My friends and I once went to a fab looking restaurant while travelling abroad. The food was wonderful and the staff were super nice, and even better we were seated outside in the hot and sunny weather, so it was a perfect environment to eat.
When we had finished our meal I decided I needed to go to the bathroom. I told my friends I would be back shortly and spotted a sign saying TOILETS pointing to a staircase going down. While descending down the spiralling staircase, I noticed that it was taking an unusually long time to reach the bottom and the environment seemed to be deteriorating the further down I got. Finally I reached the bottom and stopped dead. The scene in front of me looked very much like the set of a horror film. A long corridor with dirty, grey walls with peeling paint, loud pipes were sticking out of the walls and ceiling, and a big fan was rotating near the ceiling on the other side of the corridor. It was dimly lit and quite a foreboding atmosphere. Normally I would have fled in fear, but the hotel was quite a walk so I tried to be brave and continue.
Heart beating and breathing deeply, I walked down the corridor with several doors until I finally found two doors opposite each other labeled MALE and FEMALE. With a shaking hand I reached out for the door when it suddenly opened. I gasped when a rather scruffy fellow stalked out of it. He took one glance at me before shuffling off. Pulling myself together I went inside and it was just as bad in here. After doing my business and washing my hands, I practically ran out of there and back upstairs. When I told my friends where I had been they were wary of climbing down hell’s descent.
Tagged as:
restroom
My friend once told me of a strange incident that happened to her while eating at a local fast food restaurant with her girlfriends. Her friend ordered a simple grilled chicken burger and asked that the mayonnaise be left out. Her burger was given to her and they all sat down to eat. However when she was about to take a bite she noticed what appeared to be a white slimy substance oozing out of the burger. She at first thought it was mayonnaise so she took it back to the counter and said she asked for a burger with no mayonnaise. The staff looked confused and said they did not put any mayonnaise in her burger. When she opened her burger, to everyone’s disgust and horror the slimy blob was secreting from the very undercooked chicken in the burger. I’m not sure what happened after that but I was a bit wary about going back to that place again.
Tagged as:
fast food restaurant,
food & beverage issues
My mother and my aunt and uncle and I once went to a lovely looking restaurant while holidaying in Portugal. It was scalding hot so we ate in the enclosed area outside. A window was open that apparently was part of the kitchen. But no sooner had we sat down and ordered our food than we heard a terrible retching noise coming from the kitchen. We all stopped and the retching continued. It sounded like someone was throwing up or coughing really bad but in a monstrous tone. It was really loud and quite disgusting as we tried to eat our meals. The retching seemed to be turning to roaring as if some strange demonic creature was in there. We looked down at our half eaten food and were suddenly wary about eating it. But so as not to insult the waiting staff, we ate it all and left with the thing still roaring and retching in the kitchen.
Hey Dev,
This happened a few years ago but it still bothers me to think about it. My wife and I attended a family wedding out of town. After a long afternoon, 11 relatives wanted to go out to dinner. We called a restaurant near our motel (chain, not pricey, not fast food.) They told us they could seat us at 7:30 and we made the reservation.
The walk over took 15 minutes and we were there by 7:20, aware we might have to wait a bit past the promised time. The hostess identified the tables we’d be sitting at. One of them was being cleared, and the other had a party of five who had just paid their bill. We expected to to be seated shortly. Except that the other party decided to stay and talk. And talk. And talk some more. Even though we were waiting, even though other later arrivals had a 45 to 60 minute wait, the restaurant wouldn’t ask the loiterers to move. The restaurant couldn’t find another place for us, moving to another establishment would have added another hour or more before we’d be seated and one couple in our party gave up in exhaustion and went back to their room.
After the other ex-diners had sat 40 minutes after paying, I went to the table and firmly requested they they vacate their table. They left, but not after complaining to the hostess about how rude I’d been. The hostess was not happy with me either, but at least the delayed meal went well. Given the circumstances, I felt I’d done the only thing I could. How else might I have handled this? Remember, changing restaurants was not a viable option.
Disgruntled in Denver
Dear Disgruntled,
While your frustration was understandable, you shouldn’t have “firmly requested” that the diners leave their table. The other party had a right to relax after dinner; the table was their piece of real estate that they paid for. All too often diners in the U.S. don’t take the time to leisurely savor their dining experience, including the afterglow that follows a sumptuous meal. People are either in a hurry, or servers rush the courses. In many other countries, lingering over a meal is actually a part of the cultural fabric. Of course, with tipping constituting a good chunk of a server’s pay in the U.S., servers don’t get paid as much when tables aren’t turned over. Therefore those who linger should take that into consideration when tipping their server.
But your party had a right to expect to be seated within a reasonable duration following the time for which the reservation was made. The restaurant should have addressed the matter before your annoyance reached the boiling point, which created an uncomfortable situation for everyone. Here is what they could have done:
If there was another table available, they could have politely approached the diners and informed them that a large party had been waiting for a good while, and that if they’d be willing to move to an available table, they’d be given complimentary desserts (for example). If there weren’t any tables available, the restaurant could have offered to comp a free appetizer on their next visit if they’d leave.
By seeking out a win-win the restaurant would, at the least, had partially satisfied customers instead of everyone with a sour taste in their mouth.
[Note: Dev is frequently in parts unknown and therefore is often unavailable to answer dining-related questions. Questions may still be submitted to him (askdev@dinnersfromhell.com), but there's no guarantee if or when he'll respond.]
Tagged as:
gratuity,
reservations
