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 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.

Bartender Chats With Her Chums

August 9, 2009 Server & Chef Stories

This was a good ten years ago, but I remember it well.
Up front, I want to say that I tip based on service. Give me great service, you get more than 20%. Lesser service, and the percentage goes down. Only one time have I left no tip – and this is why.
Me and two friends [...]

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Cheapskates Sent Postcards

July 12, 2009 Tipping & Etiquette Stories

Many years ago while working at a very popular restaurant that had a 2 hour wait on a Sat night, the servers and I got together after work and decided we couldn’t run after patrons who stiffed us, but we came up with an idea that worked. Mind you, this was before the ATM/check card [...]

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Mother’s Day At The Yellow Round-Up

July 3, 2009 Odds & Ends Stories

A few years ago my family decided to take me out for Mother’s Day Brunch. Since they did not make reservations anywhere and I wanted everyone to be able to get what they liked, we chose what I’ll call the “Yellow Round-Up.”
It was an unusually warm Spring day and half of the restaurant did not [...]

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Flustered Waitress

June 30, 2009 Server & Chef Stories

A short time back my grandparents took my mother, my fiancé and my sister and myself out to breakfast a chain restaurant that specializes in breakfast food. We arrived to see that this restaurant was packed as usual, but we were all seated promptly. Our waitress took our drink orders, brought them back and proceeded [...]

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Request For Inside Table

June 23, 2009 Ask Dev

Hey Dev,
We just returned from a wonderful dinner out with our two sons and their girlfriends.
My husband made reservations earlier in the day. Our entire party arrived early and checked in. We waited in the bar for approximately 5 minutes, which was fine. It was a cool evening and the hostess took us outside where [...]

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Deciding What To Select On The Menu

June 23, 2009 Dining Hell Blog

We’ve all been in the situation where everyone else is ready to order but we just can’t make up our mind on what to select from the menu. So we tell the server to take everyone else’s order first. The pressure mounts as almost everybody has placed their order and we still haven’t made a [...]

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A Hairy Ordeal

June 18, 2009 Food & Drink Stories

My hairy ordeal happened in a local establishment that I used to frequent quite often. This day I decided to order a grilled cheese. They make a fabulous grilled cheese using three different cheeses and sour dough bread. It’s awesome. Well it was. I had just taken a couple of bites when I noticed something [...]

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Almost Hell For Another Diner, Not For Me

June 16, 2009 Illness & Medical Stories

Wife and I and our best friends (he a doctor) were having dinner at a famous steakhouse in Brooklyn (no names here, let’s just call the place Peter L.). We were digging into our steak and as a family was leaving the room, an older gentleman collapsed, motionless, to the floor on the way out.
Now, [...]

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“Slow” Oven Troubles Toddler

June 12, 2009 Kid Stories

When our son was about 18 months old, my wife and I thought we might try taking him out to a restaurant. He was a generally quiet, well-behaved kid, even at that age, and we made sure we brought lots of quiet activities and even some Cheerios and other toddler snacks for the wait.
We picked [...]

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Treated Like Crap At The Bottom Of A Shoe

June 8, 2009 Tipping & Etiquette Stories

I was working the closing shift one night when a group of six came in late. I had two other tables that were almost finished with their meals. I approached the new table of 5 ladies and one man. The man was talking to the women and did not acknowledge that I was standing at [...]

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