Any horror stories from Restaurant experiences?

I worked in the kitchen of an upmarket Restaurant in Cottesloe, Perth.
Chef was very pretentious. Took a dislike to a lot of customers.
One day a customer whom he had a dislike for ordered a Steak. Chef threw the raw Steak on the floor before cooking it.

When I was an apprentice with the GPO in Folkestone I was with a fitter installing a new telephone in the kitchen of one of the poshest (Victorian) hotels. We could have run the cable without staples there was so much grease and dirt on the walls the cable would have stuck there without any mechanical help.

For that reason I never complain …

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Not a horror story but I went to the pub with my wife and ordered two steaks. After about 15 minutes the first steak arrived (medium rare which was mine) I began to eat and noticed the chef kept peeping out from behind the kitchen door. 5 minutes went by and the second steak still hadn’t arrived, we looked toward the bar staff to try to get their attention but the were all busy even though the pub was empty. (They were obviously avoiding eye contact.)
We were wondering what was taking so long and again noticed the chef peeping a through the gap of the door. :eyes:
By the time I eventually finished my meal the wife was fuming so we went to speak to the bar staff. We explained we’d ordered 2 steaks but only one had arrived. The girl replied “oh sorry about that, the kitchen only had one steak left, would you like to order something else?”
My wife declined as I’d already finished my meal and she too would now have to eat on her own.
The girl behind the counter went to the till and gave us back the money for one of the steaks.
We were flabbergasted and walked back to the table to finish our drinks. I began to laugh and my wife scornfully asked “WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?” I said, “Why didn’t they tell us they only had one steak, did they actually think we wouldn’t notice” She began to laugh and we looked up to see the chef peeping at us again. :joy: We both became hysterical with laughter and agreed this was the best meal out together we’d ever had. (Purely for comedy value) :joy::joy::joy:
When we got home she had cheese on toast and I had an extra few quid in my pocket so it was a good day all round for me. :sunglasses:

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You should have made more fuss and insisted on a discount on your meal too, as they spoiled your evening :rage:

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When I was a teenager I had a Saturday job in a local greasy spoon. It was owned by a lovely Italian family and the dad, Mr Rigotti did all the cooking

Unfortunately, he lived to have a drink and play cards with his mates on Friday nights and by the time Saturday came he was either hungover or still sozzled

You’d give him a customers order, think it was taking a long time and go back in the kitchen to find him asleep with his head in the food!

And you had to really check each customers plate as it went out……

Serving them the elastic band the chicken had been tied up with was a favourite.

Roast chicken dinners plated with no chicken, raw potatoes, lasagne with the top of the serving spoon in it, raw bacon, shepherds pie with j-cloth!

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We thought about making a complaint but we’d not laughed so much for ages so just enjoyed the moment. We didn’t want to get anybody into trouble.

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That was generous of you, and it makes a good story :heart:

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I’d be more worried if the chef threw the steak on the floor after it was cooked. Cooking might have cooked off some of the germs.

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Chef, with the same customer, on a different occasion, put so much chilli in his dish that it was inedible. There was almost a physical fight over that one. The customer came into the kitchen abusing the chef so vociferously that there were audible gasps from other restaurant customers.
The offended party walked out, took his dining partners, never paid and never returned.
Some other guests never returned because the offended was a well respected member of the community

I went to our one and only Israeli restaurant the other evening - guards on the front entrance with weapons at the ready - armed guard at every table - and at toile entrances and back entrance guarded and closed for use?

Couldn’t he just refuse service to the customer? The chef was putting the owners of the restaurant in danger because they’re liable for what happens in the restaurant. That chef should have been fired at the least. If a customer got sick and it was deemed intentional, it could be considered a criminal offense.