Worst restaurant meal you've ever had?

2,614 Views | 25 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by Sierrawolf
Bell Tower Grey
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Yes, food again... but, it is a common theme we all share. Besides, it is better than arguing about things we can do little or nothing about.

I have a few meals that I could list here, and may, eventually. However, the all time worst for me was in the summer of 2010 at Blue Mist Bar BQ in Asheboro. Stopped in there with 3 friends after a golf trip, thinking a bbq sandwich would be a good lunch before we got home. All four of us ordered chopped sandwiches, fries and tea.

When the food arrived, I tasted a piece of the meat that had fallen out of the bun. While it wasn't bad, something wasn't just right, so I poured some of the bottled sauce on it to hopefully bring it around. One of the other guys did the same, and asked if we thought the pork was fit to eat....After my second bite I realized something was horribly wrong. The taste was putrid. I grabbed a napkin and spit out what I had in my mouth, but had already swallowed that heavily sauced first bite. By then, two of the guys had also spit theirs out - one of them had started dry heaving and was bolting for the door.

The lone guy that hadn't tried his yet dropped a twenty on the table and told them we all were sick. Before I could get outside, I had thrown up everywhere in the entrance. I could hear someone else in the place that also sounded sick as I made my way out. Never figured out if it was the other one of group or another customer that got sick because we were.

The three of us that had tried our sandwiches stood outside behind the place, puking our guts out. The one that wasn't sick came out with a waitress, carrying cups of water for us. Someone claiming to be the manager came out to inquire about us, and apologized profusely. Once we had settled down, he again apologized, and asked if we would consider coming back again another time. We respectfully declined his offer.

I'm not sure what was wrong with the bbq they served us, but it took me several months to want to eat any more. Never went back to that place, and last I heard it was closed down. It was by far, the worst meal I've had that impacted several of us so suddenly.
Pacfanweb
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Geez, I saw the thread title and I have a few stories, but nothing that can top that one. Wow.

I will tell you this one:

2016. We're in New York City, for the Pinewood Derby World Championship in Times Square. (My son was racing in it) Track was set up right in front of Good Morning America. Very cool deal.

We were fine that Saturday. Next day, we decided to go to the city again (we were staying in the Meadowlands) and see a few things. At some point, we stopped at a corner pizza shop. Me, the wife and daughter had calzones. My son had pizza. That was a good move on his part.

Something was wrong with those calzones. So we're walking around, don't know really where we were, but weren't worried about it much...we have our phones and just need to catch the correct subway train.

Our stomachs started churning...the wife says "This is the one" and we got on the train. She's about to die, daughter is, and I'm working towards it.
Well...it's not the right train. I don't know where we were, but we ended up in Chinatown. So she basically bulls her way into a restaurant along with my daughter to use the restroom. So she gets us on the wrong train twice more, and finally I took over and figured it out. What a place to not have any restrooms.

To make the story shorter: We got back to the hotel, which we had already checked out of. Took turns running to their bathroom and dying. Finally got on the road. Got to Maryland, and I'm about to die at that point, so I said "I'm not going any further, we're finding a place" and we did.

That was a rough night. Fun trip overall, but the ending was not fun.
WPNfamily
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Worst restaurant was not food related. It was Galloway Hooker in Huntersville/Cornelius and I drank a ton of red wine. I ended up puking all over the side walk. It was so bad a week later it looked like the OJ crime scene. Walking back towards the door and seeing the crime scene I was not even able to make it inside before I felt terrible again and left. 15 years later and I can't go back!
Pacfanweb
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WPNfamily said:

Worst restaurant was not food related. It was Galloway Hooker in Huntersville/Cornelius and I drank a ton of red wine. I ended up puking all over the side walk. It was so bad a week later it looked like the OJ crime scene. Walking back towards the door and seeing the crime scene I was not even able to make it inside before I felt terrible again and left. 15 years later and I can't go back!
Ha, I have one like that, involving a song.

My favorite band of all time is Van Halen.

So one evening in my single days, I was over at a married friend's house. I had brought his wife some fudge covered Oreos...she had never had them. I brought regulars and mints.

I ate a good few of the mints.

Evidently, I was destined to come down with a stomach bug that night...so the last thing I ate, came back up. Which was nasty, mint fudge-covered Oreos.

I felt so bad that I would have had to get better to die. So I'm lying in bed, with another wave of nausea on the way...the build up to a puking event is worse than the event itself, at least to me. I'm wishing I could go to sleep, and I have my radio on, and Van Halen's Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love is on....and it's at the end, where they go "Hey! Hey! Hey!" over and over....while I'm laying there wishing for the Grim Reaper to take me and get it over with.

That was in 96 or so. To this day...when that song comes on, I literally start to feel sick again. I've heard it in concert a few times, and that's fine, but the album version? Ugh. And that's a killer tune, too, but damn if I'm not feeling a little odd just thinking about it.
ciscopack
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Bell Tower Grey said:

Yes, food again... but, it is a common theme we all share. Besides, it is better than arguing about things we can do little or nothing about.

I have a few meals that I could list here, and may, eventually. However, the all time worst for me was in the summer of 2010 at Blue Mist Bar BQ in Asheboro. Stopped in there with 3 friends after a golf trip, thinking a bbq sandwich would be a good lunch before we got home. All four of us ordered chopped sandwiches, fries and tea.

When the food arrived, I tasted a piece of the meat that had fallen out of the bun. While it wasn't bad, something wasn't just right, so I poured some of the bottled sauce on it to hopefully bring it around. One of the other guys did the same, and asked if we thought the pork was fit to eat....After my second bite I realized something was horribly wrong. The taste was putrid. I grabbed a napkin and spit out what I had in my mouth, but had already swallowed that heavily sauced first bite. By then, two of the guys had also spit theirs out - one of them had started dry heaving and was bolting for the door.

The lone guy that hadn't tried his yet dropped a twenty on the table and told them we all were sick. Before I could get outside, I had thrown up everywhere in the entrance. I could hear someone else in the place that also sounded sick as I made my way out. Never figured out if it was the other one of group or another customer that got sick because we were.

The three of us that had tried our sandwiches stood outside behind the place, puking our guts out. The one that wasn't sick came out with a waitress, carrying cups of water for us. Someone claiming to be the manager came out to inquire about us, and apologized profusely. Once we had settled down, he again apologized, and asked if we would consider coming back again another time. We respectfully declined his offer.

I'm not sure what was wrong with the bbq they served us, but it took me several months to want to eat any more. Never went back to that place, and last I heard it was closed down. It was by far, the worst meal I've had that impacted several of us so suddenly.
Instant e coli on steroids

I don't know how the food was but I went to a nice looking building at supper time on Hilton Head Island about 25 years ago and it was a chicken and BBQ place. We were the only car in the parking lot. We went in and ordered and the waiter said, you don't want the chicken. That was all I needed to know.
Tobaccoroadsportscafe
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Instead of giving all the bad details, I'll just summarize by saying I'll never eat pimento cheese from Harris Teeter again.
BBW12OG
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Not the meal itself....but back visiting friends in Charlotte while in college we ordered Papa John's. This was early 90's and Papa John's was new to me. I loved the garlic butter dipping sauce. After a day/night booze fest we ordered pizza well after midnight. Pizza came I opened the sauce and plunged my pizza into it and devoured the first bite. The sauce was spoiled. The taste of that rotten butter garlic mix stayed in my mouth for days. I couldn't eat another bite that night or well into the next day. Not sure why or how it got that rotten but it ruined Papa John's for me and not sure if I have had it more than three or four times in the last 25+ years.
barnburner
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I had a super bad meal at the Sanitary.... no one got sick is the best I can say.
wilmwolf
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Visited Spain a number of years ago, and traveled down to Mallorca for a few days. Had paella at a restaurant there with a large group of folks. I should preface by saying that I have a ton of food allergies, including seafood and shellfish. Knowing in advance that I was allergic to the dish, I mainly had a little bit of the rice to go with the flow (the sad unfortunate life of someone with allergies who doesn't want to seem a pain, particularly in a foreign country) while I pushed the rest around on my plate, and filled up on bread. The next day, everyone was sick, and we had to fly back to the mainland. Despite barely touching the dish, I too was woozy, but I soldiered on and hopped on the puddle jumper after grabbing a bag of chips and a sprite in the airport, which I hoped would settle me down. The flight was not fun, and when we landed, I sprinted to the bathroom just in time to puke my guts out, including the salt and vinegar chips I had just consumed. Lets just say, I'm not sure there is a worse thing to throw up than that. It took 15 years for me to eat a salt and vinegar chip again.
Just a guy on the sunshine squad.
dogplasma
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Wow, what an experience! I only ate at the Blue Mist once and it was unremarkable. But it was the place my wife and her family would stop at every summer when she was a little girl on her way from Rocky Mount to Charlotte and back. I'm just surprised to see it mentioned at all!
Packchem91
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Mine was at the famous Red Bridges BBQ lodge in Shelby. Family trip to Cashiers, we agreed to stop here because it was "famous".

I'd actually eaten there before an it was fine, but this particular time, it was just bad. BBQ didn't look good, it didn't taste good, the sauce was bad. I thought perhaps it was just me, but the entire crowd of 7-8 of us who got BBQ agreed. It was like what you'd expect when you get BBQ in a school cafeteria or something.

Not that I go thru Shelby very often, but have not considered going back.
At least I didn't have the issues BTG had with BBQ at the Blue Mist -- I've been to that place as well, and my takeway was, "how did this place stay open for so many years" because the quality was not good....but it was better than what I got at Bridges.

Packchem91
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Soon as a I posted, forgot about a trip to Hong Kong and then into mainland Shenzhen about 20 years ago. Was taken by my "handler" to a hotel restaurant that served food family style. Being a particularly picky eater, I thought this was perfect. I saw a mostly rice dish coming around on the lazy susan, so grabbed a big plateful. Started to take my first bite and was struck with how strongly it smelled -- not pleasantly. First bite was same reaction.
So I paid more attention to what was in the dish. I'd noticed these little black marks all thru it, and just thought it was particular grains of rice -- it was kind of dark in the restaurant.
But upon further review, it was many little fish bodies -- tiny little things with whole body. I didn't even ask what the stinking little things were, I just removed it from my plate as quickly as I could.

I love sashimi and can eat most fish, even octopus and eel, etc....but this was nasty.
dogplasma
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This isn't really a great story, but it was a defining moment in my culinary life. When I was four, my family lived in England and I started my first year of what, here, would be considered kindergarten. Normally I would go home for lunch, but one day I decided to stay and eat in the cafeteria for the first time. Their "rule" was that you had to at least try everything on the plate before you could get up and go outside to play (you didn't choose the food you got). I misunderstood and thought I was require to finish everything. Turns out, rice pudding is a food that I would not / could not eat, so I was sitting basically alone in the cafeteria until a teacher figured it out. Since then, rice pudding has been on my naughty list and I wouldn't eat cafeteria food again until high school. Like I said, not a great story, but the smell and texture of rice pudding sticks with me to this day.
packgrad
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I've been very fortunate in that I haven't ever had a meal out that caused me to get sick, and fortunately never had one that was just terrible that I can recall. Last year I was up in Boone and had some BBQ at The Pedalin Pig that was a grand departure from food I had eaten there before. It was not good. But the pork rinds we had as an app I still think about. So I give them a pass on the very substandard Q.

The closest I've had, and one that I thought originally was food poisoning, was getting beef tartare at Blu in Durham, a seafood restaurant. Tasted fine. Meal was fine. Got home, went to bed, 2 hours later I was up sitting on the toilet with a trash can in my lap (unfortunately that was a hard learned second position). I proceeded to puke and **** my brains out for the next 20 some hours until I was empty. Every sip of water encouraged another pit stop to spray paint the toilet. The puking and ****ting ultimately lasted 48 some hours, dissipating more and more 21-48. Anybody that's had it before knows what it was. Norovirus. That was awful. I've never been sick like that before. Hope never to be again.
tuffy1006
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packgrad said:

I've been very fortunate in that I haven't ever had a meal out that caused me to get sick, and fortunately never had one that was just terrible that I can recall. Last year I was up in Boone and had some BBQ at The Pedalin Pig that was a grand departure from food I had eaten there before. It was not good. But the pork rinds we had as an app I still think about. So I give them a pass on the very substandard Q.

The closest I've had, and one that I thought originally was food poisoning, was getting beef tartare at Blu in Durham, a seafood restaurant. Tasted fine. Meal was fine. Got home, went to bed, 2 hours later I was up sitting on the toilet with a trash can in my lap (unfortunately that was a hard learned second position). I proceeded to puke and **** my brains out for the next 20 some hours until I was empty. Every sip of water encouraged another pit stop to spray paint the toilet. The puking and ****ting ultimately lasted 48 some hours, dissipating more and more 21-48. Anybody that's had it before knows what it was. Norovirus. That was awful. I've never been sick like that before. Hope never to be again.
haha I've gotten sick like that before. I think it was salmonella. I puked and **** non stop for hours. It was awful.
mdreid
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Clark dining hall my sophomore year at State, got food poisoning, gambled on a fart and lost(luckily I was in my dorm room) and had been drinking a lot of cheer wine that week so when the vomiting came it looked like blood. Haven't had cheerwine since.
TheStorm
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About 7-8 years ago IIRC

Was supposed to be Mahi tacos (I can guarantee you that fish wasn't Mahi)... I don't even remember the name of the restaurant, but it was a new place in Wilmington and I wanted to try something different.

I had to pull over on the way home to let the wife drive and was puking out the window the rest of the way... puked up that thick nasty bile on and off the entire night, sleeping on the bathroom floor and then I was laid out the entire next day with that wretched food poisoning headache hangover.

Only time that I felt worse in my life was when I woke up one morning (the day of the Seahawks / Steelers Super Bowl) with a true case of vertigo. Only Super Bowl I've missed since I watched my first one (Super Bowl III) in 1969. May have been the only day in my life where I truly wanted to be dead instead of alive (until I got that Phenergan shot and slept for the next 24 hours without waking up once).
PackBacker07
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Crazy story! I age there once on the drive to/from State in my college days and while I didn't get sick, the food was horrific. And while I don't like to see small business struggle, I wasn't sad go see it finally go under.
Y'all means ALL.
WarrenPeace
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I too have had this experience there. Never went back
SportManagementEngineer
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Was in Dublin at a restaurant that was highly recommended near the Temple Bar area. Ordered the Shepherd's Pie. Tasted fine but didn't sit right. As my wife and I went to the first pub after dinner I had that feeling in my stomach come on quick. We were in a super crowded bar where I could barely move. I finished my first beer, then proceeded to vomit into the pint glass I had just finished and I put the glass on the bar and jetted. I made it out of the pub and into the cobblestone street, where I continued to eject everything I had eaten in Europe. Luckily, puking in the street is normal in Dublin.
Twitter: @JJwith2Jays
Misterree
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I had a bad experience at the PNC. I ate the nachos with cheese sauce and jalapenos. Something was wrong with it as I was throwing up that all night and that is not a pleasant experience. It was years before I could eat those again.
waynecountywolf
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Steak Barn in Wilson one News Years Eve one in our party had the stuffed flounder-the newspaper wrapper was still on the fish and the waiter looked at us like we were lying to him.

Years later we were acquaintances with the owners and they said "why didnt you call us?" Pass.
Restaurant is now a Hardees..
Bell Tower Grey
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waynecountywolf said:

Steak Barn in Wilson one News Years Eve one in our party had the stuffed flounder-the newspaper wrapper was still on the fish and the waiter looked at us like we were lying to him.

Years later we were acquaintances with the owners and they said "why didnt you call us?" Pass.
Restaurant is now a Hardees..
Ahhhh..... Griff's Steak Barn. Not the first time I've heard sad tales of experiences there.
However, back in the day, they did have outstanding beef ribs.
waynecountywolf
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Bell Tower Grey said:

waynecountywolf said:

Steak Barn in Wilson one News Years Eve one in our party had the stuffed flounder-the newspaper wrapper was still on the fish and the waiter looked at us like we were lying to him.

Years later we were acquaintances with the owners and they said "why didnt you call us?" Pass.
Restaurant is now a Hardees..
Ahhhh..... Griff's Steak Barn. Not the first time I've heard sad tales of experiences there.
However, back in the day, they did have outstanding beef ribs.
Should have done the Beefmastor ya know I think the wait was too long that night.
I am just here for the conspiracy theories
Bell Tower Grey
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burnbarn said:

I had a super bad meal at the Sanitary.... no one got sick is the best I can say.
The next to last time we went there was in 2010, when we went with my dad on his 73rd birthday. He was hell bent to go since he had not been in a long time. His fond memories were quickly overshadowed once the food arrived.

Mrs. and I only got salads and hush puppies, having learned from previous experiences. He ordered a fried flounder platter and his wife ordered fried shrimp and scallops. His flounder was cooked to past crispy, with no flavor; he was only able to choke down 3 or 4 bites before giving up. She ate a few shrimp and one scallop before proclaiming them to be unfit to eat. Both had fries which were cold and bland. The cole slaw was the highlight of each of their meals.

No one was sickened, but everyone agreed that we wouldn't go back. As far as I know, my dad never has. I had one final, regrettable trip there (at the urging of another family member) later that was almost as bad as the Blue Mist debacle. Suffice it to say, it was horrendous.
TheStorm
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That old navy and white Sanitary Fish House T-shirt was the must have fad when I was in my early teens...

Sierrawolf
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I was going to say that Sanitary is probably my worst experience. You know you're doing something wrong when you're a NC fried fish place you can't even get sweet tea right.
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