Restaurants or cafes you've never forgiven...

[moonsi til]

On a flight last week coming back from NYC I was asked 'chicken or beef' I replied that I was veggie and the hostess said 'not another one' in a rather annoyed tone. Then she asked had I told anyone about it and I said 'yes at time of booking' and added that it had been no trouble on the flight out. She advised me that it was my duty to call 24 hours in advance to ensure they were aware and that 'FYI I should have advised someone whilst checking in'...she used actual 'FYI' towards me 3 times which really pissed me off. I advised her that it had been auto check-in and there was no-one to tell...she then got into a bit of a scene with me about 'are you saying that NO-ONE checked your documents to board this flight'....of course people had but not about meals/comfort.

Anyway I'm advised that there is no veggie meal and she asks me again 'chicken or beef'...at this point a lady sat next to me interjects and sternly tells her that I'm a 'complete vegetarian'...so hostess lady shoves a tray at me with salad on saying 'lettuce is vegetarian'. I declined her offer. I neither like or dislike airplane food but since I knew I was going to be eating shortly after boarding & the food on the way out was OK I didn't bother to eat at the airport. Due to the conflict with her I ended up having a panic attack on the window seat of the plane....I normally ask for an aisle seat but got a bit flustered at using auto check-in for the first time and a airlines employee came over and pressed 'yes' when seat 12f was offered to help speed things along as it was quite chaotic at the airport. I managed to calm down without my panic attack getting too major but I'm left wondering what the fuck happened? due to the way she spoke to me.

 

[oryx]

Bonningtons in Vauxhall.

The food took over an hour to arrive. I wouldn't have minded but they didn't have enough glasses for the bottle we'd brought so my other half got a broken mug for her wine and I got to watch her drink it as that was the last receptacle. I don't mind that it's small, but the couple on the table next to us were literally touching our elbows. A pair of flamboyant theatre types, one of them spent the whole time relating to her friend at full volume with ensuing moans, tears and re-enactments the trauma of a recent sexual assault she'd fallen victim to.

When the food arrived it was an overcooked mush of muck. Entirely inedible. And cold.

I remember an Urban night out there when the mains arrived before the starters. Totally dippy/incompetent service - they wouldn't get away with it if they weren't cheap and cheerful.

moonsi til - your experience is awful! It beats my partner's experience when he was offered 'a cheese sandwich, but it's from yesterday - is that OK?'!

Which airline was it? The service and attitude are terrible.

 

[Geri]

That is terrible - you should complain.

I went to Corfu in 1987 when I was a veggie, and the airline (I forget which one) gave me a lovely veggie meal.

 

[1927]

Me and Mrs27 say everytime we fly that we are going to book a veggie meal next time as 1) They always look so good and 2) They always get served way before the normal meals.
In fact we wish we knew what all the different menus were as we see some people eating fab stuff but dont know if its the veggie option, the gliten free diet opation, the halal option etc, next tim e we should just ask all the different diners for future reference.

 

[moonsi til]

Being veggie normally works out OK and we usually get served first. On the way out the food was nice in an airline sort of way. I'm left wondering at which point did our interaction take a turn for the worse so I can learn how to avoid these situations in the future.

On another note whilst I worked in a busy mid-range Italian place as a waitress. I worked on a section of about 8 tables with all tables full. On one was a table of 4 adults who ordered wine, starters & mains so were spending a decent amount. After a while of bringing out food for other tables they began asking me where their starters were...I went up to the maitre de guy (Mario) and I asked him but he kept shooing me away. Meanwhile I have no choice but to be in the area where they are seated and again they ask me and they start getting a bit pissed off so I'm now nervous about walking near them. In all I ask Mario 3 times about their starter & each time I advise them that I'm working on it. The 3rd time Mario tells me to tell them to 'fuck off'...so I did just what he said!....I advised the table very calmly about how I had tried and what he finally advised. I left them there sat shocked & opened mouthed. I then informed Mario that I did what he asked!....

.....he was then in a huge panic & called up the kitchen...turns out Mario had never sent the order up hence no food...the table got an apology plus free wine & starters & I got a decent tip..

 

[Geri]

One of my friends was in hospital for a few weeks when she had her youngest child due to complications, and she found out that they only put one veggie meal on the trolley - and if someone else had it before the trolley reached her, it was tough luck and she had to go without!

 

[machine cat]

A hot pot restaurant in Beijing called Xia Bu Xia Bu. A cockroach fell from the ceiling and onto a plate of meat. We left a few seconds afterwards and never visited any of their restaurants again.

 

[miss minnie]

Tbf to Bonnington Cafe, they have different cooks and staff each night of the week, so your experience will differ depending on which night you go.

 

[ringo]

Tbf to Bonnington Cafe, they have different cooks and staff each night of the week, so your experience will differ depending on which night you go.

In my experience of talking to people who have been there that means you get a different plate of crap food on a chipped plate each time.

 

[miss minnie]

In my experience of talking to people who have been there that means you get a different plate of crap food on a chipped plate each time.

Fair enough, bad luck then. I've never had a bad plate of food there.

ETA: not been for a couple of years though, first experience was a cook there myself but that was way back in the mid 80's

 

[ringo]

Fair enough, bad luck then. I've never had a bad plate of food there.

ETA: not been for a couple of years though, first experience was a cook there myself but that was way back in the mid 80's

I'm sure you're right, others on here have mentioned good meals there, but as the thread says, I've never forgiven them so won't be hurrying back.

 

[miss minnie]

I'm sure you're right, others on here have mentioned good meals there, but as the thread says, I've never forgiven them so won't be hurrying back.

My point is that while you are perhaps right in not forgiving a particular cook there, the cafe itself isn't to blame, its not like it has 'management', its a sort of co-op affair.

 

[Orang Utan]

i once had a mcdonalds straight after a meal at boddington's. i never eat mcdonalds normally.

 

[Pingu]

not strict;y a cfae etc but when i was in hospital last year i jovially asked the bloke on the food trolly when i had my first meal there (rest were pre ordered) - "what do you reccomend?" the answer was "annabelles, mate wouldnt touch any of this myself" (annabelles is the cafe\restraunt place in the hospital)

true enough the "cheese and bisuits" i settled on were no better than plastic

 

[myname]

I went to lunch on my own at the Wagamamma on the South Bank, it was for once practically empty and they sat me on a small table for two behind a column, not the best seat but I wasn't that fussed. I ordered my meal, and it came, it wasn't that great, scallops were rubbery, but what really ruined it all was they then sat a man on his own opposite me even though the place was still empty (we both queried it and they said we fill up at lunchtime). If it'd been a larger table with other people it wouldn't have been a problem, but it was a table for two, I'm feeling quite uncomfortable trying to finish my meal, slurping my noodles, as he's ordering his meal. And to make it worse, when I finish and keep being ignored when I'm trying to get the bill the waiter finally says 'aren't you going to wait for your friend to finish?'

Another time, I take a friend out to the restaurant at the top of the National Portrait Gallery, it's full of very old and quite posh looking people, but we are lucky and get a window seat, it's a great view, and I'm looking forward to treating us regardless of cost. The waiter is rude, and rushs us, the portions are small, but still I'm determind to make the best, and plan to have a pudding wine with dessert, but while we're still eating our main the bill is brought over to us, as though they want rid of us as soon as possible, and also they've charged us for a bottle of wine in place of the one glass my friend had had. I complain, the waiter is snotty, we leave having had no dessert and I always wanted to write a review of the place dissing it but never got round to it.

 

[sim667]

Mrs F took me to the Oxo tower restaurant for my birthday a few years back (neither of us had been before). The service was abysmal - we had to wait ages. People who came in after us were getting served before we were. It was a Friday lunchtime and full of city types and it seemed to us they were taking care of them and ignoring us. And the food, when we finally got some, was nothing special for the price (not cheap, obvs). Never again.

I thought this was going to turn into that joke review about the man who took his wife up the oxo tower.

I dont think I've ever really complained about a meal out...... that i remember anyway.

 

[ExtraRefined]

Bonningtons in Vauxhall.

The food took over an hour to arrive. I wouldn't have minded but they didn't have enough glasses for the bottle we'd brought so my other half got a broken mug for her wine and I got to watch her drink it as that was the last receptacle. I don't mind that it's small, but the couple on the table next to us were literally touching our elbows. A pair of flamboyant theatre types, one of them spent the whole time relating to her friend at full volume with ensuing moans, tears and re-enactments the trauma of a recent sexual assault she'd fallen victim to.

When the food arrived it was an overcooked mush of muck. Entirely inedible. And cold.

I'm a proper veggie baiting omnivore and I still reckon I can make better veggie food than almost all of them.

 

[the button]

Cinnamon Kitchen nr Liverpool St. Appalling service (½ an hour from sit-down to drinks arriving), food nothing to write home about (dried out rabbit main course; microwaved lentil side-dish). Wrote a couple of stinking Tweets about them, and was contacted by some management character there, who offered a free bottle of wine & starter the next time we go there. Haven't taken them up on it, and not sure I want to, tbh.

 

[Teaboy]

A hot pot restaurant in Beijing called Xia Bu Xia Bu. A cockroach fell from the ceiling and onto a plate of meat. We left a few seconds afterwards and never visited any of their restaurants again.

This was pretty much my experience in most places in China, mind this was 10 years ago. I remember sitting in one place and watching the rats do laps of the room.

My favourite however was in Xian where there was only one person running the place. He took all our orders and then cooked each dish individually so the second meal arrived just as the first person was finishing and so on. Food was awful as well.

 

[pinkmonkey]

I went to lunch on my own at the Wagamamma.

I sometimes go there if I'm on my own, fuck knows why, though. I guess its coz my major food craving is chicken gyoza (which they don't fuck up) but I'm usually thoroughly disappointed with the rest. Last time I had the special - orange teriyaki steak and rice. It was so sweet it set my teeth on edge, way too much really sweet sauce, gallons of it, like eating marmalade with soy in it. I had to leave half of it in the end, the sauce had permeated everything in the bowl. The steak was tough and the dish cost £11. Fail.

 

[oryx]

I went to lunch on my own at the Wagamamma on the South Bank, it was for once practically empty and they sat me on a small table for two behind a column, not the best seat but I wasn't that fussed. I ordered my meal, and it came, it wasn't that great, scallops were rubbery, but what really ruined it all was they then sat a man on his own opposite me even though the place was still empty (we both queried it and they said we fill up at lunchtime). If it'd been a larger table with other people it wouldn't have been a problem, but it was a table for two, I'm feeling quite uncomfortable trying to finish my meal, slurping my noodles, as he's ordering his meal. And to make it worse, when I finish and keep being ignored when I'm trying to get the bill the waiter finally says 'aren't you going to wait for your friend to finish?'

I've only ever been to Wagamama once, and it was appalling - like a really bad Chinese takeaway, full of grease and salt.

The thing about the table-sharing is terrible.

 

[Kanda]

Flat White on Berwick St.

I asked for a Bacon Sarnie, they gave me a Bacon Ciabatta with fucking ROCKET in it!!

 

[pinkmonkey]

Yeah, when they pimp caff food it's awful. We go and visit El Jugs brother in Goring, the fish and chips they do in the pub is rubbish, a cube of battered cod an about eight chips arranged jenga style. That's not what we want! And we don't wanna pay £14. And the restaurant is called 'Cygnatures'. It's like something out of Alan Patridge.

 

[_angel_]

not strict;y a cfae etc but when i was in hospital last year i jovially asked the bloke on the food trolly when i had my first meal there (rest were pre ordered) - "what do you reccomend?" the answer was "annabelles, mate wouldnt touch any of this myself" (annabelles is the cafe\restraunt place in the hospital)

true enough the "cheese and bisuits" i settled on were no better than plastic

Oh God if we're talking hospitals, even the purchased food in the canteen was disgusting at St James in Leeds
They also tried to tell us we had to have plain white bread for breakfast because it was against "health and safety" to toast it! Altho the ward upstairs had managed to get a toaster somehow.

 

[oryx]

Oh God if we're talking hospitals, even the purchased food in the canteen was disgusting at St James in Leeds

Oh dear, it must have gone downhill over the years! I used to work there and after working in hospitals down the road in York, where the food was along the lines of lumpy mash with some disinfectant-smelling and -tasting gristly stew, the food at Jimmy's was a treat.

In fact, the food there in 1980 was better than Wagamama's is now!

 

[vauxhallmum]

Tbf to Bonnington Cafe, they have different cooks and staff each night of the week, so your experience will differ depending on which night you go.

This is true. And I used to stand up for it (it's next door )because of the way it was established- a way of communal eating for the local squatters etc etc but it's not like that anymore, nor is it cheap enough now to justify crappy food and dippy service. There, I feel like Judas, I've said it

Same goes for Hot Stuff on Wilton Road - everyone raves on like they've just discovered 'a little gem, darrrhling' but the food is average, the portions are small and again, if it were dirt cheap it would be fine, but it's not. So there.

 

[sim667]

This was pretty much my experience in most places in China, mind this was 10 years ago. I remember sitting in one place and watching the rats do laps of the room.

My favourite however was in Xian where there was only one person running the place. He took all our orders and then cooked each dish individually so the second meal arrived just as the first person was finishing and so on. Food was awful as well.

This just made me think of somewhere shit^^

A mongolian bbq place in chongqing, you went along, chose what you wanted raw, then they cooked it for you...... You basically had to hack still frozen bits of meat out of an ice block and give it to the chefs..... In all fairness, i didnt die, and it was quite cool watching the chefs fling food about in some nutty way, but amongst the fear of food poisoning and repeatedly having them trying to sell us silk wares I think its safe to say I wont be going back.

I think the best meal I had was on that trip to china also, in jingedezen (i think), at a 'pottery making retreat' which was a wooden hut on a stream, in the countryside near the city, beautiful setting, absolutely perfect place i would quite happily have stayed at, with awesome food being cooked for us (tibetan grub i think)

 

[smmudge]

Yep. Festival food - it tends to be on a par with Camden Market food, but it's twice the price. I reserve special hatred for the noodles stalls that serve those yellow egg noodles. Tastless and vile.

haha you always see piles and piles on those noodles on top of bins. I have no idea why people buy them, they don't even look appetising!

 

[Maggot]

i once had a mcdonalds straight after a meal at boddington's.

I'm not surprised, you're not gonna get fed at a brewery.

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm not surprised, you're not gonna get fed at a brewery.

the caff!