Reddit user u/ShineyWaffle97 recently took to r/AskUK to ask "what made you never want to return to a restaurant again?". We thought we'd share the most stomach-churning responses:
1. "There were live ants in the pilau rice. The restaurant thought it wasn't an issue, and said they'd bring out another dish. We just walked straight out and never returned."
2. "It was a takeaway. 12 of us ordered, and we were really looking forward to it. We waited and waited and waited. Two hours later, we rang and asked where our food was. They said they hadn’t made it because they assumed that such a large order was a prank despite the fact it was paid for! The food eventually arrived however several items and full meals were missing.
They did make the food and send it to us, but by that point, it was over three hours since we initially ordered and we were hangry. The food, however, was delicious. A couple of months later, the same group of people and I placed an order there again. We decided to forgive them for the previous delay, because the food was so nice. Ordered, waited. No food. Rang them a lot quicker this time to confirm the order and again, they said they assumed the order was a prank.
The food eventually arrived — however, several items (and even some full meals) were missing. We rang them again and got a voicemail saying they were closed for the night, despite their website saying they were open for another three hours. We left a negative review and they threatened us over the phone. We added that to another review."
3. "I was eating at a small restaurant with seats at the bar. The staff kept piling up bottles of water next to me to be taken to other tables, meaning I had less and less space each time. Eventually, one staff member moved my drink to fit another bottle in, so I moved it back. She then explained that the restaurant is 'tapas style' and that they 'do things differently here'. I told her this shouldn't involve me not having space to put my arm on the table I am paying to eat at."
4. "I can never return to a particular restaurant after my ex-husband embarrassed me there. We were separated and in the process of divorce, but were still adult and civil. He wanted to take me out for a Mother's Day meal. During the first course, he rudely beckoned the waiter over and said 'define well-done'.
I went to my internal happy place for the duration of the conversation. He ordered a 'mountain of profiteroles' for his dessert. When the waiter placed it on the table my ex said 'that is barely a hillock,' and I went to the bathroom to reflect on my excellent decision to divorce him."
5. "The place was empty — we were the only customers. It's a brunch restaurant, so we were there around 10:30 AM (it opened at 8 AM). Our waitress was clearly not in a good mood. And TBH, I have no issue with that; you don't have to be the happiest person serving us. She came over to take our order and we all knew exactly what we wanted. However, they were out of a couple of items.
She told us that the restaurant were out of some items in a really irritated way. After that, it obviously took the people who had to change their choices a few seconds to find another option. She sighed at them after about five seconds. Eventually she came to serve the food, and literally chucked the plates down on the table in front of some people so hard that food fell off the plates. Then, she slid the other plates along the table (there was plenty of space to walk around). We got no apology for the food that fell off the plates, nor did we get an explanation for chucking them across the table.
We decided not to pay the service charge. We paid the bill exactly. She then blocked the doorway as we were leaving and said 'you've underpaid, where's the rest?'. I'm usually the shy, non-confrontational type, but I piped up — I can only let so much slide. So I said 'the service charge is optional, and you were rude and threw our food all over the table. You didn't once try to apologise or make up for the bad service. We will not be paying a tip for that.' She was understandably not happy with that. I live nearby the restaurant, but I refuse to ever go again despite the food being quite nice."
6. "Literally anywhere that allows dogs. I don’t want to share my eating space with dogs."
My note: Get behind me, u/esofagus! That's probably an unpopular opinion, but I 100% agree.
7. "I went to a carvery — one of those places where you have to walk around with your plate serving yourself food. I watched a kid sneeze across the cutlery. A line of snot went flying out his nose and landed on the knives and forks... first and last carvery."
8. "I got bangers and mash, and the sausages smelled really funky. The server assured me it was just the herbs, and I was still a teenager who had been taught to clear my plate, so I did. Cue me going home and immediately being violently, virulently ill all over the bathroom, and feeling incredibly poorly. I hadn't eaten anything that day beforehand and I'd had food poisoning before to that exact reaction.
So we called the restaurant. Not to complain — just to get them to check the sausages were okay. I didn't want to kick up a fuss, I just wanted to be sure no one else was going to be sick if the sausages were off. The manager went off at my dad on the phone, swearing and insulting us for daring to even insinuate anything could possibly be wrong with the food and telling us to f*ck off.
Needless to say, we didn't go back, which was a shame because it was one of the only restaurants in the area. I could have understood some of the anger if we had called to complain or try and bargain for a refund or something, but just calling as a heads up to check their stock was okay... nggghhh. Well, we never went back."
9. "I immediately lose interest in a restaurant as soon as they say ‘we do things a little differently here.'"
10. "Mid-meal, they asked if I wanted any sauce, so I asked for some ketchup. They then added a £0.50 charge for a small dollop of ketchup, as well as an automatic gratuity charge amounting to around £10. I was so mad I wrote my first-ever Google review."
11. "My wife found a slug in her mushroom pasta at a really nice Italian near us. We’ve not been allowed to go back since…"
12. "I was given a plate of nachos that were, shall we say, burnt. I complained and they took them back. Ten minutes later, the same plate appeared, this time more burnt than before. The 'chef' brought out the nachos himself. Yes, you guessed it. They'd given me the same plate with some fresh nachos put on top of the burnt ones. The 'chef' was disappointed when I returned them and cancelled my order. I never went back."
13. "The waiter's BO was overwhelming. I can't bring myself to go back, even if it is likely the staff has changed."
14. "It was a restaurant that was running an Oktoberfest-style event. We'd made reservations, yet everyone without a booking in the queue still got in before us. After a 30-minute wait, we finally got seated — only for them to tell us they'd run out of beer. All beer. AT A BEER FESTIVAL.
15. We then ordered a bottle of wine, but were told they couldn't provide the bottle and could only bring it out one glass at a time. We also quickly ordered food. One hour later, neither the wine nor food had appeared. We walked out."
16. "My husband and I had gone to this particular restaurant in a busy marketplace for years, always on a Wednesday evening after work. On this particular day, my partner wasn't feeling overly hungry, and we did the shopping with the idea of going home and throwing something together later if we felt like it. On the way out, he asked if I wanted to grab a coffee and pastry from a bakery situated directly across from the restaurant where we usually ate.
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I was just staring towards nothing in a daze when I felt this nudge on my shin. I looked up to see my husband, who had the most horrified look on his face, nodding his head towards our usual restaurant. I slowly turned my head, and was confused to see the waitress, who had worked there for as long as we'd been going there, cleaning the tops of the customer's tables with a mop. As soon as I saw her beginning to mop the floor again and slap it down onto the next table, I realised what my husband's facial expression was for."
17. "I had a vegetarian lasagne once that contained layers of pasta with turnips, leeks, and carrots. It was weird and revolting. Not only that, but even though we had booked, they had turned the lights out and put the chairs on the table by the time we turned up because we were the only ones booked in and they were hoping we didn't show."
18. "I walked in and saw the guy behind the counter take out a big fresh vat of mac 'n' cheese and spill it all over the dirty counter and fingerprint-smeared sneeze guard. I saw him laugh and then begin to scrape it off the counter and glass back into the serving pot. He looked up at me and asked 'what can I get you?' I said 'nothing, thanks' and walked out."
19. "They had a sewage leak under the floorboards and were arguing with the environmental health officers that the pool of faeces was not a problem."
H/T to u/ShineyWaffle97 and AskUK for having this discussion.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Have you had any restaurant horror stories? Let us know in the comments below!
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