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 customer, a waiter or waitress with an attitude, a temperamental chef, 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.

Three Hour Wait for Meal

May 26, 2014 Odds & Ends Stories

It was two or three years ago on Veteran’s Day, also my brother’s birthday, and we decided to go to a common chain restaurant. Due to it being Veteran’s Day, the restaurant was packed with military personnel. There was a two hour wait. There were two things wrong with the wait. Number one was that my […]

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Too Much Noise in “The Library”

May 9, 2014 Odds & Ends Stories

My wife and I were looking for a quiet pub to have monthly casual dinners with another couple. Most of the so-called pubs in the city were actually sports bars, with large screen TVs in each dining area. Sometimes this was not a problem, but during hockey season (this was in Canada) the noise level […]

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Waiter Under-Tipped for Substandard Service

April 6, 2014 Tipping & Etiquette Stories

I under-tipped recently and wanted to share my story. My wife and I stopped at a popular restaurant for Sunday brunch. The hostess seated us on the patio; due to cool weather we were only the third table (of nine) to have patrons. One of the others was finishing up before paying their check, the […]

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Snippy Server at the Pancake House

February 3, 2014 Server Stories

A friend and I went to a well known pancake house often, at least once a week. It was right down the street from our houses. We had a few issues in the past, but nothing to the extreme that we would never come back (obviously). We came in one morning around 2 a.m. just […]

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The Unwanted Guest

January 31, 2014 Insect & Animal Stories

I’d only been employed at this restaurant for about two weeks, and so far, it had been great. After taking a break from serving, I felt it was time to get back in the game. This restaurant was this company’s second highest earner in the country and all of the staff seemed to really enjoy […]

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Cashier Threatens to Shoot Customer

November 25, 2013 Odds & Ends Stories

I placed an order over the phone at “PW” Asian Diner in Dulles, Virginia. I’m already in their system as they recognized my call back number and pick up name and even my order. When I got there 10 minutes later it wasn’t ready, plus they tried to charge me extra for some reason. The […]

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Restaurant Owner Offended by T-Shirt Profanity

November 8, 2013 Odds & Ends Stories

Came to “B House” at Hendry’s Beach in Santa Barbara, California yesterday for breakfast and I fell in love with the view. We left our dog in the car since we could not bring her on the patio (only service dogs allowed) which is completely understandable. We ate as fast as we could so we […]

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Photo Lady

November 2, 2013 Diner Stories

It was a Sunday afternoon which is generally a very busy time for the restaurant I work at, as we receive a lot of lunch bookings. I was serving two large tables who were both celebrating something, so I really wanted to make sure that they received the best service.

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The Double Fire

October 20, 2013 Accident & Mishap Stories

It wasn’t a regular Thursday night; we were jammed. To make matters worse, Eric decided not to show up because he had a concert to go to that night, little fucker. You know the type of night I’m talking about – the managers are sweating from head to toe, bartender screaming, and all the servers […]

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A Corpse in the Kitchen

October 13, 2013 Kitchen & Chef & Boss Stories

One of my friends works for the health department and has inspected countless restaurants, tea rooms, hotel kitchens etc for many years. Most of the time they are fine with only the occasional minor inconveniences that were noted for improvement. But of course occasionally you got some more serious cases.

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Twenty Orders Expected in Five Minutes

September 21, 2013 Odds & Ends Stories

This is another story from my theater days in the concession stand. This incident occurred during the release of Hannah Montana’s 3D concert.

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Shards of Glass Spoil Meal

August 23, 2013 Food & Drink Stories

My father and I were on our way back from Florida. We had stopped for breakfast at a small diner by Jensen Beach. The waiter was nice and the drinks were fine. The only mildly disturbing thing we had heard thus far was someone breaking what sounded like a glass in the kitchen, but we […]

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