Worst experience you have ever had with a restaurant and its staff?

[index]

I was between nine and eleven years old (I don't know exactly how old I was), when my family decided to use three coupons to get some free frozen yogurt from a strip mall with some coupons we had. There was no fine print on those coupons except for the expiration date.

We go there, and there's nobody working, except for one teenage girl who's sitting there, texting. She doesn't greet us or acknowledge that customers have entered the store she works at. She continues texting. We go dispense our frozen yogurt (it's one of those stores that have all the self-serve yogurt and ice cream stands at the back) and go to give the clerk our coupons.

She immediately yells at us, saying "Only one per visit!". We've done this before, several times with no problem. The store was in some sort of program with the elementary school I was in, where if you do xyz you get this many coupons for free yogurt. We tell her that we've done this before multiple times, so she tells us "walk in and out of the store three times and that's three visits.". Somebody had said that that was ridiculous, so she then threatens us that she's going to call her dad here to "beat us up". She then took our yogurt and wouldn't let us have it.

We decided we had had enough and left. She said she was going to call the police because we were "stealing" and we had to pay for it. We left anyway, and she told us she was banned. Obviously some moody teenage girl who works as a cashier and doesn't know the store policies can't just do that, but we weren't going back anyway. The store closed down less than half a year later due to what were presumably the same issues that we dealt with.

[kphoger]

My worst was when my dad, another girl from church, and I stopped at a restaurant on our way back from out of town.  This was in western Kansas in the late 90s.  Anyway, we ordered our meals, and the other two got theirs but I didn't get mine.  We waited and waited, still no sandwich.  Something like 45 minutes to an hour after we had ordered, we asked what the deal was.  They had run out of bread, and the manager had gone to the store to buy more but wasn't back yet.  So we decided to just get our money back and head out without my having a sandwich.  Except that the employee couldn't refund any money without the manager's authorization, and the manager was at the store.  What finally worked was for my dad to insist:  "We're not asking for a refund, because no transaction has taken place.  We gave you money but never got anything for it in return."

[roadman]

This isn't the worst restaurant experience I've had, but it's worth nothing here.

Many times when running late after work (usually because the early train was cancelled), I used to get a quick meal at the McDonald's in North Station in Boston.  In the process, I'd routinely have many instances of, as I'm starting to give my order (#2 meal, sandwiches plain, large fries, and bottled water), having the cashier immediately interrupt me with "Do you want Coke?" (As I have ESRD, I no longer drink Coke, Diet Coke, or similar beverages).

This comment was usually followed with me having to repeat my order to the cashier three or four times.  The last time the "Coke" routine happened, I finally yelled back at the cashier.  IIRC, it went something like "Look.  Please stop putting words in my mouth.  I'm intelligent enough to know what I want to order!"

So I then get my meal, then sit down as the train is pulling out, and find out they put ketchup - but nothing else - on my sandwiches (I can eat it, but consider it one of the worst condiments ever devised by man).  And it was obviously deliberate a) after telling them three times 'sandwiches PLAIN' and b) the fact they put only ketchup and nothing else on the sandwiches.

Needless to say, I haven't been back there since.  These days, if I'm really desperate for something, I usually just get a bottle of water and a bag of chips at the newsstand instead.  Otherwise, I will endure the hunger until I get home.

[kphoger]

You had me at "McDonald's".....

[roadman]

You had me at "McDonald's".....

Well, of the various Mickeys I've patronized in the past 30 years (mostly on roadtrips), the North Station one is the ONLY time I've ever encountered a cashier who's attempted to second guess my order before I give it to them.  And I can understand doing that once or twice.  But for it to happen consistently takes a particular type of clueless bonehead.

[hbelkins]

On a family vacation years ago, I remember my dad being quite put out with the service we got at a Pizza Hut in one of the NOVA suburbs of DC, but I don't remember exactly what the issue was.

One thing I distinctly remember was the time that a waitress at Cracker Barrel in Richmond, Ky. dumped a bowl of cole slaw in my lap. If I hadn't been with my family, I might have asked her to wipe it off for me. 

Worse roadgeek meet experience I can remember was the cluster at the 2010 Southeast Pennsylvania meet.

[kphoger]

Ooh!  Just remembered!  When I was a young kid, my family went to a Mexican restaurant somewhere in the near west suburbs of Chicago.  The waitstaff couldn't understand English, and all they would ever bring us was sopapillas–no matter what we said.  I don't think we actually ever got anything to eat but sopapillas.

[Scott5114]

We went to the Cheddar's in Norman once and had our food take an inordinately long time, so we asked what was up. Apparently the waitress dropped the food and they had to remake it. Okay, mistakes happen, whatever. But when the replacement food came out, another long wait later, it was cold.

We ended up not going to Cheddars for a fairly long time. We gave them another chance, and that seems to have been a one-off experience.

You had me at "McDonald's".....

Well, of the various Mickeys I've patronized in the past 30 years (mostly on roadtrips), the North Station one is the ONLY time I've ever encountered a cashier who's attempted to second guess my order before I give it to them.  And I can understand doing that once or twice.  But for it to happen consistently takes a particular type of clueless bonehead.

I guarantee you it's because someone's pushing speed of service times. In a fast food place, especially one in a competitive area, every order is clocked. The bad thing is that the clock starts when the cashier says "Hi, how can I help you". Which means that the staff can be on the ball and getting orders out blazingly fast but still get dinged for bad service times by a customer who responds with "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I'll have..................................a............................................nuuuuuuuuuumber.........................mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................... "

So you get that kind of reaction from the staff.

[kphoger]

Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations.  But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees.  I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.

[Brandon]

Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations.  But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees.  I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.

I avoid McDonald's due to the complete and total lack of any real flavor in the food.  My last experience (about 2-3 years ago) was so bland that it wasn't even funny.  There are better fast burger joints out there.

[Scott5114]

Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations.  But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees.  I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.

Well, yeah, fast food is an industry where giving a crap is disincentivized.

Most of the people in fast food are there because they cannot get a "better" job, either because they have a criminal record or because they enjoy marijuana and most companies offering "better" jobs test for that. So you're stuck working for $7.25 an hour. The beauty of that is that all of your employer's competitors also pay $7.25 an hour, so if you get fired, you just go across the street and get a job that's exactly the same, only your uniform color changes.

That, and fast food customers are prone to throwing fits over the most unreasonable stuff (most of the time because they ordered it incorrectly to begin with). So if you're going to be yelled at and paid the same whether or not you do your job right, why would you give a crap?

I managed a Burger King back in 2009 and I'll still occasionally see my former employees working the drive thru at Taco Bell or Sonic.

[bugo]

I was in Austin, Texas back in 1994 for a Metallica concert. I was at a Denny's style restaurant and I ordered a hamburger plain and dry. When I got it, it had cheese on it. I told the waitress that the order was wrong and she said "Can't you just scrape it off?" I explained to her that I was lactose intolerant and that it would be impossible to remove all the cheese. She took it back and brought it back again...with cheese. I was so angry at this point that I didn't even care but my friends who were with me made her take it back and make me a new burger. I couldn't even eat it at the time and ended up taking it back to the hotel room.

[OracleUsr]

I have had two horrible experiences, and wouldn't have gone back to one if it hadn't been for karaoke.

Okay, first there was this restaurant down on Lake Norman that had a really good karaoke show on Wednesday nights, so I started going there, knowing the DJ.  Time and again, and I know I should have stopped going long ago, I was ignored by the wait staff.  I've never short-tipped any of them or skipped out on a bill, but one waitress was particularly bad.  I sat with a group of people hoping me being with a group might improve my chances of being served.  The #(*%) LEANED OVER ME served the others and walked away.  It eventually got so bad I went to the manager, who said she'd TALK with them.  What was she going to say, "Good job!?!?!?!?"  Left at that point and never went back.

Then there was the time at East Coast Wings and Grill in my town.  I am a type II diabetic and have to take medication 5-10 minutes before I eat anything.  I usually order soup or a salad, and this restaurant has some really good Buffalo Chicken Soup, so I ordered that and specifically asked it to be brought before the meal.  I then ordered grilled shrimp tacos with black bean/rice mixture.  My wife and I waited 20 minutes, no soup.  I went up to the waitress and asked where my soup was.  Her response?  "I thought you wanted it with the meal!!"  I cancelled the soup order as it was too late anyway.  Fifteen minutes later, the food comes out.  I get a freeking wrap!!!  Not tacos, a wrap.  Not even close to what I ordred.  I sent it back, now starving and about to pass out because they took the rice and beans back.  Ten minutes pass and I get my tacos...with fried shrimp.  I sent it back again, and my wife has a chat with the manager.  They did NOTHING.

Oh, yeah, another time.  Another karaoke place across the river in Catawba.  Apparently a really good restaurant.  Bull.

First, I ask for unsweetened tea with Splenda.  Waitress says she'll be back with some.  She dumps packets of Sweet N Low, which is only slightly sweeter than nothing at all.  Her excuse?  "We don't have Splenda". 

Okay, so I order the egg rolls and some jambalaya, figuring I can pick around the rice.  Twenty minutes later they come out and tell me they don't serve jambalaya, despite it being on the menu.  I finally get the food I order and it is disgusting.  The food is burnt and the egg roll bland.

I decide a few weeks later to give them another chance.  I don't know how I could have forgotten that they don't have Splenda, but they pulled the same bull they did the first time.  I get my food and pay for it with a Visa card.  They come back with cash AND THE WRONG TICKET!!!!!!  I go and ask for my card, but they insist they can't change the bill now, and I have to pay with cash.  Never went back, but I did get my Visa back.

One more.  My wife is from Gastonia and knew the city of Shelby pretty well.  The innkeeper where we were staying recommended a restaurant and said it was his restaurant.  The location on the card was closed.  We finally found the new location.  We were seated and waited thirty minutes with the restaurant half full.  One of the waitresses came over and all she did was shrug her shoulders.  Finally, we get served, but it is the most agonizingly slow service I ever had, and the food was almost inedible.

And speaking of that Inn, they served carb-laden foods and only a few things I could eat for Saturday breakfast.  I ate as much as I could have WHAT I could eat.  My wife told the chef that we were diabetic.  So the next day, what do we get??  MORE carb-laden food and eggs that were bland and overcooked. 

[oscar]

Worse roadgeek meet experience I can remember was the cluster at the 2010 Southeast Pennsylvania meet.

Which was our fault (for not nailing down in advance whether we needed separate checks), rather than the restaurant/staff's.

[formulanone]

90 minutes to get lunch served to my wife and I at a Denny's in Gainesville, Florida. Was told there wasn't enough staff, but they'd "take care of our order". She kept our drinks filled, so I felt obligated to stay...after all, we had nothing else going on that day. Manager shows up when the food arrives. I explain the excessive wait. "I'm sorry, but I can't give you a discount. Waitstaff can't promise those things."

I pointed the sign which said 2 Hour Maximum Stay (probably to deter cheap students and bums), and said, "you would have thrown us out by now"...any only then agreed charge us half-price. Knowing now, I'd probably just leave after 30-40 minutes.

I've not returned to that Denny's in 20 years.

One big perk to travelling in groups of 3-8 for business lunches/dinners is that we usually get excellent service (I'm guessing it's because travelers on company plastic tip well). Any more than 8 people, and things always get a bit wonky, because someone isn't ready order, is picky, doesn't like anything, is too busy chatting notice their menu...

[adventurernumber1]

I cannot recall any intolerable restaurant experiences that have happened to me personally or my family, but I have heard of a couple of irksome incidents that other people have told me about.

One of my High School teachers that I've had said that one time recently, his wife went to McDonald's to get their whole family some food. One of the things that was ordered was a Big Mac - however, it had not even one piece of meat on the entire thing, so his wife drove all the way back there to get the correct food and complain of the service.

A friend of mine's family went to a Mexican Restaurant in town when it had first opened about a decade ago, IIRC, and one of his older sisters had a band-aid in her food - I don't think they ever went there ever again.

I was between nine and eleven years old (I don't know exactly how old I was), when my family decided to use three coupons to get some free frozen yogurt from a strip mall with some coupons we had. There was no fine print on those coupons except for the expiration date.

We go there, and there's nobody working, except for one teenage girl who's sitting there, texting. She doesn't greet us or acknowledge that customers have entered the store she works at. She continues texting. We go dispense our frozen yogurt (it's one of those stores that have all the self-serve yogurt and ice cream stands at the back) and go to give the clerk our coupons.

She immediately yells at us, saying "Only one per visit!". We've done this before, several times with no problem. The store was in some sort of program with the elementary school I was in, where if you do xyz you get this many coupons for free yogurt. We tell her that we've done this before multiple times, so she tells us "walk in and out of the store three times and that's three visits.". Somebody had said that that was ridiculous, so she then threatens us that she's going to call her dad here to "beat us up". She then took our yogurt and wouldn't let us have it.

We decided we had had enough and left. She said she was going to call the police because we were "stealing" and we had to pay for it. We left anyway, and she told us she was banned. Obviously some moody teenage girl who works as a cashier and doesn't know the store policies can't just do that, but we weren't going back anyway. The store closed down less than half a year later due to what were presumably the same issues that we dealt with.

That sounds so infuriating - my blood pressure went up just from reading that! I can't believe you were actually treated that way.

Pfft, that girl said she was gonna "call the police," yet she was the one making physical threats such as "my dad will beat you up" (unless I misinterpreted your post). What an idiot!     

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For those of you who have serious health issues such as diabetes, there needs to be more emphasis, in the restaurant industry, on making sure you have the right foods. I can't believe it's actually that bad. 


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Also, there is one food that I personally absolutely cannot eat, and that is onions. Far too often, tons of onions are put into my food at restaurants, even when I compulsively ask that there be none in it. This happens all the time, and I'm used to it, albeit these incidents are incredibly annoying. I wish that I liked onions, but unfortunately my taste buds apparently don't agree with that desire of mine, and they never have.

[ColossalBlocks]

Hmm, let's see.

One time I went to a BBQ place down in Ironton, and as anyone who's been to Ironton knows, it's either that BBQ place or a shitty Mickey D's. Anyways, I sit down and order my food, 30 minutes later I get it (the place only had 5 people total, not including myself and the other person I was with), so why the long wait? Beats me, I thought to myself this food better be damn good if I'm waiting that long for it. Nope, they fucked up a hotdog, how can you fuck up a hotdog?! The fries were awful also, grease crumbs allover the damn plate and fries. Never again.

Another time was at one of those Arby's/Pilot truck stop joints. It was around midnight and I was looking for something to eat because I hadn't had anything since the last 300 miles. I enter the Arby's to find a restaurant that looks similar to a fast food joint in a ghetto. Stains everywhere, the occasional cockroach, red stains that I hope is just melted red tape, etc. I wait in line for about 5 minutes when I go up to the cash register and order my shit. 20 minute wait and there were barely any people in the restaurant/drive thru. I go grab a cup to fill it up with some Dr Pepper and when I press the button on the soft drink machine to get some ice, a cockroach falls out. Fuck that shit. I take my food and leave as quickly as I pulled in.

One time I was eating at a Zaxby's (can't go wrong with Zaxby's), and it was full of people. I sit down and wait for a waiter to show up. Eventually one does show up, and takes my order. 30 minutes later (I can understand the long wait, it was a madhouse in there) my food shows up, and while I'm eating I get clocked in the back of the head by a flying soda cup. My friends who were there with me described my face as a mixture of anger and surprise. I went to find out who was behind the flying soda, and sure enough, a bunch of people from the crowd I like to refer to as 'teenage asswipes'. My friends pulled me back to the table, and without their intervention I probably would've snapped and ripped those asswipe's heads off. As I'm walking back to my truck I find them eyeing down my truck (because who wouldn't eye down a 2005 Silverado?). One of them was reaching into the trunk of their Corolla reaching for something (more than likely something to harm my truck with), and they froze when I hopped in the truck. I flip them the bird while reversing out and drive off.

Oh, and every time I've been to a Red Robin.

[Jardine]

Not my worst experience, but so effing annoying:

midafternoon, was running late, had missed lunch and stopped by a sit down restaurant near Village Pointe in Omaha.

Restaurant was near empty, but for some reason, next people to come in where set in the booth adjacent to mine. Kids were standing on the seat behind me, mom and dad oblivious, and the kids start asking me questions and then commenting on why I'm nasty for ignoring them.

Don't need that kind of aggravation, so grabbed my place setting and moved to opposite corner of restaurant, and sat on other side of table to watch annoying family to make sure they did not follow. Waitress at first seemed put out by my effrontery, but when I gave her the stink eye, she decided not to press the issue.

That was only the 2nd time I've left a $0.02 tip.

[kphoger]

Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations.  But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees.  I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.

Well, yeah, fast food is an industry where giving a crap is disincentivized.

Most of the people in fast food are there because they cannot get a "better" job, either because they have a criminal record or because they enjoy marijuana and most companies offering "better" jobs test for that. So you're stuck working for $7.25 an hour. The beauty of that is that all of your employer's competitors also pay $7.25 an hour, so if you get fired, you just go across the street and get a job that's exactly the same, only your uniform color changes.

That, and fast food customers are prone to throwing fits over the most unreasonable stuff (most of the time because they ordered it incorrectly to begin with). So if you're going to be yelled at and paid the same whether or not you do your job right, why would you give a crap?

I managed a Burger King back in 2009 and I'll still occasionally see my former employees working the drive thru at Taco Bell or Sonic.

I didn't say I avoid fast food.  Just McDonald's.  At other chains, errors seem to be honest mistakes; at McDonald's, I generally get the impression they honestly don't care.  At other chains, I've been offered a little something to make up for an inconvenience, but never at McDonald's.

Maybe employees at Burger King don't give a crap either, but their food comes out better than McDonald's, so I guess I just never run into a situation there to notice.

[hbelkins]

One time I was eating at a Zaxby's (can't go wrong with Zaxby's), and it was full of people. I sit down and wait for a waiter to show up. Eventually one does show up, and takes my order.

A waiter at Zaxby's? You mean you don't order at the counter like most other fast-food places?

At Raising Cane's, they do what I find increasingly obnoxious -- they take your name and then call it when your food is ready. What's wrong with just issuing a number on the check/receipt and then calling the number?

The one time I ordered in at Cane's, I told them my name was Dale Earnhardt. 

[kkt]

I haven't had such a beyond bad experience myself.  But I'm not diabetic or seriously allergic to anything.

Someone in my group had a whole pitcher of beer accidentally spilled over her.  Awful, but it really was an accident and they comped her the check for the evening.

I had our order accidentally get lost.  I understand that happens, but we were sitting there for an hour before our server went back to the kitchen and got them to find it.

There was a lunch place I used to go to that served really good sandwiches and soups, but their kitchen sometimes got slow at lunchtime.  They would put a sign up at the register when the food orders were going to take over 20 minutes.  That's about my limit because I have an hour for lunch and it takes about 20 minutes for the round trip.  But a few times they forget to put the sign up and that happened once too often so I stopped going there.

[vdeane]

The one that sticks out in my mind is the one time I was with a group at a restaurant on Lark St; they brought out menus, and then never came back.  Everyone ended up making dinner separately after a couple hours.

[txstateends]

When Krystal was in north TX, I tried them once late in their run.  I went in one day, not a customer in the place.  It took at least *15 minutes* before someone finally showed up at the counter from the back.  I don't remember the transaction or the food; I guess I was so shocked at the lack of worker reaction to me being there.  Not surprisingly, the location closed a few weeks or months later.  It was a Burger King before that and a Carl's afterward.  I don't know how long it was a Burger King but as a Carl's, maybe 2 years (?).  I don't think there are any more Krystal locations in north TX now.

The only other thing close, is my drive-thru luck with Whataburger.  I've dined inside, no issues, but the drive-thru experiences have been a mixed bag (pun intended?).  Most of the time when there is a problem it's that they've forgotten something.  One time, they made a burger with jalapeños on it.  Didn't ask for those, wouldn't in a million years.  I can't do anything spicy/hot/peppery/BBQ *at all*.  Basically when I came back through, they were practically begging me not to report them.  I should have, but I didn't.  I'd been up all night at work and I was trying to get home and go to bed.  It's weird how I've only had drive-thru issues with Whataburger.

The only exception to that has been recently with the drive-thru at a Wendy's up the street from my place.  I have tried 3 different times in recent weeks to order something.  It takes them forever to acknowledge me, then I'm interrupted multiple times with 'hold on a second' or 'wait just a minute'.  If they weren't ready to take my order, why did they come on the speaker?  Then it's either, 'what did ya say?' or say some item I didn't order, when they do come back on.  Needless to say, 3 times was not the charm for them.  That's the only Wendy's where I've ever had any problem.

[Scott5114]

Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations.  But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees.  I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.

Well, yeah, fast food is an industry where giving a crap is disincentivized.

Most of the people in fast food are there because they cannot get a "better" job, either because they have a criminal record or because they enjoy marijuana and most companies offering "better" jobs test for that. So you're stuck working for $7.25 an hour. The beauty of that is that all of your employer's competitors also pay $7.25 an hour, so if you get fired, you just go across the street and get a job that's exactly the same, only your uniform color changes.

That, and fast food customers are prone to throwing fits over the most unreasonable stuff (most of the time because they ordered it incorrectly to begin with). So if you're going to be yelled at and paid the same whether or not you do your job right, why would you give a crap?

I managed a Burger King back in 2009 and I'll still occasionally see my former employees working the drive thru at Taco Bell or Sonic.

I didn't say I avoid fast food.  Just McDonald's.  At other chains, errors seem to be honest mistakes; at McDonald's, I generally get the impression they honestly don't care.  At other chains, I've been offered a little something to make up for an inconvenience, but never at McDonald's.

Maybe employees at Burger King don't give a crap either, but their food comes out better than McDonald's, so I guess I just never run into a situation there to notice.

McDonalds typically has a much higher sales volume than the other fast food restaurants, so I'm guessing that's a function of the staff getting burned out much quicker than they do at their competitors.

If they weren't ready to take my order, why did they come on the speaker?

If there's an extended period of silence when you pull up to the speaker, you may assume that the speaker is malfunctioning and pull up to the window, and then you have some people who have ordered at the speaker and others that have ordered at the window, which is a recipe for chaos (never ever order anything at the window unless the speaker is malfunctioning). But they may not be ready to take your order because they're trying to collect money from the car at the window or get that car's drinks together. This is a completely normal thing.

[roadman65]

Dennys at 2 AM in NJ several years ago.  The server ignored me, and at the end of the visit I had to find him to get the check. 

Then of course at Winghouse in Orlando, FL ( a knock off of Hooters with girls dressed in tank tops and short stretching shorts with pantyhose) there is one long time bartender there in one area store that is so snobbish as she gives rotten service always to the customers she prefers not to flirt with to make her money, and although I myself personally have  not had a major incident with her except when I needed to check out in a hurry it was a problem.  Many complained about the said bartender, but being the owner of the chain had a crush on her (not one crush of wanting her for dating type, but an admiration kind) she was untouchable and could not be fired or such.