The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: What’s the worst experience you’ve ever had at a restaurant? (please don’t name the restaurant)
Talk about it.
In N’Awlins, wife and I joined a coworker and her husband at some joint near Bourbon Street. I ordered the crawdad etouffee, cannot recall what my wife ordered. After about 10 minutes, our friends got their lunch. After 20 minutes, we were assured our meals were coming. After 30 minutes, we got up and left. The maitre d’ actually tried to charge us for the glass of pop my wife had. All things being equal, nothing horrendous, but I think it ranks as worst experience.
Last weekend, my friend and I went to a restaurant. I ordered T bone steak with mash potato and fries. The restaurant was understaffed so it was 20 minutes to get the food. The steak arrived first and it was delicious. The sides were horrible because the fries was cold; the mash potato was so cold that there was clump of ice in it. I suspected the cook didn’t put enough time to microwave the potato.
I love fish, shellfish, crab, lobster, etc. but one day I got that feeling of asphyxiation after having some fish & shrimp I’d heard about but never experienced before… and never again … weird but not pleasant 🙁
At a Mexican restaurant in Fremont. It was a large party and most got food poisoning. My husband and I didn’t, but it still was an unpleasant experience. Never went back.
I have a similar story but with coworkers
At a Chinese restaurant in Longview Washington.
I was the only one of four
Who didn’t test the limit of various sphincters that night. 👊
It was after I got out of the Marines, and let my hair grow long. We were at a soda
fountain in Palo Alto, and I ordered a sundae without nuts. When the waitress
delivered the sundae it was covered with nuts, I politely said, “I ordered it without
nuts,” she proceeded to scrape the nuts off with a spoon and gave it back to me
saying, “there, no nuts, now eat it and leave, we don’t want you weirdos in here.”
Needless to say, I didn’t eat it, but being the weirdo that I am, I paid for our order
and we left.
Another time we were in an Italian restaurant in Berkeley and I asked if I can have
a little more butter with my French bread, the waitress said she would have to charge
an extra 50 cents, “what! I exclaimed, are you serious?” “Yes, I’m serious,” was her
reply. “OK, fine, but I’m deducting it from of your tip.”
Then there was the time when a cup of coffee was brought to me with lipstick on the
cup, when I told the waitress, she wiped it off with a dirty rag and handed it back to me.
Another time I went to a deli here in Concord to get a sandwich, and the kid working
there was mopping the floor. When I saw that he didn’t wash his hands before taking
my order, I left.
Probably the worst experience was when I was a little kid, about 9 or 10. I was with my
dad at a pizzeria, and a long rubbery thick hunk of mozzarella cheese was halfway down
my throat and I started to choke, my dad quickly reached into my mouth and pulled it out.
If it wasn’t for my dad’s quick action, I could have choked to death.
At a Mexican City Restaurant. Food was mediocre and we left what I thought was a fair tip. Waiter asked if everything was OK, since most of our food was there. I did not want to make a big deal, so I told him we had to go and could not take the food to go.
He then mentioned that they expect 10% tip🤔
Excused me. I have never been asked for 10% tip anywhere in the world.
I made the mistake of ordering Fettuccine Alfredo in Gualala once.
The Alfredo sauce had the consistency, thickness and taste of warm milk. I took one bite and set it aside. After the Wifely finished her meal, the waitress came by, bused the table and never said a word about the full plate of uneaten Gualala style “Alfredo”.
I paid and have never been back.
I stopped at this little roadside place in Wasco, CA. for lunch on my way back home.
Simple chalk board menu over the counter, very limited selection.
Real fat lady wearing a sleeveless top working the counter & cooking too, she walked up and asked me what I wanted, so I ordered a hotdog & a hamburger.
She reaches into the freezer, pulls out a frozen HB patty & slaps it up into her armpit!
“I asked what the hell are you doing?” She says “I’m defrosting the hamburger”
So I told her “OK…. but forget the hotdog!”
A SWEET AFFAIR YV Was surprised to find it still open. Went a few times since Christmas. Major Scrooge cut backs. No heating or air–freezing cold and employee told me they suffer without air in the 106 degree temps in the summer. I overheard the immature managers (owner daughters) cackling about how much they hate their “stupid” customers. We can tell! They don’t give napkins or utensils, or put out dispensers, expecting you to go to QDoba for supplies. No restrooms for customer use, they send you to TJ Maxx or the gas station or the back alley. No transparency on fluctuating prices or the new credit card fees. Hearing dirty gossip all about the regulars you can’t stand is a nice touch. High school-minded eye-rolling employees don’t listen–mess up every order. Out of stock on everything I wanted. Decline is very sad, poorly managed and the father who once ran it well has no clue.
Armed robbery in a Dennys in right outside Sea-Tac on a Friday night.
I over-tipped, but I don’t regret it.
I may or may not have seen the robber in the hotel in the same parking lot.
Later that night while looking for a bar.
Hard to say, all you white peoples start to look the same to me.🫣
Restaurant in North Beach (not Italian) many years ago – a rat running along the floor, in and out of the tables, and a chef chasing it with a cleaver in his hand.
Sounds like you were lost and actually eating in Chinatown.
You sure it just wasn’t the Pixar great “Ratatouille?” Oh wait, that was in Paris, never mind. Ewwww.
Maybe it was a dream and you were channeling Ratatouille?
I wasn’t there but this was the worst.
*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=373B9U4Dd60
I expect things to be noisy at a pizza restaurant, and expect to have a certain amount of poorly behaving children. We were seated several tables away from two mothers ignoring the four children with them. That was OK until the two “old enough to know better” children started running around the entire facility in a game of tag. After several laps, one sprinted between my wife’s chair and the wall behind her.
This was completely out of character for me, but enough was enough. I stood up and yelled, “Hey, if you’re going to have a pet keep it on a leash”. They left shortly.
I received approval from the other annoyed patrons.
That’ll learn ’em.