What was the worst restaurant meal you ever had?

hollydolly said:
what a dirty dump Egypt is... I would never go there again......
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Walking through the shopping bazaars of Alexandria, the air was permeated with the smell of hashish emanating from large Hookahs, groups of men had gathered around. Well, someone told me it smelled like hashish ;)

The Egyptian museum in Cairo was one of the most interesting museums I've visited.

But the dirtiest city I've ever visited was Naples Italy. I was shocked at the debris and filth in the streets of a large and famous Italian seaport. May have just been the area I found myself in during a port visit though. Dunno
 

Naturally said:
Walking through the shopping bazaars of Alexandria, the air was permeated with the smell of hashish emanating from large Hookahs, groups of men had gathered around. Well, someone told me it smelled like hashish ;)

But the dirtiest city I've ever visited was Naples Italy. I was shocked at the debris and filth in the streets of a large and famous Italian seaport. May have just been the area I found myself in during a port visit though. Dunno
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yes I agree about Naples...in fact I agree about lots of the towns and cities of the south of Italy.... Sicily is horrible... palermo the same...
 
We were very hungry so we went to a nice restaurant that we knew had a big salad bar with fresh bread and great desserts. We got there a little early and clearly the salad bar hadn't been set-up. It had a bowl of lettuce and nothing else. We ordered and after a long wait the waiter slapped down our plates and left even though our drinks needed refilled and we wanted a steak sauce. My baked potato was completely black, my tiny steak was tough. I thought, "Oh well I'll have lots of room for dessert." We sat for a long time and the waiter never returned.

Finally we gave up. I left a one dollar tip. The waiter finally showed up, just in time to chase me down at the register and berate me about the small tip.

Since then I've been served a roach hidden under my bacon and a completely raw chicken breast. Maybe the guy with the dollar tip called ahead.
 

Naturally said:
I enjoyed Sicily. Struck me as very much upscale and refined. But the only place I visited was Syracuse (Syra-coo-sa)
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Palermo


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Years ago my husband and I went to a new restaurant that just opened. It was a real classy place. We expected the food to be great . What we didnā€™t expect were the portions. Every item came on separate plates and was TINY!!!
After the meal we went to McDonaldā€™s for a Big Mac meal deal. Years later we laugh about it. We leaned our lesson and never go to new restaurants.
 
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One of my jobs at the hospital was setting up meetings for the doctors. For doctors, their taste in food was abysmal. They wanted pastrami sandwiches, they wanted corned beef sandwiches, they wanted greasy things. One time, I ordered lovely chef salads and I never heard the end of it.

So one day we all had to go to a meeting/presentation at our rival hospital, which was a Seventh-Day Adventist hospital. In other words, no meat, no caffeine, no wine, no pepper. In front of us was placed a plate with some sort of long bean julienned and spread out to look like a peacock's tail, a small scoop of risotto, and tiny scoops of other stuff, mostly unidentifiable. Dessert consisted of a tiny chocolate cup with half a strawberry, one blueberry, a slice of kiwi, a grape and it was drizzled with chocolate. Oh, and a small roll.

I thought my doctors were going to self-destruct. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? The one I was sitting beside was pushing the stuff around on the plate. I gave him my roll and he was a bit happier. The others grumbled all the way through the presentation.

When I traveled in India, it seemed that the food was about the same every day. Lots of rice and various stuff to put on it. Breakfast seemed to be what was left over from the night before. It was really good, but I was getting bored. There were various peppers but I had had a horrific experience with one of them on my first day there, so I was leery of trying another one. There was really good-looking street food but I was nervous about it.

On our last day, we stumbled upon a McDonald's. I insisted that we HAD to eat at an Indian McDonald's. Really, really good food. I don't know what they fried the fries in, but they were delicious. And the chicken sandwich I had was top notch. The dessert pastries were great, too. We still laugh about going all the way to India and eating at McDonalds.
 
Our first night in London, we were staying at a little hotel in a working-class neighborhood. We were worked up about getting a REAL English fish-and-chips dinner, so asked the owner where to go. Oh, just go around the corner to 'Arry's Chip Shop, best fish in town, says she.

So we did, it was crowded and loud and we thought Oh Boy! This Is The Place! Everybody was chowing down and we were drooling.

Uh, no. The fish was limp, bland and overly breaded. The chips were so greasy and soggy we couldn't eat them. The pie was terrible. What a disappointment. Toward the end of our visit, we did get our courage together and tried a chip shop in a tourist area and loved it.
 
Some of these questions really jar my memory. 2 of them if you will. When I was about 10 years old, my grandmother treated both my mother and I to a place called Alioto's in San Francisco. Back then meals were so expensive, but my grandmother insisted we get what's called a seafood louis. A large salad loaded with both shrimp and crab. While we were eating and the adults were talking, I suddenly felt a sharp object pierce the roof of my mouth. I was able to get it out on my own but showed my mother and said, "What is this?" She said it's only a nail, don't worry about it. Nice huh?

Secondly, we took my disgrace of a sister-in-law to meet my grandma in Calistoga. Knowing all of the restaurants were $$$ we pulled off and went to a cute cafe. I ordered a soft-shell crab sandwich thinking it was some sort of a soft-shell crab meat sandwich. I took a bite into it, and it was crunchy. I had no idea they were going to put on a full little crab on the sandwich, shell, legs, eyes and all. I immediately spit it into my napkin and watched my husband and SIL enjoy their meals. Disgusting!
 
A long time ago DH job took us to Oklahoma, we found a furnished apt for us and our 3 little kids. There was a hamburger stand on the corner, and we were so tired that we went ahead and got hamburgers for us and hot dogs for the kids (normally the kids ate the same things we did). The hamburgers tasted really good, and the kids gobbled down the hot dogs.

Come morning and we were so sick we had a hard time just lifting our heads off the pillow, but someone had to tend the kids. Thankfully we did not give the kids the hamburgers, because the kids remained well.We started paying attention to restaurants and noticed there seemed to be no state inspections, so we were very careful about eating out.
 
Just yesterday was at a restaurant at 11am with blaring music videos. Would have walked out right then and there but it was a birthday party. Only after 3 requests was the volume turned down. The food ok but the way we were treated made it a not very good meal.
 
Went to a small highly-rated cafe in Paris. The appetizer was wonderful. The main was awful. Next morning we went sight seeing. Thatā€™s when it hit and I couldnā€™t find a restroom anywhere. Even the pay ones were closed. In desperation I went into a restaurant restroom. Felt guilty that I was only there for one purpose.
 
I always remind myself not to order the daily special. These tend to be popular so they pre-plate the sides. Warmish mashed potatoes or rice and veggies doesnā€™t pass muster for me.
 

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