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Your worst restaurant experience?

seeformiles said:
I worked in enough places (kitchens and front of house) to realise that good service and food is (usually) well rewarded (both tip-wise and in return visits) - apart from Monday night dining since that's when chefs from other restaurants eat out at other places and complain purely for the hell of it. Waiting on and cooking is a crap gig on a Monday!
Anyway, any place that does the things as related in some of the stories here must have nothing but contempt for their customers - and possibly has management equally contemptuous of their staff for them to be so demotivated.

We go out to eat in a byo booze curry house that is so cheap I wonder how they turn a profit sometimes. We got a takeaway delivered from them a couple of weeks ago. The total value of the food we ordered (absolutely shed-loads!) was about £15 (incl a tip). When they knocked at the door, the chap recognised me and said "Just give us a tenner mate". I gave him the £15 anyway and was delighted to discover that, as well as the food we'd ordered, there was loads of extra rice, naans, poppadoms and bhaajis that they'd thrown in for free. Now that's a Prince among Curry Houses (and an excellent way of keeping custom). I know that's not really the point of this thread but it's nice to see how it should be done sometimes! :)
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Any chance of giving their name? I reckon they deserve a mention after all that.
 
I never think of the worst. I've worked in enough reataurants to know that the people do their best. My favourite experience was in Dublin. Crab Cakes and the most beautiful Irish woman you'd ever see in the Mermaid Cafe.
 
MysteryGuest said:
Well I went to Il Bacio with a g/f once and it was shit. Despite booking, we were placed on a minuscule table by the bogs. 50 minutes to get a waiter to actually take the order, 40 minutes for OK but not great food to turn up, half an hour to get the bill (had to ask 3 times), ridiculously rude service. Was the first, and last time I ever went. Everybody always raves about that place as well. :confused:
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had an awful time there as well once, they seemed more interested in serving their friends tbh, took ages, they seemed to ignore us and serve their friends first, even had a rubbish service in their sandwich place when they took ages in there....:mad:

didn't go there for years after that - but the boycott didn't seem to work as they always seem busy:mad: so decided to give them another go, and they were actually very good:o
 
seeformiles said:
Don't be put off by its sparse interior and basic set up (and ignore the fancy curry house next door to it which serves some of the worst food I've ever had..) - its beauty is found in the eating!
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Wonder if they deliver to Bramley.:) The local curry places are not wonderful.
 
I had this Vile chinese from the chinese place in Sol Central. Big buffet style meal, no sweet and sour balls, no crispy duck and to cap it all no spring rolls. I was gutted.
 
seeformiles said:
The wonderful "Nazam's" down Woodhouse Street in Leeds! :)
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OMFG! That is so weird, I was about to bloody mention them after I read your post. They are absolute legends, and we always order from them. Plus I love the restaurant, love the formica tables and tiny bog that you can't turn round in, love the friendly staff, love how cheap it is, love the fact that the daal is like homemade, love the fact it's a 5 minute walk from home.

Do i know you... :hmm:or are you a stude?
 
claire said:
OMFG! That is so weird, I was about to bloody mention them after I read your post. They are absolute legends, and we always order from them. Plus I love the restaurant, love the formica tables and tiny bog that you can't turn round in, love the friendly staff, love how cheap it is, love the fact that the daal is like homemade, love the fact it's a 5 minute walk from home.

Do i know you... :hmm:or are you a stude?
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Might do - Do you drink in the Chemic? :)
 
I was once chased out of Cafe Boheme in Soho for not leaving a big enough tip! We left around 10% but he ran out afterwards saying it wasn't enough and if he didn't get 12.5%, he'd get fired.
 
I once had a meal in a restaurant in cambodia and looked down to find a large rat sitting next to my chair which was quite a shock!

Worst I've had in UK was a pub near Hampton Court. It took forever to arrive despite the pub being almost empty and everything was burnt and dry...vile.
 
Ship Inn in Stonehaven - Good meal but a fellow diner standing-up, staggering then falling down dead in the middle of the small narrow dining room was not encouraging & then his wife kneeling there wailling - "he's only 44" continually, whilst the ambulancemen worked on him was not condusive to good digestion.
 
seeformiles said:
I worked in enough places (kitchens and front of house) to realise that good service and food is (usually) well rewarded (both tip-wise and in return visits) - apart from Monday night dining since that's when chefs from other restaurants eat out at other places and complain purely for the hell of it. Waiting on and cooking is a crap gig on a Monday!
Anyway, any place that does the things as related in some of the stories here must have nothing but contempt for their customers - and possibly has management equally contemptuous of their staff for them to be so demotivated.

We go out to eat in a byo booze curry house that is so cheap I wonder how they turn a profit sometimes. We got a takeaway delivered from them a couple of weeks ago. The total value of the food we ordered (absolutely shed-loads!) was about £15 (incl a tip). When they knocked at the door, the chap recognised me and said "Just give us a tenner mate". I gave him the £15 anyway and was delighted to discover that, as well as the food we'd ordered, there was loads of extra rice, naans, poppadoms and bhaajis that they'd thrown in for free. Now that's a Prince among Curry Houses (and an excellent way of keeping custom). I know that's not really the point of this thread but it's nice to see how it should be done sometimes! :)
Click to expand...


<Edited 'cos I'm too stupid to read on after a post and see if someone has already asked the question I want to ask...>
 
Had a bad experience at a gastro pub type place last weekend, first (and now last) time I will go in one of those places. The food was really quite good, but the service was really bad. My brother got a dirty look when he said that his Fosters was flat, and they needed to change the barrel, in fairness the waiter did get him a new one after asking his supervisor. The meal took 50 minutes to come, which is pretty excessive really. We then ordered deserts, waited twenty five minutes, only to be told that the cheesecake I ordered was unavailable. That pissed me off severely, why does it take 25 minutes to find this out? So we scrapped the deserts, and left.
 
cliche guevara said:
Had a bad experience at a gastro pub type place last weekend, first (and now last) time I will go in one of those places. The food was really quite good, but the service was really bad. My brother got a dirty look when he said that his Fosters was flat, and they needed to change the barrel, in fairness the waiter did get him a new one after asking his supervisor. The meal took 50 minutes to come, which is pretty excessive really. We then ordered deserts, waited twenty five minutes, only to be told that the cheesecake I ordered was unavailable. That pissed me off severely, why does it take 25 minutes to find this out? So we scrapped the deserts, and left.
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To be fair though, what sort of knowitall pillock would tell the bar that the Fosters barrel seeds changing because it was flat. It's generally going to get your back up hearing that behind the bar because it's almost certainly wrong - empty barrels froth everywhere. Flat beer's usually means that the gas canister needs changing or that the glass is dirty to begin with. Or that you're drinking the flat crap that is Fosters to begin with.

Making that complaint in a gastropub, where it's likely to be more real ale than ersatz Aussie lager, is almost bound to get you noticed for all the wrong reasons/

:P
 
cliche guevara said:
We then ordered deserts, waited twenty five minutes, only to be told that the cheesecake I ordered was unavailable. That pissed me off severely, why does it take 25 minutes to find this out?
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One pub took 45 minutes find out whether they could make me a BLT roll. In the end, they came to the conclusion that the chef wasn't in. Did they have to open each drawer and cupboard in the kitchen before thay winkled that fact out, I wonder? :rolleyes:
 
tarannau said:
To be fair though, what sort of knowitall pillock would tell the bar that the Fosters barrel seeds changing because it was flat. It's generally going to get your back up hearing that behind the bar because it's almost certainly wrong - empty barrels froth everywhere. Flat beer's usually means that the gas canister needs changing or that the glass is dirty to begin with. Or that you're drinking the flat crap that is Fosters to begin with.
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Foster's is a lager, it's meant to be fizzy. They sorted it out, the next one had a head and bubbles. And hearing that the products you provide aren't living up to their full potential shouldn't "get your back up" unless you're a jerk. And if so, you shouldn't be working in the service industry.

And yes, Fosters is crap, but my brother is young and doesn not drink ales.
 
Did any of your party say to the bar something along the lines of 'This Fosters is crap, you've got change the barrel' or not?


Saying the Fosters is flat is one thing - you should certainly receive another one, although Fosters is particularly crap at retaining head - but telling the bar staff that they need to change a barrel to deal with it would mark you out as a bit of an ignoramus.
 
Another pub experience was where they served me a piss-warm bottle of lager (don't start) and I asked if they could get me a cold one - which they went and did. Fair enough - but why not serve up the cold ones to start with? Why serve warm lager when you've got nice chilled ones? What's the point?
 
tarannau said:
Did any of your party say to the bar something along the lines of 'This Fosters is crap, you've got change the barrel' or not?


Saying the Fosters is flat is one thing - you should certainly receive another one, although Fosters is particularly crap at retaining head - but telling the bar staff that they need to change a barrel to deal with it would mark you out as a bit of an ignoramus.
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I can't remember, I don't know about this sort of thing, although my brother has worked in a restaurant so I assume he'd know that, so although my post says that he asked them to change the barrel that may not be the case, it was just my assumption as to the problem.
 
Mine was a local balti house. Been going there for years, cheap and cheerful, good grub too. It had undergone several changes of management over those years. This final one dealt the fatal blow, I'm afraid.

My balti was so salty I couldn't finish it. Then when I got home I spent the whole night throwing up. I don't eat meat, so I know it wasn't an undercooked meat issue. Might have been a reheated rice issue, but I doubt they'd risk doing that. Anyway, never been there since. It's a shame.
 
The worst has to be Bertorelli in Covent Garden. The dish I ordered claimed to be penne with roasted vegetables and taleggio sauce. What I got was macaroni and cream with shavings of carrot, and one courgette shaving. I can't remember what my other half ordered but it was equally inedible. And it cost £40 :eek: :eek: ! We weren't in the mood to complain, but should have.

I'm sure I can think of worse. There was a cafe I used to have lunch at every day, for 3 years or something, every day, and they still got my order wrong half the time, and would look at me like I was crazy for sending it back. I mean, surely you should treat your regulars with a little respect, they're paying your income ffs!

And another place in Crouch End, Moroccan themed. We hadn't realised there was 'entertainment' scheduled, but about 10 minutes after our drinks came, music started blaring out of these speakers. It was so loud my ears were in pain. I shouted at them that this was clearly above the legal limit, but they didn't care, so we walked. I meant to report them, it really was ridiculous. I couldn't believe people actually enjoy that. Not me even at a club, but certainly not at dinner.
 
AHH! The pinnacle: Last year after Fleet (Hampshire) half marathon, we went in search of an old country pub for some seriously well deserved Sunday lunch. All the pubs were packed, so we went walking, and finally just walked into one. They weren't that busy, but I guess they couldn't handle the numbers they had. He warned us when we ordered it might take a while, but 2 roast dinners took 2:30 to arrive. I ran 13.1 miles well faster than they could microwave roast beef, and I'm not so speedy!! We were too tired to go elsewhere, and there was no point complaining because they clearly knew they were useless. I think they gave it to us for free, needless to say it was awful.
 
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