People From Around The World Share Their Worst Restaurant Experiences


People From Around The World Share Their Worst Restaurant Experiences


"Remember when you first went out to eat with your parents? It was such a treat to go, and they serve you this different food that you never saw before, and they put it in front of you and it was such a delicious and exciting adventure? And now I just feel like a big sweaty hog waitin' for them to fill up the trough."

-- Elaine Benes

Not every fine dining experience is, it turns out, quite so fine. Just ask these folks, who recently went online to share the worst restaurant experiences they've ever had.

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45. Rare Indeed

I went to Chili's for lunch after a doctor's appointment with my husband.

The place is empty. We are finally seated after a ten minute wait (it was this or nothing, and I was starving). Waiter arrives, takes our drink order (unsweet tea and Dr. Pepper) and appetizer (chips and skillet queso).

He never comes back. More customers arrive, maybe four tables, and he goes and sits with what we assume are friends of his. We flag down another waiter, who practically throws our drinks at us. He takes our entree order (bbq chicken and a burger). Throws those at us.

I realize we have no silverware. After trying to flag four people, my husband gets our silverware himself. I cut the chicken and am surprised it didn't cluck and jump off my plate, it was so raw.

Original waiter comes over and I show him the still-pulsing bird. He rolls his eyes and says, "Its rare. You want me to microwave it for you?" I explain I want it cooked through, not heated, and poultry isn't served rare. He snatches the plate and leaves.

I never got my food back.

Meanwhile, my husband is waiting on me (he's too polite) to eat. I finally tell him to go ahead, at which point he opens the bun and finds a fake fingernail.

We attempt to get someone's attention so we can pay and leave, but 15 minutes later we just got up and left. I've never gone back.

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44. Sub Par

The only restaurant in town was sold to new owners. While there were a lot of people saying bad stuff about it, my family decided to try it for themselves.

After looking at the new menu I decided nothing looked good. And good thing. My mom got a cold "hot sandwhich" that they didn't even want to microwave for her. My dad got a sub. They were out of tomatoes though. And cheese. And subs. They gave him half the meat on a hot dog bun with lettuce and charged him 12$.

We have never returned, and tell all the people visiting in town to go to the grocery store or chip stand instead.

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43. Something Fishy

I went to Emeril's restaurant in Vegas when he was really popular. I just turned 21 and my big brother offered to take me. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan but I relented since he wanted to go and he was trying to do a nice thing.

The waiter was a huge jerk. I'd been a server for a few years at that point and know how it goes some days, but this guy definitely had an arrogance about him that we didn't belong or something. I ordered the ahi tuna salad. He responded, "That's it? That's all you're getting?" In a very snobbish way.

Well. Yeah. It was $28. Even now that's relatively expensive, yet alone a decade or so ago. What came out were 4 small pieces of ahi tuna, a couple of snap peas, and some drizzled balsamic. No lettuce. Nothing else. Just that. Never again.

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42. That's Some Excuse

Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles in Atlanta. When we arrived at the restaurant, the sign said "please wait to be seated." So we did. For over 20 minutes, during which the servers, who we could, see simply ignored us, and other guests who were waiting. Finally we walked to the back of the restaurant and asked what was going on.

Turns out, they were "out of flour." Later, we found out they were up to some shady stuff.

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41. Tough Way To Make Money

I was sitting in a greenhouse kind of glass structure eating a steak in a restaurant in Ohio in the middle of winter. The next thing I knew the class above me shattered and I got kind of woozy. I'd been hit by a big block of ice that slid off the roof 3 floors above me and had fallen through the glass and clobbered me in the head. The EMTs showed up almost immediately took me to the hospital, even though I didn't want to go. I checked out fine except for a good size bruise. The restaurant gave me $1000 2 months later.

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40. Happy Birthday

I wanted to go to my favorite restaurant for my birthday which I very rarely do anything for.

I arrived wearing a nice dress and immediately had an entire pitcher of ice water dumped on me by accident.

When I ordered the dish that made me love the place I was told they were out of it. But I saw the woman sitting at the next table get it...

I never got the chance to complain because I had no idea that this was the last day before they closed forever.

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39. All You Can Keep Down

Went to an all you can eat buffet. It was supposedly redone with new food. It was not. The food was disgusting and everything was dirty. There were pieces of plastic from the food bags in the food itself and people were literally eating from the bins of food and putting half chewed food back into the bin.

Finally when we were about to leave someone puked by the only door trapping us all inside until someone cleaned it up. None of the teenagers working there wanted to clean it so the manager had to be called from home to come and break up the fight and assign someone to clean it.

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38. Classy Glassy

I went to our nicest local steakhouse to celebrate finishing a work project where I had been working up to 16 hour days for a few weeks, utterly exhausted.

I ordered the enchilada and aged steak platter, excited for my first time trying aged steaks. Finally got my food, and took a bite of the enchiladas first. As I started to chew I felt a "crunch". Pull it out and it's a piece of broken glass. I'm pretty sure some of it broke off in my mouth and I swallowed it.

I call the waiter over. All he offers to do is replace the meal. Um... no thanks?! How in the world do you get glass in enchiladas in the first place? Somebody was super careless. And if it does happen, how does that not warrant a more active response?

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37. Sketch Is Sketchy

The restaurant Sketch in London.

Last fall my wife and I went on a European vacation. I'm a big cooking and food guy and will splurge on a really fancy meal about once a year. I've been to several Michelin starred restaurants and have never walked away disappointed. When you expect to spend $500+ on a meal for two you should never be disappointed.

We went for afternoon tea. First of all, we had to wait in a small hallway for a table. This, by itself, is pretty unacceptable. We showed up precisely at our reservation time. After about 15 minutes we were told it would still be a little longer, and were asked to wait at a table in a other dining room. The tables were tightly packed and I had to essentially shove my butt in a few diners' faces to take my seat. I guess that's part of the haute cuisine experience? We waited about 30 minutes before were were summoned. During that time we were not offered a glass of water, let alone a cocktail or something.

After we arrived at our table we waited about another 30 minutes for a server. The room was pretty tightly packed, and pretty much everyone there was just taking selfies. Service remained slow the entire time. For afternoon tea you get a platter of finger sandwiches and a platter of desserts. Everyone gets the same thing, it's not like they even had to take orders. The whole ordeal lasted about 3 hours.

When I received the check I was very eager to get out of there. I decided to time how long it would take by the time we received the check until we left. 45 minutes. 45 minutes for them to take my payment. After we had already been sitting around, obviously bored and having been made to wait the entire time. I actually left a little hungry since the time between lunch and when I left was so long.

No apologies, no nothing. Just a $500 tab and a "c'ya later!" Completely unacceptable. The decor is great, I guess that's enough to get two Michelin stars?

The food was okay. I mean, it was finger sandwiches. I guess they were the best finger sandwiches I've had? The desserts weren't anything to write home about. They were great, but I've had a lot better.

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36. Fake News

I was having dinner with my now-wife who had just recently moved back to Massachusetts from California, so she didn't have a newMassachusetts ID yet. We went to order drinks. The waitress took my wife's California ID, immediately proclaimed it was "fake," snapped it in half and handed it back to her. Like, in the blink of an eye just destroyed her only current ID for no reason.

The manager ended up getting involved and agreed that the waitress was out of line and I think offered free drinks or something, but my wife was furious and we ended up just leaving. It wound up being a hassle getting a Massachusetts ID later on because of this, but that's another story.

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35. You Stand Accused

We were in a restaurant in Paris last fall. We ordered our food which NEVER came out. Finally, we were able to tell the manager who went and got the waitress. She claimed we had already been served, ate it all, and this was a scam to get second dinner. The manager believed us, but it felt like we were defendants in a criminal trial.

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34. Never Eat Alone

I went to IHOP for breakfast and the waitress takes one look at me and says, "I can tell that you are single." She then proceeds to lecture me about going to a restaurant for breakfast instead of cooking my own food.

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33. Soap And Water

Went to an asian "fusion" restaurant with my family where they offered yummy delectable dishes as beef teriyaki with freaking mozzarella sticks and other culinary disasters such as tonkatsu with french fries. They really "fusioned" that place up.

After we finish eating, I headed to the bathroom. One of the chefs was in there already peeing, wearing his apron and hat. While I'm peeing, he zips up and walks straight out. No stop at the sink. No nothing. Are you kidding me?

My mom sees that I'm upset and I tell her. She waves the manager over and I tell him that I saw a chef pee and not wash his hands. Then he just stares at me, grinning with his goofy teeth, not saying anything. It was weird. We got up and left. We never went back.

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32. So Brazen

Ordered garlic naan at an Indian restaurant in the UK once. The waiter took the full order, then disappeared into the back. He came out 30 seconds later with his jacket on, and left to go the grocery store opposite. He came back in with a nasty processed packet of pita bread, and served us that after he had obviously microwaved it. My friends and I were beyond flabbergasted. When we mentioned it at the end of the meal, he flat out denied it!

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31. Margaritaville

It was at a Texas Roadhouse. We sat down, didn't even see a server for about 15 minutes. When we finally saw one, she walked over, looked at us, and said, "I'll get your drinks in a minute", as if she had already asked us. Then she came back with two margaritas. When we told her we hadn't even ordered anything yet, she rolled her eyes, said we were "ridiculous," and walked away.

We asked for the manager, who was an 18-year-old kid. He walked over and told us not to harass his servers. So we walked out whilst the manager yelled at us for not paying for the margaritas we never ordered.

My girlfriend wrote a 3-page letter about the entire experience and sent it to their corporate offices. The next day she had a voice mail from the franchisee owner of that restaurant, stating she shouldn't be contacting corporate with service issues at their restaurant. When my girlfriend finally got him on the phone after 2 weeks of trying, he told her she shouldn't be saying things that didn't happen, and offered her a $5 coupon for our next meal, without an apology which is what she was really after. She then promptly wrote another letter to their corporate offices about how rude he was.

After all of that, no one we know has seen any of those employees at that Texas Roadhouse ever again, but we've never gone back.

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30. Hot For The Sauce

Went to a Chinese restaurant and had a decent meal with a group of friends. The serving staff wasn't very friendly or nice but oh well we were hungry.

After we paid and left the restaurant, walking towards the car, the owner of the restaurant comes out running at us yelling, " Where is the hot sauce?" At first we didn't understand what she was saying or why she was yelling, finally we understood she meant we stole the hot sauce bottle. We said we didn't take anything but she kept demanding and yelling for it.

Five minutes into this her staff calls her and she just walks off.  We followed her back to the restaurant and asked her what had happened; she made little eye contact and ignored us. Finally, her staff told us they misplaced the hot sauce and found it again. We asked the owner again and she just said, "hot sauce found." As if none of the yelling in front of the parking lot happened. No apology. Nothing.

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29. Thumbs Up

A few years ago, I was at a Mexican restaurant with some friends. The waiter brings our food, and warns everyone that the plates are very, very hot. So, of course, the first thing I do is touch my plate.

I burn my thumb on the hot plate, and my automatic reaction is to stick it in my mouth so it will stop hurting. Just then, the woman at the next table starts yelling at her five-year-old son. "Stop sucking your thumb, Bobby! You're a big boy, and big boys don't suck their thumbs."

The five-year-old points at me and screams, "They do to! He sucks his thumb! Look! He sucks his thumb!"

Everyone in the restaurant turns to look at me, and I try to vanish behind my menu. My friends teased me about it for months.

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28. How Can You Learn If I Don't Scream At You?

I went to a French restaurant where the waitress was abusive and mean towards the hostess girl and made me and my party feel like we were a burden on them. Here's my full yelp review:

We came in a group, and the older waitress made us uncomfortable from the beginning. We first entered with our group and the place was empty, maybe one other party of two dining in the front patio area. The tall skinny girl that was helping out bring the waters and the drinks, she sees us first, we ask to be seated and she had to "ask the waitress if that was okay."

"Do you have a reservation?" the older waitress asked briskly when the we first entered. We said "no..." but didn't think much of it given the place was EMPTY. The waitress, then gave a sigh of disgust like we insulted her. After a minute of heated self-deliberation, she decided to move tables together for us. She did not look happy about having our business and we immediately felt we were imposing.

It was then that this lady turned into a nightmare. She immediately made me and the rest of our party uncomfortable by CONSTANTLY reprimanding, practically yelling, and being downright mean and disrespectful to the girl who was helping out.

Example one: the party next to us flagged down the tall skinny girl and said they were ready to order. The girl then proceeded to the waitress who got completely and irrationally mad! In front of everyone! Waitress: "DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT? DON'T YOU THINK THAT'S ON MY MIND?!"

Example two: Tall girl: "This man right here asked for a soda so I am going to get it for him." Waitress: "AGAIN! DON'T YOU THINK I WONT SEE IT ON THE TABLE?! THERE'S NO POINT IN YOU WASTING MY TIME, AND YOUR TIME. STOP BEING SO FOOLISH. HOW CAN I TRAIN YOU IF YOU ARE BEING SO FOOLISH?"

Example three: There was a table that sat down, and the waitress approached and took their order. The waitress then proceeded to tell the young girl: "I JUST TOOK THEIR DRINK ORDER AND THEY DO NOT HAVE BREAD OR WATER YET. I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING BUT THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE"

This poor girl had to just take her crap. Honestly, if I had to put up with what this waitress boss lady was saying -- I'd quit. It didn't just stop there. It seemed that every single little thing the tall younger girl did, she would get yelled at by the waitress. Her demeanor was mean, she was downright nasty to this girl that was helping out, and I didn't feel like she treated us with the utmost respect either. We were afraid to ask for straws, because she said they were running out.

God forbid I get this poor girl in trouble because I ask for a straw.

All in all, WOW. I've never seen anything like this first hand. It was the kind of workplace abuse you only see in the movies. The food was excellent, you can tell the restaurant has a dedicated authentic French owner and chef(s). But seriously, I will never ever patronize a business that allows their employees to be treated that way. It was absolutely ridiculous.

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27. A Bad Attitude Will Cost You Every Time

When I was in high school I lived in a tiny rural hamlet. We would go on field trips to the city to watch plays and the ballet and always would stop at a new restaurant before the productions began.

There were 30 kids and one teacher, all well-behaved and respectable country kids. We sat at 5 tables, one a table of ten (my table), and 4 tables of five. Counting out our money, we had all decided beforehand to tip our waiter 10 dollars each.

We asked the waiter before we ordered our food if we could have separate bills between us, he told us that due to the size of our party he was not willing to do that. No big deal. We told him that we understood and would sort it our amongst ourselves.

We ordered our food and after it arrived our waiter was nowhere to be seen: no refills, no checking up on us. But we knew it was busy and didn't care much being teenagers and excited to be in the city without our parents.

Without a word, the waiter walked up to our table and dropped a bill in the middle. He did not ask us if we would like anything else or how we enjoyed our meal.

Because of the meals all being on the same ticket we started calculating who owed what. After we figured out the bulk of it, we put the bills to the side and started to deal with the change. There was about $30 worth of change we were counting. At this point, the waiter walks by, sees the change, and taps me on the shoulder. I look up at him and in the most disgusted voice he says, "You kids realize that I put up with you all evening and that is NOT 10%."

I was so shocked and angry. He couldn't even be bothered with us all evening, couldn’t put our food on separate tabs, and so when we are dividing everything up and hadn’t even started getting our tip money out, he was going to approach us like that? Not to mention we were all well-behaved and polite. I have no idea what he had to “put up with.”

My friend went to speak with our teacher about what just happened and he was livid. He said that the waiter had been rude and absent at their table as well and we had come to find (not surprisingly) that this had repeated itself amongst all the tables. Other tables apparently had it much worse, getting the wrong food and then when they approached the waiter he said "no that is what you ordered just be quiet and eat it." My teacher told us not to leave a tip and he would speak with a manager.

Later, our teacher told us he had left a note on the table that said something along the lines of, "We do this every month and the kids love to make people happy. Tonight the 30 of them were panning on leaving $10 dollars each on a bill of $955.65. That is a31.39% tip. I hope you reflect on your behaviour this evening."

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26. Doggy Bag, Please

Went to a restaurant with the family. I ordered a Dagwood Burger. The waiter asks me what I want and I repeat my order. He asks me again, I repeat again. Waiter goes around the table and gets everyone's order. Repeats the order, forgets my burger. So I remind him and he writes it down.

Food arrives, no Dagwood. He looks confused that he missed my order and says he'll go get it. 10 or so minutes pass. The manager comes and asks if our meals are okay. I say Im still missing my Dagwood. He goes and checks, still no Dagwood ordered by the waiter.

I wait another 10 minutes. My family is nearly done with their food and I'm starving. The manager comes around and says they burned my Dagwood burger and they'll need to make it again.

I finally get my burger after my whole family was done eating.

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25. Every Bite Is A Roll Of The Dice

I ordered a cheddar-stuffed cheeseburger for lunch at a sports bar/restaurant in Indianapolis. I was intrigued because I've tried fixing this type of burger before, but the cheese always runs out and the whole burger gets ruined.

Burger comes out and the first thing I notice is that it's shaped more like a meatball than a burger patty. The entire burger was at least 4 or 5" tall. I take a bite and... no cheese. There's just this big, hollow, golf-ball size spot in the middle where I assume cheese once resided. Oh well, I figure I still have a burger I can eat, even though it's not the cheesy meat pinata I'd been hoping for.

I take 2 more bites and I notice that there are bits of pink meat spread out in weird spots in the meat. Usually, the center or one side will be a little pink, but there were 4 or 5 1cm bits of pink spread out through the whole thing. I have no idea how they accomplished that, unless some of it was frozen.

I ask the waiter what's going on with this burger and he basically explains that it's not uncommon for the cheese to run out during cooking. Why would you put an item on the menu that turns out crappy at least some of the time? Why would you serve it?

I didn't even eat half of it. The waiter noticed my full plate and comped me for the cost of the burger (but still charged me for my drink and fries).

Completely lost my appetite for the rest of the day. I forced myself to eat a small bag of Doritos for dinner. 12 hours to the minute after setting that raw hamburger down, I jump out of my hotel bed, run to the bathroom and puke for about 10 minutes straight. Then the other end of the intestinal track decided it wanted to be purged too.

Yup, food poisoning. Nothing quite compares to being stuck in another city in a lousy hotel puking up bile thinking you're going to die. The conference I had to attend at 8:00 AM was a blast, lemme tell ya. I'm glad no one knew me, because I looked like a hot mess. I even popped a blood vessel in one of my eyes. That's the only meal I've ever had that ruined 24 hours of my life.

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24. Going Nuts

We were eating at Guy Savoy, which is a very high end restaurant. Like most Michelin restaurants, they always ask if anyone has any allergies prior to the meal. We informed them that my fiancée has a lethal tree-nut allergy. "NO Problem! We will make sure everything is absolutely taken care of!"

First dish had hazelnuts on it, which we spotted. The last dish had walnuts in it, which we spotted.

I expect that at a chain restaurant quite honestly, but not at a place like Guy Savoy.

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23. Leave The Reviews Up!

In Myrtle Beach. My wife wanted to eat at a restaurant that had seating in view of the beach. Found a neat place that was packed. Good sign. We had our ten-year-old daughter and our one-year-old son. Waited an hour and half to get chicken wings and french fries while people all around us continued to get food.

I had to ask the waitress several times on the status of our order. An hour after ordering she comes back and says she forgot what our order was. My son was hungry, restless and fussing nonstop at this point. I tell her we can just forget the food and go eat somewhere else. She apologized and begged to make it right. We allowed her to take another order.

Thirty minutes later still no food. The waitress tells us the manager said that 'they have waited this long they can just wait longer' I was fuming at this point. Ten minutes later the manager brings the food out and sets it on the table. She asks If everything was alright. I told her it took too long she said "that's not my fault." I didn't even eat. I was flabbergasted at the service.

We had ordered an appetizer before the meal. When the waitress brings the check out I tell her she can eat this meal. She says the manager is refusing to take off anything. Then she said she can take off the milk she brought for my son. My daughter points out she never brought any milk. I storm into the restaurant and demand that the bill be cut in half. The manager said I was trying to get a free meal. I showed her a receipt from a restaurant we ate at the night before for $120.00. She told me to pay and leave.

I immediately got on Facebook and TripAdvisor and relayed my experience. The first thing the next morning the owner calls me at 8 am. He is apologizing profusely and refunds my entire bill. He offers for me to come back and get a free meal and hats and shirts and everything. I told him that I wouldn't be back but I did take down the scathing reviews.

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22. That Manager Got Fired For Sure

I was in Vegas for a convention. It was my first time spearheading a convention for a big client and I was understandably nervous. And frankly, I was going a bit overboard.

I wore my best suit, got a great hair cut, and caught a flight out.

First thing when I land, I grab a cab and call up to make a lunch reservation at a restaurant attached to the hotel/convention center conglomerate thing because I knew I'd need a spot for a lunch meeting.

First half of the show goes really well. Clients are happy, my boss is happy, I'm still nervous but I'm pretty happy. We break away for that meeting, and I lead everyone off to the lunch spot.

We get there and the place is only maybe at half-capacity. Not terribly surprising, since I'd assume many people eat at the Casino buffet... and this is pretty well confirmed by the fact that everyone eating in the place is dressed in business attire.

I give the name of the reservation and we get seated.

My first warning should have been that there's no silverware.

Okay, maybe they just bussed the table. We ponder this for a full minute before a guy rushes by and blurts out that he's our waiter and will be right with us. Doesn't stop, doesn't give us menus, goes running over to a table entirely full of business bros.

Ten minutes go by. Still nothing. Fifteen.

Our waiter runs by and I try and stop him. He does a spin-maneuver like a wide receiver with the ball to avoid me. I'm honestly floored and the clients start to make noises.

On his way back I'm turned around in my seat giving my best "I will not be ignored" look and he says "one more minute!" He says it angrily, like I'm the jerk here.

Five minutes later, someone comes out of the kitchen in whites to drop off our silverware (missing two settings) and two menus. For a group of six. And no napkins. I don't blame him, he clearly got roped into this, but seriously?

So we look things over and we've now been waiting for more than 25 minutes. We have no water, we have no order in, we don't have enough menus. I'm getting angrier and angrier (plus I haven't eaten all day, so my brain is screaming bloody murder for sugar and protein). Our clients are obviously getting fed up, and I'm afraid I'm making the company look bad.

So we get up. I help the ladies with their things, and for the first time we get noticed. The kid breaks from the group he's been schmoozing and literally runs over to us to block our egress. He plasters on a grin and says "can I help you?"

I simply said "no." and directed my clients out. The sever waves and signals... at first I thought he was gesturing us out.

Then I see a guy who must be the manager of the place waiting by the hostess' desk. The manager blocks me, but he's only one guy. I turn politely as I can to my clients and tell them to go on ahead... I'll settle up here. I'll be chivalrous.

The manager is red in the face, and obviously trying to hold himself back from yelling at someone. He asks through gritted teeth "was there something wrong with the service?"

As flatly, and evenly as I can, I say "there was no service. So we're going to another restaurant. Excuse me."

I turn and head for the door and he shouts "Good, get the [bleep] out of my restaurant you little [bleep]."

Now, I may be young at this point (which is likely why the employees of this restaurant thought they could get away with this). But I'm wearing a tailored suit and leading six very, very well dressed clients around. And my clients may be all women (which I think was also why they ignored us). But they're clients with accents and clothing that's expensive even by Vegas standards. We are obviously here for a convention...  one happening in his building... and we're obviously here to spend money.

So I stop, and turn to look at this guy fuming at me. I smile, pull out my cellphone, and call our booking agent back at the office.

"Hi, Alice? Yeah. I need a favor: can you pull us, the client, everyone out of the hotel? Yup, everyone. I'm really sorry to do this to you, but I need it now. Yup, all 300 blocks. This is Vegas, I'm sure there are vacancies elsewhere and they'll be happy to take us."

The manager's face drops and goes white as a sheet. He starts stammering and sputtering. I thank my agent and close my phone with a satisfying snap.

I then walk out, while he's following me down the hallway, shouting for me to come back. This has all been a terrible misunderstanding and we can work this out. He'll even pay for the first round of drinks if we all come back and sit down.

The clients get to watch me walk back, like I'm the hero not looking at the explosion behind him... and I go from being the guy who couldn't get bread delivered to the table, to the guy who brought a manager groveling after him.

We paid extra to have the second hotel staff come in and pick up all our bags in person from the first. I tipped them well for the spectacle.

It was worth every dollar.

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21. You Got Three Quarters Of Your Meal

At a restaurant with a friend. He orders a club sandwich (they cut them in four corners). On the way to our table food in hand, one of the corners falls on the floor right in front of us. The lady stops, takes the plates back, cleans the food off the floor, and then comes back with his food presented as if there should only be three pieces to it...

Worst part: he still tipped her.

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20. Shut Up, I'm Texting

I was once served by a woman who texted while asking for our order. A fairly good restaurant as well but she clearly did some dirty deed for that job. What's worse is when I asked her to look at us not the phone she told us she didn't have any obligation to serve us, and could get the manager to force us to leave. So I told her I would love to speak to her manager personally about the situation. Never seen a phone turn off so quickly.

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19. Food That Moves

I was a small child, in a small town where the fanciest restaurant was a Ponderosa Steakhouse. One night, my parents decided that a fine meal was in order, so we made our way there.

If you've never been to a Ponderosa: imagine a middle-school cafeteria buffet dropped into a steakhouse that needed to be remodeled in the 70's. The tables were plastic, the chairs were folding metal contraptions, the indoor-outdoor carpet had a disquieting green shimmer to it, and the blinds stayed shut so that you couldn't quite see what you were eating.

My father was a quiet, unassuming man. I can count on one hand the times I saw him get angry. Dinner at the Ponderosa was one of those times, and it was the only time I ever heard him swear in public.

When we arrived, it was clear that everyone working there wished they were working somewhere else. The hostess was surly, and the waiter acted like he was doing us a favor by taking drink orders. But, hey, it's a buffet/steakhouse, we weren't there to make friends. We were there to eat until we regretted it.

We didn't even get to eat a bite before we regretted it. My dad and I went to the buffet, filled our plates (and one for mom), and returned to the table. I slid my fork into the mashed potatoes, brought the fork to my mouth. That's when I realized the pepper flakes were moving.

"What the [bleep]?!"

I dropped my fork. My dad's idea of harsh language was "gosh-durn." I'd never heard him lay down an f-bomb before, much less one fueled by that much rage, and it legit scared me. I was a small child. I began to cry. My father's gaze was fixed on his green beans, which were also moving.

A waiter came over, with a manager in tow. They began very sternly reprimanding my father for using such language in a family restaurant, and informed him that his behavior would have to improve if we wanted to stay.

My father, who stood just shy of 6'9", silently got to his feet and glared down at the suddenly quiet Ponderosa employees.

"Sir," the manager started, much more respectfully this time.

"There are ants in this food," my father interrupted him. "About a thousand ants."

"Sir," the manager started again.

"We're going to leave. We're not going to pay. But first, you're going to apologize to my family for trying to feed them this crap, and you're going to apologize to me for speaking to me like that in front of my wife and son."

By this point, everyone else in the restaurant (maybe four or five other families) had stopped eating and were either inspecting their food or watching this scene unfold. One guy got up and went to the buffet with a little pocket flashlight. He clicked it on, took a look at the food, clicked it back off, and began dry heaving.

The manager and waiter were frozen. Neither one was apologizing, and that was making my dad even angrier.

"Come on," my father said gesturing to my mother and I. The three of us walked out of the restaurant, with all of the other patrons following behind. The manager snapped out of his trance long enough to flip out and start shouting at everyone that they couldn't leave without paying. Turns out they could.

The Ponderosa closed its doors forever later that week. It belongs to the ants now.

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18. Butter Up

Fried butter! My whole family got an order to try at the Wisconsin State Fair and it was a huge mistake.

Once you bit into the fried outer shell, one of two things would happen. In my case, you would get a giant squirt of melted salty butter in your mouth. It tasted and felt like the finale of a blowjob.

Or, you could be like my boyfriend (now husband) and have the other result when you bit into the fried outer shell. Instead of squirting into your mouth as a "salty surprise," the butter had about a 50/50 chance of squirting out the otherend. In his case, it squirted all over my mother....

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17. Why Would They Have That?!

I was spat on by a disgusting lady because she was mad that McDonalds didn't have lasagne. I didn't even work there, I was just eating my McNuggets.

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16. Fork You

I don't know if this was the worst, but it sprang to mind.

We were in a restaurant we've gone to sporadically over the years. It's usually reasonably good.

We're seated and our drink order is taken. I mention to the waitress that there's no silverware on the table, and she says "Oh, no problem, I'll be right back". She shows back up 10 minutes later to take our dinner order. We order, and I again mention the lack of silverware. "Oh, right, hang on".

We don't see her again for 30 minutes. Drinks are empty, no silverware, nothing. Can't even find her in the restaurant.

After 30 minutes, she shows up again with our meals, both pasta dishes. She sets them down, and I again mention that we have no silverware, and can't eat our dinner. "Oh, I'm so sorry, hang on".

She disappears again. There's something horrible about being very hungry and staring at your meal while being unable to eat it. Stomach's rumbling, you're salivating, you're so damn ready to dig in... but you can't.

After staring at our dinner for at least five minutes, I get up, go to the setup table and grab two full sets of silverware and napkins, and return to the table. We eat, waitress is MIA.

Twenty minutes after we've finished our meals, still no waitress. I get up and ask to see the manager. I tell her what happened and she accuses me of trying to steal the silverware. Blew my mind.

Suffice it to say, we've never gone back and have dissuaded lots of people from eating there.

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15. Serve Yourself

I got my food served to me. My Indian friend got told to pick hers up from the counter.

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14. Terrible Management

I was at an IHOP with my then fiancée having our usual Saturday IHOP treat meal. This location was always one of the better ones in terms of food quality and service, so we always went there.

That particular day was different however...very different. We had ordered our regular meals ( blueberry topped, stuffed crepes for me, and a bacon and ham scrambler for her), and shot the breeze for a bit while waiting. Everything was great so far, then the food came.

My crepes were cooked badly and cold, her scrambler is not the right one and also cold. We complained,(politely mind you, we liked this place after all) and wrote it off as a new cook. When the food comes out I notice right away that my blueberries are missing and the food is cold again.

We tell the waitress who gets the manager, who apologizes profusely and goes into the kitchen. We were seated in such a way that we saw the cook when the manager opened the door, and I noticed two things right away: 1) The cook is indeed new and 2) the cook clearly has a learning disability

The manager comes back to us and explains that the cook used to be the dishwasher but was shadowing one of the regular cooks and trying his best. The regular cook had called in sick that day leaving the special cook to fend for himself. The manager comped us and said that he tried to help but was to busy to constantly be back there. Then this happened.

The manager had one of the wait staff step in to cook while he BROUGHT THE DISABLED GUY TO OUR TABLE and had him tearfully apologize to us. That caused the manager to tear up as well as my SO. Then the manager FIRED THE GUY IN FRONT OF US! We of course left pronto.

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13. A Little Extra Protein

Not me, but my dad. I was about 4 years old at this time, and when you finished everything on your plate at this restaurant, kids under 8 or 9 would get a free lollipop.

While I was eating there with my folks and my sister, my father had ordered the 3-piece fish dinner. He was almost done with his meal and got to about the last bit of his lsat piece of fish and noticed something 'charred' in his fish. He picked at it and picked at it, then eventually just tore it open and right there, as plain as day, was a cockroach INSIDE this fish fillet. Dad stood up, threw it away, told the manager and just walked out.

On the car ride home I piped up and said as I was holding my lollipop up, "If you manned up and finished, you'd have a lollipop too!"

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12. Musical Tables

I had a reverse 'Fawlty Towers' in Naples a few years ago. I was there with my girlfriend and our hotel was situated above the restaurant. The first day of my stay there, we decided to have our meal here. I made the mistake of telling the head-waiter that we would stay in the hotel the rest of the week. So every evening that we walked out of our hotel he asked us if we would dine there again, while we were really more interested in trying out other places. So eventually I promised him that we would dine there again for the last day of our stay. The waiter then made us a reservation for the best table at the terrace.

That evening, as we went down to the restaurant, we had noticed this table was already occupied. No big deal to us, as there were plenty of other tables available. The head-waiter however, who tried to lure us in all week, immediately panicked when he noticed us. He went berserk at another waiter, who apparently gave the table away, and proceeded to remove the couple who sat at 'our' table. We tried to explain this really wasn't necessary, but he was insistent. So we stood there, really awkwardly, while this other poor couple saw their plates and glasses removed to a table in the back, while gently being pushed to the back of the restaurant as well.

The most ridiculous thing was that the head-waiter dramatically apologized to us, for giving 'our' table away. He did this three times, as if he insulted the Roman Emperor himself. At the end of the evening we received a discount. The other couple had been long gone by that time.

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11. Waiting For The Waiter

This waiter was so bad, it really just became funny.

1) 99%-100% certain he was on something during his shift.

2) He would just wander around aimlessly as we tried to get his attention. Start walking over to us, look over our heads as we tried to wave at him, and slowly turn and walk away.

3) When we ordered food, he brought the right dishes, but gave them to the wrong person, no big deal. As we are saying "oh, that one goes to him", he quickly says "oh sorry," gathers the dishes, and starts walking away! We are almost screaming at him trying to get him to come back, but he keeps walking. Thankfully he came back 5 minutes later, with the same food. NO idea what happened. So hungry after being teased with the food, we didn't even care if he spit in it.

4) When he came around for my next drink, I said "surprise me." This is a bar famous for having hundreds of brews. After 20 minutes, he brought me the same exact drink I just had. I was surprised!

5) Routinely brought us the wrong drinks, not even close. Probably what another table ordered. But he took so long and it was so hard to get his attention that we started just drinking whatever we got.

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10. Rock And Roll

Last week I went to a cheap little sushi place and ordered two rolls to go (I do this weekly). The waitress was pleasant but after about 30 minutes of waiting (it usually only takes 15) I asked her if my sushi was almost ready. She became huffy and told me I'll get it when I get it.

Then I started noticing people who came in after me were receiving their sushi so I asked her again. After about 50 minutes I told her my meter was running out and I'd like a refund and she told me she had no clue how to do that but gave me 4 quarters to pay the meter. I told her I wanted to speak to a manager and she told me that he wouldn't be in for over a week. After sitting and waiting for an hour and a half she told me she completely forgot to put my order in.

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9. Potato, Potahto

Ordering sides at a steakhouse.

Waitress: "Baked potato or fries?"

Me: "Fries please."

Waitress: "Okay, I'll repeat your order." Reads correct order from notepad.

Steak arrives with a baked potato.

Me: "Excuse me, I ordered fries."

Waitress: "No! You did not!"

Me: "Yes, I did."

Waitress: "Fine!!"

She proceeds to grab the baked potato with her bare hands off my plate and take it back to the kitchen.

Actually, come to think of it, thats probably the best restaurant experience I've had.

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8. Baloney In Bologna

We got scammed at a fake restaurant in Bologna. I can't believe we fell for it. The place got me by looking all bohemian and rustic, so of course you think it's a local place right? Plus it was off the beaten track. Usually these traps are right in a major tourist area.

Since it's right outside our bed and breakfast, I make a reservation. I should have known something was up when he wanted a deposit. If this happens to you in Italy, run, don't walk, towards the door. He's afraid that you will hear the truth about the restaurant when you tell someone you are going there and that you won't come for dinner.

Second warning sign - no prices anywhere. You are going to get hit with the idiot tax. And we did. Frozen entrees and old shell fish. I had the scariest spaghetti vongole ever - I swear the garlic was piled on to hide the stench of rotting seafood. My husband had an obviously frozen vegetable lasagna. The veggies for everything, including the antipasta, must have been weeks old.

The portions were huge, and very, very bad. The waiters are sweet as pie, because they know it's harder for you to complain when you are given a free drink here, a little extra dessert there. They know that you are on vacation and don't want to cause a scene in a country where you don't know the rules, and plus, you don't want to ruin such a nice evening. Oh yeah, they "don't speak English."

Then you get the bill. It's going to be double or triple any other place. Maybe quadruple. And there is nothing you can do. They may be getting their food from an illegal source, and you know that they are cheating on their taxes and relying on bribes to keep operating. So the police might even be on their side. You just pay that idiot tax and write a scathing review on Trip Advisor hoping that helps someone else.

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7. Gone In 60 Seconds

This wasn't the restaurant's fault, but it was the worst dining experience my husband and I have every had.

We decided to go to a very nice steak house on a whim. Valet park the car and go in. Place our order, apps come out and are great. We see the manager and the seating host going to every table, but they look very concerned; not the typical "How's your meal?" The manager gets out our table and he asks if we valet parked the car and we said yes. He then asks if it was a red Nissan. We said it was and I got a bad feeling when he said "was". He then asks us to follow him out front.

We get outside and there's a cop car. I'm thinking someone hit my car or something. NOPE! Two kids hopped in my car and took off! Right from the valet. I was in total shock as this had never happened to me before and it was a crappy 2004 Nissan!

The manager and head valet were falling over themselves apologizing. We got a free meal and they offered to pay for a cab.

My husband goes inside to fill out some paperwork and I'm sitting outside in shock. The cop pulls back up and said "We got 'em!" We got to ride in the back of a cop car to pick up mine in the middle of the hood. Felt like the movie 'Date Night' for a while. At least we got a free meal and a good story out of it.

Still haven't been back to the restaurant though.

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6. Why Did You Ask?

Two friends and I were eating out, having pizza. It took ages until we got it. When it finally arrived, it was cold and it didn't taste well at all. Each of us only managed to eat half (being very hungry because we had to wait so long - otherwise we would have given it back).

When the waiter asked us how it was when we paid, we explained what we didn't like about it. It came cold, some ingredients were overcooked, some were nearly raw, the crust was greasy. He insisted that we were wrong, that it must have been our bad taste, the food was always excellent.

We demanded the manager. He came and repeated the waiter's opinion- - with the addition of being very angry and personally insulted.

Never going there again.

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5. You Know You're Still On The Clock, Right?

We went to restaurant, a bit more than an hour before closing for a quick bite to eat.

Us: "Are your still taking orders for dinner?"

Waiter: "Yes!"

So we sat down. Almost instantly they packed up ALL the other tables, put the chairs on top of the tables, and started vacuuming. It was surreal! we were sitting in a maze of tables and chairs. We persisted and ordered quick and easy meals.

The food took nearly an hour to come out. The meals were all wrong, cold and horrible.

Worse still, our vegetarian friends ordered vegetarian panini. They came out loaded with pink stuff. We finally managed to call the waiter over.

Us: "Um, are your sure this is vegetarian?"

Waiter: [sigh] "I'll check."

The waiter leaves and comes back.

Waiter: "Yes, it's vegetarian."

Friend shrugs, takes one bite. The sandwich is filled with prosciutto and ham!

The kicker happens when we complain.

Us: "Excuse me, we ordered vegetarian panini. This is full of meat!"

Waiter: "Oh. The kitchen must have messed it up because I definitely wrote down vegetarian..." [Shrugs, walks away and doesn't come back.]

We wait because... wtf?! After walking off like that, surely our waiter is going to check on something or fix the problem. Nope. Turns out our waiter just decided to leave for the night.

I repeat: we arrived more than an hour before closing time.

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4. It's Safer To Flirt With Everyone

I took my husband (then boyfriend) out to dinner one night, my treat. When we sat down, the waitress was overly friendly with him, touching his shoulder, asking him what he wanted to order before me, and giggling at everything he said. In the beginning of the evening I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I was a server at the time at a different establishment and had seen my coworkers flirt with customers. I figured she probably thought he was paying and assumed she'd get a big tip if she paid more attention to him.

The experience was awful for me but fantastic for my husband. His food came exactly as he ordered it, his glass was always full, and anything he needed, she immediately went to retrieve from the kitchen. All the while I sat there with an order that was made wrong, my glass empty, and my request of ranch dressing forgotten. This goes without saying that I asked her every time she came to our table for whatever I needed, only for her to neglect fixing or bringing anything. Not only that, but who flirts with someone who is clearly on a date?

I made sure that I kept eye contact with her as I handed her the bill and the exact amount in cash. Her face fell when she realized she had been flirting with the wrong person throughout our meal.

Seriously, a word to all servers: don't assume the man is paying, and treat all patrons with the same amount of respect. Not only will you ensure everyone has a good experience, you won't offend the person paying and only receive $.01 as a tip like this girl did.

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3. Clean Your Plates

We travelled to Sicily and decided to get some pizza. Found a really nice place at the beach, where we could watch the sunset over the sea. We ordered our pizzas and everything seemed perfect.

Then the pizzas came and my boyfriend tasted his. First he thought his pizza had a funny seasoning and gave it a shot, but after a few bites he said his tongue began to tingle. I tried a few bites myself and it was a really weird sensation in my mouth. Like when something is really spicy, but more in an acidic kind of way.

So he tried to explain to a waitress something was off with the pizza. There was a huge language barrier, so in the end she took the pizza away and looked quite irritated. My boyfriend decided to walk towards the kitchen because we had the feeling they didn't understand our complaint. From my point of view, I saw different staff members rushing out of the kitchen, including a chef, who tried to explain something to my boyfriend in quite a panicky way.

Turns out their dishwasher was broken and all the plates where covered with highly concentrated dish soap. Their head chef ate some pizza and had to be picked up by an ambulance, fortunately we didn't get food poisoning and just left the restaurant with empty bellies.

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2. Not A Great Way To Meet People

I was eating with a female friend at a reasonably nice restaurant. Not posh, but expensive. Before we were seated we grabbed a drink at the bar, whilst there she signed up to some sort of newsletter at the bar. To be fair it was stuff like this that made me apprehensive to call the place "posh".

Anyways, we sit down and the girl I'm with gets a text telling her how beautiful she looks. She ignores it and another one comes through asking her what she's doing later. She hasn't got a clue who it is and ignores it.

We're finishing up our meal and a 3rd text comes through saying she shouldn't be with a guy like me and asking if she wanted dessert with a "real man"

Now it's clear someone in the restaurant has her number and we clocked that she had put it down on the application form for the newsletter. Considering the newsletters went into a box behind the bar it was a member of staff. After getting the manager down and him calling the number and pegging what member of staff it was it turned out one of the waiters had taken her number and address off this form, written it in his phone and had spent the evening taking pictures of her from behind the bar. The police ended up involved.

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1. The Drink Fuhrer

Once at a bar/restaurant the bartender mixed me a drink but didn't pass it to me before going into the back room. It's been seriously about 2 minutes, my drink is getting warm and my friends are waiting. So I reach over the bar and grab my drink. Out of absolutely nowhere, this bar back jumps all over me.

"HEY, ARE YOU JUST GONNA TAKE THAT?!"

"I paid for this drink, she just didn't hand it to me before she--"

"YOU WAIT THERE! TRACY!"

By this point, everyone in the bar is staring at me. Bartender Tracy re-emerges from the back, says plainly that it was my drink and walks away. I make a face, shook my head at the bar back, and said, "You're an idiot." Then I walked away.

The bar back followed me to my table telling me off the whole way.

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN DOING THAT, OKAY SIR? YOU WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING IF YOU WERE ME."

Like dude, it's over. I'm already back at the table with my friends. Do your job.

It was the restaurant of some expensive hotel in Houston. I wish I could remember the name so I could tell y'all not to go. That bar back really brought down my birthday.

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