Bad Restaurant Experiences....

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I don’t know about having friends who are never satisfied with anything in the restaurant, but my friends certainly have a friend who is like that. He is Me.
I hate going out. There is always something I do not like, always something that is not the way I want. But what can I do, I’m the same way with my own food. It is never good enough. I know I can do better. And I for sure know that for my money I should have better. Thank G-d we almost never going out anymore.
 
Michi said:
Hi everyone!

Well, I can't say that it will top the sushi bar story, but back in college, we had a great little hole in the wall restaurant - cheap, really good food, about halfway through an order of vegetarian lasagne, I stopped, fork mid-air and low and behold, someone's band-aid was in my lasagne.
:sick:
Needless to say, that was my last visit there.
Michi... OMG. :yuk::censored::shock::sick:
 
this can't compare to pukey sushi, or bandaids, but here goes my last really bad experience.

one of my wife's favorite restaurants, back when we were restaurant hopping about twice a week (before the birth of our first child about 22 months ago), was the south city grille in rochelle park, nj.
we probably frequented the place about every three weeks or so; she would go more often with her girlfriends for drinks.
i had always thought the place was mediocre at best; dw loved it. admittedly, it is nicely decorated in a neon/art deco/ocean decor. but you paid decent prices for usually decent food. usually. occasionally, i would have gotten a better meal in a sit down pizza place. still, they were the ones that got me hooked on seared and spiced ahi tuna, lobster mashed potatoes, espresso creme brulee', and harney and sons teas.
unfortunately, the last time we went, for our 1st anniversary, baby in tow, we noticed a complete change-over of staff, and both the meal and the experience were horrible.
firstly, our waiter took our drink and appetizer orders, then disappeared for about 25 minutes. he came back with our oysters, my wife's apple "martini" (i hate using that term for scnapps and vodka in a martini glass), and a glass of cheap merlot, mine, that was barely enough to be considered a full glass, and full of cork bits. not to be one to complain, and jones'in for a drink, we gave him our entree order and started in.
ughhh, the oysters were dry, fishy, and almost leathery. there was no liquer, except for the melted ice on the plate, as if the oysters were schucked hours before, then left out under a fan in the refrigerator.
well, it was a bad start, but we've survived many of those before
rolleyes.gif
,
so we downed our drinks looking to order another round.
and we waited, and waited. now i understand why they are called waiters...
wink.gif


finally, (maybe another 20 minutes), when we thought our entree's were arriving, we were surprised to find out that they were out of my wife's order, so she'd have to get something else. so we ordered another round of drinks.
eventually our dinners came, along with our drinks. we had been there over an hour by then, and had only been served 2 rounds of crappy drinks and a bad appy. i was ready to let the waiter know my displeasure, but i didn't want to make things worse on our special date. dw's entree was OK, but my seafood fra diavolo over pasta was ice cold, the pasta overcooked and watery, and most of the seafood were just giant, tough mussels. and to top it off, they put cheese on it without asking first. i tried to complain to our waiter, but he was nowhere to be found, again. when dw went to the restrooms to change the baby, said she saw him by the bar watching football with a few other waiters, but couldn't get his attention across a group of large guys while carrying the baby.

another 15 minutes passed, our waiter arrived all freakin smiley and friendly and apologetic (trying to blame the manager for not enough staff on hand that night), asking how our dinner was, and how old my son was. i told him flat out that everything sucked; that apologies only work when something is comp'd, hint hint; and then made a joke about the score of the giants game to lighten the mood, ya know, grease the wheels a bit. he had no problem telling me how the game was going, trying to make conversation and complimenting us on our cute son. so i remarked that he should try to pay as much attention to his customers while they were eating, not when it's time to try to drum up a tip. i'm not sure if the look on his face was stunned because he was insulted, or vacant, because he just didn't understand what i meant.

well, after getting a check without anything comp'd, i made sure to give the check, about $145 to the hostess, not the waiter, explaining to her that the reason for the 5 percent tip was the incredibly bad service (again, my wife enjoyed her entree, hence 5 percent), but all the hostess did was give me that look that only a big haired, heavily painted jersey chick in a skin tight dress can. she could have chilled a good pinot grigio in seconds with that look.

well, that's my story. like i said, we used to go there very often and were usually satisfied, but had only been back the the one time in the last 2 years, for now obvious reasons.

i wonder if they've ever gotten their act straightened out?
 
We don't really go out to eat much...but one thing that irritates me is, steaks not cooked to requested temps. I want medium rare, not Pittsburgh rare,or Well Done folks!!!
 
A couple of weeks ago, my h and I went to eat at a popular chain Italian Restaurant (no not Olive Garden, the other typical one). We went there, as it was on the way home from shopping. I used to love it. Used to.
It was 8:00pm, and there was only 3 other parties there, which was odd, as it always used to be packed. Again, used to.
I always loved the warm rosemary bread they served with oil and balsamic. hmmm. This time, there was only oil (and all tables were void of balsamic....maybe it got too expensive), and the bread tasted like they spilled the entire salt shaker in it. Keep in mind I have a horrid salt allergy that only allows me to maybe eat 10 grains or so before being affected. So, after downing my waterglass, we finally got to order. (I think they changed waiters on us) This one was really really nice. I asked for a dinner salad, with the dressing on the side. (I can't stand when you get salad soup)I then ordered one of those "pick your own kind of pasta" meals, as I like to know what's going in my dinner. I wasn't in the mood for meat, so I made it vegetarian. 25 minutes later, I got my salad. The dressing was supposed to be honey mustard, and it tasted more like oil. But, that's okay, because the greens were kind of fresh, and the tomato wasn't that mealy. My h's soup never came. After another 10 minutes, my pasta showed up. First 2 bites had big chunks of ground meat. Yes, I eat meat, but I didn't want it that night. I tried to eat a few more bites and I can say in all honesty, chef boy ardee has more flavor. It was awful. I looked over at my h and he hadn't even eaten more than a few bites. He'd ordered a shrimp and pasta dish with garlic. He said all he could taste was a salty-mustardy taste. (So that's where the mustard from my dressing went!!!) The waiter was a really nice kid, and was really trying hard, but I just had to quietly tell him about my meal. He was very appologetic, and asked a few times if I wanted to order something else. It was already so late, we decided to go. He again said how sorry he was, and we let him know it certainly wasn't his fault. The thing that bothered me was that the manager never did leave his post to speak with us.
The waiter came back with the bill, minus my meal, one of h's beers and the invisible soup. The bill was $15. We gave the guy a $10 tip for being so kind.
Never again will I go there!
 
Erik said:
We don't really go out to eat much...but one thing that irritates me is, steaks not cooked to requested temps. I want medium rare, not Pittsburgh rare,or Well Done folks!!!

Absolutely!!!

I've given up on "names". I tell them what color I want. I say I want it brown with the tiniest hint of pink. It seems to work!
 
I just started to date a lovely young lady. I am supposed to cook for her on our next date. I have PRIME steaks in my freezer. She just told me last night that she likes her steaks WELL DONE.

Hmmm.....

Part of me wants to save the steaks for a Medium Rare person, but I think I fell for this lady last night and I'd do anything for her. (I'd turn the stars around for her if she asked me to.) Cooking a prime NY Strip well done is nothing.

I'm happy.

I am smiling.

Hello everyone.


RJ
 
As long as she doesn't mind that yours is not cooked that well done then cook hers as well as she wants. She will love it and you will still enjoy yours, and you will make her happy :)

Congrats on finding someone who makes you that happy Ardge!
 
Cook it the way she likes it, Ardge. You can always offer her a tender piece of yours (using your fingers, much more intimate that way). Good luck.
 
mudbug said:
Well, michi, you sure made your intro here with a bang! or was it a bandaid?
All I can say is ick, over and over.

Well, I like to jump in with both feet...:LOL:
 
welcome michi.

you'd better get posting recipes before we remember you as the band-aid (plaster) lasagna person.

have you put an intro post int the intros and birthdays thread? lemme go see...
 
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