Dinners From Hell offers true stories about restaurant dining disasters written by diners, servers and chefs.

We've all had those dining experiences when things went dreadfully wrong. Perhaps it was a social blunder, an obnoxious diner, a waiter or waitress with an attitude, an embarrassing faux pas, or a food or beverage incident. Find out what others have had to endure by reading stories about dinners gone bad.

Mr. Cussing Creeper

September 2, 2011 Diner Stories

About 2 years ago, my family and I went out for dinner at a nice chain restaurant on a Wednesday evening. After being led to our booth, given our menus and had our drink orders taken, I glanced around the area we were seated in. It seemed that we were in a sort of “family [...]

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Children Run Amok to Candy Machine

August 29, 2011 Kid Stories

I have worked at the same steakhouse for over 3, going on 4 years. There is one table that completely sticks out in my mind every time I think of a horrible day. It was a table of 2 adults and 7 kids, so 9 total. Not a huge deal; I handle big tables all [...]

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Apology for Tossed Tomato

July 1, 2011 Kid Stories

In this story, I was the person who made someone else’s dinner miserable. In my defense I was a little under the age of two at the time. My grandfather decided to take my mother and me out to eat at a steak house. Being on a limited budget, my mother couldn’t afford a sitter and [...]

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Volcanic Eruption in the Kitchen

June 3, 2011 Kitchen & Chef Stories

Quite recently a rather unusual and downright dangerous incident took place in the kitchen at the restaurant where I work. We have these huge pots to cook our soups and other hot meals in. There was a big pot of boiling oil on the grill for our meat dishes that we were serving that day. [...]

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Food Falls Onto Diner

May 30, 2011 Accident & Mishap Stories

I once worked for, what is now, a large hotel chain that had a string of restaurants in the Washington DC/Baltimore area. I started as a “Manager-in-Training.” This required that I learn all of the stations in the restaurant, everything from cashier to dishwasher. This story begins on a busy Sunday morning; the after church [...]

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Champagne Bottle Propelled Like a Rocket

May 25, 2011 Food & Drink Stories

Let me set the scenario… I work at a world-renowned health spa. I’ve been in the food and beverage industry for 20 years. I’ve opened many a bottle of wine and Champagne throughout my career. Since it’s a health spa I work at, not as many people order alcohol as in other restaurants, so it’s [...]

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Diaper Dilemma

May 21, 2011 Kid Stories

While enjoying my meal at a nice restaurant, I noticed a couple at a nearby table with a baby. Although they doted on the baby during their entire meal, it didn’t bother me much since the baby was well behaved. Later on in the evening I noticed that several servers were crowded around the couple’s [...]

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Diners Deal With a Parade of Problems

April 1, 2011 Odds & Ends Stories

I had my reservations about going to this hamburger restaurant in the first place, given the number of less than stellar reviews on both Yelp and FourSquare. As a social marketer I do my research on new places and generally think the crowd gets it right. But I figured, “What the heck, it’s in the [...]

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Vegetarian Surprised by Seafood Medley

March 27, 2011 Food & Drink Stories

I’d been backpacking for two weeks all up and down the East Coast of Australia. I spent the entire day on a boat going out to the Great Barrier Reef, snorkeling, and then coming back to this little island near the mainland. It was a day in the sun all day long, a lot of [...]

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Frugal Flight Attendant

March 19, 2011 Diner Stories

It was my first Paris layover and since I don’t speak a lick of French I decided to stick with my crew (I’m a flight attendant). Usually I like to venture out on my own in a new city, but I knew dinner was going to be a massive problem if left to my own [...]

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