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BS: Your worst restaurant experience

07 Mar 25 - 08:09 PM (#4218636)
Subject: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Donuel

The worst was in Buffalo, NY, when rat tail bones were inside a hot dog.
The second worst was in Columbus Ohio, which is a long story.

08 Mar 25 - 06:17 AM (#4218653)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Georgiansilver

The burning down of the steak restaurant in the Arcade in Lancaster...... Their 32 ounce steak with all trimmings was the best when really hungry.

08 Mar 25 - 07:29 AM (#4218658)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Mr Red

At a company Xmas dinner in a pub. We all specified our preferences in advance, I went with "Ploughmans'" & "No Onions". As simple as it gets to comply.

It came with a pickled onion on top of the cheese. When I pointed-out the error the waitress (cook?) replied "You never said anything about a pickle!"

The reason I don't eat at restaurants is for that kind of reason. They don't know what food is what, or "it's only got a bit of garlic", as if I wouldn't notice.

You get what they sell, and eating out is for pleasure, and it's no pleasure with fodder & attitudes like the above, so I don't buy. Hence I get to see what I eat.

08 Mar 25 - 11:47 AM (#4218669)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Bill D

Driving back from Kansas City to Wichita with a friend, we came to a smallish town with 2 restaurants on the main street. One said "Good Eats", so in we went. Nice little homey place with wooden booths and a menu with familiar stuff.
   He ordered the fried chicken and I opted for meat loaf. Looked fine when it arrived... then we tasted it!
   He said his chicken was not only over cooked, but tough and bland.
My meatloaf came with mashed potatoes and gravy... and somehow the gravy tasted odd. After several bites, I recognized the flavor. It tasted like it had set overnight in a refrigerator under some dripping watermelon. In fact, everything seemed to be yesterday's reheated stuff.
   That meal became our classic "never again" location.

08 Mar 25 - 12:12 PM (#4218675)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

Mr Red, my Hubby can't eat raw onion, although he is ok if it is cooked or marinated.

We ordered a meal at a place where the food is not the greatest ever, but it is usually ok for the price. I can't remember what the feature item in the dish was, but it came with an Asian inspired salad. I requested no onion when I ordered it, but then a few minutes later I was called back to find out if my Hubby had an allergy to onions. I said he didn't but that he can't eat raw onion because it upsets his stomach. She said the salad comes with raw red onion so I said we would just pick it out and eat the rest.

When the meal arrived there was a fairly big salad and - I am not exaggerating - *half* of the salad was raw red onion which was not marinated in oil with lemon or lime juice or vinegar. We picked it out and left it on the plate because I'm not fond of raw onion either. A third of the whole meal was raw red onion.

What is the fascination with raw unmarinated red onions? I don't get it at all.

08 Mar 25 - 12:15 PM (#4218676)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

A friend and I stopped at a little Chinese restaurant after a volunteer event and we were too tired to cook when we got home. We ordered the pu pu platter (an array of things, kind of a small buffet at your table) that came with a strangely animated can of sterno in the bottom keeping everything warm. The can started sputtering, and the food was oddly seasoned. At one point I jumped up and put out a burning spot on my friend's jacket after a bit of the burning alcohol jumped out of the can onto the booth.

We sent the tray back and asked for food without all of the blue specks of sterno and when they brought it back it still had specks - they hadn't sent out something new, they simply picked off most of the sterno on our now-cold food.

That is the first time I ever refused to pay for a meal, and I suggested that if they made a fuss I'd call the fire department and complain about the fire hazard and showed them the burn on the jacket.

That place closed fairly soon after.

08 Mar 25 - 12:26 PM (#4218680)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

Funny, not funny, SRS!

I have only refused to pay for a meal once. It was a work dinner for my Hubby. The place was so crowded and the chairs so tightly packed together that we couldn't lift our arms to use our knife and fork properly. It was extremely noisy with so many people talking loudly.

I ordered a steak, medium not rare. It came out and it had been seared very briefly on both sides and was red raw on the inside, like buying a raw steak from the butcher. I showed it to the waitress and she took it back to the kitchen and did not charge me for the meal. She was very helpful, friendly and apologetic. We never went back to that restaurant.

08 Mar 25 - 12:42 PM (#4218681)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

If they ask if he's allergic and will only remove it if is he is, then tell them yes, he's allergic to onion. It doesn't matter if his adverse reaction is uncomfortable or deadly, he can't eat it and that's all they need to know. You clearly got a salad scooped out of a big bin so it wasn't the freshest.

On occasion I've been surprised by how a menu item was prepared. One time in Idaho on a road trip I ordered French toast - pretty safe bet it's going to be bread, egg, and syrup. But no, they had a humongous piece of bread, dipped in an egg batter, then deep fried. I asked what on earth this was when it arrived and was told it's their own recipe. I should have sent it back. I tried eating it but it was quite greasy.

The weird surprise when I first moved to the South is that when eating breakfast out here if you order tea, they'll bring you iced tea unless you specify hot tea.

08 Mar 25 - 01:28 PM (#4218689)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Donuel

In Virginia they have a Golden Corral that was superb so I went to one in Ohio. You have to pay first so when we got in there was a 500 lb. man surrounded by a motley entourage. There was not a single entre in the buffet since they were trying to avoid feeding the obese monster any longer.
The great one was waiting them out and the restaurant was in Mexican standoff mode. We left hungry and without dinner money leaving the siege of the Golden Corral behind us.

08 Mar 25 - 01:32 PM (#4218691)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Mrrzy

Witnessed - hugely pregnant woman comes in, says Name is Brown, I have a reservation. Host looks terrified: The party they had just seated said They were the Browns! Pregnant woman turns to companion and says, that's the last time we use YOUR name! I had to ask. Hers was Slavic, long, and vowel-less.

My own tend to involve closet cilantro: I recall once ordering something and asking to have it without cilantro, got my food, took a bite, and had to spit that mouthful into my napkin. Called waitress over, she said I told them no cilantro! Goes to kitchen, reports back that the cilantro is an integral part of the dish, not a garnish, so the kitchen just ignored her as it would have meant tuna, lettuce, and absolutely none of the seventeen other ingredients in my dish, because they were all already mixed. I say OK, no biggie, but I don't want any food now, too grossed out to eat anything. (There were a bunch of us. I stayed for the camaraderie.) I mean, really.

08 Mar 25 - 02:05 PM (#4218694)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

SRS, when I said we would pick out the raw red onion we thought it would be just a few pieces of onion rings. We didn't think it would be half of the salad. If he was allergic he wouldn't be able to eat the salad if the raw onion had touched it but picking them out is ok for him.

Mrrzy, oh yum! Cilantro aka coriander. My favourite Thai dish is green chicken curry. It wouldn't be the same without the cilantro.

Cilantro is definitely love-it-or-hate-it/can-or-can't-eat-it food but I'm not sure why. It might be a DNA thing.

I like watching the real-life hospital Emergency medical shows and people with peanut allergies can be in life threatening situations. One patient ordered fish cakes from a take away shop, had an allergic reaction, went into anaphylactic shock and found out at the hospital that she is also allergic to pine nuts which were in the fish cakes but not declared on the menu. I assume it is somehow related to peanut allergy. That would limit the use of pine nuts in yummy basil & parmesan pesto sauce.

08 Mar 25 - 05:30 PM (#4218703)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler

I had a friend who was allergic to even the smallest imaginable amount of mango. He ended up in casualty a couple of times.

We did go to an indian place once where there seemed to be some sort of row going on in the kitchen. after 40 minutes our order had still not arrived and apparently the chef had left the building. We handed over a couple of pounds to cover the cost of the drinks and left ourselves.

Robin

08 Mar 25 - 06:26 PM (#4218704)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Joe Offer

I guess I don't really remember worst experiences in restaurants. My wife laughs when I start reminiscing about some meal I had fifty years ago.
I was visiting my sister in Maine, and we spent the day exploring Pemaquid Light. In the evening, we went to a nearby restaurant and I ordered a bucket of "steamers" (steamed clams), along with scallops sauteed in honey and bread crumbs. Certainly a meal to remember for 50 years. Why waste my time remembering the bad meals?

-Joe-

08 Mar 25 - 08:49 PM (#4218711)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Mrrzy

there is, indeed, a cilantro-hating gene.

08 Mar 25 - 09:41 PM (#4218713)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

And a cilantro-loving gene!

09 Mar 25 - 10:23 AM (#4218741)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: keberoxu

Last time I went to an Applebee's,
I ordered fettucine with chicken and broccoli, no sauce.
II got what I asked for, however
the fettucine was all dried out and inedible.
I didn't bother sending it back. Just ate what I could.
And yes, it did mess with my digestion for a day or so.

09 Mar 25 - 11:12 AM (#4218744)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Donuel

Stink bugs smell like Cilantro to me, which is not offensive,
Eating a bug however kinda is.

09 Mar 25 - 11:16 AM (#4218745)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: gillymor

A few decades back I was at a favorite barbecue joint in South Miami, which was basically a screened in patio with a smoker, when a small lizard fell into my plate of brisket. It scurried off and I went back to eating which kind of grossed out the whole table.

09 Mar 25 - 12:58 PM (#4218750)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

What happens in the kitchen stays in the kitchen, but it's kind of difficult to conceal a lizard in the brisket at the dining table. Good call, though, as long as it didn't linger or leave behind any shock and awe from the fall. ;-)

11 Mar 25 - 01:57 PM (#4218871)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

When Hubby & I first started going out together I took him to a local seafood restaurant for his birthday. I don't particularly like seafood, although there are a couple of things I will eat if it doesn't taste too seafood-y.

He ordered something he wanted and I ordered a Caesar salad. (I wasn't in the best of health at that time, so the salad seemed like a good choice to me and there were only a couple of non-seafood items on the menu.) The waiter asked if that was what I really wanted and recommended a seared salmon dish. I do eat tinned or smoked salmon, and I didn't want to get argumentative because it was Hubby's birthday dinner so I agreed.

When the seared salmon came out it was well-described. It was a chunk of salmon which was seared on each side and red-raw all the way through. I couldn't eat it. I didn't even take it home for the cats. I didn't argue and paid the exorbitant price. We never went back there and even when I drive past that building I still get annoyed, 25 years later.

11 Mar 25 - 05:20 PM (#4218887)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

Helen, that reminds me of one of my best restaurant experiences. My kids were born and raised in Texas by a mother from the Pacific NW so I fixed seafood in a way that I grew up with. Salmon is one of nature's perfect foods, so grilling or baking with a little butter, fresh ground black pepper, and garlic is all that is needed.

When I was a kid in Seattle Ivar's Acres of Clams was a simple seafood restaurant, but when we were all in Seattle for a wedding in 2013 the adult kids and I went out for lunch at Ivar's and were confronted with a huge menu with all sorts of sauces and blackened this and that. When the waiter arrived at our table I asked where was the basic grilled salmon without all of the stuff added? He said they always had fresh fish at the market price in the kitchen for the die hards who didn't want the fancy dishes. I ordered grilled salmon and got a potato and broccoli on the side. The kids ordered the same, and I realized it was because they also knew what good salmon tastes like. My son lives up there now, near my sister, and when they post photos of meals they share if there is salmon involved it is treated with respect. Grilled or smoked, it doesn't need any fancy ingredients.

11 Mar 25 - 05:48 PM (#4218889)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

I do like smoked salmon, and what you describe: simply presented so that the real flavour is the star.

There is a restaurant near here which specialises in Texas food but the huge photo of some of their selections always makes me cringe. Everything is black from either being overcooked of from sauces smothered all over everything. The only item on the menu which looks appetising is the sweet potato fries, which I have eaten at other places and make them at home as well. Yum!

11 Mar 25 - 06:03 PM (#4218890)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

And what you're probably seeing as "Texas food" is TexMex. Slathered in tomato sauce or cheese or both. Apart from that, Texas has quite a barbecue tradition, and various states have different sauces and meats they prefer to slow cook over coals. Brisket is king around here, with sides of beans (pinto or ranch), coleslaw, potato salad, pieces of ears of corn, and peach cobbler for dessert. https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/best-texas-barbecue-bites-2024/ They also make some pretty good chili.

A friend was visiting here from New York City and we took him to our favorite Mexican restaurant (not TexMex) and he saw one of the few TexMex dishes go past on the way to another table, a chicken fried steak smothered in a cheese sauce. "I want that!" he said, and I was just so glad that I didn't have to sit beside him on the plane the next day, because he was going to suffer from eating that.

12 Mar 25 - 01:40 AM (#4218906)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

This is an Australianised version of Texas food. It might be TexMex but they don't call it that. The sauces are mostly dark coloured and the meat looks black. They say they slow cook it for a lot of hours.

The problem for me, from an Oz perspective, is that a good steak cooked using the pan-fry method and not overcooked has a lovely flavour and texture, but slow-cooked beef has a mushier texture and they use some out-there seasonings which overpowers the real flavour.

It's not to my taste.

I ordered a steak sandwich from another food counter right next to it which is part of the same organisation. I expected a proper Aussie steak and was given an overcooked, mushy, overly flavoured Texas version. I never ordered it again. There should have been a warning notice on the menu that they didn't mean "real Aussie steak". LOL

12 Mar 25 - 02:49 AM (#4218907)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

I just did an internet image search of TexMex and Texas food and they don't look the same as the food on that menu. I think it is a very bad attempted translation by Aussies and it has failed miserably. On the behalf of Aussies, I offer our apologies for the gross misinterpretation of the Texas tradition.

I think they are using the more-is-better approach and it is not working.

BTW, Hubby has a smoker and he has used it to make really delicious smoked ham and smoked chicken. He hasn't tried to do it with beef yet.

12 Mar 25 - 08:42 AM (#4218939)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: gillymor

It's a matter of taste, Helen, but one of the things I miss about Texas, along with the music scene in a Austin, is the proliferation of barbecue joints where you could get great beef brisket. I still harbor fond memories of it's texture and smoky goodness. Lots of backyard chefs could make a good job of it as well.
Another restaurant experience, even longer ago than the one I related above, occurred at a small Italian restaurant in Greenwich village, Valentino's. My girlfriend and I were just digging in when a busboy(?) burst out of the kitchen and crashed into our table, sending water, wine, bread and antipasto flying, most of which landed on the couple next to us. As the guy scrambled for the entry door a couple of goons emerged from the kitchen and dragged him back in. The other diners barely noticed and went back to eating. The maitre'd offered to comp our meal but Mavis, in her wine-stained blouse, said let's get the hell out of here and I didn't argue.

12 Mar 25 - 09:07 AM (#4218941)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: gillymor

When I went to a TexMex joint I usually stuck with steak fajitas, with grilled onions, guacamole and warm flour tortillas. I can't think of too many things that are better than that, when done well.

12 Mar 25 - 11:58 AM (#4218957)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

gillymor, I don't think this restaurant is offering the real deal. Judging by the taste of the so-called "steak" in the steak sandwich, the smokiness came out of a bottle of smoke flavoured sauce.

12 Mar 25 - 12:15 PM (#4218958)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: gillymor

That sounds yucky. Steak fajitas are pretty easy to make and don't require an expensive cut of meat. I used to use well-marinated skirt steak but most cuts of lean beef works as you slice it pretty thin. I don't make them any more but there are plenty of simple recipes online. The way the steak, onions and guac go together is magical. Chicken fajitas also good.

12 Mar 25 - 12:38 PM (#4218962)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

It not only tastes yucky, but the menu billboard shows very yucky food, almost like the meat has been painted with a tarry substance.

Funnily enough, the beef fajita is very similar to what Hubby cooked last night, with a home grown avocado of course.

12 Mar 25 - 12:55 PM (#4218964)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: gillymor

I remember I used to use Seven Seas Italian dressing as a marinade for both steak and chicken fajitas.
For brisket rub with your favor spices, wrap it in foil and smoke it at a low heat for at least 8 hours or when the pile of empty beer cans is up to your knees. If you start it out too hot it will get tough in a hurry, found that out through a lot of trial and error.

12 Mar 25 - 02:28 PM (#4218973)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Donuel

Home grown?
envy

12 Mar 25 - 04:20 PM (#4218983)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

Around here there are a gazillion food trucks that represent many of the states of Mexico and their distinctive cuisines and a lot of them haul the smoker trailer behind them. And there are stories in the news of thieves stealing the smoker trailers (and how one owner had a tracking tag on his and was able to recover it and expose a ring of trailer thieves.)

I befriended an early adopter of the food truck barbecue tradition when I worked at a local newspaper in Central Texas. He would smoke meat for people if they brought their brisket and had it seasoned the way they wanted. One thing he said they didn't understand was the amount of fat that needs to be layered on top of a brisket for it to cook properly for all of those hours. He would have to add layers of trimmed beef fat he had extra onto those commissioned pieces of beef so they'd come out right.

I mentioned chili earlier. Chili in Texas, Chile in New Mexico. They're similar but different. Chili cookoffs in Texas versus New Mexico chile

12 Mar 25 - 04:24 PM (#4218984)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

Donuel, I posted this:

What's the weather like where you are?

The weather gods have worked together for the avocado tree I sprouted from seed about 18 years ago and we finally have a crop of more than just a few. I fully expect the next season to be a bitter disappointment because I will be hoping for the best after this year but I will also be preparing for the worst. The weather gods have a cruel sense of humour.

The avocados are Shepard variety, and they are definitely the food of the gods, IMHO.

12 Mar 25 - 04:29 PM (#4218985)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

And I assume you are green with envy.

12 Mar 25 - 04:35 PM (#4218986)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: gillymor

Yep, the extra beef fat is essential for a good brisket and I used to poke the foil with a fork as I recall.

13 Mar 25 - 12:25 PM (#4219035)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: MaJoC the Filk

As it happens, Herself and I are finishing up a shop-bought alleged custard tart which she describes as "definitely one for looking at, rather than eating". I don't blame the first generation of TV chefs, but the rise of "food porn" in colour supplements and on the TV, for miseducating people into thinking food doesn't need to taste of anything as long as it's photogenic, and preferably expensive.

13 Mar 25 - 02:23 PM (#4219040)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

gillymor, thanks for the tip on slow cooking brisket.

Hubby told me about a simple Chinese method: velveting for tenderising beef or chicken with some bi-carb soda, then let it sit for 30 minutes before stir frying.

13 Mar 25 - 11:48 PM (#4219072)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: BrooklynJay

I cook many Asian dishes and I find you really have to be careful about not leaving the baking soda on the meat for too long. If you do, it leaves a bitter taste. Ordinarily, I velvet my proteins with light soy sauce, some Chinese cooking wine and a little sesame oil, mixing until the meat absorbs the liquid as much as possible. Then I add cornstarch and mix until evenly coated.

Anyway, my restaurant story took place in 1983 at the long-gone Sheepshead Bay Diner in Brooklyn, New York. It was a 24-hour dive and I was there with my then-girlfriend at around 2 o'clock in the morning. Our server was a nasty bitch - and that's being kind - and I remember finding hair in my Chef's Salad, among other things. But it was the woman's constant attitude that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

As we got up from our table to leave, my girlfriend took a couple of dollars from her purse, placed the tip on a plate, then proceeded to slather the cash with butter.

14 Mar 25 - 12:29 AM (#4219075)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

Thanks for the tip on velveting meat. I'll pass it on to Hubby.

(But thanks for not tipping me with butter-slathered cash. LOL)

I have followed a recipe for cheese muffins which suggests adding bicarb soda, but I must have added a bit too much because the result was a disappointingly bitter taste in what could have been a very tasty muffin.

14 Mar 25 - 06:45 AM (#4219084)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Donuel

mmm hot buttered cash, yum.

14 Mar 25 - 10:56 AM (#4219095)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: MaJoC the Filk

A young couple of our family's acquaintance were expecting a guest for tea, so the wife baked a cake. As was her habit (possibly one inherited from before the invention of self-raising flour), she added bicarb to the mixture.

The guest duly arrived, and was duly fed. They carefully asked how the cake tasted; only after he'd said it tasted fine did they admit that, in going for the bicarb tin, she'd missed, and accidentally used Andrews' Liver Salts instead.

14 Mar 25 - 01:42 PM (#4219114)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

MaGoC, I found the recipe for the muffins on the internet and not in one of my trusted cookbooks. The type of flour wasn't specified so I used self raising flour but added the bicarb according to the recipe. Never again! But to minimise the chance of mistakes like that I don't store medicinal salts next to the bicarb. :-D

14 Mar 25 - 03:01 PM (#4219118)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: robomatic

Many years ago I was on a job in Alaska where we lived in a camp and ate at a local 'restaurant'. More of a cafe with food, the kind of place with booths against the outside wall, a counter, an internal window into the kitchen with the orders posted at the window. The kind of place where the big meal is breakfast where that is bacon eggs and toast with variations of pancakes. There were no restrictions on smoking nor seemingly anything else. After a few days I had to take a look into the kitchen which was not that hard to find. Inside over the burners was a skinny woman in a well used apron in constant motion. And she was chewing tobacco. And regularly spitting into a can in the middle of the range. She didn't have good aim control. I thought the eggs tasted funny.

14 Mar 25 - 04:35 PM (#4219124)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

Sorry, MaJoC, I misspelled your moniker. My only excuse is that it was 4.30 am and I was still half asleep.

robomatic, it could be a new taste sensation! I imagine there were not a lot of alternative choices on places to eat near the camp.

14 Mar 25 - 04:55 PM (#4219127)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

What are medicinal salts? Epsom? Something else?

I was sitting in a Chinese restaurant on Mott St in Chinatown, lower Manhattan (Brooklyn Jay you were in the area at a similar time - it was 1 Mott St at the Bowery, a very nice place). Smoking was allowed but the woman at the table behind me lit her cigarette then propped her elbow on the arm of the chair with her hand tipped back, just inches from my face. I backed my chair into her and asked her to keep the cancer stick out of my face. So many smokers felt so entitled to pollute everyone's air. (There are many other smokers in restaurants stories, they can be saved for later.)

When I visit NYC now I eat at Wo Hop in the downstairs restaurant. The fancy upstairs place is for tourists.

14 Mar 25 - 05:13 PM (#4219129)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

Well I looked up Andrews' Liver Salts and they are partly laxatives and partly for stomach upset, so the consequences of eating the cake may not have been pleasant.

From Wiki: "Andrews Liver Salts was a laxative and antacid for mild stomach complaints. It was sold as a powder which is added to water and mixed, creating effervescence, before being swallowed. The powder contains sugar; an antacid, sodium bicarbonate; citric acid; and a laxative, magnesium sulphate."

15 Mar 25 - 02:45 AM (#4219145)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

On the opposite side of this discussion, some of the best dishes I have ever eaten have been in restaurants from various cultural backgrounds, almost all in my home city which has a wonderful cultural diversity and food culture.

So, I will never ever forget the first time I tasted food from restaurants specialising in foods in the tradition of:

Lebanese, Turkish, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Thai and others.

My favourite foods are:

Hummus, kebabs, anything with Mediterranean salads and olives, and marinated meats like lamb, chicken or beef, pesto, lasagne, Szechuan dry fried green beans (amazing), Korean spicy chicken (also amazing), Thai green curry or red curry or just about anything on the Thai menus.

I will also eternally remember the first time I ever tried avocado. Wow!

15 Mar 25 - 08:24 AM (#4219154)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: MaJoC the Filk

Avocado .... apologies, but I really can't stand the taste or texture of pears of any species. Herself has this cunning stunt she pulls every now and then: she'll produce some apple-ish afters, wait till I've eaten it, then say, "Did you realise that was pears?"

Happily, she likes bananas as little as I do. Many years ago, my brother was on a catering course, and brought home a made-from-scratch yogurt; I was given it to try. "Urgh, urgh, what is it?" says I. "Banana," says he, very sheepishly, and very nearly causes an upchuck event.

15 Mar 25 - 12:02 PM (#4219167)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Bill D

While doing a project for EPA, a friend and I were in Davenport, Iowa, and after taking pictures of the Davenport dump.. (another story).. we stopped at a small diner. Ordered something, then I leaned back and happened to glance up. The ceiling was the drop-type with panels in a metal frame. From many (12-15) of the corners was hung a Shell No-Pest Strip.... (diclorovinyl-dimethyl-phosphate)!!!
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/14n1r34/shells_no_pest_strips_who_e Dichlorvos (2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate, commonly abbreviated as an DDVP[1]) is an organophosphate widely used as an insecticide to control household pests, in public health, and protecting stored products from insects. The compound has been commercially available since 1961. It has become controversial because of its prevalence in urban waterways and the fact that its toxicity extends well beyond insects.[2] Since 1988, dichlorvos cannot be used as a plant protection product in the EU.[3]

Yes, we ate our lunch... quickly...

15 Mar 25 - 01:40 PM (#4219171)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

Avocado "pears" are only called that because of their shape, which resembles a pear, MaJoC.

They taste nothing like pears and have a completely different texture and are mostly used for savoury dishes but some people sneak them in when making ice cream or cakes as a creamy substitute.

Don't go all pear-shaped on eating avocados. LOL

My recommendation for a first tasting would be guacamole with a Mexican dish.

15 Mar 25 - 02:15 PM (#4219174)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: BrooklynJay

Don't forget - avocados are also known as Alligator Pears.

Groucho Marx mentions them to Margaret Dumont in the 1929 film The Cocoanuts. Probably the first time I ever heard the term.


Jay

15 Mar 25 - 03:16 PM (#4219177)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Helen

And FWIW, I tend to not eat pears. They have to be ripe and not unripe and hard for me to eat them. I have had them in a couple of recipes like poached pears or pear tarte tatin. I don't mind them cooked but I don't particularly like them raw. The taste of raw pear is a bit "why bother?" for me.

Then again, I don't eat apples raw either. They seem to upset my digestion a bit. I like them cooked: apple crumble, apple pie, apple turnover, etc.

I love bananas!! Bananas and avocados rule!! Yay!!

15 Mar 25 - 07:58 PM (#4219190)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: JennieG

A bad restaurant experience:

Many many years ago the Scottish country dance group to which I belonged had their "end-of-year-Christmas night out" at a restaurant which had been in business for many years. As is my wont I bypassed the entree - 'appetiser' for the non-Ozzies - and ordered a main course, grilled salmon fillet with asparagus and I forget what else. After so many years I can't recall what I ordered for dessert. Many of the group went for three courses. We placed our orders, and settled in for a chat while we waited.

Entrees were duly delivered for those who had ordered them, and main courses started to appear. Mine did not. Entrees were cleared away, mains were being cleared, and desserts were starting to appear. My main was still nowhere to be seen, despite asking various wait staff. Eventually a staff member appeared and started in on the excuses.....staff off sick, didn't show for shifts, etc. "That's not my problem", I said. "I have ordered food and it has not been delivered. How hard can it be?" (I'm not usually rude to staff which I why I remembered what was said, but by then I was getting quite annoyed.) Eventually my salmon appeared, just as most of the others were finishing their desserts. My dessert (for which I was not charged) eventually appeared; the restaurant was clearing out by then.

One of my companions asked was it worth the wait......no, I said. It was nice, there was nothing wrong with the food, but it wasn't worth such a long wait.

16 Mar 25 - 11:19 AM (#4219229)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

I can't count the times I've been out with a group and one or two meals didn't appear and didn't appear, only to either never arrive or be so late everyone else was leaving. The usual table response is "they had to go kill the cow" or "catch the fish." That typically happened at places I never return to.

I am remembering a really nice meal times two, though. My son and I went up to the favorite Mexican restaurant (mentioned above) for lunch and were seated in a small enclosed porch area. A few minutes after we were served a young man (I'd guess late 20s) was seated a dozen feet away. We had a view of his profile; he was in military fatigues (light camouflage), a really short haircut, a hearing aid behind each ear. We continued to eat and talk, he placed his order, and when it arrived he arranged the parts of the meal on the table like it was a ritual, and placed a bottle of Aleve (naproxen - a painkiller) on the table next to his water glass. He clearly was enjoying every bit of his lunch. Since that restaurant is one of my favorites I presumed it was also a favorite of his, but this was more than just lunch, it was a ceremonial meal by someone who was back from a rough time. When we walked up to the cashier in the next room I told the her I wanted to pay for that other lunch, hoping the gift would add one more bit of pleasure to his afternoon. They were excited to comply, and I asked if they'd wait to tell him after we left. During our meal I had quietly called my son's attention to the other diner (the hearing aids, the pain medication) so he knew what I was doing. Not just a gift, I hope I was setting a good example.

16 Mar 25 - 02:03 PM (#4219241)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Mr Red

cilantro gene? - from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriander

Due to variations in the gene OR6A2, some people perceive it to have a soap-like taste, or even a pungent or rotten taste.

Some people have the Alliumphobis gene.

16 Mar 25 - 05:39 PM (#4219255)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: JennieG

Ozzie cats don't react to catnip/catmint, either. It seems to be a hemispherical thing.

16 Mar 25 - 08:51 PM (#4219260)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Tattie Bogle

Pizza marinara in Buxton, Derbyshire, some years ago. Well it is a bit far from the sea, but the prawns (shrimps) on the pizza had a disgusting smell about them. I picked one off with my fork, sniffed it and reeled backwards. Husband had already started eating his, but then I suggested he tried sniffing the prawns too - same effect! So we called the waitress and told her: she went to speak to the chef; came back to tell us “Chef says they’re fresh”, to which I said, “Maybe they were, two weeks ago”.
In the end, the pizzas were removed and we were offered another choice off the menu, which we half-heartedly accepted, and lived to tell the tale.

17 Mar 25 - 12:07 AM (#4219269)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Pappy Fiddle

You lived to tell the tale; so did I. This was a Mexican restaurant and the menu said something like Camarones asados en mantequilla, which sounded to me like Shrimp Scampi. When it came, the shrimp tasted like... well, what I imagine a kitchen sponge would taste like altho I've never chawed on one.

Still, it didn't have the romance of when I lived in Santiago Isquintla. There was a street vendor who came around with a little cart yelling "TAMALES DE CAMARON!!" so loud it would have rattled the windows if they had glass. I was never stupid enough to get one...

We went to a baseball game and he came into the stands yelling his thing. The guy sitting in front of me bought one to go with his Pepsi. A tamale is a thing like a corn dog. This would be one with shrimp in the middle. So this guy bites the end off it, and out pops the head of this single HUGE shrimp, more like a lobster! with little beady eyes, and two antennae about 20 inches long flipping out! I guess the critter hadn't even been gutted or cleaned at all.

But the story doesn't end there. At this night game, being in a tropical climate, there were bugs. They were of course attracted to the field lights, circling around up there like a live fog. Well, in this place, there is a beetle which we would occasionally see dead in the gutter or wherever; grossest thing you ever saw - stark black, about 4-5 inches long, with a pair of pinchers or arms sticking out the front end that looked for all the world like a pair of woman's naked legs, if she was a very black African. And one of these lovely insects tried to ram his way right into the intensely hot bright light, and either dazed or fried, came spiralling down and plopped right in the guy's paper cup of Pepsi.

Guy's name? Suertisimo

17 Mar 25 - 12:23 AM (#4219270)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Stilly River Sage

Oh, my! Now that's an eating adventure! And good call on the shrimp on the pizza!

18 Mar 25 - 05:36 AM (#4219333)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Mr Red

ever wondered what that distinctive smell is about fish?

Rotting flesh, I am told.

19 Mar 25 - 11:53 AM (#4219432)
Subject: RE: BS: Your worst restaurant experience
From: Mrrzy

Nope, no cilantto-loving gene.