, we went to Taco Bell for lunch. Keep in mind, we're a fairly small group (20 kids or so) from a small town. We lined up, took turns ordering, and the cashier kept flipping out. She couldn't handle so many orders, but okay, whatever. I was at the end of the line as as we finally got our food and sat down, the manager came out and kicked us out. He said we were being entirely too rowdy and needed to leave. Our band director got in his face and kept politely asking him if he was done, as the manager continued to insult us. There were maybe 2 other customers in the whole place. We were NOT being loud. We were a pretty friendly group and not loud, honest.

So I grabbed my food and we loaded our bus to head on out. One of my friends stood up and yelled wait! He ran off the bus, mooned the Taco Bell, and got back on the bus. Many students were livid and called the number on the back of the receipt to complain while we drove. Anyway, we went, played, and on the way back we found out that the manager had caught the name of our school on the side of our bus. He called the principal and threw a fit.

Needless to say, we all got a lecture in music class the next day. The guy who mooned the manager got 3 days of in school suspension.

You don't know funny until you have a principal lecturing you about not showing your bums. It was ridiculous. I've never been in a group that got yelled at and kicked out...and we had taken other band trips.

Over ten years later, I still laugh at it.

 

[seliph]

Does Applebees itself count as a terrible restaurant experience

 

[chaicow]

Does Applebees itself count as a terrible restaurant experience

If it was terrible, then probably

 

[Nodokana]

Another experience was at Macaroni Grill. The food was very oily with the dishes we ordered. Very bad and never going back there again.

 

[blackfeint]

my family went to an independent italian restaurant some years ago. my cousin found a cockroach in her salad.

needless to say, we haven't been there since..

 

[Blythetastic]

Oh yeah! I forgot, one time my mom broke her tooth on a salad at the Planet Hollywood at Disney Springs.

There was a rock in it.

Needless to say, we don't ever eat at Planet Hollywoods anymore.

 

[Arlo]

My partner took me out for dinner not too long ago. We went to a local italian place. I ordered a Pepperoni pizza. What I got was some weird bowl of dough, with enough sauce to make a soup, like 5 pieces of cheese, a couple of pepperoni's and a ton of mushrooms. There was no mentions of mushrooms in the menu, and I can't eat mushrooms. I hate them. We never went back. It was the worst pizza I'd ever had. If you can even call it that.

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

I have two, both of them involving me vomiting

The first time I was probably around 7 and I was sick and yet my mom thought it was wise to take me out to eat, I remember it was to Lyon's Restaurant, and I was eating these blue cough drops, the really menthol-y ones. And like literally right when we got there, as soon as I got my little cup or apple juice I asked for I started barfing blue everywhere, got some on the floor ruining some other people's meal, and my mom rushed me to the bathroom and I was crying, covered in blue... it was super tragic.

The second time we were camping and on the last day of camping we all got food poisoning, so we had a horrible time packing up and taking a super long drive home, we stopped over at a Mexican food restaurant on the side of the road and literally we all ran in taking turns throwing up, I know we all tried to eat but we hardly ate anything we were all just drowsy and in pain from whatever we ate, barfed one last time and continued our super long drive home... it was awful.

I don't think I've ever had a bad dining experience due to staff or food, which is like... really rare? The worst I've ever had was waiting a long time for food because a restaurant was super busy but I honestly wasn't mad and it didn't ruin my time there.

 

[pocky]

We love going to IHOP because it's open 24 hours and we're night owls. So sometimes at 4am we'll get the urge to eat something and go there.

Anyway, we get there and we're seated but we notice that no one is coming up to pick up our order. The only other waiter we see is this guy who is talking to another table and he is too deep in conversation to notice that we need assistance. Finally the people at the other table leave and the waiter comes over to our table. We're in the middle of summer in Texas and this guy is wearing one of those thick, long, knitted scarves. He informs us that he is our waiter but that he had just gotten distracted talking to other customers. We're in a good mood so we're like "don't worry about it." No big deal.

So we order our drinks, food, and an appetizer. But he won't leave. He starts talking to us about how he is in a band and about how music is his real passion but that the IHOP thing is just a part time job that he took to keep the dream alive or whatever. We're not interested in the conversation but he doesn't seem to notice and we don't want to be rude. We keep dropping hints about how we're super hungry but he just doesn't notice. He spends another 30 minutes talking to us before finally leaving.

(by this point we've spent 1 hour in IHOP)

So he disappears for another thirty minutes and comes back with our drinks. Again he keeps talking about his music career and flipping his scarf around. We really just want our food but he doesn't get it. Another thirty minutes of him just talking about this crap. Finally he leaves to see if our order is ready.

(by this point we've spent 2 hours in IHOP. Still no food)

Another thirty minutes pass by and we see him walking by the table. We ask him about our food and this time he goes to get it instead of wasting more time talking. He brings the food over to us but it's already cold (meaning that it had been ready for a long time) We tell him that he forgot the appetizer (big mistake) but he starts talking to us again. We're hungry and we want to eat but we don't want to make it awkward by eating in front of him. He spends maybe 10 minutes talking to us then leaves to search for the appetizer. Disappears for like 1 hour.

(by now we've spent over 3 hours and 30 minutes in IHOP)

I guess the manager notices that we're just sitting there with empty plates and she asks whats up. We tell her that our waiter went to get our appetizer but that it's been 1 hour and that we don't want it anymore. That we just want to pay the bill and leave. She asks something like "Your waiter is the guy with the scarf, right?" and makes a face like you just know he pulls this **** all of the time. She apologizes and says she'll take some money off our total, and of course takes the appetizer off as well.

Scarf guy comes back 5 minutes later and you can tell he got chewed at by his manager because he is looking really upset. At this moment all of our anger goes away and we're feeling so bad for the guy we tell him it's no big deal. So he goes to go get the bill and disappears for another 30 minutes..............

(by now we've spent over 4 hours in IHOP)

When he comes back with the bill he talks about his music some more and tells us he wrote the URL to his Youtube on the bill. He tries to talk to us some more but we kind of just cut the conversation short, pay the bill and bolt out of there.

When we got home we looked at his videos and laughed for hours. He couldn't sing for ****, his band mates couldn't play their instruments correctly. I wish I still had the link I'd honestly endure that horrible experience all over just to listen to his ****ty music once again. We still laugh about him every now and then.

 

[Celestefey]

Not sure if it counts but the McDonalds in my hometown was always so awful, the cashiers were really grumpy and unfriendly, you would have to wait ages for your food. I remember I ordered an ice-cream with my meal, I got the ice-cream immediately but by the time I got my food, it had melted. :\ They generally just never have anything in stock and bleh, it's put me off McDonalds, the food isn't even that great. I mean, I understand the pain of working in retail or food service, I've experienced it myself, but it's really not that hard to just be kind to other people. If you're kind to customers then it's likely you will also receive kind responses, sometimes you get *******s but they can be few and far between.

 

[Milleram]

I've had bad experiences in terms of jerky waiters/waitresses and stuff, but I think the absolute worst was when I found a dead grasshopper in my salad. The manager was apologetic and gave me a free dessert, but it was still pretty gross. XD

 

[AquaStrudel]

(This wasn't anything too rude but it was really weird and appalling to me)

Once I went to Bob Evans and I order a salmon fillet that came with some steamed broccoli on the side. When I got my food it was literally just a slab of salmon and nothing else. Everyone elses dishes were fine with no complaints whatsoever except mine. It completely stood out and I have no idea how they thought that was okay. The plate wa completely bare besides a block of grilled lightly seasoned salmon. Anyways, when the waiter came back we asked her about the rest of my food. I said it should have some broccoli too but she just said "But you didn't ask for any so" and I'm just like... what? "B-but the menu said it already came with broccoli..." Anyways, she left to get me the broccoli whole I tried to eat my very plain tasting salmon while my family and friends had full meal. Ok so the waiter comes back... AND SHE HAS A PLATE WITH AN UNOPENED PLASTIC BAG OF STEAMED BROCCOLI ON TOP OF IT. She didn't even bother taking the broccoli out! It was obvious that it was the plastic packaging they cooked it in and somehow the just thought that was fine to serve on top of a plate??? So I had to open this myself and yeah I was not pleased with my food. It was really plain and I was just so confused? Like how do you mess that up?? ...A plate with a plastic bag of broccoli on top of it? It was so bizarre.

 

[Soigne]

A group of friends and I went to a restaurant that we reserved a month in advance for a post-graduation dinner together and when we arrived, it took over half an hour of me arguing with them to "find" my reservation. They had tried to book an elderly couple's party over ours because we were teenagers and they were expecting the elderly folks to tip better.

Well, we got our table and it took over two hours for them to serve us even when other parties got there after us & got their food before us. We ate our food and stayed for over four hours just to piss them off and left no tip, so I bet the person who "couldn't find our reservation" wished she'd kept arguing to get us to leave.

 

[Corrie]

We havent gotten anything too bad. The only bad experience was at TGIFs in Florida. The waitress gave us our food and never checked up on us. We were done and wanted to pay and leave but whenever we called her she said one sec and would leave and never come back. We had to get another waitress to give us our bill. The place was empty too so it wasnt like she was busy with other customers.

 

[Hopeless Opus]

lol wtf kind of ugly restaurant... smh

well too many to count. i'll highlight 2 of the ones i can rm most clearly though

first we went to a restaurant and we got set up with this girl. she was nice and everything until she literally bailed out on us. it was an emergency which was understandable and she'd left, but literally no one came to our table for like 20 minutes and we were just sitting there like ... ok??? then finally after 10 more mins someone came out and was like sorry guys (it wasn't like we could leave bc we'd already ordered and ****) and then i was like so done bc i was starving and these people just took forever

there was another time we went to a restaurant and our waiter was literally sweating everywhere bc he was so nervous and it was rly gross and rly awkward so we just were like 'uh gotta go' and literally just walked out lol likeeee bye...
idk i have had way worse experiences than this but im pulling a blank