D

Isn’t that a sign for a drinking fountain? I doubt places have designated barfing areas.

Beef tenderloin medallions w/ fois gras at St. Martin’s on Greenville Avenue a couple weeks ago. The steak came out well done – it was ordered medium rare – and the fois gras was ice cold through and through. The dessert was also sub par. Very disappointing compared to the other great meals I’ve had there. I’m also kinda nervous since I’ve already booked my wedding rehearsal dinner there!

Worst ever: Maggiano’s at Northpark, November 2004. I was in a party of 6 and did the “family style” meal thing they have where everyone shares large portion entrees. Within 12 hours, 3 of us were in the hospital. The other 3 including myself were camped out in bathrooms for 24 hours. Pretty sure it was the tossed green salad that got us all. Violent and projectile. I cannot even stand the smell of that place walking past it in the mall now.

Worst recently: Fuddruckers in Old Town. I was just in there and they were using frozen hamburger patties. The result was a charred patty exterior and blood raw in the middle. I went to have a look at the grill on the way out, sure enough the patties were semi-frozen. BOO!

Nancy,

So you’re saying the graphic is either a drinking fountain or a barfing fountain depending on left/right brain?

I feel bad for the left brainer who drank after the right brainer.

My worst meal would have to be at Vitto’s several years ago. Our party of 4 had various pasta and/or pizza entrees, but 3 of us had a green salad. Guess which 3 became violently ill at same time the next morning? One of us three were so sick that he was rushed to the hospital emergency room. That unfortunate friend was too weak to travel and had to cancel his vacation which was scheduled to start the next day.

As good as the Potbelly sandwich was for lunch(two days in a row now), I might just lose it after seeing the tree-man photo. My husband didn’t even make it out of Blockbusters after a meal at Hong Kong Buffet years ago. You say buffet, I say nooo freaking way.

The food at Good Eats on Oaklawn is putrid. And I should have known better but I took the fam to one of the last remaining Black Eye Pea restaurants on Greenville and it stunk. Literally. Whole restaurant smelled like doo doo and the food tasted worse.

Quizno’s. Heated sandwich with mayonnaise. Enough said.

Well, I love all the stories, but, there is something different than having a bad meal that gave you food poisining, and had the food not given you food poisioning it might not be on your list of worst meals ever. I think a bad meal is something horrible due to what they put together for the sake of “creativity”, etc.

That said, I can not ever eat at Jason’s Deli due to bad salad dressing. But the worst meal ever due to service and gross food and concept, I will have to think about for a minute. But I am sure it was in Addison.

I am in the bathroom tapping this out on my iPhone. My stomach sounds like world war iii. I am doused in sweat. I had roasted mushroom soup and the worst lasagna ever at Maggianos North Park for lunch. First time I’d been there in about 5 years. Shoulda gone 2 Chang’s.

Yes, N-Squared, it’s true, we do eat more bad food than good (and no one hears those violins but us). Two worst meals come to mind: A beef fondue meal in Atlanta that gave me food poisoning like I’ve never known before or since, and a meal at a place called Crave in San Francisco (since closed) that was so miserable in every aspect that the manager (having no idea I was a critic) comped the whole meal with zero argument. The Chronicle, to my knowledge, never did review that restaurant: It didn’t even deserve the bad publicity.

Ok, bad “dining” experience differs from bad food.

Dining experience: the waitress at Razoo’s who unloaded all the teas off the tray except the one directly over my lap which resulted in me looking like I peed my pants for days. And they didn’t care.

My horribly bland burger at Cafe Express that took 45 minutes (not express!) because the mgr kept brushing me off because burgers “take a long time to cook.” Hell no they don’t! He sent over a cook to give us free meal passes because he realized they lost the ticket. It only took asking for a refund to get him to truly check the status.

N9NE in January when the mgr accused us of not really making reservations and then said we’d be seated 10 minutes later after seeing he was wrong. We stared at our empty table for 30 min. We sat down only to have crab shells in the crab cakes that were not comped despite what we were told. Not to mention the waiter ordering for us. They brought the bday girl a dessert (on their own) and charged us for it. Oh, the list goes on.

But food poisoning beats them all hands down.

Czech Stop in West, Texas.

Can someone please, for the love of God, tell me what made me order a pimento cheese sandwich and two deviled eggs?

I’m still stuck on the dude a few posts back…..who eats mussels at the AAC?

Since the thread has irrevocable become a cavalcade of food-poisoning anecdotes, I’ll chime in. (Merely bad meals, I’ve efficiently erased from my memory.)

Two hot dogs. LaGuardia airport. June 1991. Three days, man. Three days. Symptoms well-documented. Shoulda hit the ER, but I’m a dude, at that time a young one. Would likely kill me now, minus medical intervention. Extreme bloating/gassiness for at least an additional fortnight. You get the picture. Now look away, man!

The only time I’ve been sicker was when I mixed morning glory seeds and white tequila, but that didn’t last nearly as long and of course the Mayans broadcast their TV network on the back of my eyelids, which made the experience not entirely unpleasant.

The ‘worst’ meal is always the invited semi-blind date that is duller than hell at a restaurant charging prices to high heaven. Unless you’re La Nichols, in which case you tell the wait staff; “Send the bill to ‘D’” or if off duty, try “In the 1980s, I slept with your chef and he owes me BIG. Or small, as it were”.

Mi Cocina in HPV with the constant sweeping while we ate (why do they feel the need to sweep the floor right next to our food and stir up the dust – gross), parents that had clearly become deaf to their kids’ screaming and the waiters that ignored us.

For the worst poisoning – Kathleen’s Art Cafe, the mushroom soup will haunt me forever.

And after all that… I would just love to hear about some good/great experiences! But that is totally for another day and time.

And thanks to all for making me laugh at everyone’s pain!!