30 Dining Disasters: People Share Their Worst Restaurant Experiences

Dive into the world of restaurant horror stories as Redditors open up about their worst dining experiences. From unacceptable customer service to getting the wrong meal, these tales illustrate what can go wrong while dining out.

Whether it’s a lunch date or a family dinner at a restaurant, the prospect of a delightful meal with impeccable service is part of the dining experience we all hope for. Yet, as many have learned, reality can be far from expectations.

A few people on Reddit revealed what went wrong when they got seated and placed their orders. They wanted to enjoy their meals but left with unforgettable memories that changed their opinion about those restaurants.

Comments have been edited for clarity and grammar.

u/_TaylorSwift: Our whole table ordered chicken burgers at a restaurant, and when we received our burgers, not one of them had chicken.

u/MrMcSwifty: One day, I was having dinner with my now-wife, who had just recently moved back to Massachusetts from California, so she still needed a new Massachusetts ID.

When we ordered drinks, the waitress took my wife’s California ID and immediately proclaimed it was “fake,” snapped it in half, and handed it back to her. In the blink of an eye, the waitress had destroyed my wife’s ID for no reason.

Soon, the manager got involved and agreed that the waitress was out of line. He offered free drinks, but my wife was furious, so we just left. It was a hassle to get a Massachusetts ID later on because of this, but that’s another story.

u/LeepII: My worst experience at a restaurant was when cockroaches fell out of the ceiling and onto our table while eating.

u/[deleted]: I once ate at a reasonably nice restaurant with a female friend. It was not posh, but expensive.

Before being seated, my friend grabbed a drink at the bar, and while standing there, she signed up for some newsletter. This made me apprehensive to call the place “posh.”

Once we sat down, she got a text telling her she looked beautiful. She ignored it but received another message asking her what she was doing later that day. She ignored the texts because she had no idea who it was.

We were about to finish our meal when she got a third text that said she shouldn’t be with a guy like me. The person also asked if she wanted a dessert with a “real man.”

At this point, it was clear someone in the restaurant had her number. We soon figured out it had something to do with the application form she had filled out for the newsletter because she wrote her number in it.

Considering the forms went into a box behind the bar, it was a staff member. We informed the manager about it, and he called the number.

Soon, we found one of the servers had taken her number and address from the form, saved them in his phone, and had spent the evening taking pictures of her from behind the bar. We eventually had to involve the police.

u/Sunbound: I ordered a meal worth $20+ at a fast-food restaurant, and once our order came out, another person came and took it. We showed the receipt to the manager, proving it was ours, but they didn’t do anything about it.

u/669900andAu: When I was in high school, I used to live in a tiny rural village. We used to go on field trips to the city to watch plays and the ballet and always stopped at a new restaurant before the productions began.

One day, we settled on Earls. We were thirty kids with one teacher, all well-behaved and respectable country kids.

We sat at five tables: one table of ten (my table) and four tables of five. We had all decided beforehand to tip our waiter $10 each.

Before ordering our food, we asked the waiter if we could have separate bills, but he refused, saying there were too many people. We told him that we understood and would sort it out amongst ourselves.

After our food arrived, the waiter was nowhere to be seen. There were no refills, and he never checked up on us. We thought he would be busy and didn’t care much about it because we were so excited to be in the city without our parents.

Without a word, the waiter walked up to our table and dropped a bill in the middle. He did not ask if we wanted anything else or how we enjoyed our meal.

We started calculating who owed what because the meals were on the same bill. After we figured out the bulk of it, we put the bills to the side and began to deal with the change.

We were counting about $30 worth of change (This is in Canada, so we have $1 and $2 coins), and the waiter walked by, saw the change, and tapped me on the shoulder.

I looked up at him, and in the most disgusted voice, he said, “You kids realize that I put up with you all evening, and that (pointing to the money on the table) is NOT even 10%.”

I was so shocked and angry. The waiter didn’t serve us well, refused to make separate bills, and now approached us like that.

My friend spoke with our teacher about what happened, and the teacher was livid. He said that the waiter had been rude and absent at their table as well, and we had come to find (not surprisingly) that this had repeated itself amongst all the tables.

The situation at the other tables was much worse. The waiter served them the wrong food, and when they complained, he claimed that was what they had ordered. He asked them to stay quiet and eat their food. My teacher told us not to leave a tip and that he would speak with a manager.

On our way to the production, our teacher told us he had left a note on the table saying, “We do this every month, and the kids love to make people happy. Tonight, they had planned to leave $10 each on a bill of $955.65 (the total for all five tables). That is a 31.39% tip. I hope you reflect on your behavior this evening.”

u/Porrick: My worst restaurant experience was finding a used band-aid at the bottom of my Caesar salad. I saw it after I had eaten most of the salad. At least they comped me the salad, I guess.

u/[deleted]: I went to Chili’s for lunch after a doctor’s appointment with my husband. The place was empty. We were finally seated after a ten-minute wait (it was this or nothing, and I was starving).

Soon, the waiter arrived and took our order (unsweetened tea, Dr. Pepper, chips, and skillet queso). However, he never came back.

More customers arrived and sat at four tables while the waiter went and sat with what we assumed were his friends.

As a result, we flagged down another waiter, who practically threw our drinks at us. He took our entree order (BBQ chicken and a burger) and tossed those at us.

Before we began eating, I realized we had no silverware, so we tried to call one of the servers, but no one responded. My husband had to get our silverware himself.

Then, I cut the chicken and noticed that it was raw. I was surprised it didn’t jump off my plate.

Soon, the original waiter came over, and I showed him the still-pulsing bird. He rolled his eyes and said, “It’s rare. You want me to microwave it for you?”

I explained that I wanted the chicken cooked thoroughly and told him that poultry was not served this way. I never got my food back once he snatched the plate and left.

Meanwhile, my husband opened his burger and found a fake fingernail inside. At that point, we knew we had to leave.

We tried to get the servers’ attention to pay for the food, but we just left fifteen minutes later because we were still waiting for someone to come to our table. I’ve never gone to another Chilis since then.

u/mountaingoat05: A few years ago, we moved back to the US after living in Japan. At that time, I let my jetlagged kids pick the restaurant, and they chose Olive Garden. My seven-year-old ordered a pizza off the kids’ menu.

When it arrived, the crust looked charred. My daughter turned it over to see if the bottom was as burnt as the sides and found a piece of broken glass embedded into the crust. It was the same blueish/green color that their drink glasses were made of.

It was clear that the dough had fallen on the floor, and when they picked it back up, the glass was stuck in the dough and then baked into place.

When I told the manager about it, he didn’t notice the glass and thought we were annoyed about the burned crust. I told him that was also unacceptable, but I was angry about the glass.

Then, he accused me of planting it. I wasn’t looking for a free meal. I just wanted an apology and food that wouldn’t injure my kid. I was so angry.

u/twistmental: I was at an IHOP with my then fiancée having our usual Saturday IHOP treat meal. This location was always better regarding food quality and service, so we always went there.

However, that particular day was different. We had ordered our regular meals (blueberry topped, stuffed crepes for me, and a bacon and ham scrambler for her). Everything was great until the food came.

My crepes were poorly cooked and cold, while her scrambler was different from what she had ordered. We complained politely and wrote it off as a new cook.

When the food came out, I immediately noticed that my blueberries were missing, and the food was cold again. We told the waitress about it.

The waitress got the manager, who apologized profusely and entered the kitchen. We were seated in such a way that we saw the cook when the manager opened the door, and I noticed two things right away: The cook was indeed new and had a learning difficulty.

Then the manager returned and explained that the person working as the cook used to be a dishwasher. He was working after one of the cooks had called in sick that day.

The manager compensated for the lousy service and explained that he wanted to help us but was busy with the staff. Then, something unexpected happened.

The manager asked one of the waitstaff to look after the kitchen while he brought the cook to our table and had him tearfully apologize to us. The apology caused the manager and my fiancée to cry. Then, the manager FIRED THE GUY RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!

u/pahasapapapa: I was at a restaurant where my kid ordered something and didn’t get what she wanted. As a result, I sent it back.

Then, the manager came and explained to my eight-year-old that she was being wasteful. When we interrupted, he got angry and yelled at us because he’d have to throw the sandwich away.

I told him to bring us what we had ordered, but he refused and asked us to leave. Once we left, he ran after us, yelling, “Aren’t you going to pay?” “No. Sorry, crazy manager!” This restaurant closed about a year later.

u/Tshirt4: I went to a Chinese restaurant and had a decent meal with friends. The serving staff wasn’t friendly or pleasant, but we were hungry and decided to eat there.

After we paid for our meals, left the restaurant, and started walking towards the car, the restaurant owner came out running and yelled, “Where is the hot sauce?”

At first, we didn’t understand what she was saying or why she was yelling. However, a few moments later, we understood she meant we stole the hot sauce bottle.

We said we didn’t take anything, but she kept demanding and yelling for it. Her staff called her five minutes later, and she just walked off.

Curious, we walked back to the restaurant and asked her what happened, but she made little eye contact and ignored us.

Then, her staff told us they had misplaced the hot sauce but found it inside the restaurant. We tried talking to the owner again, but she just said, “Hot sauce found,” as if none of the yelling in front of the parking lot had happened. No apology.

u/BangYourFluff: Once, I ordered something at a restaurant, but the server brought the wrong order. When I asked them to get the correct order, they tried to charge me twice.

When I talked to the manager, they told me they could do whatever they wanted. I told them that was fine but threatened to report them for fraud. I never ate at that place again.

u/souldeux: As a child, I lived in a small town where Ponderosa Steakhouse was the fanciest restaurant. One night, my parents decided that a fine meal was in order, so we went there.

If you’ve never been to a Ponderosa, imagine a middle-school cafeteria buffet dropped into a steakhouse that needed to be remodeled in the 70s.

The tables were plastic, and the chairs were folding metal contraptions. The indoor-outdoor carpet had a disquieting green shimmer, and the blinds stayed shut so that you couldn’t quite see what you were eating.

My father was a quiet, unassuming man. I can count on one hand the times I saw him get angry. That night was one of those times, and it was the only time I heard him swear in public.

When we arrived, it was clear that everyone working there wished they were working somewhere else. The hostess was surly, and the waiter acted like he was doing us a favor by taking drink orders.

My father and I went to the buffet, filled our plates (and one for Mom), and returned to the table. Then, I slid my fork into the mashed potatoes, brought the fork to my mouth, and realized the pepper flakes were moving.

I dropped my fork, and my father lost his cool and said inappropriate words. He was so angry that it scared me because I hadn’t seen him react that way before. I began to cry. Then, the green beans in my father’s meal caught his attention because they were also moving.

Soon, a waiter came over with a manager in tow, and they began very sternly reprimanding my father for using such language in a family restaurant. They said his behavior would have to improve if we wanted to stay.

My father, who stood shy of 6’9″, silently got to his feet and glared down at the suddenly quiet Ponderosa employees. “Sir,” the manager started, much more respectfully this time.

“There are ants in this food,” my father interrupted him. “About a thousand ants.” “Sir,” the manager started again.

“We’re going to leave. We’re not going to pay. But first, you’re going to apologize to my family for trying to feed them this terrible food, and you’re going to apologize to me for speaking to me like that in front of my wife and son,” my father said.

By this point, everyone else in the restaurant (maybe four or five other families) had stopped eating and were either inspecting their food or watching this scene unfold.

Then, one guy got up and went to the buffet with a pocket flashlight. He clicked it on, looked at the food, clicked it back off, and began dry-heaving.

Meanwhile, the manager and waiter froze. Neither one was apologizing, and that made my father angrier. “Come on,” my father said, gesturing to my mother and me. The three of us left the restaurant, with the other patrons following.

The manager snapped out of his trance long enough to flip out and start shouting at everyone that they couldn’t leave without paying. Turns out they could. The Ponderosa closed its doors forever later that week. It belongs to the ants now.

u/[deleted]: One time, I was at a small shack restaurant where I often eat. After all, it was in my neighborhood. That day, I ordered myself a double cheeseburger with a side of fries and a drink. I waited for 20 minutes, and they got everything correct, except my burger needed a patty.

When I told them about it, they took it back. However, instead of adding another patty, they threw away my burger and made me wait for another 20 minutes, only for them to make the same mistake again.

I began getting angry, so I called them out for it. They immediately apologized and took my burger back. I thought this time they would get it right, but no. They threw the burger away again.

I waited another ten minutes before they came out with my correct burger. Or so I thought. It was a hotdog.

They served me a HOTDOG. Instead of having it or requesting a replacement, I demanded my money back and took my fries and drink home with me. I had cereal for lunch that day.

u/[deleted]: There’s a sushi restaurant at a major train station in Japan, which I have visited at least 50 times. Two of those times, I’ve seen a cockroach running across the counter.

That’s not good, but it’s not as shocking as it might sound. The front door of the restaurant opened right onto the street, and people in Japan know that even the most meticulously clean environment can attract a cockroach.

One day, I spotted the little guy running towards me, about a meter away. Nobody else seemed to see him. I grabbed an empty teacup and dropped it over him like a cage. I’m not the type to make a scene; I finished my sushi and asked for the bill.

Soon, the waitress brought it to me while carrying a tray of miso soups. I whispered to her, “Watch out, there’s a small cockroach under that teacup,” and indicated the one I was talking about.

She apologized profusely, and I started to leave. What she did next is difficult to understand. She didn’t serve the miso soups, clear my plates, or call anyone for help. She went straight to the cup.

She clearly understood my Japanese because she stood way back from it and tapped it several times while wincing. Then she picked up the cup. The bug happily scampered out.

The next moment, there was miso soup everywhere. It was mainly on the wall, with some on the waitress and a few drops on other customers. She was pointing at the bug while screaming and crying.

After watching her reaction, everyone in the restaurant stood up to see where she was pointing. Then she looked back at me, and everyone in the restaurant looked at me. I thought, “Really? Do you think I brought the cockroach in my pocket or something?”

What did she think would happen when she lifted the cup? Why did she lift it if she was scared of cockroaches? Should I have explained more explicitly that the cockroach was still alive? I left and didn’t visit the restaurant for the next two years.

u/[deleted]: One time, I went to a restaurant with my friends, and there was literally no one working there.

It was open, and two other tables were occupied, but no one was around, so we sat there and waited. One of the groups sitting there had food, so we kept waiting.

A few minutes later, we started looking around, going as far as poking our heads into the kitchen. No luck.

We even went out the back door to see if all the employees were in the parking lot, but nope. They had disappeared. Not in the bathrooms, either.

It wasn’t bad, but it was bizarre. We left after about 45 minutes, but one group had food when we got there, so clearly, there had been employees there shortly before we arrived, but right after serving them, they all decided to leave for almost an hour.

u/Dangle76: I was at a Texas Roadhouse. Once we sat down, we didn’t even see a server for about 15 minutes.

When we finally saw one, she walked over, looked at us, and said, “I’ll get your drinks in a minute,” as if she had already asked us, then returned with two margaritas.

When we told her we hadn’t ordered anything yet, she rolled her eyes, said we were ridiculous and walked away.

Upon witnessing her strange behavior, we asked for a manager. Soon, an 18-year-old manager told us not to harass their servers. As a result, we left the restaurant while the manager yelled at us for not paying for the margaritas we hadn’t ordered.

Then, my girlfriend wrote a three-page letter in greater detail than this about the entire experience and sent it to their corporate offices. The next day, she had a voicemail from the franchise owner of that restaurant, stating she shouldn’t be contacting corporate with service issues at their restaurant.

When she finally got him on the phone after two weeks of attempting, he told her she shouldn’t be saying things that didn’t happen. He offered her a $5 coupon for our next meal without an apology, which was what she was after.

She wrote another letter to their corporate offices, stating how rude the owner was. After all of that, no one we know has seen any of those employees at that Texas Roadhouse ever again, but we’ve never gone back.

u/steggo: We were at a restaurant where our waitress took a break midway through the meal to do laundry without informing anyone.

Soon, she brought our check, and when she ran the card, she charged us for the other table’s food (it was late, and only one other group was there).

When she took it back to fix it, it took a long time. We came to find out she had lost our credit card. She and the manager looked around for it and were like, “Sorry. No charge.”

When my mother-in-law offered to call the police, they said, “That isn’t necessary! Nothing was stolen.” They miraculously found the card minutes after my mother-in-law talked about calling the cops.

u/Totes_McGotes: One day, my husband and I went to a nice steakhouse on a whim. We valet parked our car and went in. Then, we placed our order.

Soon, the appetizers were served, and they were great. Then, we saw the manager and the seating host going to every table with concerned looks on their faces. It seemed they weren’t asking the typical “how’s your meal?” question.

The manager then came to our table and asked if we had valet parked our car. When we said yes, he asked if it was a red Nissan. We said it was, and I knew something was off when he said “was.” He then asked us to follow him out front.

We went outside and saw a cop car. I was thinking someone had hit my car or something. NOPE! Two kids had hopped in my car and took off! Right from the valet. I was in total shock as this had never happened to me before, and it was an old 2004 Nissan!

Meanwhile, the manager and head valet apologized for what had happened and gave us a free meal. They also offered to pay for a taxi.

Then, my husband went inside to fill out some paperwork while I sat outside in shock. Suddenly, a cop pulled up and said, “We got them!”

We rode in the back of a police car to pick mine up. It felt like the movie “Date Night” for a while. At least we got a free meal and a good story from this incident. We still haven’t visited the restaurant.

u/[deleted]: I once went to Starbucks and ordered the last pumpkin cream cheese muffin. While waiting for it, I watched the guy who had taken my order give it to someone else. It was disappointing.

u/Chicken_Pen: I took my husband (then-boyfriend) to dinner one night. It was my treat. When we sat down, the waitress was too friendly with him, touching his shoulder, asking him what he wanted to order before me, and giggling at everything he said.

At the beginning of the evening, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I was a server at the time at a different establishment and saw my coworkers flirt with customers for tips.

She probably thought he was paying and assumed she’d get a big tip if she paid more attention to him.

The experience was awful for me but fantastic for my husband. His food was exactly how he wanted it to be, and his glass was always full. The waitress would immediately go to the kitchen whenever he asked for something.

Meanwhile, I sat there with the wrong meal, an empty glass, and my request for ranch dressing forgotten. Whenever the waitress came to our table, I asked her for whatever I needed, but she didn’t fix or bring anything.

Also, who flirts with someone who is clearly on a date? I kept eye contact with her as I handed her the bill and the exact amount in cash. Her face fell when she realized she had been flirting with the wrong person throughout our meal.

u/[deleted]: I once went to Buffalo Wild Wings with my wife and some friends. The server brought out the food, and one of the meals was incorrectly prepared (the sauce was missing).

So, we sent it back, and the server returned 30 seconds later, holding the tray above his head. He said, “The cooks said they were too busy to fix it.”

We thought he was joking, so we laughed and expected him to put the food down. Then he said, “No, I’m serious. They can’t fix it,” and put the same, uncorrected meal on the table.

At this point, my buddy was pretty pissed and started complaining hard. So, the waiter said, “Fine, let me see what I can do,” and took the meal to the kitchen.

He returned two minutes later with the wings finally spun in the sauce, claiming he “did it himself.” It was shady.

u/leipa: We got scammed at a fake restaurant in Bologna. I can’t believe we fell for it. The place got me by looking all bohemian and rustic, so I thought it was a local place.

I made a reservation since it was right outside our bed and breakfast. I should have known something was up when he wanted a deposit.

The second warning sign: no prices anywhere. You are going to get hit with the idiot tax. And we did. They served frozen entrees and old shellfish. I had the scariest spaghetti vongole ever. I swear the garlic was piled on to hide the stench of rotting seafood.

My husband got a frozen vegetable lasagna. The veggies must have been weeks old. The portions were huge and very bad.

Besides, the servers were extremely sweet because they knew it was difficult for people to complain when they got a complimentary drink and dessert.

They also understood people on vacation don’t want to create a scene in a country where they don’t know the rules. Also, the staff did not speak English.

When you get the bill, it will be double or triple what you would get at any other place, and you can do nothing. You just pay that idiot tax and write a scathing review on Trip Advisor, hoping it would help someone else.

u/foraying: I once visited an Italian restaurant and was happily eating my pizza when I bit into metal.

We turned the pizza over, and a great deal of circuitry was embedded in the base, including fuses and wiring. It turned out an electrician had been fixing their oven and just left his things in there.

u/t-bass: I don’t know if this was the worst, but it sprang to mind. Once, we were in a restaurant we’ve gone to sporadically over the years. It’s usually reasonably good.

Once we were seated, the waitress took our drink order. I told her there was no silverware on the table, and she said, “Oh, no problem, I’ll be right back.”

She showed back up 10 minutes later to take our dinner order. We ordered, and I again mentioned the lack of silverware. “Oh, right, hang on,” she said.

We didn’t see her again for 30 minutes. Our glasses were now empty, and there was no silver. We couldn’t even find her in the restaurant.

After 30 minutes, she showed up again with our meals, both pasta dishes. She set them down, and I again mentioned that we had no silverware and couldn’t eat our food. “Oh, I’m so sorry, hang on,” she said.

She disappeared again. After staring at our dinner for at least five minutes, I got up, went to the setup table, grabbed two sets of silverware and napkins, and returned to the table. We ate while the waitress was still missing.

She wasn’t there even when we had finished our meals twenty minutes later. At that point, I asked to see the manager. When I told her what had happened, she accused me of stealing the silverware. It blew my mind.

u/MaebeBluth: I went to Applebee’s with my ex-boyfriend to use a $50 gift card I got for Christmas. Our meal was for $25, so I gave a $5 tip, and we left.

We decided to go to Applebee’s again a week later and use the rest of the gift card, which should have had $20 left.

Well, it turned out that the waitress we had the first time changed the receipt and gave herself a $25 tip, draining the rest of the money on my gift card.

When I complained (I honestly never complain at restaurants), the manager gave me a $20 gift certificate but didn’t do anything about the waitress.

u/kds405: Once at a Cheesecake Factory, I ate a piece of bread that tasted like someone had soaked it in some chemical. I had to spit it out.

I told the waitress, “This bread tastes like Windex or something.” She responded, “We don’t use Windex here,” and walked away.

u/[deleted]: My parents stopped for fast food on a long car trip to the beach. I ordered a hamburger, and always at these places, given my hatred of American cheese, I requested it be cheese-less.

Also, as usual, they didn’t follow this instruction. No big deal. My mom politely handed the burger back.

The cashier turned around, trying to conceal her actions with her body, took the burger out of the wrapper, and scraped the patty against the counter’s edge to remove the cheese. She then tried to return it to my mom, pretending nothing had happened.

u/Ol0O01100lO1O1O1: I went to the most excellent steakhouse in town to celebrate finishing a work project where I had been working up to 16-hour days for a few weeks, utterly exhausted.

I ordered the enchilada and aged steak platter, excited for my first time trying aged steaks. When I finally got my food, I first ate the enchiladas.

As I started to chew, I felt a “crunch.” I pulled it out and realized it was a piece of broken glass. I called the waiter over, and all he offered to do was replace the meal. Um… no thanks?!

How did you get glass in enchiladas in the first place? Somebody was super careless. And if it does happen, how does that not warrant a more active response?

As we wrap up this journey through restaurant mishaps, these stories stand as cautionary tales, reminding us that dining out isn’t always a smooth experience. Have you ever experienced something similar? Do you have a horror restaurant story? Share it with us in the comments section.