# Worst Restaurant



## Wayne_Zitkus (Oct 9, 2005)

Where did you get a really rotten meal???

Back in 1993, Sandie and I were still living in NJ, and were driving west at Christmastime to visit one of her cousins in Arizona. We got in to Jackson, Tennessee Christmas Night to discover that every restaurant in town was closed - except for the Waffle House next to the hotel where we were staying.

So we ordered take-out from Waffle House, and both got HORRIBLE indigestion. We haven't gone back to Waffle House since. They have my nominationas the Worst Restaurant Ever.

How about you? What restaurant wouldn't you recommend to your worst enemy?


----------



## fatlane (Oct 9, 2005)

"On the Border" or "Tia's" Mexican restaurant chains. That's wanna-be food, not the real stuff. They rope you in with margarita specials, then you're too drunk to care what you're eating.

There was this Chinese place in Fullerton, can't remember which one, but I got served a pile of rice with a fly under it one time there. Never went back...


----------



## MissToodles (Oct 10, 2005)

A diner in Jersey(around Newark) on Route 1 9 across the street from a cemetary. We were famished,it was a Saturday night. Not a good sign that a diner is empty in the evening. The fries were barely warm, my coleslaw was rancid and they couldn't cook a burger. Even the most mediorce of diners can make a decent burger. Never go to a restaurant with a view of headstones!


----------



## fatlane (Oct 10, 2005)

I once ate at a restaurant that put mustard on its tacos. It's under new management and quite nice, now, so I won't mention its name.

But mustard on tacos is grounds for justifiable homicide in Texas.


----------



## Tracyarts (Oct 10, 2005)

I had a combo plate at a Tex-Mex chain (the fact that the name of the restaurant was GRINGO'S should have been my first clue that the food would not be authentic Tex-mex...)

Anyway, the waiter sets down a plate of melted velveeta cheese. Just plain cheap Velveeta cheese. WTH is this? Oh, it's my _enchiladas_... they're buried under this lava-flow of fake yellow-orange meltyness. ICK to the umpteenth degree!

Now, had they bothered to add Ro-Tel tomatoes to the Velveeta, then it would have at least been party dip and I could have maybe dealt with that. But an entire cup of plain melted Velveeta smothering my two pitiful little enchiladas was pretty lame and unappetizing. 

At least the tostada and tacos were good, if bland. Hard to mess up a tostada unless you let the crispy tortilla round get soggy or stale. And unless you put mustard on the tacos (as mentioned above), they're pretty hard to mess up too.

But the plate of melted Velveeta which was starting to form a skin totally turned me off of my meal.

Tracy


----------



## EvilPrincess (Oct 10, 2005)

I just can't stand it, I love food, and going to applebees or apple sleaze as I refer to it can turn me off of eating!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## fatlane (Oct 10, 2005)

Never eat at a place where the waiter has a can opener in his apron.


----------



## Fuzzy (Oct 11, 2005)

Eating out in China is taking your life in someonelse's hands. Its almost expected that if you eat out, you will get sick.

That said, I will give American fast food places the benefit of the doubt, and I will forgive one or two bad meals. However, Carl's Jr is the absolutely worst fast food place on the planet. I just had too many bad burgers from them.


----------



## Gordo Mejor (Oct 11, 2005)

I have to agree Wayne, Waffle House is terrible. I've been in one once. The non-smoking section was up wind of the smoking section. The benchs had no comfortable way to sit in them. The menu was hard to use and hard to select a reasonable meal. The eggs were probably synthetic and the cheese questionable. The pancakes were pretty bad and I don't think I even bothered with the grits.

The most amazing thing was that while I was there, someone actually came in solely to give a $20.00 tip to the chef for a meal served earlier. No accounting for taste.


----------



## Santaclear (Oct 11, 2005)

MissToodles said:


> A diner in Jersey(around Newark) on Route 1 9 across the street from a cemetary. We were famished,it was a Saturday night. Not a good sign that a diner is empty in the evening. The fries were barely warm, my coleslaw was rancid and they couldn't cook a burger. Even the most mediorce of diners can make a decent burger. Never go to a restaurant with a view of headstones!



The graveyard probably had some connection with the diner. Filled mostly with ex-patrons.

LOL I just got a mental image of the "undead" rising from their graves to wreak havoc in the diner, undead but still suffering from terrible food poisoning.


----------



## TallFatSue (Oct 11, 2005)

fatlane said:


> But mustard on tacos is grounds for justifiable homicide in Texas.


The sheer existence of Whataburger all over Texas may have that beat. It might have been only one bad experience, but for the rest of the day I had to plan my activities in San Antonio around the nearest bathrooms.


----------



## Sandie_Zitkus (Oct 11, 2005)

TallFatSue said:


> The sheer existence of Whataburger all over Texas may have that beat. It might have been only one bad experience, but for the rest of the day I had to plan my activities in San Antonio around the nearest bathrooms.



OK I gotta agree with you on this Sue.

Folks in Texas can you PLEASE explain The "Whataburger" chain to me? The burgers are awful and the fries aren't much better - but this chain is literally *everywhere *in Texas. And the burgers have won some kind of award in Texas. I'm confused by this as my experinces in Texas lead me to believe Texan's LOVE good food and Whataburger aint good.


----------



## altered states (Oct 11, 2005)

Chains are for prisons. The farther the owners are from the food you're eating, the worse it gets. Some small, local chains are good but people who swear by Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, IHOP, or Applebees are out of their minds. I've been dragged (literally) to all of these and was insulted by the salty, starchy, tasteless (except for the salt and fake hot sauce or sugary goop), low quality mess that ended up on my plate. And these places aren't even cheap!


----------



## altered states (Oct 11, 2005)

If you're visiting NYC, don't eat at any of the restaurants in "Little Italy" on Mulberry Street. It's fun to walk the strip and see the kitsch, but there are no Italians left, and anyway they wouldn't feed the puke served there to their pets. If you want traditional red sauce stuff, take a page from Ms. Toodles' book and go up to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, or just walk 15 minutes in any direction away from Little Italy and go to the first Italian joint you find. You're almost guaranteed of getting a better, cheaper meal.

Also, a few blocks down in Chinatown, Wo Hop sucks. It's famous and it's open 24 hours, but so is the men's room at Port Authority, and I wouldn't eat there either, though it's standards of cuisine and cleanliness are probably better.

And Magnolia Bakery is also a total hype job. Yes, it was on Sex in the City. So what? Look at those women - do they eat cupcakes? There are a half dozen bakeries within 10 minutes of Magnolia that are incredible. Only tourists and the naive stand on that huge line. The cupcakes at Cupcake Cafe are infinitely better. The cake in the Magnolia version is insipid, slightly better and less sweet than Betty Crocker, and the frosting tastes like whipped Crisco. The fact that the woman behind the register has a bad attitude doesn't help. Getting yelled at sometimes goes with the package in the pursuit of good food in New York, but the stuff better be worth it. The Soup Nazi at least made good soup!


----------



## BBWTexan (Oct 11, 2005)

_Folks in Texas can you PLEASE explain The "Whataburger" chain to me? _

Well, I happen to like Whataburger. However, there have been a few times when I have had a less-than-wonderful burger from there. But, those times have been few and far between. The burgers are good, but the breakfast taquitos are to die for. I know someone who used to drive an hour out of his way in the morning just to get one.

Plus, this may sound weird, but Whataburger has the best ketchup in the world.


----------



## TallFatSue (Oct 11, 2005)

BBWTexan said:


> Well, I happen to like Whataburger. However, there have been a few times when I have had a less-than-wonderful burger from there. But, those times have been few and far between. The burgers are good, but the breakfast taquitos are to die for. I know someone who used to drive an hour out of his way in the morning just to get one.
> 
> Plus, this may sound weird, but Whataburger has the best ketchup in the world.


Maybe I'll have to come back and give Whataburger another chance. I probably just had a bad experience.

One Texan in our group was a native of San Antonio who really seemed to know his cuisine. He extoled the virtues of some of the strangest (and yet surprisingly appetizing) dishes I ever heard, but also regarded some reasonable foods as utter abominations. So when he praised Whataburger to the skies, we reckoned we were in for a real treat for lunch. Too bad my digestive system didn't agree. Maybe I just ate a bad Whataburger that day, but those fireworks in my belly made 23-alarm chili seem mild by comparison.

I love Texas, enjoyed some of my best meals ever there, and really like the people. But I can't help it: whenever a Texan gets on his high-horse about what is and isn't done food-wise, a little voice in the back of my mind whispers, "Remember the Whataburger."


----------



## EvilPrincess (Oct 11, 2005)

Sandie_Zitkus said:


> Texas can you PLEASE explain The "Whataburger" chain to me?


 
Darlin' (accepted greeting in Texan)

Wburger is like your Momma's biscuits, if she burnt em' you love em burnt.....I agree there is nothing appetizing about a big soggy burger with too many onions, lots of mustard and limp fries.... but it is a tast I crave. From my mispent youth outside of Big D, the WB was open til all hours of the night, nothing goes better with too many southern comforts and coke (another regional thing I have found).... WBurger goes in my have to have but should know better category. They are about to put two of them where I live now. I haven't starting stalking the new location but I think that may not be far away. .....


----------



## MissToodles (Oct 11, 2005)

A few weeks back in New York magazine, there was an article featuring the cupcake war between Magnolia, Cupcake bakery, Billy's and some new place in Bay Ridge. Apparently they are all suing and counter-sueing the pants off each other. A few years ago, Magnolia had good cupcakes. Recently my sister purchased a few and they weren't the ones we had fond, fawning memories over. I'm more of a whipped cream gal, never too fond of buttercream.


----------



## fatlane (Oct 12, 2005)

TallFatSue said:


> The sheer existence of Whataburger all over Texas may have that beat. It might have been only one bad experience, but for the rest of the day I had to plan my activities in San Antonio around the nearest bathrooms.



You must have had a bug, or an evil employee... I've always enjoyed Whataburger, especially their flagship restaurant on the water's edge in Corpus Christi.

And them soggy fries... MMMMM!!!


----------



## Gordo Mejor (Oct 12, 2005)

The Worst Meal I ever had was at a mexican food place in Mira Mesa, California. It was a new place, it had just opened up. 

There is a chain of mexican places called Roberto's in San Diego. There are at least a dozen copy cats who use the "berto" syllable in their name, Humbertos, Albertos, Adelbertos, Robertitos, etc. This restaurant was one of these clones.

It was new, it was clean. I was on the way home from work and hungry so I ordered a chicken burrito.

It took a little longer than usual but not bad. I put the bag in my backpack and pedaled the two blocks to home.

Once home, I unwrapped the foil and bit in. There was something hard. I opened the burrito and found what looked like a bone. So I pulled at it.

Out came the whole backbone of the chicken!!!!! The complete spine!

The burrito wasn't worth going back to hassle about. I was too grossed out to think about it.

Never went back.


----------



## Deidrababe (Oct 12, 2005)

Alas, it may just be the novalty of it all for me.

Whenever I visit TX (thank GOD I married a Texan) I enjoy Whataburger sooo much, I want to eat it all the time - Love the breakfasts too since they use REAL eggs in their sandwich thingies......not a hocky puck egg shaped thing or a weird yellow folded thing.....

yep, Love the Whataburger....I even emailed them to tell them that their Bag - that says "There's one near you" was very wrong and this New England Girl was not pleased about that. Their response: At this time, Whataburger has no plans to expand it's franchises to the Northeast. 

Sucks for me, but good for those who don't like Whataburger.

I shall not try and convince you it's the best, but I love it - and I will NEVER Yuck on Someone's Yum!

Hugs,

Deidra


----------



## Kimberleigh (Oct 12, 2005)

OMG Whataburger...I dream about whataburgers AND the soggy fries! I grew up in Shreveport, and wburger was the treat of all treats. Like EvilPrincess, later it became the indulgence cure (and Southern comfort and coke stays with ya - still one of my favorite drinks - LOL). 
Funny wburger story -I spent 18 months in a little town outside of Frankfurt Germany. One day in the market, I heard a woman with an obvious American accent talking to the butcher. Since Americans were thin on the ground, I decided to introduce myself. Turns out she was from Mansfield - give ya 3 guesses one of the first things we talked about - yep - Whataburger.

To answer the original question - worst restaurant ever? SwissChalet in Rochester NY. Cold,overcooked, oversalted. Brown lettuce in the salad. We've never used the "free meal" coupon they gave us._<shudder>_


----------



## Tracyarts (Oct 12, 2005)

You know, I lost my preference for Whataburger when they changed the recipe of their burger buns a few years ago. Now they taste sweet and it just doesn't taste like the Whataburger I grew up with. And that just totally ruined it for me. (Which sucks, because there are three Whataburgers within ten minutes of my apartment...) But they are still the best of the major chains in the area. No other mass-market chain can compete with them.

When we go for drive through burger take-out, we just drive a little further and go to Beck's Prime now. Or we wait until we can go to Tookie's or the Hobbit Cafe' for a "sit-down" meal. Both of them have way excellent burgers. There are several local eateries which have good burgers and sandwiches. But no drive-throughs. 

Tracy


----------



## LillyBBBW (Oct 12, 2005)

Number 1: Linda Mae's on Morrissey Blvd in Dorchester, MA. In it's hey day it was THE place to eat but it closed for a while and opened under new management. Blech. WORST food I ever ate. Chef-boy-ardee is a 5 star gourmet meal in comparison.

Number 2: Papa Ginos pizza. I'd rather stay outside and chew on bushes than eat in there. Terrible. Garbage piled on top of bread that tastes like cardboard. Mouth full of cuts and lacerations from every bite. Pass.

Number 3: Kelly's on Revere Beach in Revere, MA. It is well known for it's burgers and fries but I got the worst bout of food poisoning there ever. I almost had to go to the hospital.

Number 4: Legals Seafood. I don't know why everyone raves about that restaurant, the food is so bland it's like eating suds. Yeah, the seafood is fresh. Buy the overpriced seafood but cook it yourself. 

Number 5: Bugaboo Creek. Horrible service. Waited hours for cold food that wasn't even as good as Wendy's.


----------



## FreonTrip (Oct 12, 2005)

Good God, this has been fun reading. A few "treats" I've endured:

1) Whataburger's pretty typical fast food. I don't eat it any more often than the others, which is to say no more than once a week. Speaking as an eighth generation Texan, I can say that it's revered as being as much a part of this state as Dr. Pepper, which many of my statesmen are still convinced is a regional drink. At least Dublin Dr. Pepper is practically a Texas exclusive (still made with real sugar in glass bottles - you should all try one!).

2) Grandy's might be the worst chain restaurant in the history of the universe.

3) Applebee's, T.G.I. Friday's, Cheddar's, Bennigan's, Olive Garden, and any other restaurant that exists in nationwide chains is, at best, to be treated with caution. I refuse on ethical grounds to eat at these places, not only because their food is awful, but also because they're causing the wilting of national dining diversity and regional cuisine.

4) Waffle House is allegedly the single largest consumer of eggs in the United States. Be very afraid. Who knows what they might be growing in their corporate headquarters?

5) Chain Mexican food (sorry, Tex-Mex) does stink out loud. If you think Tia's and On the Border are bad jokes, give Taco Cabana a try. Or, better, don't.

6) Mustard on tacos IS grounds for justifiable homicide, as is mustard in a gyro (happened in Greece, I swear).

7) All this talk of bad diner food brings the Pitt Grill to mind. It's a small chain in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and east Texas that serves delicious but heart-killing food. Historically they would bring a small container of orange grease out with your meal and liberally splash it all over your french fries, if that gives you any idea...

8) There was a restaurant at which my family ate in South Padre Island when I was younger that really fits the bill. While I don't remember its name, I do very clearly remember the lukewarm tuna salad my mother received and how ill it made her, just like I remember the odd smell, dirty floors, and generally shifty nature of the place.


----------



## OriginalCyn (Oct 12, 2005)

There is a buffet place that's very close to where I live. It's just a few yards away from the bus stop where I get off to go home, so when I'm hungry, it's a real temptation to go in there. And the prices are right: I can fill up on whatever they have for under $10, including a small tip for the person who clears the plates and brings the tea.

The problem with the place is that sometimes the individual dishes are pretty-bad...on some rare occasions, downright FOUL! For example, I've gotten futomaki that I've spit out, because it had that sour taste that indicated that it was "this close" to turning. And they've started serving some sort of a friend flat fish that was delicious the first time I tried it; however, when I went back for seconds, the piece that I got must have had some guts (maybe bile?) in it, because the meat was both bitter and mushy. BLECCCH!

However, most of the dishes are OK--occasionally even very good--and you can't beat the price.

Because the food there is so inconsistent, I have decided to hold off on reviewing the place on my Web Page, at http://pissycat.multiply.com * But if you're in the neighborhood and want lots of food for very little money, then check it out: Just take small portions of what you want to see if it tastes good before committing to a huge scoopful!
China Harbor Restaurant, Parkside Plaza Shopping Center, San Mateo (near the intersection of 92X101).

*I have a few restaurant reviews, tips for takeout sushi, and one recipe posted so far. I hope to have more up soon.


----------



## jamie (Oct 12, 2005)

Back when I was a youngin, I used to cruise the bars with my friends and then go to either Waffle House or Perkins. Since I have gotten older, I have gotten food poisoning at both and try to avoid them. I don't know if they have gotten worse or I have become a pansy.

I will say the grossest experience was watching the cook at the Waffle House out by the interstate in Lexington. All the strippers would pour in there when they got off their rounds and he would be so eager to impress them with his machismo that he always had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth (This tobacco-country, so this was not very unusual back then - now we have smoking bans). So cigarette hanging out, and he checked people out so he was always touching the dirty money from the strippers that had been...uhm.. who knows where, and he didn't wear gloves to put the toast in the toaster or the meat on the grill. I usually drank coffee and a pecan waffle, so I was pretty safe, but *shivers* I don't wanna know what kind of bugs people got from there.

I do kinda miss that place though.


----------



## fatlane (Oct 12, 2005)

Pancho's. Do not eat at Pancho's, unless you want to consume mass quantities of sopapillas.


----------



## EvilPrincess (Oct 13, 2005)

fatlane said:


> Pancho's. Do not eat at Pancho's, unless you want to consume mass quantities of sopapillas.


 
In the grand scheme of things Pancho's Mexican Buffet is low on the list of edible food stuffs.... it is better than most of the Mexican food I can find in the South .... You may one day wish for that mexican food when faced with an Alabama rendition of the tamale.............


----------



## FreonTrip (Oct 14, 2005)

EvilPrincess said:


> In the grand scheme of things Pancho's Mexican Buffet is low on the list of edible food stuffs.... it is better than most of the Mexican food I can find in the South .... You may one day wish for that mexican food when faced with an Alabama rendition of the tamale.............



To be fair, an awful lot of food in the American South is nigh unto toxic. A good friend of mine from North Carolina used to regale me with stories of a restaurant called Bojangles, which served biscuits so greasy that he could poke a hole in the top of one with a finger and watch as the rest of the biscuit rushed to fill it with grease...

A part of me still wishes that I'd eaten at the Mexican restaurant I found in Kos, Greece.


----------



## Tracyarts (Oct 14, 2005)

Pancho's in my neighborhood closed down. I think there are at least a couple still open in Houston, but the one near my inlaws' house closed too.

Which is good, because my MIL loved Pancho's and wanted to meet there often. About the only thing I could eat with any enjoyment there was a stewed chicken dish with tomatoes and onions and bell peppers served over some of the spanish rice. If they were very freshly and properly made, I also enjoyed the churros. But usually they were stale or grease-filled. Now, the cucumber salad was okay too. So, I _could_ make a meal on the chicken stew, rice, cucumber salad, and churros. But I only went for the company and because MIL enjoyed it. 

I have to say, there are WAY too many better places to get Tex-Mex in Houston to waste money and time at Pancho's. I'm not sad to see them go. They were VERY popular in the 1970's though. I remember going to Pancho's many a time for birthday parties and with neighbor families when I was a kid. 

Shakey's pizza was pretty nasty back in the day too. I remember a neighbor kid had his birthday party there and another neighbor kid refused to eat the pizza because she said that it "tasted like throw-up". ROFL! So, then we all rebelled and refused to eat the pizza and the birthday boy started to cry and his mom got all bent becuase she had bought all this pizza nobody would eat because the snooty girl from down the street said it tasted like throw-up! Hehehehehe.

Tracy


----------



## moonvine (Oct 14, 2005)

EvilPrincess said:


> In the grand scheme of things Pancho's Mexican Buffet is low on the list of edible food stuffs.... it is better than most of the Mexican food I can find in the South .... You may one day wish for that mexican food when faced with an Alabama rendition of the tamale.............




Ok, I am so frightened to think that Pancho's would be better than anything else. I would rather eat cardboard covered in dirt than Pancho's. I guess I will have to learn to cook Mexican food before I move back home.


----------



## moonvine (Oct 14, 2005)

FreonTrip said:


> To be fair, an awful lot of food in the American South is nigh unto toxic. A good friend of mine from North Carolina used to regale me with stories of a restaurant called Bojangles, which served biscuits so greasy that he could poke a hole in the top of one with a finger and watch as the rest of the biscuit rushed to fill it with grease...
> 
> A part of me still wishes that I'd eaten at the Mexican restaurant I found in Kos, Greece.




Mmmmm, I love Southern food. Fried pickles. Fried green tomatoes. Homemade biscuits. Fried corn - omg I love fried corn.

There's a barbecue place in Tuscaloosa that sells only ribs and Sunbeam white bread. While I have never been a huge fan, every time I watch a football game on TV all the camera crew and everyone else (including the broadcasters in the booth) are eating them.

http://www.dreamlandbbq.com/main/default.asp


----------



## Mona (Oct 14, 2005)

OOOOHHH, I love this, being originally from NJ, now in gooberville, Ga...I miss good food!!!! I have to agree Waffle House is just nasty, but a hoot at 3am w/ all the drunks on a saturday night lol. In the good old south, Italian food goes something like, open a jar of ragu and dump it on top of something that I'm sure was once pasta. There are no diners, at least what i think a diner is lol. Krystals burgers, wannabe white castels. Oh well, guess it's a good thing i went to culinary school lol.


----------



## Wayne_Zitkus (Oct 14, 2005)

fatlane said:


> Pancho's. Do not eat at Pancho's, unless you want to consume mass quantities of sopapillas.


And don't eat at Waffle House unless you want to consume mas quantities of Tums.


----------



## moonvine (Oct 17, 2005)

I like Waffle House...and Krystals....not gourmet, but yummy.


----------



## Catie (Oct 17, 2005)

We wanted to eat a quick meal before walking around all the shops in Cherokee, North Carolina. Just came off the interstate and there was a family style buffet restaurant (just across the street from the casino). Everything, incuding the sweet tea was horrible. I love fried okra but it was soggy and salty. The only item that tasted like it should were the chocolate jimmies for the ice cream. The cheese cake tasted like lemon cardboard. I had to purchase some homemade fudge in one of the shops to cleanse my pallet. Okay, I bought the fudge because I had a chocolate craving.  
Catie


----------



## bradlm (Oct 18, 2005)

Applebee's..definately. I think if I ever get COLD ribs again, I'll have to see how far they fly:eat1:


----------

