This happened to me a long time ago when I was a little boy but I remember it well. My mother and I went out to eat at a restaurant in our local shopping centre. The restaurant looked nice and we were taken to our seat. It was only when a waitress arrived that the hell began. The waitress was a snooty and bad tempered girl who practically ordered us to tell her what we wanted. Back then I was a bit of a fussy eater and I ordered chips while my mother ordered a baked potato. After waiting a while the snappy waitress comes over with what is supposed to be our food. My chips looked OK, but when I took a bite I discovered they were badly undercooked. My mother’s was even worse; it was rather cold and tasted funny. Needless to say it was one of the most unpleasant meals we had ever had. We didn’t want to complain as we were not the sort to complain. Plus from the looks of the miserable and bad tempered staff we might end up on the menus ourselves! But still at least the place had great ice cream!
Tagged as:
food & beverage issues,
server
My husband and I spent our honeymoon over Christmas in London a few years ago. We had heard Christmas tea at the Ritz was (while of course a bit touristy) a special thing to do in London around the holidays. So I booked a champagne tea for two months in advance and swallowed our sticker shock at the price – it was $2 to the pound back then but we knew it would be a memorable treat.
Well, the tea was memorable, but for a different reason than we anticipated. The decorations were lovely, I do remember that. The service was mildly attentive but not what you’d expect from a hotel of this caliber. What we both vividly remember was the two year old at the table squarely in the center of the tearoom, behaving in a manner not suitable at any family-friendly restaurant, let alone the Ritz tearoom, where all men are expected to be in coat and tie and ladies in their smartest afternoon dress.
This child was not only screaming, he was climbing over his chair and pulling the hair of the lady behind him, messing with the delicately adorned Christmas tree, and I repeat, screaming at the top of his lungs repeatedly through the meal. The parents made no effort to remove him from the tearoom, there were no visible disciplinary measures taken other than “shushing,” which did not have any affect whatsoever. I felt for this kid, who was receiving his fair share of ugly looks thanks to his lack of parenting and need for attention.
I glared down the waiters, who appeared unfazed as the toddler continued to scream in the middle of the tearoom. Surely they will do something! Any place with a strict dress code should know that this is far more offensive than any jeans or trainers would be to one’s fellow diners, who are paying a high price for the privilege of being there. All the other patrons were visibly shocked and irritated as well – and the poor lady who was most affected deserved a medal for her patience (or perhaps should have been the one to say something on all of our behalf?). I don’t care if little Prince William is sitting in that chair, it was intolerably inconsiderate.
Shame on his parents for taking him to an expensive restaurant and expecting him to behave, and shame on the Ritz for not doing anything about the situation. Looking back, shame on us for not fighting them on the bill. I can’t believe we paid £100 to sit at TGI Fridays!
Tagged as:
babies & children,
holiday,
hotel
Welcome to the updated Dinners From Hell website! You’ll still find all of the stories and comments that the previous site had. But you’ll also find that surfing through our pages offers a much more enjoyable and satisfying experience.
Changes were made out of necessity as well as for desired improvements. The software previously used – Microsoft FrontPage – is acutely outdated and non-supported. It also lacks a lot of features that people have come to expect from today’s websites and blogs. WordPress was selected as its replacement because of its compliance with web standards, for the many great tools and resources that are available for it, and because it’s much more suitable for sites with dynamic content. It provides improved organization and easier navigation, quicker load times, a cleaner and less cluttered appearance, unique web addresses for posts (permalinks), tags for sorting of stories by key words, and a more prominent display of comments.
Accompanying the change in software were changes made to the site itself. Dining link resource pages (Restaurant Reviews, Dining With Kids, etc.) were removed, as were the Dining Videos and Dining News pages. The changes were made in order to be relieved of the chore of maintaining hundreds of active links, and so that Dinners From Hell could singularly focus on what it was originally designed to do – provide a venue for dining hell stories. Other changes include renaming Dining Features to “Dining Blogs” and adding a Fast Food category.
Unfortunately there was no way to transfer requests for comment notifications over to the new site. Those seeking to find comments that they made on the previous site can use the search engine to find their names on the updated one. Also, story ratings could not be moved over. And for the record, noted publication days for stories that originated on the other site aren’t necessarily the day in which they were originally posted (months and years correctly reflect when the stories were posted on the previous site, however, except for some posts in Dining Hell Blogs).
Special thanks goes to those who’ve made contributions to Dinners From Hell – folks who’ve shared their stories, posted comments, offered advice, provided information, and helped to inform others about the website.
Here’s to many more years of sharing a cornucopia of foodie fun in Dinners From Hell.
One night my boyfriend, my roommate and I decided to go out to dinner to a local steak and buffet restaurant. We each ordered entrées and sodas, placed the tickets on our table, and then went to the buffet line for some salads. When we returned, our tickets were still on the table. No big deal, the waitress must be busy. By the time we had finished our salads, the waitress walked by and grabbed our tickets without saying a word. She was about 5’8” (with the height from her mullet) and covered in tattoos.
After 10 minutes and no drinks, we finally flagged her down and she brought us our drinks—all wrong. We didn’t bother telling her. We waited another twenty minutes for the entrees to arrive. Without a word, she put down my boyfriend’s meal and my roommate’s meal and walked away. Ugh… okay, maybe she doesn’t know how to carry three plates, whatever. So I wait, but she didn’t return with my meal. I flagged her down as she whipped by the table and asked her if my meal was coming out. The woman grabs my arm, leans down over me, gets up right into my face and screeches, “WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOMETHIN” SOONER? I THOUGHT YOU AND I HAD AN UNDERSTANDIN’?” My eyes grew wide as I yanked my arm from her grasp. My boyfriend jumped up at that point and asked her what the h*ll she thought she was doing. She said that we knew each other and I should have said something sooner. I’d never met this lady before in my life and I would have said something if she were around.
The manager brought out my meal, cold by that point, and never said a word to apologize. As we’re finishing our meal, the same waitress started busing the table next to ours. She knocked over a half glass of orange soda all over the table. Cursing like a sailor, she made a half hearted attempt at cleaning it up. You could still see the soda glistening on the top of the table and soda was dripping down onto the chairs. A family came and sat down but before we could warn them, their son sat in a pool of the soda. Guess they didn’t leave her a tip either.
Leaving the Ranch Hungry
Tagged as:
long wait,
owner/manager,
server,
tipping
