Worst restaurant ever?

[Meadbh]

I happened to come across this withering restaurant review in the Telegraph:

Restaurant review: Ten Room, Café Royal, London - Telegraph

What was the worst restaurant you ever ate at?

 

[ls99]

Taco Bell. Not exactly upscale, but did succeed in giving me food poisoning.

Edit add: On further thought, there was a place in Owings Mills MD, pretending to be a NY upscale restaurant with burl wood veneer, fairly good food, served by surly waiters at exorbitant prices. My tip reflected the quality of service, 5%.

 

[cantlogin]

Antelao.

An all around miserable experience.
I'm qualified to pronounce that this is a very bad restaurant because I've eaten in more than a few bad restaurants.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

This can't be serious.

Bad restaurants have cold french fries and chicken you get sick eating.

Bad restaurants are ungodly expensive no matter what they serve. There are lots of them in London.

The lighting didn't suite him? Oh, dear.

I live on another planet it seems.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I ate in a restaurant in West Virginia where we saw a mouse run across the floor. I didn't get sick.

I ate in a guest house in India with dog poop on the floor. I did not get food poisoning.

We used to eat out a lot in Houston. A friend's wife was a veterinarian who worked as a restaurant inspector. She wouldn't eat out anywhere.

Just observations about sensibilities.

 

[Lcountz]

Tail o' the Pup near Lake Placid NY.....

 

[MichaelB]

Ed, I think you're on to something. A truly bad restaurant offends one's health. Been in a few of those, almost all in the US, which is unexpected given my propensity to try new and strange foods when on the road abroad.

 

[dmpi]

I've only been food poisoned at high end restaurants. I suspect it has to do with fresh vs. frozen.

 

[easysurfer]

Bob Evans.

I'm sure not all of them are bad, but the one where I had breakfast one time.

...Let's just say, I never went back there again.

 

[lemming]

Ruby Tuesdays We had trout almondine once that was breaded and possibly deep fried, curled up like whiting . Then (why did I go back) I got some veggies that had turned to a mush . I'm sure they had been on a steam table all week.

I thought the review for London was trying for a laugh and feedback for the publicity.

 

[Meadbh]

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.

 

[imoldernu]

When we first bought into our Senior Community in Florida, we soon became hosts for potential buyers. The deal was two free nights, a pontoon boat tour of the lakes, and deluxe dinner. The accepted "best" restaurant in town, (now closed) was the choice. The new couple were very excited, and we were pretty sure they'd buy. It was an elegant night... wine, lobster, steaks etc... Half way through the meal... (the new couple were sitting across from DW and me in a booth)... we saw it. Aargh!
What to do?
Crawling up the back of the booth, behind the lady guest, was a medium sized Palmetto bug (cockroach). DW and I spotted it right away, but our guests were totally unaware. We watched, awestruck as the bug crawled in a few circles, then down on to our guest's dress... shoulder, then down the front and around the side. The crisis passed... the night was a success... our consciences have bothered us ever since.
BTW... they bought, and we received a free meal voucher for the 2nd best restaurant.

What would you have done?

"There once was a man from Carew,
Who found a large mouse in his stew...
Said the waiter "Don't Shout,
And wave it about, or the rest
Will be wanting one too."

 

[DeborahB]

A really upscale restaurant in Seattle that shall remain nameless. I got food poisoning - my SO was fine - and I spent the night barfing into the porcelain throne. In a hotel. BAD!!!

 

[Meadbh]

What would you have done?

"There once was a man from Carew,
Who found a large mouse in his stew...
Said the waiter "Don't Shout,
And wave it about, or the rest
Will be wanting one too."

Nice limerick!

As to what I would have done, I was in a similar situation with a group of 7-8 people at the German restaurant in Tokyo. I and one other person saw the rat scurry across the table just as we were waiting for the check. The rest of the group were in an animated discussion and missed it completely. (The beer may have had something to do with it). The two of us who saw it locked eyes, came to a decision, and simply stood up and said "let's go!" When we got outside, we told our friends, who thought we were crazy because "this is Japan, for God's sake,it's clean". At which point I spotted the second rat looking at us from the entrance and calmly pointed it out. Ewwww!

Nobody got sick, thank goodness, but when we returned to our hotel I called the public health department to report it.

 

[Midpack]

I suppose many remember this review from last Nov. The most scathing restaurant review I've ever seen from a mainstream media source, it's worth a read/laugh if you haven't already read it. I guess the critic was pissed!

Ouch... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/d...-bar-in-times-square.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[urn2bfree]

No horrendous experience jumps to mind but I have never been favorably impressed by the miraculously popular, large ashtrays that exist around the country under the name Waffle House

 

[Midpack]

No horrendous experience jumps to mind but I have never been favorably impressed by the miraculously popular, large ashtrays that exist around the country under the name Waffle House

About 20 years ago, DW and I were eating breakfast at the counter in a Waffle House (4210 Lakeland Hills Blvd Lakeland, FL 33805). A server came behind the counter with 3 plates she'd cleared and scraped the grits off 2 plates diners had left into the (community) warming tray on the counter (servers dished out the grits as plates left the kitchen). Must have been store policy as she didn't make any attempt to hide what she did, seemingly routine. We were too surprised to notify the manager, and again it appeared to be SOP. Maybe an employee suggestion made by the dishwashers?

Anyone want to propose a moral to this story?

BTW, DW had ordered grits, I hadn't...

 

[Nodak]

The worst restaurant I ever tried is, thankfully, no longer in operation. The proprietor was eating my french fries off the plate while carrying it to my table.

 

[Sue J]

Joe's Crab Shack.

When it opened there were lines out the door and long waits so we waited a few weeks and tried the place out. Everything was great. We came back another time and the crab legs were still partially frozen and my corn on the cob was so overcooked that it was garbage.

Family was visiting from out of town and wanted to try it. Everything was mediocre and a SIL ordered a fish dinner that was inedible. If it had been good to excellent the price would have been justified but it was crappy and expensive.

Never went back and later the place closed and was replaced by a Chik-Fil-A.

How hard is it to steam frozen crab legs until they are not frozen any more? How talented does a chef need to be to cook corn? Thankfully, I can boil water so I don't need to pay someone else to do it for me.

 

[Lisa99]

Quaker Steak and Lube. NASCAR themed 'bar and grill. Advertised their wings as being the best in the country. They looked and tasted like chicken McNuggets from McDonalds only at many times the price.

Once and done on this restaurant.

 

[grasshopper]

Taco Bell. Not exactly upscale, but did succeed in giving me food poisoning.

Edit add: On further thought, there was a place in Owings Mills MD, pretending to be a NY upscale restaurant with burl wood veneer, fairly good food, served by surly waiters at exorbitant prices. My tip reflected the quality of service, 5%.

Must have been Linwood's near the T Rowe Price campus. Sorry if you had a bad experience. An old roommate ran the liquor end of the business about 1992 or so, we were there on opening night.

 

[Original Wally]

May I nominate two?

Denny's. Dunno what they do, but their breakfasts give me... ummm.. the runs. I refuse to eat there. Unless, I suppose, I am constipated.

A local place (thankfully gone) that was called Atruro's Mexican. They had a "strolling" musician that was truly horrible. The food was OK, but he offset it in spades.

 

[karluk]

Strictly speaking this may not qualify as a "restaurant", but far and away the worst pizza I've ever eaten was at Ocean Park in Hong Kong. It appeared to have been repeatedly heated and reheated until the toppings looked like a solid slab of indigestible cheese with various discolorations that may, or may not, have been other ingredients.

And this was in Hong Kong, mind you - a place known for some of the finest Chinese restaurants in the world. The lesson I took away was to stick to the local cuisine. After all, that's what they've been cooking for centuries, and presumably know how to do it right.

The worst local restaurant experience I've ever had was due to poor service, not bad food. The food was below average, but I would have quickly forgotten the meal if not for the two hour wait after being seated.

 

[youbet]

I've only been food poisoned at high end restaurants..

I've had Salmonella twice....... and that was two times too many!

1. A high tier river front restaurant in St Charles, Illinois. (But the view from the elevated deck was nice.)

2. A quaint and attractive restaurant in Hamburg where I should have stayed away from the featured plate of cold sliced meats. Thought I was going to die. The morning after the meal I flew from Hamburg to Singapore via Amsterdam. (Lots of hours in the airplane.......) I had one of the washrooms tied up at least 25% of the time. I learned quite a lot about medical providers in Singapore and found them to be excellent.

 

[audreyh1]

The pickings are horrendously slim in the small rural towns of Texas. We've avoided many places, and learned to stock up well on the food in our RV before heading out into the boonies (one reason why traveling rural TX requires an RV). You can usually count on a decent meal in a TX BBQ place - otherwise you are out of luck.

Anyway, before our RVing days, we were stuck with whatever diner/restaurant existed in a given town, and sometimes there was only one! Never could bring ourselves to eat at DQ which is ubiquitous in TX. One town only had a Golden Corral, and for some reason that one really sticks out on my "never again!" list. Only yellow food? The Golden Corral buffet in McAllen, TX is totally packed every time we drive by even though there are several much better places nearby, and I just shake my head and wonder - why? why?