Worst dining experience?

il_principe

I'm posting this because I've just been subjected to a colleague's Birthday lunch at All Bar One. Worst Meal Ever and it took them over 1 hour to get our "food" out. The excuse: "We can only fit so many plates on the pass."

Most disappointing in terms of "should be good" = Arbutus. Too much f*cking salt in everything.

Barbecoa was a low as well.

EKE_38BPM

Grannys in Stroud Green Road.
It tasted OK at the time, but the next day all three of us who ate there nearly shat ourselves as the food made a very rapid bid for freedom!

clarkey cat

Went for a fry-up at Gigalum - that god-awful p1ss-hole full of pilled-up Ozzies at Clapham South - as there was a queue for Glo-Lounge next door (and we were hungry).

It was the worst meal I've ever had - by far.

Kieran_Burns

Flying back on Honeymoon from the Maldives. The vegetarian option for the in-flight meal was a pea sandwich.

Jez mon

Hotel Samakov Bulgaria...where 4 star dining means a cold buffet, composed of generic meat shaped looking things and slimy pasta...

To be fair, I wasn't expecting much, and by the third day, it seemed almost edible.

rick_chasey

Little Chef.

Enough said.

kelsen

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Flying back on Honeymoon from the Maldives. The vegetarian option for the in-flight meal was a pea sandwich.

Which goes to prove that God intended humans to be carnivorous

keyser__soze

Should be good but wasn't = L'Autre Pied. Oversalted mush. Overattentive and plain rude staff who couldn't wait to churn us as fast as they could - as soon as we had a sip of wine or got close to finish they ran over to fill the wine up or clear the plates.

Absolute worst: the Diner in Richmond, my review here, purely awful in every way: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=din ... 7119122661

Pufftmw

Posh "French" restaurant in Auckland's busy Parnell area. Friend had been wanting to go there for ages, so took us and my cousin, who ran a catering business. We should have guessed that it wasn't all that because Parnell was heaving but this little place was empty bar two old biddies. We sat down, ordered, then waited ages and when the food did eventually turn up it was cold & cr@p. We ended up having a row with the waiter and the chef - a scottie who had only been in NZ for 2 months! - then left without paying. It was just so bad it was unbelievable. Went round the corner and had a fantastic meal...

That was the worst experience ever, the second-most happened on the same holiday, this time in Nelson! Co-incidence I'm sure as most other places were excellent.

SimonAH

A pub in Whitby is the only time I can think of where I've just stared at a plate in utter disbelief, got up and left.

We'd been lulled into a false sense of security by the generally excellent standard of food in Whitby over a four day stay last summer for a wedding, but the thing purporting to be steak frittes was so far beyond description that I just left without comment.

jamesco

kelsen wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Flying back on Honeymoon from the Maldives. The vegetarian option for the in-flight meal was a pea sandwich.

Which goes to prove that God intended humans to be carnivorous

On Air NZ flying from LA to Auckland, my request for a vego meal had gone AWOL in the airline's system. "Not a problem", says the cabin crew girl, "I'll get something from business class." Cue 10 minutes of imagining Michelin star food served on fine china, before she returns with a plate of lettuce leaves... that was one hungry flight. Airline of the year, my ar5e :P

sketchley

Worse by a mile was a family birthday to celebrate a big year, went to a two for one pub that was really really bad. And not just one dish, everyone's meal was bad. Considering the whole (well most) of the family were there. Most disappointing two spring to mind,

Roast in Borough Market, decided to go with some friends a couple of years back and after much deliberation decided to order the with the required 48 hours notice a roast rib of beef for 6 people for something like £125. Now what we all expected was to turn up the restaurant, order and eat starters (this bit was fine) then at our table would arrive the rib of beer and trimmings ready to carve and eat. Instead what we get is slice and not a very big one off a rib roast that is being shared by the whole restaurant, what's more having asked us how we wanted it cooked and two people opting out because some wanted rare and some well done, we then find out we could have mixed and matched slices. When we left felt very dejected mainly due to high expectations based on reputations and pretty poor marketing that made us think we were getting something we were not. I note they have changed their menu since.

Other disappointment was Heston's pub in Bray The Hinds Head, my pie was nearly over salted for me and I like salt and wife's salmon was way over salted. The chef even agreed when we sent it back. As we took a detour to get there when Sunday it was a bit of let down, expected better.

rjsterry

Over salting seems to be a common theme - what is it with chefs that they think that everything is improved by being doused in Dead Sea quantities of salt? The TV chefs do it too, Rick Stein being particularly bad.

clarkey cat

Roast in Borough Market

if in the area - go to Wright Bros instead. Oysters, London Porter ... and then a pie. Corking.

EKE_38BPM

Sketchley wrote:

As we took a detour to get there when Sunday it was a bit of let down, expected better.

FYI: Apparently the criteria for Michelin stars for a restaurant are:
1 star: Worth stopping at if you are passing
2 stars: Worth making a detour for if you are travelling through the area
3 stars: Worth making a special journey just to go there.

I've just remembered a truly awful 'meal' at the Walkabout pub in Islington. I ordered the kangaroo steak (mainly just to tick another animal I've eaten off the list) and it was very late in coming out (the then Mrs EKE had almost finished her meal by the time my steak came out) and was cold. I sent it back and after another long wait another came out and was burnt. Third time lucky I thought, so I sent it back and this time it was rubbery and just plain nasty. By now I was so hungry that I ate about half the steak and all of the chips. The 'music' was too loud (even for a pub) and the staff plainly didn't want to be there.
I paid for our drinks (and only the drinks) and left. That pub closed a few weeks later and has been empty ever since (about two years).

Serves me right for going to a Walkabout for food, I suppose.

jonny_trousers

rjsterry wrote:

Over salting seems to be a common theme - what is it with chefs that they think that everything is improved by being doused in Dead Sea quantities of salt? The TV chefs do it too, Rick Stein being particularly bad.

I'm starting to believe this is true. I've eaten at a few killer restaurants recently whose fish was almost inedible because of how salty it was. The weird thing is I like well seasoned food. Anyway...

Eaten at plenty of duff restaurants over the years, but perhaps the one I most regret going to actually served some really delicious food. It was a beachside restaurant in Crete and this gap-toothed old git encouraged us to chose from the daily catch. We thought that was a nice idea and went for the dorrado. It was fantastic, but when the bill came the fish cost about £180 (the salad and chips came to about a fiver). The place looked like From Dusk 'till Dawn and there was a shotgun hanging on the wall so I paid up without so much as a quibble.

rjsterry

At least it was good food - imagine if it had been bad and you'd still been charged the £180.

EKE_38BPM

You should have known that the dorrado comes from the 'saw you coming' menu.

Some friends went out for a birthday meal with a vegetarian friend to a vegetarian restaurant. £40/head for vegetables?!
As I said earlier, "it ain't a meal unless something died" and plants don't count.

asprilla

clarkey cat wrote:

Roast in Borough Market

if in the area - go to Wright Bros instead. Oysters, London Porter ... and then a pie. Corking.

I quite liked Roast when I went.

lost_in_thought

Most disappointing, but far from worst: Sketch, one of the Ramsay spots in Mayfair. Went there for a closing dinner and had a 10-course monster, alas I'm allergic to oysters, clams, scallops and mussels, 3 of which were the focus of 3 of the 10 courses. So I mentioned it in advance, and again on the night.

I got replacements, one was a ball of cream cheese with a slice of beetroot in it, one was a sliver of smoked salmon on scrambled egg and one was quails eggs rolled in celery salt. So that was a bit naff, especially considering I don' t like eggs but they weren't to know that.

The rest of the courses were 'meh' at best.

Worst food I've ever had was a chinese restaurant in Berlin, we had a taster menu again and the vast majority of it was literally inedible. We didn't pay.

clarkey cat

I don't think Sketch is a Ramsay restaurant.

stuaff

Sketch is Pierre Gagnaire's, the sweary Scotsman is innocent of this particular culinary crime. My word, you got done over there, LiT!!

I have nothing to compare with the other complaints- a couple of stingy/not as good as they should be pub lunches, that's about it really. what annoys me most is when you have to wait (and I don't mean for five or ten minutes) for the bill...had that a few times.