The Awkward/Shitty Restaurant Experience Thread! -

[MalWart]

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread in which we all discuss uncomfortable or shitty restaurant experiences.

I recall eating at a Burger King one time, and a customer lost her shit on the manager all because they gave her the wrong amount of chicken nuggets. She kept yelling about how she "needs to feed her kids", and the manager kept apologizing to the her and tried to make it right, but the customer didn't give a shit. The lady was constantly threatening to call the police, even though she was the one who was being insubordinate. I don't know how it ended since they were still fighting by the time we left, but I can say that what the lady was fighting for wasn't worth it.

 

[Lackadaisy]

I was at an Olive Garden, and a small child puked in a potted plant by his table. His mother looked around, decided no one was watching, and continued eating. It wasn't until he barfed on the table that she made a fuss.

 

[DoshesToDoshes]

I used to work at a restaurant so I've been on both sides of the fence here, but we've had a guy who decided it'd be a good idea to dine and dash. He threw a glass on the ground and ran out the back door.

Standard fare, I know, but then he came back the next day and tried the same trick again. Dad was at the back door before he could get out. Bartender practically floors him before he can try to hurt Dad. We called the cops. We got our money. Never heard from him again.

 

[MalWart]

I just remembered a time in which I had dinner at Carrabba's (Great place, BTW), and this party of 8 people were acting really crazy, and they smuggled silverware and plates. Once we caught them doing it, we immediately informed a manager about it, and they were reprimanded. The fucked up part of this was that those people were all teachers.

 

[wheat pasta]

I was eating lunch with my mom one day and we witnessed an old woman sitting at her table, having just finished her meal.
She began to rummage around in her purse for something, I kept watching out of curiosity and lo and behold she pulls out dental floss and starts flossing her teeth right there in front of God and everyone.
Occasionally she'd pull the floss out, find an interesting chunk and eat it (ugh) and then go right back to it again. After a few minutes of this she proceeded to stand up, still carrying the floss, and headed for the bathroom. ???????
What could she possibly have needed to do in the bathroom with the dental floss if she was comfortable just flossing at the table??

 

[Cosmos]

I have a vivid memory of eating in an exotic restaurant (can't remember the exact cuisine; it might have been Greek) when I was a little girl. A belly dancer and who I assume was the manager were arguing near our table (I think she was late or something) and he practically shoved her on the dance floor in the middle of the restaurant. She ended up dancing to our table and proceeded to gyrate against my dad; I remember my poor dad looking horribly uncomfortable while my mom sent the belly dancer a death glare. Now that I'm older I know that she was probably fishing for tips, but why the fuck would you zero in on a man who is sitting with another woman and three small children?

Needless to say, we never went back there. Looking back on it, it's actually kind of funny, but at the time it was just horribly uncomfortable.

Also, here's a very entertaining thread on Reddit about shitty restaurant experiences.

 

[AnOminous]

I have a vivid memory of eating in an exotic restaurant (can't remember the exact cuisine; it might have been Greek) when I was a little girl. A belly dancer and who I assume was the manager were arguing near our table (I think she was late or something) and he practically shoved her on the dance floor in the middle of the restaurant. She ended up dancing to our table and proceeded to gyrate against my dad; I remember my poor dad looking horribly uncomfortable while my mom sent the belly dancer a death glare. Now that I'm older I know that she was probably fishing for tips, but why the fuck would you zero in on a man who is sitting with another woman and three small children?

Probably that's what they were arguing about, with the dancer saying what the fuck, are you crazy, when she was ordered to do what she did.

 

[Sussuro]

I took my mom to a place I'd heard great things about for mother's day that I'd booked in advance - they had nothing that was listed on their special mothers's day menu; they screwed up every single one of our orders, took about an hour from ordering to bringing the stone cold food to the table on dirty plates - I called the manager, who kept calling me sir - I am quite feminine and was wearing pretty girly clothes so I don't quite know what happened there - and then told us he would appreciate it if we didn't complain online about his restaurant and we still had to pay full price? I landed up complaining online, along with several other people who were served food in several states of rot. I'm amazed the place is still in business.

Also, http://www.notalwaysright.com is a great site - sorry I'm on mobile so links don't work

 

[TheMightyMonarch]

I don't really have any big restaurant horror stories that I can remember off the top of my head but I remember a couple of years ago for my friend's 21st birthday, we went to some dive bar. The bartenders there were super rude and told my friends to stop asking for drinks. Granted, I can understand being stressed and overworked but why the fuck would you tell your customers that?

Fucking Berkeley/Oakland hipsters, man.

 

[MalWart]

There was a time I ate out, and this old lady was going from table to table asking for some kind of headache relief medication or some shit. Elderly customers can be the biggest pains in the ass from what I've been told.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

I just remembered a time in which I had dinner at Carrabba's (Great place, BTW), and this party of 8 people were acting really crazy, and they smuggled silverware and plates. Once we caught them doing it, we immediately informed a manager about it, and they were reprimanded. The fucked up part of this was that those people were all teachers.

Most of the shittiest people I've met were teachers. It's pretty messed up.

 

[MysticMisty]

This was some years ago, but I still remember it quite vividly. So one evening late October mom brings home BK for me (this was before we got In-N-Out Burger, which is by far the best fast food burger place), only to immediately discover everything my mom ordered was wrong. Wrong burger, wrong sized fries, even the wrong drink. Mom thought they handed her the wrong bag, except the bag matched the receipt (which were correct). Mom calls up and politely explains what had happened (since it's not the first time BK had fucked up her order, just not so thoroughly). The manager takes down her name and says next time she comes in they'll give her two free burgers.

A few weeks later in mid-late November mom decides it's convenient to pick up BK on our way home from shopping, particularly since two free burgers will reduce the price. I hop out to order our dinner while mom swings over to Safeway at the other end of the parking lot to grab a couple remaining things for Thanksgiving, then come back and eat. So I head inside, give the girl at the register my mom's name and explain how the manager promised a couple of free burgers after their extreme goof up. Girl asks when this was and before I even finish giving the date she interrupts me to refuse, saying "That was October, this is November". I tell her that it wasn't even a month ago and that it shouldn't even matter given that the manager didn't specify we didn't have to redeem it before midnight on Halloween. Girl steps away to talk to the manager for a minute, who I assume told her to do it.

The girl returns to the register and asks what it was the manager promised. Uh, didn't he tell you two seconds ago? At any rate I tell her two regular hamburgers. The girls exact response was "Okay, one double cheeseburger." Oh hell no. I think I just found out what happened last month. I tell it's actually two regular burgers. "Right, one double cheeseburger."

Did I mention there was no trace of a foreign accent so that this was not a case of failing to understand basic English? At any rate, this goes on for over five minutes. I don't know why I didn't just ask for the manager. Eventually she finally, finally, understands two regular burgers does not mean one double cheeseburger and asks if I want anything else. I explain I'd like one of the burgers to go towards an order of medium fries. "No, that's french fries. This is hamburger." Oh for fucks sake.

I explain a second time I know the difference between fries and burgers and that I want one of the burgers to become medium fries and I will pay for the difference. Amazingly she says okay and I finish giving the rest of the order, pay, and retreat to the soda fountain, where my mom has been waiting a while. As soon as we sit down I tell her everything that just happened, and she's stunned somebody so stupid is allowed to work the register. Our order comes and I'm pleased to find she didn't give me the double cheeseburger she was insistent about giving me. I then immediately discover she gave me the child-sized fries. Mom shares her onion rings with me and we both agree she lacks the capacity to work the register.

 

[DangerousGas]

A new South Indian restaurant opened up in the town I used to live in, so my girlfriend of the time and I decided to try going there. It looked a little sketchy to start with, but we figured that we'd chance it, and see what the food was like. So, just before we were about to place our order, I had to visit the bathroom: remarkably good timing, as I was about to discover. The bathroom was horrific: lakes of piss on the floor, spattered on the walls, the whole shebang. Next to the urinal there was a massive gap in the wall, that adjoined the kitchen. Worse than that, looking in on the kitchen, I could see what sort of state it was in: there was food waste all over the floor, and mud on the work surfaces.

Unsurprisingly enough, I turned straight around and got us both the fuck out of there. The place was shut down a week later. Its total operating time was somewhere in the region of a month.

 

[MerriedxReldnahc]

There's a less-then-great diner that I wind up eating at whenever I visit my relatives in the valley. It's not an absolute dump, but it's still kind of dated and frequented exclusively by obese senior citizens. I have trouble with certain foods in the morning, so I really don't like to eat out for breakfast. On top of that the food is really fatty, greasy, gummy, or some combination of the three. Well that's fine, I can just get some english muffins or fruit right? Apparently no! There's this one server who I've had a couple of times that always makes a weird comment about what I order or how much I eat. I tried to order english muffins like I said earlier, and in this kind of condescending tone he asks, "Is that it?" Well, that was awkward. So the next time I got oatmeal. Actually it might have been wallpaper paste, I'm not sure. When he comes to pick up the plates, he says, as if talking to a child, "You sure didn't eat very much of that!" Cue me once again feeling very uncomfortable.
I just think it's really rude for servers to make comments like that.

 

[MalWart]

A few months ago, I went to my cousin's birthday dinner which was held at a chain of Italian restaurants in which their dining areas are split into over 10 small rooms. Not only was it cramped as shit, but most of the staff there was retarded. We weren't provided silverware when we were seated, so we had to ask for some. We asked 5 different people, none of whom made an effort. Our food came out cold, and the restaurant itself was dirty inside. The ceilings (which are really low) were completely covered in dust, which felt unsanitary. All in all, a really shitty time.

 

[MysticMisty]

One evening after several hours out shopping with my mom and older sister we decided to swing by In-N-Out Burger on the way home a few years after we finally got one (and this second one, on our side of town). There's a surprising lack of proper restaurants in our part of the city, the majority is either diners or the major fast food chains. Since we didn't feel like going well out of our way options were limited, but honestly In-N-Out is better then any of the other fast food burger chains, and pretty much all of the diners too for that matter.

So anyway, we're sitting inside eating when this woman walks in and instead of placing an order she starts walking by every table. Before we can wonder what she's doing she walks over, drops three key chains on the table, and moves on to the next table. My sister is confused but pleased to receive a free key chain, but alarms are going off in my head. I quietly tell her to put it down, push it away, and don't make eye contact when she comes back because I'm certain these aren't gifts. My sister is all "yeah right" but my mom agrees so my sister pushes the third key chain away, though reluctant to believe either one of us.

The woman finishes dropping key chains on the tables and starts a second loop to pick them up. Sure enough a minor argument breaks out a few tables over when she demands $10 for the key chain and the other person thought it was a gift. I've heard this is a very common scam worldwide in hot tourist spots, but I never would have expected it in a city without major tourist attractions, in a fast food place on the opposite side of the city from the freeway.

Something similar happened a several months later, except this time it was old, wilted flowers. And they all had a card on them that basically said "Hi, I'm deaf, buy my flower". I have my doubts though because we have charities in town that help the disabled (physical and mental) get proper paying jobs and homes and such.

 

[Wildchild]

Once in a Mc. Donald's, then my social communication skills failed me and I forgot what I was going to order, so the cashier asked "Can I take your order?" and then I said "Thanks, you too!" and then she was like "What are you going to order?" and for some reason was starting to get agitated because I was holding up the line and I forgot what I was going to order because talking to people in public makes me anxious, so I was like "Hamburger." And then she was "What kind of hamburger do you want maam? Do you want a Bigmac, a Mc. Double. And then I just ordered a big Mac.

 

[Piga Dgrifm]

Worked in a fast food joint for a while. This guy came in every day for like a week to take a shit and smear it all over the bathroom walls. The manager could not give less of a fuck and just kept letting the guy in.

Another dude would come in once a week, take a handful of condiments, call me a Nazi for some reason, and leave.

A third would fill up a soda cup with ranch dressing and drink it.

It was a weird place.

 

[Magpie]

I am generally a very sympathetic person when it comes to people stuck working shitty service jobs, considering how abusive customers can be. If someone is short or a bit rude I won't hold it against them. It's generally a case of them having a bad day. Case in point a few years ago my mom and I were at an Outback for an early dinner. It was very quiet there. Our waiter was barely ever there and aloof when he was. The time gaps between ordering drinks, getting them, and ordering food were absolutely massive. Mom was peeved but quiet, mulling over a small tip. Food was fine and all of that. Towards the end of it all the waiter apologized profusely, clearly upset and almost on the brink of tears. Apparently the elderly couple over at the other end of the restaurant were giving him tons of shit over any minor thing, so they kept him under their thumbs. Old people can be downright entitled bastards when it comes to treating others with respect.

More recently my sympathy faltered. I was swinging through the local mall's food court to pick up lunch before heading off to a uni event. I went to the Burger King ordered a small Whopper meal. The cashier, being a twiggy little teenage bitch who is the sort of person who is better suited being stuck in high school for life, made a clear-as-day snide "oh, won't that be an extra large?" Complete with that stupid little smirk a lesser man would slap off a face. Now I am on the chubby side and never am under the illusion that I am a small person, but that isn't really here or there. You don't treat customers like that, especially not when they haven't done anything to warrant any sort of lip. I gritted my teeth slightly and corrected her in a sharper voice "no, I said it'd be a small" and stepped aside. The next person who came up was a skinny little waif of a boy and he ordered the biggest meal on the menu. Instead of giving him snark, the guy got this little cutesy doe-eyed giggle treatment.

I honestly thought people that bratty only existed in crappy sitcoms.

 

[D.Angus]

Man, you find the weirdest people at buffets.. Besides usually being a trash magnet, every time we drive past the Golden Coral, the parking lot is filled.. Always.

I remember as a kid one time at a buffet, there as this lady, and all over her table she had the little bowls covered another little bowl, sitting on top of a coffee cup.. The staff asked her several times what she was doing, and she said it kept the food warm.. I think the staff was just pissed at the amount of dishes she was using..