It boggles our minds how low some restaurant workers’ standards are, and just how little pride some individuals have in their jobs. No, the customer may not always be right, but they do deserve to be treated with respect and politeness. They deserve to have a nice meal! Alas, that’s not always the case, as some folks end up finding bugs, cigarette butts, and mold in their food.
Bored Panda has collected photos featuring some of the most atrocious restaurant experiences from all around the net. We hope you’re not snacking on anything at the moment because the odds are that these pics are going to ruin your appetite. Scroll down to see what to never ever do if you own a business that serves food.
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My Chef Found This At Another Local Restaurant. I Never Saw A Mop Sink Used For Defrosting Before
Towards The End Of My Meal At A Fancy Restaurant, I Bit Into Something Chewy Which Was A Cigarette Filter
When The Restaurant Says They Have "Vegan Options"
Practicing proper hygiene in the kitchen isn’t just a matter of the lack of respect—it’s also a question of health. If you’re serving your customers undercooked, sloppily prepared food with God knows what detritus mixed in among the ingredients of questionable freshness, you might make someone seriously sick while also severely damaging the business’ reputation.
McDonald's Secret Menu Item - The McNope
Local Restaurant Where I'm From. Who Needs Food Safety, Right?
I'm all for freeing the nipple, but maybe not while you're making food at a restaurant.
This Restaurant Bathroom In Florida
And if you’re making your customers fall ill that can have major repercussions for the future of your career in the food service industry. It means that you can lose your job. You’re also leaving yourself open to lawsuits while your place of work can be shut down for not following hygiene protocols.
I Was Told Mold Is Just Penicillin
I went to the freezer and pulled this out. The owner told us to pick out the good parts. It won't hurt because mold is just penicillin. We threw the whole thing away. I'm looking for another job.
I Was Servicing The Exhaust Hoods At A Popular Chain Restaurant. This Was Under The Fryer
BBQ Chicken "Wings" Served At A Local Restaurant
Not only that, serving substandard dishes is an indication that the chef lacks empathy for their customers, they may be too lazy or burned out to enforce decent standards, or there are other serious issues at play in the background. You can easily tell if a chef has fallen out of love with their job or is overworked to hell and back: you’ll see it when the server brings their dish to your table, and you’ll taste it in that first yucky mouthful.
This Restaurant Didn't Understand Why I Sent My Burger Back. They Said It Was Cooked Perfectly
I Ordered A Take-Out From A Local Restaurant For Lunch Today, And This Is How My Burger Came
Snapped This Picture At A Vegas Restaurant. They Were Serious
Improperly storing ingredients is a major problem in some kitchens. This comes down to either a lack of training, a lack of managerial oversight, or a lack of care about the consequences of one’s actions. If food is stored sloppily, you can end up with pathogens growing in it or you might end up with cross-contamination.
I Ordered Boneless Wings For The Big Game. Only Three Were Not Completely Raw. It Was $76, And DoorDash Refuses To Give Us A Refund
I Ordered A Pizza From A Local Restaurant And Found A Latex Glove In It. Bolton, UK
I Found This Hanging Behind A Chinese Restaurant In My Neighborhood
Bacteria, fungi, viruses, and various microorganisms thrive in some food items more than in others. For example, some of the most fertile breeding grounds for pathogens include raw eggs, raw chicken, raw flour, seafood, and unpasteurized milk. As a rule of thumb, ingredients that have a low acid and a high moisture content tend to go off very quickly.
We Asked Our Waitress For A Glass Of Ice And Some Guacamole. This Is What We Got
I Work At A Restaurant And Our Water Is Dirty. This Is What Coming Out Of The Kitchen Faucet
Guy At My Local Taco Bell Found Fly Eggs In His Meal
On the flip side, food items with high acidity and low moisture content can be left out for longer. So it’s not a disaster if you leave out lemons, jam, pickles, rice cakes, and crackers for a longer bit of time. However, the opposite is true for, say, raw shrimp, which needs to be utilized ASAP.
A good chef will know how quickly each ingredient needs to be prepared and how to store them properly so there’s no danger to the customer. Broadly speaking, the so-called danger zone for pathogen growth is between 4 to 60 degrees Celsius (that’s 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit).
I Found Roach In My McDonald's Coffee In Kailua, Hawaii
Well, it's not OUR Roach. That one clearly has a head
McDonald's Happy Meals Now Comes With Jewelry
A Subway Worker Was Fired After He Recorded Himself Trashing The Restaurant, Walking On Top Of The Food With His Shoes On, And Placing Meat On The Toilet Seat
Every proper restaurant should have a hygiene checklist for both the kitchen staff and the front-of-house employees so that everyone knows what needs to be cleaned and when. The Canadian Institute of Food Safety suggests cleaning and sanitizing splattered kitchen walls, food prep areas, and sinks every single day. Kitchen staff should also sweep and mop the floors, walk-in fridges, and storage areas daily, too, as well as clean the inside and outside of garbage cans.
I Present To You, The New McDonald's Sydney Creation, The McPenicillin
I Ordered A Popeyes Chicken Sandwich The Other Night And Cracked My Tooth On A Metal Screw Embedded In The Chicken
I Work At A Chain Restaurant. This Somehow Made It Past The Prep People And Almost On To A Customers Plate
Never question the chef or the perso befor you? Or "It must be some fancy expensive fruit made to look it's moldy, but don't question the chef" /s
Not only that, but wash rags, towels, aprons, and uniforms should be washed daily. Garbage has to be disposed of every day, too. And staff should take the time to manually clean grills, fryers, beverage machines, coffee makers, microwaves, and toasters. That’s a lot of work! But the entire point of it is to maintain high standards and ensure top-quality food.
Restaurant Bathroom In Hong Kong
I Was Eating Breakfast At A Restaurant When I Noticed This. It Says "Not Clean"
I've Picked Up A Pizza Order, And Is That A Baby On The Counter?
Meanwhile, walk-in fridges and freezers ought to be sanitized once a week. Other weekly restaurant kitchen tasks include manually cleaning the floor drains, the ovens, the deep fryer, and the floor mats. Meanwhile, once a month, the kitchen staff should manually clean the walls and the ceiling, the area behind the hotline, and the vent hoods. They can also use this opportunity to empty the grease traps.
I Used To Live Behind A Chinese Restaurant That Was Named As One Of The Ten Best In LA. I Came Out My Door One Day And Saw This
The Restaurant I Went To Added A 3% Fee Just Because, But If You Ask, They Can Take It Off
I Work In Refrigeration And Found This While Working
Which of these awful restaurant pics disgusted you the most, Pandas? What’s been the worst restaurant experience that you’ve ever had? What were the hygiene standards like in the kitchen if you’ve ever worked in the food service industry? Drop by the comment section to share your thoughts.
I Found A Tape Roll Sealed Inside A Bag Of Fries At McDonald's
I Saw A Mouse In A Restaurant And Looks Like I Wasn't The First Customer To See It
It's rather scary the register has a button for that.
My Friend Received Ants In Her Icing From The Burger King
A little protein never hurt. Excuse me while I expunge my system.
Multiple Restaurants Refused To Properly Dispose Of Their Grease And All Blamed Each Other
As an EHO, I'd write to each with a hygiene improvement notice and explain how each would be prosecuted.
My Sister Got This Bagel From Tim Hortons Restaurant
Tim Horton's, one of the reasons I wanted to move to Canada, how far have you fallen?
Silverlake Ramen San Diego
1st. Cooked chicken stacked with raw chicken.
2nd. The broth was left out overnight, reheated, and sold.
3rd. Not even sure what's going on here, but it's being scraped out by hand.
4th. Grease thick enough to scrape.
5th. Filthy under-the-stove burners.
F**k me! I sincerely hope you don't work there anymore. I wouldn't. The health board and OSHA would be called.
I Got This $10 Salad At A Restaurant
Pitiful. The salad at my school that's served nearly everyday has more tomatoes.
This Is What I Get For Cheating On My Diet
Oh you’ll lose weight with this food. Don’t you worry about that.
Do I Have A Moral Obligation To Report A Restaurant I Just Quit?
Hooters Wings Messy Kitchen
It said Hooters and I immediately thought that was a bra on the floor!!!
The Little Screens At This Korean Fried Chicken Restaurant Shows Children Watching You While You Do Your Business
So I Work At A Bar In A Strip Mall Next To A Chinese Restaurant. They Keep The Food They're Prepping In The Dirty Back Hallway That The Employees Smoke In
This Is What The Norwegian Food Safety Authority Found In One Of The Norway's Largest McDonald's. It Was Shut Down On The Spot
Yes, it looks like a rat ratsiclelo...0-jpeg.jpg
Load More Replies...The skeleton is from a rat. If you look closely you can see the incisors. Where there's one there's probably more...
looks more canine and also appears to be buried under the floor?
Load More Replies...We Found This In A Delivery Bag. Delivery Drivers At The Pizza Place I Worked At Didn't Care
I Ordered Caesar Salad For $15 From One Of The Local Restaurants
Because Money Touching Pizza Is Better
Not good enough. The restaurant/server doesn't get to decide what the customer has on their pizza.
I Just Bit Into A Hidden "Prize" I Got From Pappas Greek Truck For Lunch
My Friend Ordered A Pre-Cooked Turkey From A Local Restaurant
The Filthy State Of A Mug Given To My Blind Colleague At A Local Cafe. I Only Discovered This When It Was Too Late. This Is Appalling
I Found Larvae Worm Or Maggot. It Was Served To Me At Santa Fe Hotel & Casino In Grand Cafe
The situation was handled horribly. I never leave reviews especially negative ones, but I have a right to speak up about what happened as a customer.
My Coworker Pulled This Giant Shard Of Glass Out Of Her Mouth From A Meal She Got At Taco Bell. About An Inch Big
This Is How Prep Station Looks At My Local Chinese Restaurant
WTF is with these Chinese restaurants storing food out in the open on dirty things!?!?
I Went To A Local Restaurant And Ordered A Water. This Is What I Got
Restaurant's Charcuterie Board As Advertised vs. What I Got
Caprese Salad Takeout From The Local Restaurant
This Is Why I Don't Get Ice At A Restaurant. This Thing Is Nasty
It's the easiest and most common fail apart from general hygiene.
What Do You Think Of This Mold In A Local Restaurant?
This Toilet In A KFC Restaurant Is Not Free Even For Customers
All Of This Meat Was Left By A Chef. These Dates Are Crazy, And Some Are From 2014, 2018
I Spotted This In A Paris Restaurant
I Ordered Some Food For Delivery Today, And There's A Massive Metal Handle In My Food. I Got A Partial Refund From The DoorDash
My Burger From A "5-Star" Restaurant Today
I Got Seated At A Local Restaurant And Saw This
In The Kitchen Of A Thai Restaurant, I Work At. I Don't Eat Here Despite Free Meals
I Paid Extra For Cheese
I Found A Restaurant I Won't Be Eating At
Looks like that's the "Food waste bucket". It's not used as a trash can. During the shift, any food that is caught being wasted, for example, scraping all jars, plastic tubs, ect. Is a HUGE deal in restaurants. I've worked with Kitchen managers that will check the trash to see if prep is using a spatula-if not, what was " wasted" gets scraped into the waste bucket; it works as a visual, and cost finding tool. It shows employees how quickly even little things can add up in a day. If any food expires, it gets to go in the waste bucket. At the end of the day,the Kitchen manager can see how efficiently prep/ cooks prepare, and rotate food. This bucket would have made my Kitchen manager absolutely loose his mind. Looks like somebody did not rotate bacon, a high $ food cost item. Bucket gets emptied & cleaned at the end-of-day. I knew a KM that would go up to somebody with a spatula, ask them if they knew what it was, and then say" Nope. Not a spatula. This is a million dollar tool!"
I Ordered A McDonald's Breakfast Because I Was Hungover, And There Was No Food In The House. I've Made A Mistake
This Salad I Got From Italian Restaurant In Egypt Hotel
And to think that Egypt is known around the world for their Italian cuisine. Just kidding, but should have tried the local cuisine, they tend to do it better. I went to a little Italian restaurant on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany. The difference was that it was run by an Italian family. Edit: darn English with by, buy, and bye and spellcheck not knowing the difference.
Thanks, Taco Bell. I Really Wanted That Cardboard With My Cheesy Gordita Crunch
Kids Talked Me Into Taking Them To IHOP. We Waited Over An Hour To Get Uncooked Pancakes
$3 Pasta Salad I Ordered From Jamie Oliver's Airport Restaurant
$3 Dollar at an airport? Looks about what to expect in portion size then..? To have a nice sallas, is what, $20..?
My Sister Was Just Served This At A Local Mexican Restaurant
Well, she ordered Mac and cheese at a Mexican restaurant. So...
Urinal At A Restaurant In Nevada
Well. I don't expect much from Nevada. I'd pee in it. Probably consult a clergyman after.
I Ordered A $12 Salad
I Ordered What This Restaurant Had Aptly Named "Curry Surprise"
There Are 6 Of These On The Walls In The Employee Bathroom Of The Fairly Expensive Restaurant I Work At
UGH...does everybody just sneeze openly or are they doing snot shots?
Lentil "Soup" That We Serve In The Restaurant That I Work
I Ordered Frites With Anchovy Dressing. I Think It Was Lost In The Translation
I Ordered Fried Pickles As An Appetizer. I Got 1 Pickle Cut Into 4, And It Cost Me $10
So. At least it's what you ordered and you got the WHOLE pickle.
I Spent Like Two Hours Trying To Completely Clean This Nasty Fryer, As Everybody Else Only Does It Partially Or Doesn't Even Do It At All
It looks like a fire risk. Leave it for a while. You may not need to worry about cleaning it for too much longer.
How They Served My Boyfriend's Buffalo Mozzarella Salad In A Restaurant In Rome
i don't want to justify the restaurant who does this to tourist, but also i want justify tourist who visit a country without informing prior to the visit : there is no such a thing like " buffalo mozzarella salad " in italy, it exist only on tourist scam ! we are not a real life olive garden .
This Steak I Ordered. Who Serves A $50 Steak Without Side Dishes?
Apparently the restaurant OP was at serves $50 steak with no side dishes.
Restaurant Owner: "We Service Our Refrigeration Systems Every 6 Months"
We service them; we never said they were allowed to shower after.
The Boyfriend Still Ate It
I Ordered Sushi In Pakistan, And This Is What They Made
Hey, don't order Sushi in Pakistan or at gas stations around the US.
I Worked At A Retirement Home As A Server, And A Resident Ordered Scrambled Eggs With Cheese. Chef Messed It Up, And When I Corrected Him, He Gave Me This
The Day Taco Bell Betrayed Me
McDonald's McCafe Ham And Cheese Toastie
I Went To A Fancy Restaurant, And My Caesar Salad Came With A Little Extra Protein
A Friend Of Mine Just Ordered Some "Fish And Chips" At A Local Restaurant In Duluth. She Certainly Got What She Asked For
I Found This In My Take-Out From My Favorite Chinese Restaurant
This Is Our "Reopened" Burger King
This Restaurant Provided Us With Plastic Cups Because We Were In Everyday Clothing. However, Other People Around Us Had Normal Glasses
We had to ask twice to even get service and the glass glasses.
I Found A Piece Of Plastic In The Burger
At A Gas Station/BBQ Place Off The Highway In Colorado. It's Literally A Dirty Dishwasher Tray
The Amount Of Uncooked Fries In My McDonald's Order
I hate when they do this. There's an effing timer on the fryer and 16 years Olds don't care.
I Got This Steak From My Local Restaurant
This Is Actually Disgusting. Kebab With A Side Of Rust
They Packed My Leftover Spaghetti Bolognese And Fettuccine Alfredo In The Same Container
I Don't Have Super High Expectations At Olive Garden, But What Is This? The Waitress Acted Like Everything Was Okay
I Asked For A Water At The Restaurant, And They Brought This Out. I Figured That's Just How They Do Their Water, But It Turns Out They Charge $8 For It
I see no problem here, this is how water is usually served in many european countries
This "Large" Starbucks Drink. I Haven't Taken A Sip
Is it a blended drink I know sometimes if it's a blended drink or has any cold foam and sits for just a minute the foam deflates and will be half empty. Used to have this problem with iced caps and lattes at dunkin all the time for pickup orders
French Toast Doesn't Fit Together, From The Restaurant I Ordered
Jesus, I work at a gas station that makes and serves food and our store is 1000% cleaner than any of these. Not to mention we know how to thoroughly cook chicken
I'm scared to order anything from anywhere at this point. Thank god we only order five times a year or so.
Last weekend, I was eating grilled meat w bought potato salad - besides potatoes, it had about 20 cm of dental floss 🤢🤮
Glad I ate before reading this post. My breakfast almost came back up a few times though.
Welp, now I'm okay with the fact that we can't afford to eat out much nowadays.
Hey BP, I just wanted to see some mindless content, not racist comments about Chinese people eating cats or assuming Chinese restaurants are actually gross.
Well....I think I'll eat from home exclusively from now on. Or only from people I trust to make food properly.
Worked in two restaurants in my lifetime and neither came even close to being this bad.
Most of the time, the pieces of metal are not the fault of the restaurant, but of the manufacturers of the ingredients. Machines break down and this is either not noticed in time or the manufacturer just doesn't seem to care. In Finland, a large number of pasta products were recently recalled due to pieces of metal. The machine was broken and a huge amount of pasta was ruined. Years ago, the tomato sauce pasta my husband ordered from a restaurant contained metal. My portion also had tomato sauce, so mine was taken away as well. We didn't have to pay anything and we got a gift card to the restaurant.
I worked in food production years ago (like 20+ years ago) and even then there were machines that detected metal & automatically rejected contaminated items.
Load More Replies...that's raises lots of questions whether to consume outside or not...
I purchased store-made pork sausage (the ground-up breakfast type of sausage) at a local grocery store many years ago - and bit into something hard enough to break my tooth. I thought for sure it must have been a fragment of bone - but nope. It was a metal pellet - buckshot. I found 4 more of them in the rest of the sausage after forcing my entire family to stop eating so I could inspect it.
Why thank you this thread for causing every restaurant ever to officially lose my business. ah f**k I gagged.
Not gonna lie....still hungry. But as I'm ALWAYS hungry....nice try BP. Til next time eh?! 😆😏🤔
I honestly cannot understand how it got there. It had to be done purposely surely?
Jesus, I work at a gas station that makes and serves food and our store is 1000% cleaner than any of these. Not to mention we know how to thoroughly cook chicken
I'm scared to order anything from anywhere at this point. Thank god we only order five times a year or so.
Last weekend, I was eating grilled meat w bought potato salad - besides potatoes, it had about 20 cm of dental floss 🤢🤮
Glad I ate before reading this post. My breakfast almost came back up a few times though.
Welp, now I'm okay with the fact that we can't afford to eat out much nowadays.
Hey BP, I just wanted to see some mindless content, not racist comments about Chinese people eating cats or assuming Chinese restaurants are actually gross.
Well....I think I'll eat from home exclusively from now on. Or only from people I trust to make food properly.
Worked in two restaurants in my lifetime and neither came even close to being this bad.
Most of the time, the pieces of metal are not the fault of the restaurant, but of the manufacturers of the ingredients. Machines break down and this is either not noticed in time or the manufacturer just doesn't seem to care. In Finland, a large number of pasta products were recently recalled due to pieces of metal. The machine was broken and a huge amount of pasta was ruined. Years ago, the tomato sauce pasta my husband ordered from a restaurant contained metal. My portion also had tomato sauce, so mine was taken away as well. We didn't have to pay anything and we got a gift card to the restaurant.
I worked in food production years ago (like 20+ years ago) and even then there were machines that detected metal & automatically rejected contaminated items.
Load More Replies...that's raises lots of questions whether to consume outside or not...
I purchased store-made pork sausage (the ground-up breakfast type of sausage) at a local grocery store many years ago - and bit into something hard enough to break my tooth. I thought for sure it must have been a fragment of bone - but nope. It was a metal pellet - buckshot. I found 4 more of them in the rest of the sausage after forcing my entire family to stop eating so I could inspect it.
Why thank you this thread for causing every restaurant ever to officially lose my business. ah f**k I gagged.
Not gonna lie....still hungry. But as I'm ALWAYS hungry....nice try BP. Til next time eh?! 😆😏🤔
I honestly cannot understand how it got there. It had to be done purposely surely?