NFT: Worst meal you've ever had

something in there might jog my memory...

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Ordering scallops at promptly biting into a metal hook the size of a quarter. My wife ordered shrimp scampi and it smelled horrible. Couldn't leave fast enough...

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Im with my family and a cpl of relatives at The Atlantic Grill on the ues, which is a nice place. So we're about halfway thru dinner when i notice a large roach crawling along the banquette. Not wanting to freak out my old uncle or my daughters i surreptiously roll up my napkin and just subtly crush the sucker. Then I see another one. And another one. Its a fucking hatching. My tween daughters realize and start screaming. We got the hell outta there asap.

was Chili Macaroni in the military. I was on KP for the day. The ground meat was Grade E with a stamp on the side of the packaging stating the lowest grade for human consumption. There was visible pieces of bone and I swear hair. We had to use 1 commercial size container of chili seasoning for every 10 lbs log of "meat".

When I relate this full story to people they are in stitches. I don't have the patients to tell the whole story here but I'll tell you just one aspect of it to give you an idea. My wife ordered a filet of Red Snapper which was on the menu. After quite a wait, the waitress came out and sheepishly told us that the cook did not know how to filet a fish, could one of us kindly tell him how to do it. We described the procedure and waited for our dinners. When we were served, on my wife's plate was not a filet, but a fish head that was not a red snapper. I shit you not, and this was only a small aspect of the entire experience which was truly bizarre.

first and last time I ever ate at Olive Garden was at one in Florida when I was 17, on a baseball team trip.

Ate a full meal of pasta, salad, and bread...the whole meal was crap and spent the next 24 hours sick as a dog and vomiting and shitting on the hour

All due respect to those of you who enjoy such exquisite cuisine, but I wouldn't even eat at a restaurant that's next to an Olive Garden, much less ever walk into another one of those hell holes

MRE's were just being rolled out- I think we had 4-5 "choices" at the time.

Try eating dehydrated meat patties or god help me chicken ala king out of a pouch for weeks on end at times.

That's why I never complained about Spam and fake eggs whenever we got them in the field.

Puke.

...cook and to this day - at 69 years old - still has no idea all of her children feel this way.

Tuna Noodle Casserole was one of her staples when I was growing up.....it was about 3 levels below Tuna Helper. I'd just salt and pepper the living shit out of it.

and it wasn't the worst thing in the world. However, it will be another 12 years before I go back. Unless, that is I get forced to go do something stupid like a family gathering.

between EVERY TIME I ate at my mother in law's house.

In comment 11949099 Ryan said:

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...cook and to this day - at 69 years old - still has no idea all of her children feel this way. Tuna Noodle Casserole was one of her staples when I was growing up.....it was about 3 levels below Tuna Helper. I'd just salt and pepper the living shit out of it.

Loool

friends wanted to get some food there too, everyone sent their dishes back. They even managed to fuck up an ice cream sundae.

I was so sick my parents put a trash bag over my mattress for me to sleep on. I must've been 8 or 9 years old.

My mother comes home one evening with a package of pre-marinated chicken from the butcher labeled Hawaiian Chicken. I'm sure there was pineapple involved and some marinade, so you can get an idea and figure it can't be that bad. We all took 1 bite, my mother included, and spit it out. My father, who was never quick to spend money, declares, "We're ordering pizza for dinner."

Absolutely the worse for the money meal I have ever had. $65 for 2 people that had one coffee and egg sandwich each.

at Cedar Point. Truly horrid

on a trip to monument valley, ordered chicken parm and it was still hard as a rock frozen.

at a Schoney's.

They even managed to screw up toast.

Anyone from Brooklyn should be familiar with this place. for those of you who are not, it is a local place about a step up from a fast food place like McDonald's known for their roast beef sandwiches and cheese fries. Growing up in the 70s and 80s both my wife and I had been there dozens of times.

When my wife was pregnant with our first (so, just over 10 years ago), we were staying by her Mom in Manhattan Beach one weekend, which is right near the Sheepshead Bay establishment. Neither of us had been to Roll N Roaster in many years and she was eating very healthy for the most part, so it was surprising when she declared she was craving it.

I cam home with a killer order of roast beef, burgers, and cheese fries. We were enjoying it in a very guilty pleasure kind of way. Then we each got so sick with the worst stomach cramps and truly horrible and disgusting shits. It was so bad that we briefly thought the baby might be in danger. Needless to say, we have never gone back to this Brooklyn staple since.

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but in the US Thanksgiving 1989 stands out as one of the worst. My girlfriend's mother had 12 people for thanksgiving, they had one turkey breast, no stuffing/dressing, a side of wild rice that was undercooked, no potatoes and only broccoli. No bread and no gravy. The food ran out and she didn't have dessert. They were on a low salt, low sugar, low calorie diet which was curious because they were skinny and the family was fairly wealthy. We went out to the movies after dinner and ate a lot of popcorn and beef jerky from the gas station.
My current mother-in-law is a close second with her re-re-cooked ham and fuzzy green beans.
As far as restaurants go, Pei Wei- I found a band aid in the meal they put on our table, which was wrong and the person who the meal belonged just picked it out and ate it. We asked for a refund and skipped lunch.
Golden Corral- The restaurant smelled so bad it activated my gag reflex. It was summer and it reeked of sweat, diapers, ammonia and fat people. My wife who is painfully clean found a pile of something we assumed was human hair in her food and she screamed and we ran out of there.

I was staying at the best hotel in that hell-hole of a city of 22 million and figured the restaurant would be safe. As I was about to bite into some kind of meat, I saw what looked like rice but began to wiggle. Yep, it was a maggot. Politely excused myself and sustained myself on beer the rest of the trip.

In comment 11949236 muhajir said:

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In comment 11949099 Ryan said: Quote: ...cook and to this day - at 69 years old - still has no idea all of her children feel this way. Tuna Noodle Casserole was one of her staples when I was growing up.....it was about 3 levels below Tuna Helper. I'd just salt and pepper the living shit out of it. Loool

Same scenario with our family, but our staple something unrecognizable that we just referred to as "Beef Shit"

Thread.

Ugh

They had this rice casserole in the buffet. Dished it up along with some other stuff. Found a cockroach in the rice. I just about puked right there at the table.

I always had a good experience at Shoneys...

In comment 11949293 rebel yell said:

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I was staying at the best hotel in that hell-hole of a city of 22 million

holy crap.

In comment 11949323 Chef said:

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I always had a good experience at Shoneys...

I had a bacon BBQ chicken sandwich there once during spring break, stoned as fuck -- and I declared it was the best meal Id ever had.... At that time.

In comment 11949018 MaineGiantFan said:

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If this is an effort to bail out olive garden, don't bother

I had some mayonnaise-based potato salad at a family picnic. I was a kid. 5-ish maybe. Tasted all right going down, but I ended up pretty sick, I guess, and wouldn't for the next forty-something years touch potato or egg salad in any form again. Only in the last decade have I been willing to try potato salad again.

Not good poisoning, but a similar experience with gin. Never really recovered from a 19-year-old's binge. Won't drink the stuff. Ever.

poisoning.

Ugggh!

In comment 11949331 mattlawson said:

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In comment 11949018 MaineGiantFan said: Quote: . If this is an effort to bail out olive garden, don't bother

Hahaha! Absolutely not

In comment 11949354 Ira said:

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Ugggh!

White Castle is great

Don't remember the name. Came highly recommended. We didn't even get to our meals, the place smelled like urine and was overpowering.

God bless him and may he rest in peace, but what a horrible meal.

It was during Lent, so right away I knew there would be no meat, which is a nightmare for someone who isn't a big seafood fan. I went with what I considered to be the safest option, which was a "fried fish & chips" meal.

The batter on the fish was greasy and soggy, the fish itself was slimy and raw. Took one bite, spit it out, and moved on to the fries, which were also cold and disgusting. It's like they were trying to punish us for being younger than 70 - my brother had the same thing, and the other fish dishes ordered by my cousins were equally terrible.

Never have I been happier to see an Applebees, which was in the same complex as our hotel. That was like eating a gourmet meal compared to the crap we'd been served at the party.

parents before we married. Now, I love all things turkey. My dad was a great turkey roaster and made the best stuffing in the world. My wife's turkey and stuffing etc is a very close second.

Her parents, not so much. They boiled a turkey. Boiled it. Boiled turkey looks and tastes grey.

Buca di Beppo in Dupont Circle, in Washington DC. Tasted like vomit.

begged and convinced us to host her birthday lunch at the local Chilli's in El Dorado Hills CA. Never have I seen hamburgers so small, overcooked, and dry with rather pathetic fries and condiments all around. Never been back to any Chilli's.

In some nameless local joint in a nameless town outside of Bordeaux somwhere might have been worse, but at least I wasn't paying for it as it was a work trip...

In some nameless local joint in a nameless town outside of Bordeaux somwhere might have been worse, but at least I wasn't paying for it as it was a work trip...

up in Wells, NY while camping one year. It was raining hard so we couldn't really cook out. We got pizza. There was about a 2 inch glob of government cheese on top of nasty canned tomato sauce. Just awful, couldn't even force it down at 15 years old.

there is a mexican restaurant at an outlet mall (probably closer to ft myers). on top of just the laziest most inattentive service i've ever received, the veggies in our fajitas were charred beyond recognition, cheese was missing and it was top to bottom just a sad experience. however, because of the lack of food options, the restaurant had a 1/2 hour wait list.

In comment 11949684 bob in tx said:

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parents before we married. Now, I love all things turkey. My dad was a great turkey roaster and made the best stuffing in the world. My wife's turkey and stuffing etc is a very close second. Her parents, not so much. They boiled a turkey. Boiled it. Boiled turkey looks and tastes grey.

i boil/poach chicken for my toddler because of the health benefits but agree it is very nasty looking and bland.

The food over there tasted nothing like the Olive Garden and the pizza paled in comparison to Sbarro's

and I forget all the names of places in Bordeaux that I have been.

Oh wait, what is the question again?

--SophisticateLou

with a best meal, it's harder to come up with a worst one.

I'm generally not picky and normally if I go out even if I don't like something I still eat it. And even if I don't, after having worked in the restaurant industry as a youth, I will almost never ever send something back. Under any circumstances. In fact I cannot imagine any situation where I'd send a meal back to a restaurant kitchen I don't care what I am paying or what the problem is.

I did have a girlfriend in high school whose mother reminded me of the mom in Better Off Dead. She was a terrible cook, but that's not why I was there so I didn't care. I did make the tactical mistake of one time telling her how much I liked her spaghetti and canned clam sauce (the red clam sauce) (it was brutal, but she loved the compliment), so practically every time I ate dinner over there after that (which was often) she made that same thing and i had to eat it.

Otherwise I got nothing.

- Rich

In comment 11949841 Les in TO said:

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there is a mexican restaurant at an outlet mall (probably closer to ft myers). on top of just the laziest most inattentive service i've ever received, the veggies in our fajitas were charred beyond recognition, cheese was missing and it was top to bottom just a sad experience. however, because of the lack of food options, the restaurant had a 1/2 hour wait list.

I now live in the Ft . Myers / Naples area and am quite certain to have had the misfortune of eating at the same restaurant. La Bamba, I believe.

In comment 11949869 Pork and Beans said:

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and I forget all the names of places in Bordeaux that I have been. Oh wait, what is the question again? --SophisticateLou

10s don't hang out at Chili's.

In comment 11949869 Pork and Beans said:

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and I forget all the names of places in Bordeaux that I have been. Oh wait, what is the question again? --SophisticateLou

While rolling with only chef groupies that are 10's

Switzerland, not France

In Japan, I had this Ramen type soup. It had seaweed. The smell was so bad, I couldnt even bring myself to take more than 1 bite. It was like high tide and sweaty ass(i would assume how it smells)

had occasion to inspect restaurants specific to one area.

Visiting a restaurant in Albuquerque NM I happend to notice in the trash…..a container of frozen breaded shrimp like you would find in the supermarket…

This was a mexican food restaurant and a upper end one(not fast food), but nevertheless it is probably a good idea to stay within the category of what the restaurant is.

Expecting fresh sea food in a NM restaurant and a mexican food restaurant to boot is to my opinion …stupid.

Some places you just wouldn't believe how bad they are. One I remember you couldn't barely walk through the cooking area as it had so much grease and stuff on the floor. Some of the worst meals you ever had may be ones you never even knew of as being bad.

and frozen shrimp is usually better quality than unfrozen (which has been frozen then thawed) unless you are getting it right off the boat.

I had something out that was so bad, I can't even remember but about two years ago we went to outback. Someone gave us a gift card so we had little choice but to use it.

I ordered the porter house. It tasted like someone threw a sneaker on the grill and doused the thing with salt. It was rubbery trash.

I always hated those chain restaurants and just knew before walking in that Outback would piss me off. Sure enough, it did. I'm not that picky but that places sucks. How the hell do you ruin a porterhouse??

Lonestar is shit too. Or is it longhorns...the other chain steakhouse restaurant...went there about 20 years ago with co workers...trash.

Recently ordered a Italian hero from a good place in fort lee. Good place when it comes to pizza and dinners. DO not order the Italian Hero at Baggios...the ham was so thick...gross.

I had another run in with a New York institution. The one and only time I had a Gray's Papaya hot dog was a disaster. I was in HS (I think) at the time and had just gotten a haircut at Astor Place. I went to the location right near the W4 train station (at the time I was taking the Brighton D/Q line, which I think is the B now). Anyway, I inhaled a couple of dogs and hopped on the train. About the time we got to the Manhattan Bridge I started feeling it. A couple of stops later, I was sweating and trembling, afraid I wasn't going to make it home. I spent the rest of the trip clenching my butt so tight, afraid I was going to explode.

By the time I got off the train, I knew this wasn't any type of business to be done in a public restroom. I had the most awkward run home of 4 blocks, where I would have to stop every half a block or so to walk, again fearing I wouldn't make it. I barely got myself into the bathroom in time and spent a long while there. Never gave them another shot.

In comment 11949249 David in LA said:

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friends wanted to get some food there too, everyone sent their dishes back. They even managed to fuck up an ice cream sundae.

Almost forgot, Dave and Busters is God Awful....went to a BDay party there about 4 years ago. You'd think that Chicken fingers and Mozz sticks and fries and shit like that can't be that bad...but it can most certainly be that bad.

In comment 11949099 Ryan said:

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...cook and to this day - at 69 years old - still has no idea all of her children feel this way. Tuna Noodle Casserole was one of her staples when I was growing up.....it was about 3 levels below Tuna Helper. I'd just salt and pepper the living shit out of it.

Ryan - This is your mother. I post on this site. Fuck you.

my grandmother(bless her soul)….made us custard, home made and all that.
My and my brother were both sat down on the kitchen table and given this supposed treat.

Geeze louise it tasted like cardboard. And my brother being such a nice guy jumped on the opportunity to not only not eat it, but to stick it to me, which was his favorite pastime. …so he said….quickly…I'm full but I'll give mine to Ron since this is so delicious I'm sure he will want to eat it….

Me being then and now not so quick on my feet….just ate two helpings of cardboard…..;(
Not being able to figure a way out of it without hurting her feelings.

So they told my Aunt Harriet, a gournet food expert and writer, that they wanted to throw a party and invite the extended family to the event, and what would be a good restaurant to go to? Aunt Harriet recommended a Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown in lower Manhattan.

Only it was an AUTHENTIC Chinese restaurant, and the SHIT they brought out looked like SHIT, felt like SHIT and tasted like SHIT. The most palatable dish they brought out was pigeon. Yeaaaah, you can call it Squab, but you don't fool me! That thing shat all over your windowsills two hours ago.

There was this one dish that had these clear, disk-shaped, slimy I dunno what the fuck. Like some steamed jelly fish, with the consistency of eating your cheek. Chewy, slimy, GROSS.

at the 33rd in Orlando. Food was unfit for maybe even a pet.

disgusting, slimy, smelly, unrecognizeable, let alone edible authentic dog shit we had to eat at that crap Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.

I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the dishes contained dog. It was inedible.

After that we forbad our mother from ever consulting Aunt Harriet again about anything to do with food we might eat.

You might be surprised by what I'd eat. I love that show, Bizarre Foods. I'd try almost anything except insects when I'm hungry.

If it was authentic Chinese, not garbage Chinese, I'd probably choke it down. I've eaten some seaweed snacks recently that smelled like cut grass and thought it was actually pretty good!

Bit into a hamburger, found a quarter.

In comment 11950070 schnitzie said:

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So they told my Aunt Harriet, a gournet food expert and writer, that they wanted to throw a party and invite the extended family to the event, and what would be a good restaurant to go to? Aunt Harriet recommended a Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown in lower Manhattan. Only it was an AUTHENTIC Chinese restaurant, and the SHIT they brought out looked like SHIT, felt like SHIT and tasted like SHIT. The most palatable dish they brought out was pigeon. Yeaaaah, you can call it Squab, but you don't fool me! That thing shat all over your windowsills two hours ago. There was this one dish that had these clear, disk-shaped, slimy I dunno what the fuck. Like some steamed jelly fish, with the consistency of eating your cheek. Chewy, slimy, GROSS.

LOL! schnitz, I was thinking of this disaster when I read this thread. I can verify this one, I was there. 100% accurate. Just terrible. Place was located in a basement, not even recognizable as a restaurant from outside on the street. What a nightmare.

But he was also short tempered. So, if my brother or I didn't make a decent effort to eat something he made for us, he'd get on our case big time. I remember two times he made something for us that was just inedible. Funny thing was both times it wasn't his fault.

First time he made one of his favorites: sausage, peppers and onions. Typically this is really good. This time, however, the sausage he bought from the supermarket was mislabeled. He meant to buy sweet italian sausage. Instead, he bought the extra spicy hot variety, just didn't know it. Quite a surprise for Riffy and I. We tried to brave our way through it considering we didn't want Dad to yell at us. But, Holy F@ck! Spiciest thing I have ever attempted to eat. Dad was struggling too with it, and finally admitted to us that it was too much. He was so pissed. Freakin' supermarket.

Freakin' supermarket strikes again. The second bad meal involved the corn on cob Dad brought home. Corn on the Cob is a family favorite. We had one ear of corn from the prior week which Dad made for himself, so that Riffy and I would have the fresh ones. We had no idea there was something wrong with the new corn. Riff and I took a bite and almost spit up. It was disgusting!!! It must have been feed corn for cattle or chickens because this shit was so starchy. We could barely get it down. Ugh! We said it didn't taste right, but Dad told us to keep eating it anyway. He had no clue the corn was awful. He was eating the one from last week which was perfect. We tried to tell him something was wrong, but he didn't want to hear it. He just kept getting more annoyed with us the more we struggled to eat it. Finally, we persuaded him to try it himself. He grabbed mine, took one bite and spit it out. The big prick was amazed we were able to eat any of it. Jerk. At least he apologized.

ROFLMAOWTIME!!!!

I wish it was you who described the 210th Birthday Clusterfuck of a Chinese Dump Party. You have a way with words, Plaid.

Larry reminded me that the locale was horrific as well. Aunt Harriet must have been poppin the happy pills BIG TIME when she recommended that freakin POS dive.

I don't really remember it in too much detail. I think I thankfully blocked much of it. Plus, I don't think it was the 210th party. I think it was a b-day for Gramps only. I recall the 210th was at a reception hall where we sat at a table like we were at a McCarthy hearing. Am I remembering it right?

a bowl of ice with Miller Beer ponies in it? Or was it Bud?

I dunno...but holy shit did that Chinese food place suck BALLS!

that you had to "choke down". I know people who pride themselves on eating exotic, often nasty shit. I don't understand the appeal of this endeavor.

Agreed on the White Castle choice. I never saw what the attraction was about anything that was made by that place and I'll eat fast food. I'm in OK shape, but far from a health nut. I think I had 20 of those Reese's peanut butter cups today.

cold C-Rations from WWII in the field at Ft Dix.

I generally hate Chinese food, and I have been exposed to quite a lot of it in many locales for business reasons over the years.

Many years ago I was working for a very large company and they had just transfered me to Buffalo. When I got there, I ran into one of the considerably higher ups in the organization who I already knew and liked. He had been an OSS officer in WW II and spent three years behind the Japanese lines in China. So he obviously had a lot of experience with real Chinese food.

When discussing where we would dine that evening, I voiced my dislike of Chinese. His response was that I had never had real Chinese food, that real Chinese was really good, and that he would take me to what he maintained was the best real Chinese restaurant anywhere near the east coast. He was pretty insistent about it, and I decided to trust his judgement.

To make a long story short, I hated it. Never went anywhere near the place again while I lived there or in the many years after I left the company to move to another area but continued to do business on the Niagara Frontier.

And I still hate Chinese food, real or fake, where ever I find it anywhere in the US or Canada.

However, I can say that I had a pretty damn good Italian smorgasbord (antipasto, spaghetti, lasagne, and pizza) after a very, very cold (sharp wind at 25 below F) morning of serious snowmobile travel through almost drifted shut trails at the Bam Chinese restaurant in Senneterre, Quebec. But when I had Chinese food there a couple of years later, I hated it.

Pick any of those wonderful meals. They were really bad.

dining experiences I've ever had was at the Union Oyster House this summer in Boston. The only thing that was excellent was the shrimp cocktail.

The oysters were awful and I didn't much enjoy the lobster I purchased either, although that could be because it was my first time ordering it.

Legal Seafoods in Boston Harbor I found was excellent from soup to nuts.

be honest though. If anyone goes to Grey's Papaya and they are sober...well you deserve everything that's coming to you.