All They Wanted Was An Apology
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“I was eating at a Peruvian restaurant with my wife when all of a sudden something fell from the ceiling down onto our table. It happened quickly, so I initially couldn’t make out what it was. I thought that maybe it was just a paint chip that fell from the ceiling onto our table and ricocheted onto the floor. But suddenly, my wife looked down and screamed, so I looked down at the floor to see a dead mouse right next to her foot. The mouse must have somehow accidentally fallen through some hole in the ceiling onto our table, then upon ricocheting onto the floor. My wife accidentally stepped on it, killing it and squeezing its guts out onto the floor. It was really, really gross.
When our waiter noticed the commotion of my screaming wife, so he came over, saw the mouse, and non-nonchalantly called over to the busboy who walked over, picked it up with a newspaper and threw it out back into an alley. The waiter then proceeded to ask us how our meal was and if we wanted to look at a dessert menu. He didn’t apologize, ask if we wanted our meal comped, nothing. Then when I complained, he said that having mice is just a part of owing restaurants and that there’s nothing he could do about it. Plus, he blamed my wife for killing the mouse and so it wasn’t his fault that there was a bloody, dead mouse on the floor. It was ridiculous. So my wife and I got up and left without paying, and several others sitting next to us did the same.”
How Are You Going To Charge Me For That?
“When I was younger, my parents and I were at a Pizza Hut. When the waiter brought out drinks, he spilled them all over me. This in itself wasn’t too bad, but when my parents got the check, they realized that they got charged for two sets of drinks, including the ones that were spilled on me!
When my dad asked the waiter about this, the waiter said it was only fair. That was the only time I have ever seen my dad not tip a waiter.
My dad loves to tell this one whenever someone complains about a bad experience at a restaurant. He has always been an excellent tipper, and he always makes sure to mention at the end of the story that he didn’t tip, which he never does.
He has never eaten at Pizza Hut since.”
Gross, Just Gross
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“There is a Mexican restaurant near me that I refuse to go to.
I met my brother and his wife there, they were already going to town on chips and dip, and we quickly finished the basket. The server went to refill our basket, and when he returned, my brother’s chewed up gum was in the wax paper, and they put it on my side.
Well, I assumed it was his because I noticed it when I got there, on his side of the basket. I said, ‘Eww, I don’t want your gum,’ and turned it around. My brother’s face went white, he spat out some partially chewed chips into the basket and said, ‘That’s not mine!’
We told the waiter. He took our chips back and dumped them into the top of the chip warmer. The chips my brother had partially chewed! We asked to talk to the manager, but suddenly no one speaks English. Bah!”
Dinner With A Side Of Bed Bugs
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“It was a restaurant on the last night of a vacation in Waikiki. The place was crawling with bedbugs. We didn’t know they were bedbugs at the time; didn’t actually figure that out until we were back home and the telltale bites developed. We had to call the hotel, tell them we may have introduced bedbugs to the room (They freaked out but hey, it was their employee who’d recommended the place). We had to empty out the freezer to deep freeze everything we couldn’t boil or leave roasting in a black garbage bag on a sunny patio for weeks. We had to put special covers on our mattresses and vacuum and scrub every surface every day. Our house wasn’t infested but it was over a month before we could relax.
When I called the restaurant, the manager said, ‘Oh yeah, we have a terrible bed bug infestation, we have an exterminator come once a month, but every place in Waikiki has bedbugs, everybody knows that. You should read the local newspaper.’
When we wrote about it on Trip Advisor, the same manager called us to ask us to remove the review. In return, we’d get dinner on the house if we ever returned.
Not only am I not going ever going back to that restaurant, I’m not ever going back to Oahu. Thanks, Lulu’s.”
Well, They Won’t Go There Again
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“I went to a new restaurant with my family. It was right near the house, so we thought it could be a new commonplace for us. Plus, I’d heard the wings were fantastic.
So we went in. Took a while for us to have someone come take our drink orders. Oh well.
My dad ordered a sandwich and a cup of soup. Now, if you order soup, do you not expect it to come before the entree? Well, we got our entrees, but my dad didn’t get his soup, so he told the waitress and she said she would go get it, but he said nevermind because he had his entree.
So, we ate. The food was okay. Nothing to rave about.
We got the check and noticed the soup was on it. We asked the waitress why it was on there and she said because we ordered it. Well, we didn’t eat it, so no reason we should pay for it. We asked to speak to the manager. Now, a $3 cup of soup isn’t a big deal, but it’s the principle of it.
The manager spoke to us. We said we shouldn’t have to pay for it because we didn’t eat it. He disagreed. We ordered it and therefore we should pay for it.
Long story short, we ended up telling him to get lost, and he said he didn’t want ‘our type’ eating there anyway. Still not sure in what way he meant that. Jewish? New Yorkers?
A month or two later, they shut down.”
They’ll Go For Fun And Games, But Forget The Food
“I worked at Chuck E Cheese for a while. No soap is involved in the washing of the dishes. Just a quick rinse to dislodge cheese and then thrown into a heated industrial dishwasher. It’s probably enough to clean it, but I still wouldn’t trust it. We had soap mix that’s was supposed to be used to soak dishes, but the kitchen staff was too lazy to prep it and maintain it.
Food is often not dated, either by mistake or to keep from throwing out ‘perfectly’ good veggies when they aren’t used up in time.
An ungodly amount of butter is slathered onto the crust before cutting it and sending it out of the kitchen. Few people who worked in the kitchen ever actually washed their hands after handling a broom/mop/phone.
The salad bar was rarely flipped (to flip it, you are supposed to take all the bowls of veggies, dump them into a clean bowl, and pick out the wilted veggies). Without being flipped, old veggies will be sitting on the bottom just being eternally topped off with fresh ones. I’ve seen mold in the tomatoes more than once.
I’ll take my nephew to see the rat and play games, but we eat somewhere else before going in.”
You’re A Glutton For Punishment At This Point
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“There is a small diner in our town that opened about the same time we moved here. We went there three times within a two-week period, and the waitress and other staff were rude, cold, couldn’t get our order right, didn’t refill coffee, spent most of their time visiting with other tables and other inhospitable behavior.
When our hash browns arrived barely cooked on top and watery on the bottom, we called it quits. Hey, we were just looking for a small diner we could be loyal to and maybe feel welcome. So we switched to the best breakfast venue a small town could have…breakfast served in a pizza restaurant. A pizza chain bought this local restaurant with one proviso….that they continue the former owner’s breakfast menu every morning.
It is always full and the food is good and there’s no extra charge for coffee.”
She’s Had Real Bad Luck With Dining Out
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“There are two restaurants I’ll never eat at again. The first is Buffalo Wild Wings. They messed up our order, overcharged us, and wouldn’t listen to us when we called out their mistake. To top it all off, half of the wings were undercooked. We didn’t notice at first because of the dim lights, but I took a bite and said ‘Does this feel cold?’ and someone else said, ‘Yea, mine too,’ so they used their phone flashlight and it was bright pink.
I dropped my phone at one point, and the floor was disgusting. I think our waiter was on coke or something because he was super antsy and made some big mistakes.
The second is a small restaurant in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We saw they had a special for all-you-can-eat catfish, so we went to try it out. The salad bar was good and it was clear this was a ‘mom and pop’ type of operation. It took forever for the food to come out and the waitress apologized, saying their cook went home sick. I never did get more than one plate of catfish. I went back a year later hoping maybe things were better because the food was amazing but nope. They were still understaffed and slow. The lady running the place clearly had no idea how to run a restaurant. I felt bad, but I didn’t have two hours to burn waiting for my food.”
31 Flavors But No Sprinkles For You
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“I was getting ice cream at my local Baskin Robbins. I asked for a soft serve with sprinkles on it. The guy at the counter told me he couldn’t to put sprinkles on the soft serve.
This made no sense to me so I asked him to do it anyway. He still refused, so I asked to see the manager. The manager told me it was physically impossible to put sprinkles on soft serve ice cream.
I left and never went back.”
By The End Of It, Everyone Felt Sick To Their Stomachs
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“I was at a Denny’s in Virginia Beach. As we were being seated, a woman was dragging her little boy to the bathroom and he puked in the lobby waiting area. The woman got frustrated and just took the kid back to their table then didn’t tell anyone that happened.
While we were seated, the staff noticed and just put a chair over it. We ordered drinks, puke still there. We ordered food, puke still there. Food came out, puke still there. We couldn’t eat. We paid, left and haven’t been back to a Denny’s since.”
She’ll Take Her Meal With A Hearty Helping Of Death
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“I have a deathly tree nut allergy. I ordered a plate of fish tacos, and it came with a side salad – upon receiving the dish, I noticed that the salad was covered in candied pecans. This hadn’t been mentioned anywhere on the menu, so I politely Informed the waiter that I couldn’t eat the salad, specified it was due to a severe allergy, and requested a replacement.
They INSISTED on taking everything back to the kitchen, even though the salad and the tacos hadn’t touched, and of course, I thanked them and let them take it.
Fast forward 15 minutes, everyone else was finished eating, and they finally brought my food back. I was famished, so I dug in. Imagine my surprise when I found no fewer than three pecans at the bottom of my salad bowl after having consumed maybe a quarter of the salad, and begin to experience anaphylaxis.
To this day I don’t know if it was an assassination attempt, if the sous chef didn’t believe I was allergic so he just scraped the nuts off the top and called it good, or if it was just a really sloppy kitchen, but you better believe I’ll never go back.”
That’s A PR Nightmare Waiting To Happen
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“One of my relatives has a prosthetic leg and it’s uncomfortable for him to stand for a long time, so he asked for a chair to sit in while waiting for a table.
Ten minutes later, a waitress came over and said she needed the chair back. He explained his situation, but she snapped, ‘Well, I’m sorry, I need it. You’ll have to get up.’
He shouted, ‘FORGET THIS PLACE!’ before storming out.”
The Benni Hanna Disaster That Refused To Quit
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“Friends suggested going to Benni Hanna for dinner. I had never been, so I was pretty excited from them talking it up. Obviously, I remembered the scene from ‘Wolf of Wall Street,’ so all day leading up to dinner, I was yelling ‘BENNI FREAKING HANNA’ and continuously playing the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ soundtrack (drove the wife nuts).
Finally, the time came and we got to the restaurant and it was pretty dead for a Saturday. Basically, the entire meal was a disaster. Silverware, glasses, and plates repeatedly came out dirty and we had to send them back. They never refilled our drinks, prompting us to go up to the bar for refills. Finally, the chef came out after we’d been waiting over an hour and we were all livid. The chef was entertaining but at one point got into a verbal altercation with another worker. It was very awkward. Finally, we left after eating and complaining, and I think the manager took the drinks off the bill because of our terrible experience.
About ten minutes into our drive home, it suddenly hit me. Benni Freaking Hanna. I got food poisoning. I was about to crap my pants and it took all of my might to hold it in. My wife was trying to console me as I was bare-knuckle gripping the steering wheel driving 70 in a 35 screaming, ‘BENNI FREAKING HANNA,’ trying my best to hold it in. We got about a mile from our house and all my effort was suddenly futile. I had explosive diarrhea in my pants. I was literally crapping myself driving 70 screaming, ‘BENNI FREAKING HANNA,’ while my wife was hanging her head out the window yelling, ‘IT SMELLS SO BAD!’
We finally pulled into our place and I ran/waddled into the house, yelling at my wife to not look (I knew my pants were destroyed). I ran to the bathroom, finished what I had left in me, and my wife got me a garbage bag to throw all my clothes out as I jumped in the shower. Immediately after I cleaned up, I walked the trash out to our dumpster, then went back inside and had a few drinks to overcome the horrifying night that my wife and I just experienced. We ended up laughing about how ridiculous it was and went to bed.
The next morning, I was running all over looking for my wallet when suddenly it hit me… the wallet was still in my jeans in a garbage bag in our dumpster. I thought the night has passed but no, I had to relive the experience and not only dumpster dive for my wallet but try to navigate a crap- filled bag for it. Utilizing some sticks I found on the ground and carefully sifting through the garbage I was finally able to get my wallet. It wasn’t covered in poop but it smelled like it. I took all my cards, ID, and money out and tossed the wallet.
Benni Freaking Hanna.
Worst experience of my life (I’m sure my wife would say the same).
I have been meaning to send this story to their corporate for some type of retribution but never got around to it. Anyways. Never going to Benni Hanna again.”
More Like Not So Friendly’s
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“There used to be a restaurant chain called ‘Friendly’s.’ They were anything but. You could count on the waitstaff being rude and bad at their jobs. But, the food was usually pretty good, and not that expensive, and they had great ice cream.
The thing was, the service kept getting worse and worse. Slower, mistakes on very simple orders, having to practically chase the waiter to get your drink refilled. And this was consistent across the multiple locations in town. It must have just been corporate policy to teach waitstaff to be rude and incompetent.
The tipping point was a time when we ordered our food, sat there for 45 minutes, twice flagging down the waitress to ask, politely, ‘What’s going on,’ and getting told that it was ‘almost ready.’ Well, after the last time of asking, and another 15-minute wait, we just up and left. The place wasn’t busy, and there were other people getting their food that had come in way after us. Not to mention, a salad (prepackaged!) and an order of chicken strips with fries does NOT take an hour. First time I’ve ever walked out of a restaurant, and we never went to a Friendly’s again.
Eventually, all of the Friendly’s locations closed and most of them reopened as Denny’s. And Denny’s has fantastic service and good food. Win-win.
I’ve heard of some Friendly’s locations still existing – frankly, I’m amazed.”
It’s A Miracle The Child Survived
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“My husband and I were given a gift card for Milano’s Cafe in Lima, Ohio. It serves Italian food, which is my favorite. At the time, I was 33 weeks pregnant. We went, consumed obscene amounts of pasta, and went home and got in bed.
I woke up at 5 am, craping and puking all over the bed. That continued until 10 am, when I was finally able to walk across the street and ask my mom to take me to the hospital. On the way, my back started to hurt. A lot.
We got to the hospital and it turned out I was in labor, contracting two minutes apart. I labored for three days while my OBGYN pumped me full of antibiotics and saline. I had e.coli poisoning from tainted meat, apparently.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t stop the labor and I needed an emergency C-section to deliver my premature daughter. Thankfully she was OK after a short NICU stay.
It was the worst thing I ever went through. I went into labor because the dehydration caused contractions, and eventually, my water broke from vomiting so forcefully.”
And Then All Of The Waitresses Disappeared
“I went to an IHOP after a snowstorm and my mom and I were hungry because we didn’t have power for a few days and we wanted a legit breakfast. We were seated and 20 minutes later, we had to flag a waitress down to get a menu. We decided what we want and waited 10 minutes, then flagged down another waitress. We never saw each waitress again. Another 20 minutes went by and it was now 50 minutes since we’d gotten there…No coffee, no juice, nada. We flagged another waitress down and she told me the order was never put in. She put it in. THIRTY minutes passed. We didn’t see another waitress for 30 minutes. We went up front and it was like the place was abandoned. Everyone around us was looking for their waitress.
Then, new ones show up, we flagged one down. Apparently, they had to be called in as the four on duty went out for a smoke break and disappeared. Either quit or kidnapped, no idea. We FINALLY got our food and this was nearly two hours after getting there. We ate and complained to the manager and he wanted to comp the food. We told him, ‘No, you should charge us as it’ll be the last chance to ever get money from us.’ We left the exact change as he refused to let us pay and we left.”
