Worst restaurant ever?

[ls99]

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.

Bingo!

A third was the NCO club in Frankfurt Rhein Main airbase circa 1970. I ordered steak, shoe leather would have been easier to chew.

By the way, I predict this will be one of the longest threads, without porky.

 

[grasshopper]

Bingo!

Maryland Public TV studios were 3-4 miles away, Uncle Lou Rukeyser was seen there more than a few times. I lived near by, but my home was bulldozed for another new I-something. Ms G was the president of the American Wine Society in this era, so we were [-]invited out[/-] comped at some nice places.

 

[ls99]

I know the area well, lived in Woodstock for 15 years. For a while I w*rked in the same building as the restaurant. For lunches I preferred the deli across the street. Or another deli in Pikesville a little way down Reisterstown rd.

Can say that since we moved to PA, there is absolutely nothing in that area that I miss.

 

[grasshopper]

I know the area well, lived in Woodstock for 15 years. For a while I w*rked in the same building as the restaurant. For lunches I preferred the deli across the street. Or another deli in Pikesville a little way down Reisterstown rd.

Can say that since we moved to PA, there is absolutely nothing in that area that I miss.

Valley Deli, the dry cleaners in the strip mall was excellent too. I use to hike about the woods there at McDonogh school, led bird walks there, and found a small colony of Wood turtles about 100 miles east of their know range. I think there are homes there now.

 

[FIREd]

I use Yelp to weed out the worst places out there. But I've had a few pretty bad restaurant meals - none that made me sick thankfully. The last one: two and a half hour wait for some mess on a plate at a coastal restaurant in CA. Never had seafood tasted so bad right off the ocean.

 

[ls99]

Alas they pretty much paved over everything. Even the McDonough school sold off some of their land for business offices. Last year we were in the area and got lost.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

 

[grasshopper]

Alas they pretty much paved over everything. Even the McDonough school sold off some of their land for business offices. Last year we were in the area and got lost.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

Ha, ha, ha, I ended my previous post with Joni's/Counting Crows words, but edited it.

 

[Lcountz]

ANY "restaurant" on a cruise ship.

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

 

[photoguy]

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.

I've found that any sort of western food in Hong Kong is subtly off and not really very good. I imagine it's been modified for the Chinese palate but I would have though with the british influence it would be better.

 

[tinlizzy]

I've delivered to a lot of kitchens and locally Bennigans and TGI Fridays where not only disgusting but had raw meats in dirty sinks or sitting out for long periods.

The worst food poisoning I've ever had (but dysentery would probably be a more accurate description) was from a "farmer's restaurant" in rural China. I ate an eggplant dish and also had coffee. Someone told me (afterwards) that they frequently fertilize their own gardens with human waste so it might have been that or the water (coffee). It lasted 2 weeks and I literally spent the first two days in the bathtub in the hotel room because it was coming out both ends in continuous waves. A truly awful experience.

 

[martyp]

The Melting Pot this past Sunday.

My sister somehow got a $100 gift certificate. She thought it would be great to get my mother and me and my wife together for dinner. I tried to ignore her first email invitation because my first thought was that a Fondue restaurant was going to be a bad nightmare from the 80's. She eventually called me and I couldn't get out of it.

It was truly vile and I felt sick for the rest of the night. Not because of food poisoning but just because of their food. You expect bad food in a fast food place or dive but not in a place with the pretensions of being an "nice" restaurant. Those disappointments can be the worst.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

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

Haha, the Awful House! Hey, it's better at 3 am after many servings of alcoholic "appetizers." I recall a spot in Atlanta where you could stand in front of one WH and look right and left and see two more.

And yes, I think they handed out smokes if you didn't already have one.

 

[anethum]

I've visited southeast Asia 3 times, and the wonderful food there is one of the joys of travel in that region. The street food and "night markets" are great. I've not always known what I was eating, but it was always good and usually delicious except for one meal. That was in a restaurant in a small town in Laos. The simple menu had 2 unusual items on it: "Mole" and "Large Lizard" (Don't you just hate when you order a lizard and get one of those small ones?) There were 4 of us. 3 of us ordered a chicken dish, and one got a noodle dish. Nobody tried the mole or lizard, at least not knowingly. Well the chicken was awful and didn't taste like chicken. Nobody got sick, though.

 

[jollystomper]

Worst experience was in a Dennys in Florida. It wasn't so much the food as the "ambiance":
- Hostess who chatted on phone while we waited to be seated in a restaurant that was 2/3 empty
- Waiter who we think was illiterate (every order he had to look at the picture in the menu and made some marks in his notepad) and screwed up every single order. And half the stuff that was forgotten that we reminded him of we never got.
- Practically had to beg to get our water refilled - one comment from someone walking by with a water pitcher was "sorry, you ain't in my section".
- Waiter disappeared at the end, never brought us a check (we speculate he may have quit in the middle of serving us); had to go to cashier to get check and then argue about taking off the items we were never given.
- When we finally got that all straightened out, friend of the cashier comes in and they proceed to have a 10 minute discussion while we (and others are waiting to pay)

We were soooo glad to get out of there!

 

[ohyes]

Ruby Tuesday. Gave them two chances (once in a different state) after we had bad experience, hoping it was a fluke. Never. again.

An ex co-worker was married to a restaurant inspector. She shared that there was only one restaurant in town he would dine. Bummer information.

 

[M Paquette]

It's a tie for me. Two places I will never, ever patronize again.

1. Elephant Bar, Concord, CA. They served up a variety of stir fry dishes, and had a great way to cut costs in spite of the large portions. On clearing tables, the leftovers went back into the wok. Prepared foods were sitting out, unrefrigerated or heated, for hours. "Cross-contamination", the old dip, taste, and dip again... Yuck.

http://decadeonline.com/insp.phtml?...eld=SNV&violsortorder=ASC&record_id=PR0007890
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/contra-costa-co-posts-restaurant-inspections/nKwby/

2. Applebees. Any of them. DW loved them, but each and every time, I never got what I ordered. Half the time, I never got served anything but the check. When I did get something, it was bad. Really bad. A "club sandwich" that consisted of two pieces of plain white bread, 1/2 tsp of ketchup, and a single thin slice of some sandwich meat. Yeah, someone in the kitchen was having a bad day, and decided to mess with an order. But at least they're consistently bad.

 

[martyp]

It's a tie for me. Two places I will never, ever patronize again.

1. Elephant Bar, Concord, CA. They served up a variety of stir fry dishes, and had a great way to cut costs in spite of the large portions. On clearing tables, the leftovers went back into the wok. Prepared foods were sitting out, unrefrigerated or heated, for hours. "Cross-contamination", the old dip, taste, and dip again... Yuck.

I've been to the Elephant Bar in Concord many times for group lunches. I didn't pick it. My employees did. It was never a good culinary experience.

 

[Badger]

I've visited southeast Asia 3 times, and the wonderful food there is one of the joys of travel in that region. The street food and "night markets" are great. I've not always known what I was eating, but it was always good and usually delicious except for one meal. That was in a restaurant in a small town in Laos. The simple menu had 2 unusual items on it: "Mole" and "Large Lizard" (Don't you just hate when you order a lizard and get one of those small ones?) There were 4 of us. 3 of us ordered a chicken dish, and one got a noodle dish. Nobody tried the mole or lizard, at least not knowingly. Well the chicken was awful and didn't taste like chicken. Nobody got sick, though.

The good news is if the chicken didn't taste like chicken then it wasn't lizard. I'm not sure what the bad news is.

Cheers!

 

[Idnar7]

Years ago had a work-related dinner at an upscale seafood restaurant (pelican's Wharf) in Austin, TX. A co-worker and I ordered the blackened fish (don't remember the species). Middle of the night I was sick as a dog. Co-worker was in the emergency room. I am convinced that blackening can cover/cause many ills.

 

[HFWR]

Haha, the Awful House! Hey, it's better at 3 am after many servings of alcoholic "appetizers." I recall a spot in Atlanta where you could stand in front of one WH and look right and left and see two more.

And yes, I think they handed out smokes if you didn't already have one.

Awful Waffle...

There are many good breakfast places, usually some Ma and Pa owned dive, or a truck stop. Biscuits and gravy at 3am, anyone?

 

[RunningBum]

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. One day (years ago) the health inspector came and decided to get a sample from the bottom of the vat. I don't remember if it was maggots or what they found on the bottom but it was alive and gross. The place is no longer open.

 

[clifp]

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?

Fortunately, I have a long memory for great meals, and very short memory for bad ones. But I will say that review was totally

 

[Gumby]

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.

 

[foxfirev5]

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.

 

[MichaelB]

So many mentions of Denny's, I have a story.

At the end of a college summer, working at a forging mill, one of my work friends was getting married and we went out for his bachelor party. Around 5 in the morning, as things wrapped down, we went to a local Denny's for breakfast. A group of 5, we go one of the big round tables off one one side. Soon after we were seated, a group of motorcycle gang members was seated at the other big round table next to us. They were the real thing, unshaven, chains, grease, looking for trouble. Their talk was so vulgar and foul-mouthed that after a few minutes the night manager came out to challenge them. Walking up, he was saying aloud "management reserves the right to seat any party, or ask anyone to leave". He took one look, face to face, at the gang, gulped, then turned to us, all college kids wondering what was happening, and threw us out. The bikers thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen, I've never heard any laugh so loud since then.