What is the worst meal you have ever been served?

[KurtNYC]

Not necessarily eaten, just served as in you ordered food and they put something in front of you with the full expectation that you would eat and pay for it.

An example:
Soon a plate arrived at my table, but something was not quite right. I sampled a fry. Clearly it was of the Ore-Ida frozen-and-microwaved variety, but it was edible. Next, the mushy peas. Well, I didn't expect a lot from the peas so they weren't much of a disappointment. I picked up the "burger" and took a bite. The patty was grayish with brown specks. Its consistency was that of a shoe pad. The taste was not of meat, yet it was strangely familiar. It took me a while to place it: This was the same burger I'd eaten in the elementary school cafeteria. For 50 cents, growing 8-year-olds were subjected to these patties -- seemingly made of soy and meat refuse -- plus a little Styrofoam cup of red Jello and a carton of chocolate milk. No wonder I never grew past 5 feet!

http://dir.salon.com/travel/food/feature/2000/03/03/mushypeas/index.html

For me, I had the misfortune of ordering a "giant burrito" at a corporate cafeteria. I did not know at the time that the cafeteria vendor had lost its contract with the company and was just going through the motions until their time was up. They took a plate, dumped chopped tomatoes on it, dumped about half a head of shredded iceberg lettuce on, bland cheese, then exactly 4 small pieces of chicken that looked like "nuggets" without the breading. Then he placed a tortilla over this pile (so I wouldn't have to look at it). That was declared to be my burrito.

[demnan]

1. Vegamite

on toast.

[bleedingheart]

51. my Aussie friends told me that people that hate it normally

slather too much on their toast...but I have to agree with you..it is rather nasty

[HEyHEY]

2. At this point the CN tower in Toronto comes to mind

God it was bad food...the Calgary tower was bad too.

[yewberry]

3. Corn on a bun.

It was the vegetarian option that day.

[edbermac]

4. Filet of panda....

They may be cute-looking, but they're not as tasty as I thought they would be...

[ewagner]

5. At a highly touted

restaurant in Wisconsin.....touristy area.....

Ordered the filet migon....tasted like fish...found out they broiled it on the same grill as the whitefish on the menu...absolutely horrible. I complained and the owner came out and called me an ingrate....never went back and spread the word around to damned near everybody I knew.....

[The empressof all]

6. Chinese Food at Lake Chelan, WA

Chicken Lo-Mein was spaghetti covered with Chung King Vegetables bound together with a generic cream of mushroom soup mixed with soy sauce. I can't even describe the Beef with Broccoli. We tried to order the simplest dishes as we were leary of the place anyway. We paid and left after the first bite.

The place was packed.

SO and I opted for Frito's, yogurt and mountain dew from the local 7-11.

[bobbobbins]

7. My girlfriend took me to a hot pot party....

where they have a boiling pot of chicken broth or something like that, then people just put the food they want in the pot to cook...was some of the nastiest stuff i've ever had...fish balls...which are disgusting grey blobs...and these rice cakes soaked in pigs blood...ewwwww...it was hands down the most disgusting thing ever.

[scarlet_owl]

50. I've had my own experiences with hot pot.

I used to date a guy from Taiwan, and his family would have me over for hot pot every so often. I'm not really into quail eggs and tenticles, so I settled on some grey beef.

[jody]

8. Cat in a Cantonese restaurant. n/t

[tigereye]

10. mine would be a beef-heart served by my grandmother

while watching the Republican convention (Nixon era), no less. I loved the woman, but the organ meats were too much!

[China_cat]

62. I love beef heart

and can't find it anywhere. Boil it for 15 minutes, fill the cavities with stuffing and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Yum.

[tigereye]

66. I was like 14 at the time

so it was pretty disgusting...

[bif]

9. Burnt pancakes in Pueblo, CO

We were long-haired hippiesback in the 70s and it was a real redneck diner. The waitress told us not to make any trouble with the cook. So we paid for the meal and left it untouched. Lots of pickups in the lot with gun racks.

[KurtNYC]

11. Worst beverage - Apple wine

In Frankfurt. Everyone was drinking it so we ordered a big glass for each of us. Bad idea.

The runner up is probably gleuwine (sp?) which is a hot spiced wine with a suitably unappetizing name.

[bobthedrummer]

12. Something with goat/horse meat in it.

I can't remember which, goat meat or horse meat.
:scared:

[LiberalEsto]

13. Doing my first - and last - restaurant review

It was my first newspaper job -- working for a rinky-dink little town paper with a miniscule circulation, owned by a chain that was owned by the family that owned the Wall Street Journal back in 1972. I was still in college part-time. The powers-that-be told me I HAD to review some little restaurant in a local bowling alley so that we could get their future advertising.

I protested, but I needed the job badly, so I went.

The meal consisted of a piece of cold gristle mystery meat, and a "salad bar" of things like pickled beets that had gone bad, tasteless stale chickpeas, brown lettuce, and fermented -- yes, fermented! -- pinapple bits that fizzed on the tongue. Everything was inedible. The whole time I was trying to force myself to eat some of it, I desperately tried to think of nice things I could write about the place. "The lighting was cozy." "The seating was intimate." "The decor was pleasant." "The food selection was interesting." "The music was relaxing" I wound up spitting the mouthfuls I managed to take into a paper napkin and discarding them after departing.

The review was a masterpiece of creative lies and euphemisms. They told me to re-write it, but I adamantly refused, explaining that it was the most horrible meal I'd ever encountered. Ultimately, they chose not to run it, which was fine with me.

I never wrote another dining review, and I have never encountered food that was worse. If I'd actually swallowed any of it, I'm sure I would have needed to get my stomach pumped at the hospital.


:puke: :puke: :puke:

[DS1]

14. Continental Airlines Quiche

Nastiest thing to ever pass my lips, besides a lump of poo I accidently tried as a toddler :7

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Most recently?

A Northwest Airlines "meal" consisting of chemically reconstituted luncheon meat on a stale, dry roll, an Adkins "chocolate" bar, and a bag of baby carrots, about half of which had rotten spots on them.

If that's the best they can do, why bother?

[rasputin1952]

16. Rice and Fishheads....

Steamed rice with two exceptionally ugly fishheads staring at me.

Musing about asking where the rest of the fish was, I decided this was not going to be a culinary experience I would enjoy. Some of the "rice" was moving! Poking about, I realized that moving rice is not normally part of the gastronomic delights of trying something new. A poke of one of the fishheads revealed a "nest" of worms, all alive, and looking for a place to call home.

Since I felt that some of my internal organs would do better without these visitors, I decided to allow myself to go hungry a bit longer. The lizard on a stick did look apetizing for a moment, but alas, the fishheads took care of that....:(

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. where on earth were you?

[maveric]

31. Were you in Quezon City?

A Filipina friend of mine brought that to work for lunch the other day. Warmed it up in tupperware in the microwave.

[XNASA]

17. Easily.......Casa Bonita in Denver

My wife and I still joke about it to this day. We waited in line like cattle for hours only to receive our food (and I'm complimenting it by calling it 'food') on a cafeteria tray.

Horrible table in a windowless room. The worst food and worst dining experience I've ever had in my life.

We went there because my wife's sister-in-law said it was the greatest.

:puke:

[Bullwinkle925]

18. At the "French Laundry" in CA Wine country..........

a top-of-the-line 5 Star restaurant, we were served miniscule portions - were treated haughtily and were refused to have a table outside so that we could enjoy the wonderful weather. I was told that I had not asked for a table on the lawn when I made the reservations..............didn't know that was an option - also was never mentioned to me when I telephoned to make the reservation.
Was served a quail egg in a tablespoon as an hors d'oeuvre - the entree was so tiny it was lost on the oversized plate. They gave us a half-dozen complimentary cookies for dessert (they knew we were angry)......... the cookies were the size of buttons. hahahahaha
and the price tag was a whopping $200.00 plus. (we had wine and sparkling water).........never again.
I don't mind paying for a great lunch and ambiance - they just really pissed me off.
If anyone has the idea of going to the French Laundry - my advice would be - DON'T.

[spinbaby]

19. Two experiences in the Carolinas

I like to try locally-owned restaurants while traveling--sometimes with less-than-stellar results.

A place in North Carolina just off Interstate 77 near Virginia (Yadkinville, I think) served coffee so bad that I actually thought the creamer had turned. I asked for another cup of coffee and the problem turned out to be the COFFEE. Fortunately the place was exterminated by a highway expansion.

The other place was off I95 in Ridgeway SC. If you stop at Ridgeway for the night and stay in one of their nice and inexpensive motels, you'll notice a very nice little parklet with a walking path around a pond. There's a little restaurant (forget the name) adjoining the park. It looks very quaint and has a lovely view. Under no circumstances eat there. I had a chicken-Caesar salad that consisted of iceberg lettuce topped by petrified chicken, powdered parmesan dust out of a can, and greasy chunks of deep-fried bread pretending to be croutons. I shudder to think of it.

[blindpig]

46. minor correction

that's Ridgeland SC, former known as the snake hunting capitol of the eastern US. When in Ridgeland stick to the Mexican restaurants.

[spinbaby]

61. Oops, sorry

I remember Ridgeland for some reason. It's been a regular stop for us on the way to Florida because of the walking path around the pond. Should I worry about the snakes?

[blindpig]

67. not in a public place like that

the locals probably snuff every snake they see. Always best to mind your feet when around fresh water in the Low Country, Cottonmouth are not uncommon. They're not looking for trouble but do not suffer fools or the unobservant gladly.

[Redleg]

20. A horrible sirloin steak in a restaurant near Mammoth Caves in KY.

The steak was grotesque looking- gnarly, gristly, looked like road kill. It tasted even worse. I cannot believe a restaurant would serve a fucked-up piece of meat like that.

The next night I ate at another restaurant in the same town and had one of the best steaks in my life.

I haven't had a beef steak since the mad cow scare in December 2003.

[catmandu57]

22. Biscuits and gravy at a Hardees in hannibal mo

How in the world someone could fuck up biscuits and gravy is beyond me, especially something that would come in a mix like theirs did.
The gravy was thin, grey, and cold, the biscuits were made several weeks ahead of time and hard as a rock, the tator tots they gave us for hashbrowns were cold and burned.
We did'nt eat it, just sent it back and left, now I know why they folded.

[msgadget]

23. Oh, my stomach is clenching just thinking about it

We were at someone's house watching movies and offered to pay for take-out, allowing them to choose the restaurant. What arrived was the absolute worst fried rice (pale rice with frozen mixed vegetables), ribs coated with Kraft's barbeque sauce and frozen cocktail egg rolls. Oh, and every entree ordered came with french fries...frozen french fries. Wish I was lying and that I could get that wasted money back.

[11 Bravo]

24. The infamous Ham and Lima beans "C" Ration circa 1970.

We called them "Ham and motherfuckers". When warmed over a heat tab it trurned into a barely congealed inedible mass.

[jmowreader]

57. Didn't that one come with cigarettes?

According to one of my roommates from Fort Devens who went to Fort Riley on his way to Korea, in 1984 Fort Riley still had plenty of the Ham and Limas C-ration for everyone who wanted one, and everyone else besides.

[Wilber_Stool]

59. IIRC

'ya got peaches with that.

[NorthernSpy]

25. Cambridge, Massachusetts: those "unique" homefries

I'd gone to this place that had once been good and was still cheap. But this time it took about an hour for anything to be served, and lots of people got pissed off and left. As it turned out, they were the smart ones.

When they arrived, the fries consisted of rawish potatoes that had been seared to black in spots. Mixed right in with them were hard shreds of carrot, mushy broccoli, and truly burnt chunks of cabbage.

The staff were sweetnatured and gregarious. But they couldn't have come up with edible food to save their lives.

Of course, then there was the vegetable souffle I had somewhere. It was exactly like thick, half-cooked pancake batter enriched with some overcooked zucchini. I had one bite, and managed to keep it down somehow.

[NorthernSpy]

36. oh, wait -- how could I forget those eggrolls?

Unlike dishes that you can tell are obviously fucked up from the first glance, these eggrolls were really beautiful, with their neatly-folded, crisp golden brown skins...

But once you bit into one, you encountered a tough, densely-tamped mass of stinky cabbage. The stuff smelled like soured laundry, and when I took a fork and pulled out all the filling, the contents of a single eggroll covered a dinner plate; it was of a peculiar, fibrous texture and very hard to chew. My "shrimp eggroll" featured exactly three tiny canned-size shrimp hiding among all the silage. I've kept the little sauce packets that came with the 'rolls as a souvenir.

[Left Is Write]

26. Northwest Airlines.

Either the "Mexican" style breakfast I was served once, or the spaghetti and meatballs dinner. Who knew you could ruin spaghetti and meatballs? I had gut rot all night from that.

[Parrcrow]

27. Steak Tartar

I'm not that carniverous!

[Xipe Totec]

28. Goat's Head

Served steaming, eyes staring, tongue sticking out the side between closely clenched molars. Oh, and a hammer to crack it open. I didn't mind, it's one of my favorite meals but my future wife had to bolt from the restaurant to keep from losing it.



:shrug:

[maveric]

29. Santa Fe Shrimp.

At a decent San Diego seafood eatery. You see, I was hungry, and the description sounded great and filling.
When it came I got 4 small shrimp, split down the middle, stuffed with bread crumbs and a strip of jalapeno, on a bed of browned lettuce. Thats it!

[cali]

30. Place: The Cadogan Hotel, London

Time: Early seventies. I insisted upon going to the Cadogan's dining room because that's where Oscar Wilde was arrested. We were take to our table by an ancient head waiter. As we sat down on the pink velvet banquette, an enormous cloud of dust billowed around us. An even more ancient waiter tottered over and took our order. Around an hour later, after we were completely sloshed, he reappeared with an enormous domed silver platter. Under the dome was slimy, stinking salmon and greyish green tinned peas and boiled potatoes. Beyond belief bad, but funny as hell.

[Xipe Totec]

32. Uni sushi

Sea urchin eggs on rice, wrapped in seaweed. This one made me gag the first time I tried it. Tasted like offal smells after a day in the sun. Fifteen years later I decided to give it a second chance. It tasted much better but still had that slight aftertaste of putrefaction. My son decided to try it too. He's had sushi before so, as usual, he popped the whole thing in his mouth at once, then realized his mistake. He valiantly tried to gulp it down, but the gag reflex keep kicking in. Then my wife tried to coach him into spitting it out on his napkin. He didn't want to do that but could not argue with his mother while holding a mouthful of uni in his mouth. He would just roll his eyes and grunt in frustration at her. It took all of his self control to keep the uni from spraying across the table. Eventually he realized that it wasn't going to work, so out it went onto the napkin. His eyes were bloodshot by then and his face had a greenish tinge.

[CarpeVeritas]

52. i LOVE uni...

the very BEST i ever had was at the japanese cultural center in Hilo.

[Xipe Totec]

56. It's a very wide world out there

plenty of stuff to satisfy everyone's tastes. I gave uni two tries, gotta move on and check out other flavors.

:hi:

[BurtWorm]

33. In November 1976 in a little coffee shop, in London near Parliament

I was served what was advertised as a "hamburger." (I was 17 and hungry and it was late, all right?) What it actually was is a mystery. It looked like it had been sliced from a can of dog food. I think it was, in fact, horse meat. One bite was enough to convince me it was the worst meal I had ever eaten, and so far nothing has surpassed it, though some cheesy Bangladeshi "sweets" I had the last time I was in London about three years ago threatened to come close.

[Butterflies]

34. At the house of the parents of a former boyfriend I was served

a whole fish on a plate. It was cooked, but it was a dead body lying on the plate (shiny silver skin, fins, face) and it freaked me out. I tried to be polite by eating some of it, but I couldn't bear to look at it. I put my napkin over it and pulled meat out from under the napkin to eat. I only ate a few bites, then I excused myself from the table to go cry. I was a teenager and it was rough.

[flamingyouth]

35. Curried shrimp at a restaurant in Honolulu

I was hospitalized for food poisoning afterward. Hey, did you know that the Hyatt Regency at Waikiki has a full emergency room on the 3rd or so floor?

It was December 1986 and I still get nauseated thinking of it... :puke:

[Xipe Totec]

38. I've had one bad craw fish slip by

In a batch of good ones. That made me ill. I can't imagine a whole batch of bad shrimp at once.

Poor thing!


:-(

[Arkana]

37. Oh, God...the Cracker Barrel in Springfield, MA

This actually didn't happen to me, but my mom. The Cracker Barrel is supposed to be known for "authentic Southern cuisine." Sounds good, right? Wrong.

My mother had the misfortune of ordering the catfish. What she got was a piece of fish about the size of a deck of cards, some withered broccoli, and baby carrots that, when pressed with a fork, would pop like balloons and spill water on the plate. It was DISGUSTING.

[yardwork]

39. Sonny's Pit Bar-B-Que in Jacksonville FL in 1983

Dragged there by a bunch of college students we were visiting. Ordered the chicken and received a platter with something (a chicken haunch?) that looked and smelled like road kill.

I still feel sick thinking about it.

[Berserker]

40. I have been in a few

jails and I can't give even one of them a good review. The food and the serving staff both sucked. :evilgrin:

[yardwork]

41. So it wasn't a one-time problem, then?

Where have you been in jail? Geographically speaking, if it's not too personal a question.

[Berserker]

44. Well

I took a much needed vacation while in the military back in 1971 in Florida and I forgot to tell them. And once in Minnesota for contributing to a minor (my buddy he was 3 months younger than I was) and recently in Wisconsin for disobedience to a police officer I guess I'm not properly trained yet. And I'm sure there will be more I'm a bad bad boy.

[yardwork]

45. At least you live up to your name!

[China_cat]

63. Ain't no place but Bono's

for bbq in Jax.

[Heddi]

42. a co-worker from Romania made some Romanian Food

I really don't know what it was. I know it had about 3 inches of mayonnaise on the top (NOT exaggerating....three inches of mayo), and pickles, and fish, and very very 3 minute boiled eggs (the yolk was still runny...ew) and cabbage and rice and pasta, I think.

It was layered, so I thought it was supposed to be mixed up...you know, mix the mayo in with the fish and pickles....ugh.....nope. You're supposed to eat it layer by layer she said. Start out with the "I'd like some salmonella on the side" raw eggs, then eat the mayo, then the pickles...so on.

I have RARELY met a food I didn't like. This took the cake. She served it at a going away party that was being thrown in my honour, but I just could not eat it. I pushed it around on my plate and I think ate a pickle or two, but just couldn't eat it. It was that mayo layer that really turned my stomach. And the fish. And eggs. And cabbage.

THat was pure evil.

[barb162]

43. some crap in Cordoba, Spain with a huge amount of oil on the rice.

I was starving and could not eat the crap

[amerikat]

47. Spaghetti and Meatballs in St George Utah. I told them "If you served this

back east, the mafia would hunt you down and kill you" It was inebible. The meatballs were as dense and heavy as lead, the pasta must have been in the pot for days and the sauce was like tomato soup.

[blindpig]

48. grotty roti

purchased a huge roti in Trinidad. Was trying to stuff it in my face while we were driving down a BAD piece of road at 60mph when I found something untenable in my mouth which proved to be a chicken foot. That's what I get for asking for chicken.

[mcscajun]

49. Dutch Shrimp Salad @ "Rhapsody" in Amsterdam

Menu description sounded good:

Salad with Dutch Shrimp, Grilled Shrimp and Crayfish. I was curious as to why they specified Dutch Shrimp vs. Grilled Shrimp, but it was late so I ordered it anyway.

On the plate put in front of me:
Salad - Greens, yes. Check.
Grilled Shrimp - One. Check.
Crayfish - None. One Head-on Shrimp (boiled) Things are looking odd now...dig under the greens and find...
the Dutch Shrimp! Now we get to the point. "Dutch Shrimp" are, in size, somewhere between the tiniest shrimp you've ever seen in a can, and what they throw in aquarium tanks as live fish food. Taste pretty much like bait and have a very mushy texture.

YUCK.

[CarpeVeritas]

53. philly cheesesteak in vegas...

at a craphole that used to be across the strip from treasure island.

[Z_I_Peevey]

54. The all-white meal my mother-in-law served once:

boiled chicken with the skin on (yuk!), mashed potatoes, boiled cauliflower and Wonder bread. And milk.

[WritersBlock]

55. Allegedly the "best" Thai restaurant in Glasgow.

All my colleagues raved about the place, so I went there with some friends.

The food was so bland that we were begging for soy sauce just to add some flavor to it. And there wasn't a Thai ingredient or spice to be found. It was awful.

Luckily, though, we later found Glasgow's REAL Thai restaurant, and it has been consistently excellent.

[cags]

58. LAX restaurant "The Encounter"

I paid $8 for a bowl of easy-mac that I had to pour some of my daughters milk into so that she would eat it.

Then I paid $16 for totally burnt hamburger that actually crunched when I bit into it.

But hey the bathrooms were cool.

[jmowreader]

60. 4th Battalion Chili Mac at Fort Dix

Fort Dix, NJ, was a Training and Doctrine Command installation that offered Basic Training, Cook School and Truck Driver School--I think they also had a mechanic's course, but that was a hell of a long time ago.

The problem with being a basic trainee on the post where they train cooks is that you get to be the "training unit" for the new cooks. Sometimes you get surprised, like when one of the trainees turns out to have come into the Army after a stint in a fine dining restaurant. And sometimes you really get surprised...

like happened to us during a bivouac--a campout. We were supposed to be in the woods for five days learning all the wonderful things you must know to survive in combat. Unfortunately for the drill sergeants, the weather had so fucked up the training area that they had to bivouac the whole battalion in one area instead of spreading it out into company-size chunks. We were an integrated battalion--we had females and males in the same companies--so the drills were all running around informing us of the horrid things that would happen to us if we were to "fraternize" with the female soldiers by crawling into their tents for unauthorized maneuvers (better known as "MI pushups" by Sergeant Cloud--lock elbows, move hips up and down). We informed them that since our balls had frozen off hours ago, they had no reason to worry.

About 8pm, the mess truck came out with our evening meal--chili mac. Everyone had such severe postnasal drip, we couldn't smell the food. It was so dark we couldn't see the food. And since our tongues had frozen half an hour after our balls froze off, we couldn't taste the food.

About 9:30pm we finally got a chance to go to sleep.

About 10:30pm, Sergeant Cloud came around. "We're going back to garrison. Pack your shit and go to the assembly area with it, there will be cargo carriers and cattle trucks here shortly." The trucks came about 11:15pm.

At 11:45pm, we got back to post.

At half past midnight, we found out why we came back so soon: the cook trainee who made the chili mac fucked up and let it sit on the counter too long after she made it, and it gave the whole battalion food poisoning. Everyone got three days' restriction to quarters out of that little episode--and quarters in basic training isn't much fun at all; when a drill sergeant shows up with a gallon can of Brasso and informs the unit that "this will be empty at the end of three days or we'll hold you over until it is" you know you're screwed.

[Dastard Stepchild]

64. "Cheese" Quesadillas in England

When I was younger, and still ate dairy products, I always relied on the cheese dishes at restaurants since I was a vegetarian. My mother and I decided to check out this America-themed restaurant in a town on the outskirts of Manchester. I ordered the quesadillas, which were comprised of cottage cheese and canned corn in between 2 warmed tortillas. The salsa wasn't really salsa, but diced tomatoes poured on top of the tortillas. In spite of my liking of all of the ingredients separately (was a big fan of cottage cheese, corn, tortillas and tomatoes), I just could not eat this meal.

[gardenista]

65. Cheese Plate. Raddison (?) Hotel in FRESNO!

Yes, we were forced to stay in Fresno overnight, and had not eaten all day. Everything was closed, and room service offered a delightful-sounding "International Cheese Platter".

When it arrived, it was a 16" diameter plate piled about 4" high with cubed Velveeta and saltines. It as inedible. When we called to complain, they offered to let us have it for free to make up for it. We left it out in the hall. Probably got stolen by Jim Bob.