There's nothing quite like just going to sit down at a restaurant somewhere and enjoying a fine meal. It's one of life's pleasures. Who doesn't love good food? Or even better: Who doesn't love good food and good company?
Of course, the service can make or break your restaurant experience. As someone who used to work in food service, I can tell you that waiters and waitresses work very hard for their money. But not all are great and not all restaurants out there are particularly well managed.
People shared their stories with us after Redditor dragonboltz asked the online community,
"What was the worst restaurant experience you have ever had?"
"We're finishing up our meal..."
"I was eating with a female friend at a reasonably nice restaurant. Not posh, but expensive. Before we were seated we grabbed a drink at the bar, whilst there she signed up to some sort of newsletter at the bar. To be fair it was stuff like this that made me apprehensive to call the place "posh.""
"Anyways, we sit down and the girl I'm with gets a text telling her how beautiful she looks. She ignores it and another one comes through asking her what she's doing later. She hasn't got a clue who it is and ignores it."
"We're finishing up our meal and a 3rd text comes through saying she shouldn't be with a guy like me and asking if she wanted dessert with a "real man."
"Now it's clear someone in the restaurant has her number and we clocked that she had put it down on the application form for the newsletter. Considering the newsletters went into a box behind the bar it was a member of staff."
"After getting the manager down and him calling the number and pegging what member of staff it was it turned out one of the waiters had taken her number and address off this form, written it in his phone and had spent the evening taking pictures of her from behind the bar. The police ended up involved."
[deleted]
This is beyond creepy. Thankfully the police got involved and no doubt that employee was fired in a heartbeat.
"Cockroaches..."
"Cockroaches fell out of the ceiling and onto our table while eating."
LeepII
Why were you eating at the morgue from Men in Black?
"We're seated..."
"I don't know if this was the worst, but it sprang to mind."
"We were in a restaurant we've gone to sporadically over the years. It's usually reasonably good."
"We're seated and our drink order is taken. I mention to the waitress that there's no silverware on the table, and she says "Oh, no problem, I'll be right back". She shows back up 10 minutes later to take our dinner order. We order, and I again mention the lack of silverware. "Oh, right, hang on.""
"We don't see her again for 30 minutes. Drinks are empty, no silverware, nothing. Can't even find her in the restaurant."
"After 30 minutes, she shows up again with our meals, both pasta dishes. She sets them down, and I again mention that we have no silverware, and can't eat our dinner. "Oh, I'm so sorry, hang on.""
"She disappears again. There's something horrible about being very hungry and staring at your meal while being unable to eat it. Stomach's rumbling, you're salivating, you're so damn ready to dig in... but you can't."
"After staring at our dinner for at least five minutes, I get up, go to the setup table and grab two full sets of silverware and napkins, and return to the table. We eat, waitress is MIA."
"Twenty minutes after we've finished our meals, still no waitress. I get up and ask to see the manager. I tell her what happened and she accuses me of trying to steal the silverware. Blew my mind."
"Suffice it to say, we've never gone back and have dissuaded lots of people from eating there."
t-bass
I grew very annoyed just reading this. No wonder you haven't returned.
"Five minutes later..."
"I'm always nice to my servers because I know their job is rough. When something like this happens, though, I tend to be irritated."
"I waited 15 minutes for a drink refill once. Looking around I noticed my server was yapping on her phone by the kitchen. I got up, got a tray, took everyone's drink orders around me, and went to the drink station and refilled everyone."
"The manager showed up and said that it was the server's job and if I'd sit down they'd be with me shortly. I smiled and said, "Well we're all thirsty and I didn't want to interrupt her phone call. It was obviously important if she's took it while on the job."
"Five minutes later I heard the kitchen laughing and then a huge piece of cake came out for me that I hadn't asked for."
iminmyotherpants79
Hey, at least you got your cake! Worth it.
"I wait another 10 minutes..."
"Went to a restaurant with the family. Order a Dagwood Burger, waiter asks me what I want, I repeat my order he asks me again, I repeat again. Waiter goes around the table and gets everyone's order. Repeats the order, forgets my burger. So I remind him, he writes it down."
"Food arrives, no Dagwood. He looks confused that he missed my order and says he'll go get it. 10 or so minutes pass, manager comes and asks if our meals are ok. I say Im still missing my Dagwood. He goes and checks, still no Dagwood ordered by the waiter."
"I wait another 10 minutes, family nearly done with their food and Im starving. The manager comes around and says they burned my Dagwood Burger, they'll need to make it again."
"Finally get my burger after my whole family was done eating."
pablothehamster
Your waiter was either high and/or too embarrassed to admit he didn't know what a Dagwood burger is.
"What's worse..."
"I was once served by a woman who texted while asking for our order. A fairly good restaurant as well but she clearly did some dirty deed for that job. What's worse is when I asked her to look at us not the phone she told us she didn't have any obligation to serve us, and could get the manager to force us to leave."
"So I told her I would love to speak to her manager personally about the situation. Never seen a phone turn off so quickly."
User Deleted
Seriously... how did she think that was going to turn out? People are odd.
"I had a big piece of plastic..."
"I had a big piece of plastic, like the ring around the top of a water bottle in my hash browns at IHOP once that I almost choked on. I thought it was a fake finger nail. Totally lost my appetite."
DOABYTE
"We were picking someone up..."
"Denny's. We were picking someone up at the airport late and they were hungry. Carrow's was closed. I waited too long to eat so anything would work."
"We ordered a starter of chicken strips, definitely chicken strips. The server brought out a plate of hot wings. He asked, "Those look good, what are those?" " Uh, Wings" We are confused at this point."
"Our order comes up. Everyone gets food but me. The server comes back to see how things are. I ask where my food is and the he goes back to the kicthen to see. Comes back out."
"The chef is being a d*ck."
"Sooo.. is my food coming?"
"No."
angryviking
Denny's is an interesting place. You don't necessarily go there, you end up there, and you'll inevitably walk out with a story of some kind.
"Waited two hours..."
"Waited two hours for a cheeseburger while the rest of my family happily enjoyed their meals."
Eliwood_of_Pherae
Why wouldn't you say something before two hours was up? Seems like an awful long time to wait.
It seems like going out to eat can go either way... even at the more high end places.
Have some stories of your own? Tell us more in the comments below!
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