I was at the best Thai restaurant, some lady was trying to preach to me out of the blue. A customer,
I explained how I am an atheist, and to please stop talking to me and to go on with her own business. I complained to the restaurant manager,
and all 5 of my friends got our meals for free.

My ex and I were in a small west Texas town, the staff argued among themselves as to which one of them was going to wait on the bi-racial couple. LOL

I used to go to a place called Bilbos in East Lansing, Michigan, when I was in college. It was staffed mostly by stoners, something I forgot when I took a somewhat famous novelist there to interview for my college newspaper. We ordered a pepperoni pizza to split, but when the waiter brought it out it was just cheese. The waiter, whose pupils looked like frying pans, looked the author in the eyes and said "I swear to God, I saw pepperoni!" He then began picking at her face saying "there they are!" We quickly left and finished the interview in my car.

I few years back for Thanksgiving I wanted to keep it low key. We didn't want to travel or cook so decided to go out and eat. There were four adults and three children that ended up having a horrible time at Bob Evans. Everyone kept it simple and ordered the main Thanksgiving dinner which came with your choice pie. Our waitress brought one basket of six dinner rolls, told us they were out when we asked for another basket. We waited over an hour for our food, which came out cold, while other people were still getting baskets of rolls. She was rude AF and we had to ask for refills when she would decide to show up. When we're ready for pie our waitress says they just ran out, so she offers the kids ice cream. We waited so long for that damn Ice cream I lost my mind. I'm not a complainer I usually keep my mouth shut because I tend to get to sarcastic and can piss people off. Anyways, our waitress never comes back so I stopped another waitress to bitch, she brings back the ice cream and tells us our waitress was MIA. I let her know how awful it was coming there and she got a supervisor who offered us 25% discount off the bill but someone else told the real manager who came storming over pissed. I was explaining to him but didn't get far. He throws his hands up and yelled " You're mad like everyone else and our server just walked out so you just got a free meal. " Horrible service that I'll never forget. I totally get no one likes working on a holiday but damn be mad at the boss man not some innocent family trying to eat turkey.

Seeing a roach take off at the Chinese buffet one time just as I was about to get some fried rice.

I went to a bar with my ex-wife that everyone said had good food. She order a philly cheese stake. While she was eating found a bread tie in the sandwich. When we said something the server said it is a over cooked onion..

I was working as a wine steward in fine dining. A man called, arranged for flowers to be delivered, selected a romantic table and pre ordered champs. So clearly a proposal was going down. Staff hovered at the end of the meal to watch the big moment. He proposes, I swoop in with the Dom, and she glares, shakes her head no and I try to leave unobtrusively. She catches my eye, waves me over and asks for the check while she fished out her credit card. After paying the bill, she requests a taxi. In Ann Arbor, MI. On a big game football Saturday. Two hours after stony, glaring silence and restaurant close, we took them home in the catering van. Worst, most awkward night ever.

Owning 3

I found a roach in my glass of coke once at a Mexican restaurant. That was it! I never went back there!

I also found hair in my food once at a Cracker Barrel. Never went back there either.

I was eating a barbecue sandwich in a cafeteria at a hospital. I felt something sharp in my mouth and thought it was a bit of bone. Nope, it was a glass shard about 2 inches long. I went back to the counter to show them mostly because of the safety issues. THey offered me another sandwich.

Hey bugs are just extra protein! - That being said at my sister's prom her best friend found a cockroach in her mashed potatoes and said "There is a fucking cockroach in my mashed potatoes!" at the top of her lungs. I can't really blame her. (Catholic school) rofl.

Also got food poisoning at a restaurant one time; not an experience I wish to repeat.

But, the worst experience, by far, was going into a Denny's in Bakersfield, CA in the early 70's and being ignored by the wait staff because I was with my Chinese wife. I boycotted Denny's for several decades after that. F***ing Bakersfield. I detest that place, it's the armpit of California, imo.

My worst restaurant experience was last year when I was dining with a friend near the check out counter of a local diner. A customer finished and got up to pay and leave. He was openly carrying a revolver (he had no holster). To pay his tab, he had to lay the gun on the counter. When I looked up from taking a bite, I saw the gun was pointed directly at my face. When we finished our meal and went to pay, I complained to the waitress. She blew me off and said that I had no way of knowing if it was loaded. Of course the opposite is true also. I will never eat there again. I wonder if she would feel the same if I walked in there with a grenade? There would be no way to know if it was live.

Me and a friend went to a dinner and each ordered a burger. After we got our food, we noticed there was mold on the buns. We told the waitress and she said she would get the manager.
Damn manager never came out. We got pissed and left. Never went back.

We were seconds away from eating that Damn food until I noticed the mold on her burger.

I was eating with my boyfriend and other high school friends at the Rond Pointe restaurant in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, when I was 15 years old, after the big Germany vs Haiti soccer match at the main stadium.
The restaurant is on a raised foundation, with wide steps to the front door, as most business establishments in Haiti are, for good reason.

We barely noticed it had started raining lightly, but Haiti doesn't have infrastructure, like drains, gutters, etc., and suddenly, we noticed the waiters sweeping water back from the door. Someone jumped up to look outside, then yelled that our car-my boyfriend's Citroën deux chevaux, was floating away!

We rolled up our pants and went out to grab the car, then we all pushed it up the rushing river/road to the Union School parking lot, where we left it, and took a tap-tap (converted pickup truck bus) home, since they could drive even with their headlights under water.

One of the younger boys kept jeering that we were all going to get elephantiasis from the dirty water, but we didn't.

At a restaurant/bar in Calgary for a company Xmas dinner... everyone's food kept coming out cold. I think they got it right the 3rd time.

In Inverness Scotland, SWMBO and I were at a hotel restaurant that basically ignored us all night - took 30 minutes for someone to take our order. An hour for the food to come. 30 minutes waiting after we finished our meal for someone to show up. We got up and walked out.

Was out with friends at tumbleweed. I ordered chicken. Friends got their food. Mine arrived 20mins later. It was outright raw. Sent it back. By the time they came back, my friends had all finished theirs. And what they brought back was the wrong dish. So they made everyone's food free, but by then I was too upset. So my friends got free food, I got nothing. We never went back to tumbleweed again.

I was in Manila at a Wendy’s about 11 years ago on a research trip. I took a couple of bites of a weird version of Wendy’s hamburger only to see a worm wiggling in the lettuce. Looked up at my cohort and said we're done and showed him. He finished his food.

My brothers invited me to dinner with their friend Gary when I was in my early twenties. We were eating at the Seven Seas restaurant in SLC on 21st between state and main. Little to my knowledge, they didn’t have any money. To my surprise, one of them pulled out a baggy with some dead flies and deposited them in the mash potatoes. Then in shocked disgust they motioned for the waitress to come by to see the flies in the potatoes. They all got up and loudly decried the condition of the food, refused to pay and stormed out of the restaurant.

After reading the comments here, I think there is something wrong with me. I've eaten in restaurants all over this country and 35 countries outside the US and never had an experience with food poisoning, roaches running foot races under the table, or flies doing the backstroke in my tea.

However, there was a time in Mexico City when I went with a group from the university to a small, upscale restaurant that served traditional Mexican food. I ordered an enchilada plate. When the meals were served, I dug in because I was just flat out hungry. I didn't notice until the second mouthful, but that was the most picoso (hot) red chile sauce I'd ever had.

The kitchen was closed off by the typical double swinging doors that had large, round windows in them, and I could see a couple of faces looking through those windows at the gringo and his enchilada plate. That is, at me. I vowed I would not show any pain and proceeded to eat the entire plate, then asked a waiter for a tortilla so I could mop up the remaining sauce in the plate. The eyes in the windows were saucer-like. I was proud of myself. I didn't cry until we were out in the street.

To put this into perspective, it should be known that I love hot chiles, so that will give you an idea of just how close to instant red death that stuff was.

Eating at what was obviously a mafia-run restaurant in Moscow and getting a bill for about $400 which we refused to pay was pretty terrible.

While on vacation I got food poisoning from fried clams in Cap Cod Massachusetts .Once My daughter and her friend and I waited more than 1/2 hour to get waited on in a Rain Forest Cafe and I never complained so they gave me three free meals ,so this turned out to be a not so bad experience .On the last day on a trip to Mexico I somehow got food poisoning from a restaurant and it actually took about a week after I came back to recover from intestinal distress.

Oh GAG, now I'll really have a hard time dining out.

I have a cast iron stomach but last October I went to a traditional German restaurant with my parents. I got food poisoning. I was out of town and wasnt sure if my insurance would cover a trip to the ER. I kept deferring because I thought I would just be vomiting in the ER waiting to be seen after the car wrecks and heart attacks. THere was a point I thought I wouldnt make it