Worst restaurant ever?

[ohyes]

aw gee....i have a Denny's story, too...

Last time we ate at one was about 5 years ago after a baseball game. Our DS, 18 at the time, returned from the restroom, pretty white faced.

A Denny's employee had asked him to look at his pee. "What does it mean when it's cloudy like this?"

Traumatizing for all of us, but especially for DS.

 

[rbmrtn]

Murray's BBQ in Raleigh, though I never ate there myself. They kept the vinegar based pork BBQ in a big vat. When it got low, they would just add more, and apparently never emptied and cleaned the vat.

That reminded me of a place in Memphis, Dyers Burgers, they deep fry the burgers in supposedly 100yr old grease. Never been there but reported to be great burger.

 

[timo2]

In 1983 DW and I were visiting Jackson, WY and stopped for breakfast at this downtown restaurant I had eaten at several years earlier. Nice rustic looking place, all stained wood with elk horns decorating everywhere. Except this time was different. We arrived about 10 am- inbetween breakfast and lunch, so the place was almost empty. And nearly every table was un-bussed, and every plate on every un-bussed table had partially eaten food on it (obviously we missed THAT clue). Our food came, and we could barely get a few bites down, before we realized how terrible it was. And our food became added to the collection of uneaten food distributed around the tables of the restaurant. On the way out was when we noticed the state of all the other tables. DOH!

 

[Badger]

I'm in the middle of an extended road trip and this post encouraged me to go to the grocery store and put together a hotel room special dinner for tonight. After decades on the road I prefer to not know what's going on when I dine out.

A few times while traveling we have stopped at Costco for a roasted chicken or pizza. After watching Kitchen Nightmares or the local TV station's restaurant reports a few times and having worked in a few restaurants and country clubs one tends to get a little nervous about eating in restaurants.

Cheers!

 

[braumeister]

In college, I worked summers at the last Howard Johnson's that was actually owned by HJ himself (all the others were franchised and operated by HJ Junior). Howard lived in Florida, but came up north every year just to show his face and check things out.

Our ham salad was one of our best sellers. The state law in those days was that 40% of the meat in ham salad had to actually be ham. There was no specific requirement for what the rest of it could be. So....

Whenever a piece of meat (mostly frankfurters, but whatever) fell to the floor in the kitchen, it was immediately tossed in the grinder and wound up in the ham salad.

I'll always remember one day when we were about to be visited by the health department inspectors. There was a regular sequence to their visits, so each restaurant owner would call the next guy on the list to warn him.

Our manager grabbed the tray of ham salad and handed it to the newest employee. He said "Here, take this and go away for about three hours. Don't come back before then; I don't care where you go as long as it's away from here."

By the time he returned, the health inspectors had finished their visit, and the ham salad tray was returned to its place for further sales.

I have a LOT of stories from that place.

 

[timeasterday]

A few times while traveling we have stopped at Costco for a roasted chicken or pizza.

Costco pizza is one of my favorites, especially for the price. I always make sure to tell them I want something that just came out of the oven.

For my wife & I our worst experience has been Joe's Crab Shack. Bad service, mediocre food, and we both ended up with food poisoning. Never, ever going back there.

Ruby Tuesday is 2nd worst just for service. I think their food is OK but we always seem to wait forever for our "server."

 

[haha]

Here's mine:

deutsches restaurant in tokyo - YouTube

The food was quite tasty, but a HUGE rat ran down a column and onto our table. As we left, I saw another huge rat running out the front door, pictured in the video. I swear that rat was at least 0.5 kg.

I think you win.

 

[Meadbh]

Thanks Ha!

It was a sumo rat.....

Meadbh

Eating at home a lot lately......

 

[Grainiac]

To me it seems that mentioning any US restaurant here just proves you are really spoiled. I had several experiences with the late soviet era Russian and Polish railway station restaurants in early 80's and the culinary experiences were "remarkable". The items on the plate were named such as mashed potatoes, dumplings, ground meat burger, etc., but did not have any recognizable appearance, texture or flavor to resemble the name. However, the food was served piping hot so presumably safe, and cost less than $0.05 per plate so I emptied my plates just as you can expect a 19 year old backpacker would.

Also, to one-up on the list of rodent stories: about 10 years ago I was having dinner in one of the best Chinese restaurants in Manila, and a rodent size of an adult cat (not familiar with the local species) came through the kitchen door and ran across the main restaurant floor. The white coat wearing wait staff chased the thing out the front door and most of the restaurant patrons were highly amused. The food was absolutely delicious and nobody in my dinner party got sick.

Now, having been an adventurous eater and global traveler in the past I could tell you about the half dozen food poisonings I have had, but since they were not all that bad culinary experiences (during the first pass) I will just skip that one.

 

[clifp]

It was long ago, but I'd have to put the Russian Tea Room in New York near the top of my list. Shockingly overpriced, inedible food, and execrable service. I have no idea why it's famous.

I was there probably 20 years ago on the companies dime, and while the location was terrific and the ambiance nice. I remember being completely underwhelmed.

I also think the same about Ruth Chris Steakhouses. I think I've eaten their 4 times in 3 cities and always felt it was overpriced and the steaks only a couple steps up from Sizzler.

 

[Original Wally]

ANY "restaurant" on a cruise ship.

Blechhh.......!!!!!!!!! Glop.

Completely disagree. We were on Oceania's Riveria and the "special" restaurants were superb. The main restaurant was more than adequate and even the outdoor grill was good.

I think it might depend on the cruise line.

 

[clifp]

To me it seems that mentioning any US restaurant here just proves you are really spoiled. I had several experiences with the late soviet era Russian and Polish railway station restaurants in early 80's and the culinary experiences were "remarkable". The items on the plate were named such as mashed potatoes, dumplings, ground meat burger, etc., but did not have any recognizable appearance, texture or flavor to resemble the name. However, the food was served piping hot so presumably safe, and cost less than $0.05 per plate so I emptied my plates just as you can expect a 19 year old backpacker would.

Ah well I was in the Soviet Union in 1989 and then Russia, Ukraine in 1992.
But I don't think the calorie distribution facilities on the first trip would qualify as restaurants by any reasonable definition of the term.

Now by 1992, some of the new private places were actually edible, with a tasty dish or two, although a far cry from good.

Honestly I had completely blocked the food part of my Russian trip, which I still remember fondly, from my memory. But your description is pretty much spot on, now never speak of it again

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Reading some of these sparked a memory of a Waffle House in Vicksburg, MS, almost 30 years ago. I was sitting at the counter late one night when the waitress who was wiping the counter spotted a cockroach, swatted it with the rag she was using then continued to wipe as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

I've only had food poisoning twice. Each time was a (different) redneck barbecue place in BF Georgia. Never again, no matter how good other folks tell me it is.

For another side of the story check out www.stainedapron.com. Not sure when the last time was that site was updated but it still gives me a chuckle, even though I never waited tables. (Today's ad there says, "Borrow from IRA/401k- Buy Real Estate & More- Checkbook Control" so I guess it's on-topic.)

 

[Nodak]

In my first post on this subject I should have mentioned why the restaurant was shut down. One day the patrons started hearing terrible noises from the kitchen. It was discovered that the owner was slaughtering rabbits to prepare rabbit stew for the next day's menu.