spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

Mine was at pasta pasta in port jeff. I live about 100 feet away from it, so I've obviously been there several times....

They're $$$, so you expect good service and food, right? WRONG. The waitstaff is prepetually snotty, you routinely wait 50 min between ordering and receiving your appetizer... even at lunch time!... but here was the final kicker....

We ordered a bottle of wine on a friday night. They pour a sip for tasting, and it was spoiled Fine, stuff happens... just replace it, right? well, they started ARGUING with us saying that this is the way the wine should taste My response, I agree, it tastes PERFECT..... to pour on a salad! They just wouldn't let it go, and we refused to drink vinegar.

not going back.... I am MUCH happier at Toast next door!
never again!

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

How obnoxious! Even if they truly felt the wine was 'perfect' they should have honored the fact that you were unhappy and given you the option to choose another bottle!

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

We went to this restaurant in Old Town in San Diego.. a mexican place obviously - and we ordered sangria (which never came) and asked for glasses of water LITERALLY 8 times.. those never came either. If that wasn't enough, DH ordered a chicken dish and as soon as he cut into the chicken the entire inside was RAW! The outside was grilled, but the inside was raw! Of course we sent it back... my salad was soggy and disgusting. Then they tried to CHARGE US for the raw chicken that we sent back!!!

Another bad experience.. but not the worst...

We went to this restaurant and ordered molten chocolate cake for dessert. I stuck my fork into the top and the inside wasn't even gooey or melty AT ALL - so we sent it back. We get the SAME dish back after obviously having just been stuck in the microwave (the cake was STEAMING and the plate was hot too!) and now with a piece of brittle in the spot where we had stuck our forks.

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

worst waiter experience: outback in new jersey when we were there over the summer for kenneth. it wasn't outback's fault - just the waiter they hired. when you NEVER get the items you ordered it is pretty bad and then to get the check and see those items you did not eat on the bill - that's even worse!! lol we had to tell the manager, umm we didn't eat these! also, we are still waiting for our salad and the meal is OVER hahaha.

worst overall experience: applebee's in commack. this was before i met DH! my BF at the time and i were there - for lunch. it took 17 MINUTES -- we clocked it after we realized it was taking forever -- so, that long for a waiter to APPROACH us!!! we were just about to leave but figured, now that they know we are here it'll be fine. well, it took ten minutes for the drinks to come out - we ordered an app and two wraps. we were waiting and waiting - nothing. finally, we got a manager because it appeared our waiter passed away... the manager kind of muttered a "sorry" and said she was going to get our food. TEN MINUTES LATER... still no APP let alone a meal. allllll this waiting and we could have had three meals! finally, after getting the manager AGAIN the APP and the WRAPS CAME TOGETHER and were cold once you bit into the wraps!!!! we complained to the manager AGAIN and my BF at the time said he was about to walk out - and had NEVER had to do that before ever. what was ironic is that my BF at the time manages a chain restaurant and are direct competition for applebees -- he said, this is just TERRIBLE, overall, and no excuses for any of it. he was shocked! so, the manager said she was going to comp the meal -- OK, that makes it a little better i GUESS that at least she tried to do the 'right' thing after the disaster -- well, the check came from a random waiter and it was a regular check with the stuff we had on it!!!!!!!

we were SO shocked that at this point we were laughing thinking we were on hidden camera -- my BF at the time actually paid it - just to get out of there because we didn't see the manager to say something and at that point, we were so fed up that he paid it and left! i was surprised that he did that - we should have walked out numerous times! i thought i'd never go back but - amazingly - i did. it took me a long time before i went back but i eventually did - it is like crack lol especially when you are hungry, it's late and you just want something quick -- crapplebee's is on every corner it seems.

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

These are the first two that popped in my head.

The first was at Cafe on the Green in Baybridge. We were going there for mother's day - made reservations a couple of weeks in advance which required a credit card hold. I don't remember the time of our reservation but say it was 4:00. We got there at 3:30 so we could check in and have drink before we eat. We didn't get our table until 5:00. Ok it's mother's day, clearly they are crowded but still - an hour late?? We let it go so we could enjoy our meal.

We sit down at about the same time as a larger group next to us. It was a limited menu with three choices for each course - starter, entree, dessert. After about 20 minutes someone came and took our order including another round of drinks and the waiter took the order for the people next to us at the same time.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock.
The people next to us gets their starter.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock
We get our drinks.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock
The people next to us gets their entree.
WE NEVER GOT FOOD! We were seated for an hour. We ended up walking out and went to the Chinese restaurant near by. There was never an apology or anything just shoulder shrugs.

The PS to that story is I used to work with someone that was friends with the owner or someone high up and asked if I ever went there once he found out where I lived. OMG, I completely flipped because it was such an awful experience. He went back to his friend and told him what happened (this was years later) and the guy offered to comp us dinner because he felt so bad. I hear such nice things about the place but you couldn't pay me to eat there.


~~~~~~~
The other was this grill type place that used to be on Northern Blvd. I ordered a steak medium well. I prefer medium (a little pink) but I always order it medium well because restaurants have a tendancy to under cook steak for fear of overcooking it. I get my dinner and the steak is rare - purple/red rare. I can't eat that. I send it back. 10 minutes later, it's just blood red now. Still no. I sent it back again just to be a b!tch - I don't even want it anymore. My dinner companion was done with their dinner and who really wants to eat something that has been cooked three times?? It came out again wrong.

I call over the manager who explains to me that this is what restaurants do so the customer doesn't get over cooked meat. Sorry lady, but I thought restaurants are supposed to prepare food the way customers order it since that is what they want to eat. She keeps going on and on about how this is how it should be done. I suppose that's how it should be done for restaurants with chefs that don't know how to cook to order. I don't know it was absurd.


I was so angry with how it was handled - the manager tried to make it my fault for not understanding how restaurants work. If they said "Hey, sorry we are having a bad day back there, what else can we get you?" "Can we buy you some dessert? or an after dinner drink?" I would have been fine. But they did nothing to try to make it right. They even tried to charge me for the dinner I didn't eat. I was served the fries that came with it and they even mentioned that fact when I said I wasn't paying for the steak.

I wrote a letter to the owner to describe how terrible my experience was and poorly everything was handled by everyone in the restaurant.

Message edited 4/3/2009 2:31:47 PM.

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

DH and I went to Johnny Rockets in the Deer Park Outlets during holiday shopping. We expected not so great service because of the nature of the restaurant and the time of the year. It was exacerbated by the fact our waitress was training another waitress.

The food comes and DH had asked for his mayo on the side. It comes in the little plastic cup. It has something green in it. We ***think it is a waylaid pickle. After 5 minutes the waitress comes over, we show it to her and she leaves with it. She returns, drops the mayo and disappears. SHE PICKED THE PICKLE (?) OUT AND RETURNED THE SAME MAYO CUP!!!!

Needless to say, DH couldn't eat.

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

My family and I were in Crabby Jacks in Florida. I happen to like the restaurant and so does my dad, but the rest of my family isn't too crazy about it. We order sodas, they came out and my dad's tasted funny, the waitress came over with a snotty attitude, TOOK A SIP from HIS CUP and said that it tasted fine. We were all like WTH? Was she being serious?? To top it off, when our salads came, my SIL's had a nice dead fly lying mixed in with the lettuce We haven't been back since!!

To make up for the inconvienence they gave my SIL a free dessert. And for the icing on the cake...my mom charged the bill to her debit card and left a cash tip, I guess the waitress wasn't thirlled with her tip (especially after she drank out of my dad's cup!) and took it upon herself to add her own tip and charge extra to my mom's debit card! From then on, I ALWAYS make sure to cross out the TIP: ____ section of a CC receipt and/or write cash in that line!

Message edited 4/4/2009 1:17:23 AM.

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

Serendipity 3 in the city. We waited 2 hours for a table (which is the norm for that place, so I had high expectations based on the wait time). The table was dirty, there were flies EVERYWHERE, and my burger tasted awful. I was so upset because our friends raved about it and I was so grossed out.

Message edited 4/5/2009 4:01:38 PM.

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

Posted by wannabemom

Mine was at pasta pasta in port jeff. I live about 100 feet away from it, so I've obviously been there several times....

They're $$$, so you expect good service and food, right? WRONG. The waitstaff is prepetually snotty, you routinely wait 50 min between ordering and receiving your appetizer... even at lunch time!... but here was the final kicker....

We ordered a bottle of wine on a friday night. They pour a sip for tasting, and it was spoiled Fine, stuff happens... just replace it, right? well, they started ARGUING with us saying that this is the way the wine should taste My response, I agree, it tastes PERFECT..... to pour on a salad! They just wouldn't let it go, and we refused to drink vinegar.

not going back.... I am MUCH happier at Toast next door!
never again!

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

My gross experience was a Bertucci's over by old country road. The Brick oven pizza place. Honestly I was never a fan of it bc I hate that they leave you pizza next to your table in a busy aisle where everyone passes as the walk to their tables and rubs up against it.

But the last time (and final time) we were there i was eating my pizza and for some reason looked on the back of it and MELTED to it was this HUGE daddy long legged spider!!!!!!!!!!

i mean it was HUGE, no joke. I gagged on what i was chewing and called the waitress right over.

Told her we are done, showed her the GROSS pizza and she had the nerve to BRING US THE CHECK!!!!!

Obviously we never went back there and i still get the chills when we pass there!!!

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

This thread I can add too.

When I was in college upstate, I went out to eat with 3 other friends. Two of us are white, and the other two are latino. The waitress gave us the WORST service I have ever had. First, she was annoyed that we already had drinks, because we sat at the bar while we waited for a table. Once we ordered, and she started serving food, she was basically throwing things on the table. My steak came out wrong, but of course it was my fault as she huffed and puffed back to the kitchen.

We just enjoyed ourselves and didn't let her get to us, but the kicker came when she dropped the check. As she gave us the check, she said gratuity should be at least 15%, would you like me to figure that into the bill for you you? (Now mind you, this is NOT the practice of this restaurant at all. She saw four young college kids and figured we didn't know how to tip. Little did she know that I was a waitress and we all tip very well.) I simply said, no we can handle it, and lets just say her tip did not equal 15%.

I later actually ended up working at this restaurant and got to know this woman. She was in her late 50's and racist. Anytime she had any table of a different race she assumed they would not tip her well. Anytime she had young kids she assumed the would not tip her well.

She taught me that there are some people you can't change in this world, some people will always think they are right, and that no matter who I am taking care of, talking to, or whatever, that I should treat them how I want to be treated because you don't know their story. She showed me how true the line don't judge a book by its cover is.

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

oh, I forgot, I have a 2nd story.... I forget the name of the place, but it's the 'classy' restuarant in athens airport...
we were all excited to go there on our honeymoon... and we had time to kill before our conecting flight... so we 'treated ourselves'... what a mistake. we walked in (7pm), and they were cleaning half of the restaurant floors... they ignored us for 10 min, and when we finally asked to be seated, they sat us in booth #1, then moved us to #2, and 15 min later to #3.... 30 min later, still no menu .... 45 min later, still no waitress ... finally they took our order.... 30 min later still no drink ... it took another hour for our food to arrive (we were about to walkout w/o paying for the drinks)... the whole time the waitresses are literally storming around with MAJOR attitudes... never, I repeat NEVER again the only time in my life that we left no tip.

This really nice austrian man with his kids literally told them off and stormed out outside, he asked us 'what the #ell was THAT?!' we'll never know....

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

FH and I went to Taste one Sunday morning, probably about a year ago. We arrived right behind another couple. It took forever for someone to come over and ask us how many, etc. The woman writes down the couples name in front of us, and then ours....all the while we can see right into the dining room that there are several empty tables. We waited an hour to be seated. So we sit and start looking at the menu-we're sitting there for a good half hour before someone even comes and takes our order (and our waiter wound up being someone I went to high school with, so I felt bad being rude).
Took FOREVER for our food to come out. And when it did we didn't have any silverware and had to wait another 10 minutes for that. Although the food was really good, I wouldn't go back there just based on how bad the service was.

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?

Planet Hollywood in NYC

A live green worm was in my Cesar Salad. Thank GOD I am a person who inspects my food and dig through it before, during and after eating it because it would have blended right in.

I called the waiter over, didn't make a scene. I believe he had to talk to the manager to make sure it was really a worm or something bizarre like that. IT was moving and all.

All they offered me was a glass of wine! The waiter was quite rude about it.

I was so disgusted, it ruined the entire night

Re: spin-off: what was your worst restaurant experience?