Weird Restaurant Blunders

[scrat68]

Two stories:

My cousin and his wife took me out to Abe & Louie's in Boston. We were seated, offered menus and given water. My cousin and I both drank some of the water at the same time, realizing too late that the water had bleach in it. No, it wasn't just highly chlorinated water - it was watered down bleach, probably in a pitcher used for soaking utensils. Cousin's wife immediately calls over the waitress to get some fresh water for us. Meanwhile, our throats are burning. Waitress looks confused and wanders off. My cousin and I get up and head for the waiters station where we once again ask for water - no one responds!!!! They think we are loonies! We both end up running into the restrooms and rinsing our mouths out in the restroom sinks. When we return to the table, the waitress finally brings fresh water and apologizes but then states that there is no way that there could have been bleach in the water. They did give us a free dessert to split amongst the three of us which was nice. I would have preferred an apology or even a visit from the restaurant manager acknowledging their mistake.

Secondly,

While working as Director of Catering at a prominent Seattle hotel, I was on the floor managing a large banquet. At some point, quite a few salads were being sent back to the banquet kitchen. I rushed in to find out what was going on - each salad had at least one or two live large crickets crawling around. We immediately pulled all of the salads - the hosts and guests of the party were very gracious. I don't remember the exact compensation we gave them, but it was very generous and they were pleased overall at how we handled the situation.

It turned out that every single case of the salad mix we had in house was infested with crickets. When we contacted the purveyor, we learned that every case of the salad mix that they had delivered that week had the same problem - crickets invade Seattle! Naturally, we arranged for the purveyor to pick up the tab for our comensation costs.

[monkeymay]

okay, I hadn't decided to confess this, but being good friday and the ex-catholic girl that I am MY restaurant blunder was my own damn fault.

In the days of my not so long ago wild youth I had a penchant for mass consumption of food, alcohol, and various illegal substances. It was one those nites where I had consumed a lot of everything except food. My boyfriend decided to take me to a stylish boite in Beverly Hills to sober me up with a nice meal. I realized I was starving, ate an enormous steak and drank a few more martinis. The fabulous vintage dress I was wearing became really uncomfortable, so I thought I'd put my jacket on and unzip the side of my dress to relieve the pressure. Who's gonna see, I thought. Well, the zipper got stuck on my skin - I couldn't pull it up or down. And I'm completely piss drunk and stuffed and feeling like I'm going to pass out. I'm turning purple. So I start to stumble to the bathroom and grab the waitress, explaining my dilemma. She takes one look at me, grabs a steak knife, and in the waitstation in front of most of the kitchen staff, cuts me out of my dress.

And I've got the scar to prove it.

[roryrabbitfield]

That one takes the cake, Monkeymay!

[monkeymay]

That's what my boyfriend said too.

Fortunately it didn't stop him from marrying me.

(Or taking me out to dinner... he just asks if I'm wearing comfortable clothes )

[jeffperez62]

Many years ago at a restaurant near the South Street Seaport I had the worst meal of my life. The food came out burnt and not in the order in which we had ordered. No one had cleared any of our dishes, glasses etc..the reastaurant was in a state of total confusion. When we asked our waiter what was going on he told us that the entire kitchen staff walked out just before service , the waiters were cooking and he was a bus boy who had to become a waiter for the evening! He then picked up all of our dishes and silver ware in his arms and dropped a fork on the floor. Being unable to bend over to pick up the fork he kicked it (like dribbling a soccer ball) all the way across the dining room floor into the kitchen!!!!

[Suzanne F]

Yay, Monkeymay!!!!!!!!!

Some of the previous posts reminded me of a non-public occurence: when I was stewarding at restaurant school, I found a live frog in a crate of basil. Since one of the other stewards was of suspect mental health, and might have dropped the frog out the 16th-floor window, I put the frog in a plastic container with water, lettuce, and air holes in the top. When I had the chance, I took it out of school to a park and released it.

And of course there were the mice who emerged from my cans of macadamia nuts, when I was doing pastry. I tossed them (the nuts, that is; I cherished the mouse visits).

Roaches on the wall no longer upset me much. In my food, however . . .

[docsconz]

A few years ago my wife and I went to a local restaurant for the first time. It was my birthday. We didn't have reservations, but we went late and they seated us without a problem. It was a Friday night and I was pretty relaxed. The waiter took our order then proceeded to drop off our wine and bread with a spread of garlicky white beans that was delicious. My wife and I sat there enjoying our wine and bread with the spread and we sat there and sat there and sat there. For once in my life I wasn't getting worked up about a perceived slight. About an hour later the waiter passes by and looks at our table. A sudden look of shock appeared on his face. He had forgotten to place the order. He was effusively apologetic. Since my wife and I were in a mellow mood, it wasn't a major problem. To make a long story short, the restaurant comped the entire meal, which happened to be excellent once it came out. Needless to say, this was a totally unexpected result that impressed us so much we immediately made reservations to return shortly thereafter for our anniversary. The restaurant quickly became one of our absolute favorites that we frequent whenever we can. The waiter is now the chef/owner of the restaurant. What particularly impressed us was that they took what would likely have been a negative (the food was good, but the service was lousy) and made it into an absolute positive.

[KatieLoeb]

A restaurant where I used to manage (which shall remain nameless) had a bit of a mouse issue. Since there was an under the street drainage ditch that ran directly behind the restaurant all the way to the Schuykill River there were occasionally visits from their big cousin RATS as well. The mice were unusually bold and liked to come out during lunch time and scurry through a completely filled dining room at the height of lunch service. I once had a table call over their waiter and point to a wee mousie under the next table and say, "There's a mouse over there". The waiter put his hands on his hips and indignantly said in his best and most obnoxious exasperated tone, "Well, you didn't FEED it, did you???" I couldn't stop laughing hard enough to smack the waiter as I should have

I finally got us an adopted cat to try and control the mouse problem. Our new orange tabby was promptly named Chutney, and given free run of the restaurant over night (he stayed in the office during the day). Chutney was a prodigious mouser and was totally earning his keep. Problem was, it seemed that the mice's faces didn't taste good or something and he'd leave those behind. So whomever was in first in the morning had to be on "Mouse Patrol" and go sweep up the little mouse faces before service. Our head bus boy, who had a very distrurbed sense of humor, once taped a mouse face to an index card and left it on the G.M.'s desk with a note that said, "Say that to my face..." Strange lad, that one. He also said he suspected that Chutney was leaving the faces behind so the little mouse families could identify their dead

[Holly Moore]

I watched in disgust as a huge cockroach crawled up the wall

I was at this place called the Upstairs Café in Philadelphia back in the early '80's. It was Friday lunch and the place was packed. The main dining room was split level, most of the tables were on the sunken level. A row of three tables were elevated, window level, running the length of the dining room and overlooking Sansom Street. Tables 1, 2 and 3. Prime tables.

Seated at Table 1, two women, late 30's as I recall. One of the women could be described as "ample." All of the sudden there was a shriek. A really loud shriek as only an ample woman can make. I looked over, as did everyone else. A water bug had achieved mid outer calf and was continuing it's arduous trek up and up. (A water bug for those who don't live in urban areas is a giant, humongous cockroach like creature. Harmless, but scary and very, very ugly, at least to those of the human species.)

The lady stood up and frantically brushed off the water bug. The equally frantic water bug made a run for it. Alas, escape was not in its future. An alert waiter stomped the water bug. The "squish pop" the stomped water bug presented was so loud and hung in the air for so long - it could have been drawn by a cartoonist and suspended from the ceiling. Did I mention the floor covering was a shag carpet? Not the easiest surface from which to surreptitiously remove a squashed water bug.

Actually, "Upstair's Cafe" was but part of the restaurant's name. As I recall the neon in the window read something like "Holly Moore's Upstairs Café".

Edited April 18, 2003 by Holly Moore (log)

[Stone]

There has definitely been a change in eGullet membership. Time was that a little bug in the salad wasn't such a big deal.

When a "nicer" Chinese restaurant opened in my home-town (i.e., not take-out only), we ordered take-out the first night. I went to pick it up, and waited, and waited with an ever-growing crowd of people. We noticed as well an angry table of diners. Seems one of the managers was in the kitchen talking with the chef about how things were going, and he was absent mindedly shuffling all the order tickets. The kitchen though things were going a little slow because he was holding the stack of orders, and then they had no idea which order to fill first.

[Christopher]

#1

I am fairly hard to nonplus tableside but it has happened. My favorite story is now 13 years old but it remains.

At the restaurant Contrapunto we sauced our own desserts. Given time we would make designs on the plate and if we were in a rush it would be a quick zig-zag with the squirt bottle.

During a night service I set down one of the hasty jobs and before pulling away from the table the woman commanded, "Stop! You've written something mean to me in the sauce!"

I was speechless. She was so agitated that I knew it would be pointless to say that I had not, yet she was so adamant that I had. Stunned, I turned and walked away while she forbid her tablemates to eat the dessert until she figured out what it said.

#2

Gramercy Tavern used to have a 1st course of sea urchin served in the shells. It was a beautiful presentation. A minimum of once a season though, the captain would return to the table and there it was, the guest with no clue EATING THE SHELLS! I need you to think about this. If you've never seen an urchin shell ask someone.

#3

Sometimes a sense of humor backfires. One such evening has the highly alarming event of an elderly person collapsing at the table and the paramedics are called in. Everyone is over stimulated and hyper curious. So my idea of tension reduction was to answer the incessant question "What happened?! What happened?!" With a simple explanation: "Oh. He ordered the seizure salad."

No one save for me found this amusing.

[docsconz]

#2

Gramercy Tavern used to have a 1st course of sea urchin served in the shells. It was a beautiful presentation. A minimum of once a season though, the captain would return to the table and there it was, the guest with no clue EATING THE SHELLS!   I need you to think about this. If you've never seen an urchin shell ask someone.

Sea Urchins at Mondelo Beach, Sicily

[SobaAddict70]

He stopped pacing, mid circle and confessed that he had just asked a table of 7, grandmother, kids etc, if they wanted a cockteaser before dinner.

All right, I don't get it. What's a cockteaser?

Someone tell me that's not what I think this guy did!!!!

I was snacking on some takeout lamb gosht as I was reading this thread. You guys are just too much, I have to tell you....

Soba

[elyse]

The baked mozzarella on my chicken sandwich oozed over the sides.  That's great, that 's why I ordered it.  The problem was that when the server set my plate down before me, there was a string of cheese leading directly from my sandwich to her lips.

Our server -- adorable.

That is hilarious!

[elyse]

The restaurant quickly became one of our absolute favorites that we frequent whenever we can. The waiter is now the chef/owner of the restaurant. What particularly impressed us was that they took what would likely have been a negative (the food was good, but the service was lousy) and made it into an absolute positive.

Well, which restaurant is it? I'm not against bad press, but if good press is available, let's hear it.

[docsconz]

The restaurant quickly became one of our absolute favorites that we frequent whenever we can. The waiter is now the chef/owner of the restaurant. What particularly impressed us was that they took what would likely have been a negative (the food was good, but the service was lousy) and made it into an absolute positive.

Well, which restaurant is it? I'm not against bad press, but if good press is available, let's hear it.

Chez Sophie in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

[fifi]

At a restaurant known for their jumbo butterflied coconut shrimp, my plate arrived. Nice presentation with the shrimp arranged on some colorful greens drizzled with a sauce. One problem... One of the shrimp had a big bite out of it. (Whovever did it had nice dentition, though.)

[torakris]

OK admittedly this was not a fancy restaurant, in fact it was Mc Donald's but anyway.

My sister and I went through the drive thru and she ordered a Big Mac with no onions, when we got home she opened it up and sure enough there were no onions, but they forgot the beef as well!

[Basildog]

Tonights blunder was a lady asking for the scallops without the bacon, and finding 3 tiny pieces of bacon in her dish.She made no mention of our mistake, just left them on the side of the plate.For some reason this mistake really pissed me off, and i gave the chef who had prepared it a few choice words. The lady was not at all put out by our mistake, but as i believe the reason she asked for no bacon was possibly on relgious grounds, i went ape shit.Tomorrow we had a guest with a severe nut allergy, so a mistake like tonights could be very bad indeed.The chef in question has learnt a lesson tonight.

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

Tonights blunder was a lady asking for the scallops without the bacon, and finding 3 tiny pieces of bacon in her dish.She made no mention of  our mistake, just left them on the side of the plate.For some reason this mistake really pissed me off, and i gave the chef who had prepared it a few choice words. The lady was not at all put out by our mistake, but as i believe the reason she asked for no bacon was possibly on relgious grounds, i went ape shit.Tomorrow we had a guest with a severe nut allergy, so a mistake like tonights could be very bad indeed.The chef in question has learnt a lesson tonight.

Knowing chefs...he probably meant to leave that bacon on there as some kind of territorial pissing...

[Basildog]

Sorry, but no.He left in in because he fucked up, didn't listen to me, and " thought" he had got all the bacon out of the pan.

[coolranch]

Years and years ago, I was eating at a steak house with my dad and some of his business associates....it was a fancy establishment.

Unfortunately, our waiter was having some real trouble opening a bottle of wine ordered by our table...he was so focused on pulling that cork he that put the bottle BETWEEN HIS LEGS for leverage and POP! Success!

He was fired on the spot, which I thought was rather harsh.

It wasn't like he had his thumb on the plate.

(the wine was comped)

[bean]

my husband just ate at ollie's near times square - something he does a lot because he works on bway - and bit down on a lovely large chunk of glass hidden in his black bean sauce. yummmmm.... (the manager was very apologetic).

[elyse]

I was eating breakfast with a friend in a place long closed now on Colombus Ave. I found a thick steel grill brush bristle in my french toast. The manager ripped up the bill and walked away like Groucho Marx. We thought it was very odd.

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

I was eating  breakfast with a friend in a place long closed now on Colombus Ave.  I found a thick steel grill brush bristle in my french toast.  The manager ripped up the bill and walked away like Groucho Marx.  We thought it was very odd.

I love the manager's reaction. Groucho huh? That's classic.