What's The Grossest Experience You've Ever Had at a Restaurant?

Several years ago I went to a drive-in that served ice cream; we often went there for lunch as they would give us a discount on account of our jobs. I wasn't very hungry that day and decided to order a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone. After the woman behind the counter dipped the cone in the chocolate she noticed that there was chocolate dripping down the cone- so she wiped the cone with the dirty rag that she had been wiping down the counter with! Before she tried to hand it to me I told her that there was no way that I was going to eat an ice cream cone that had been wiped with a dirty rag- and she expected me to pay full price for it! I'm normally not too picky about food, but that's just wrong.
By the way, there was a burger joint in my neighborhood that was so nasty that when it came time to remodel it they didn't even try- they tore it down and built a new restaurant. The workers would pick up the hamburger patties with their bare hands and there were french fries ankle deep on the floor.

I worked at a local grocery store in the Deli for a year. I'll never forget the look on my co-workers face when our supervisor and a customer confronted her. She always wore these long fake nails (against the dress code). They opened up the container of potato salad she had served this woman, and in it, one of her nails (hot pink!) had broken off into the salad, it was sticking straight up! Before my co-worker could sputter a reply, she got yelled at in front of everyone, lectured, and fired! I could barely contain my amusement, awesome!!

My mom, her friend and I were at a Chinese restaurant. We ordered tea with our meal. My mom poured, and out with the tea came a roach!
Another time, at a big hotel restaurant in Las Vegas, my friends and I were eating hamburgers. I lifted up the bun to put on ketchup and a cute little caterpillar crawled out of my lettuce! No kidding! At least I didn't bite into the poor thing.

My mom once went to a RALLY'S restaurant and found a ROACH in her damn Ice!!!!!
GROSS!!!!!!!!!

I was at a fast food restaurant (yes, bad me) and watch a guy empty the trash cans then go back and start working the deep fryer. No gloves, no time out to wash his hands. I told the manager who offered me food coupons which I declined. It is my reinforcement when I ever consider stopping at any fast food place.

I ordered a drink at a restaurant and found snot in the drink. The place has since closed...:(

This is really gross but I will tell the details any way.When I was I college I was hired by a deli that did catering on the side . My job was to cook huge amounts of food so that the owner could freeze these trays for weddings ect. I was thrilled to have the job. It paid well and I really needed the cash.One day my boss tells me I would have to make trays of meatballs. He pulls out this huge vat of chopped meat from the fridge and tells me get going. I looked down and there were dead roaches in the meat. I was horrified! I called him to tell him. He told me not to worry about it . It was like that all the time.He said no one ever noticed at the events he served these at. He said don't even both picking them out! I quit that moment. Just think about that next time you eat a meatball made outside your home. Gross!

i havent had a bad experience yet, but my friends have! my dad went to a seafood and steak place, he ordered a steak and after he got it, he tried to cut it! we'll his dad(my grandad) told him that the meat was raw... wasnt COOKED!!!!!! EWWW! then John(my friend) ordered cheese fries and when he got it, big black fly on top, just like a cherry to top it off!!!

I cannot mention the resturant name, but it is a popular mexican fast food place. I got my food all the way home and in the middle of my food, I felt something really hard that I bit on. I spit the food out, and I found a tooth, a TOOTH in the food. It looked like it belonged to a small rodent, I am guessing, the root was even in it. I called over my roommate to make sure, and sure enough, she asked me where that tooth came from. GROSS!

I've worked in the restaurant business for a couple of years now, and the kitchens are always gross. Every restaurant has bugs, there's no way around it...it could be little fruit flies, roaches, ants etc...they mostly stay in the kitchen (all that grease and food scraps on the floor, it's like paradise to them) but occasionally they'll stray into the dining room...which is gross.

My own personal experience now...I was at a very familiar chain restaurant having lunch with my now ex, and I had gotten a grilled chicken caesar salad. When the server brought it out, I was mixing the salad, and there was a HUGE nail in it (which I later found out was a toe-nail..gross). The manager offered to comp it from the check, but we refused to pay for any of it. It's so gross. ALWAYS check your food before digging in....seriously.

I'm gonna keep going back and reading these comments any time I want to reach for a snack today... because these stories are SERIOUSLY making me nauseous. Ick ick ick! Stuff like this is why I almost never go out to eat.

This story pales in comparison with most of the comments, but the grossest thing to happen to me was when I got a chicken nugget a popular fast food place... it was fried, but completely RAW inside. Wtf?

Went to a place in Detroit's Greektown years ago...saw several roaches crawling across the table next to me. Pointed them out to the waiter, who shrugged and said they had just sprayed, so the roaches were coming out of the walls.
Told him to keep his gyro plate and his bill.
Made like a banana and split.
Still grosses me out after all these(maybe 20?)years.

one day I had cashew chicken and fried rice at a little joint on my lunch break. I was about half way through and looked down at my rice and noticed a HALF of a roach. I don't know where the other half was (gag) but I ran out of there (I couldn't even tell them what I found)and called the health department. The restaurant closed a one week later!

Did you see the news piece on the restaurants President Obama and his daughters eat at? Both places have been cited for numerous health violations and cameras recorded rats having a party when the lights go out.
Common restaurant citations are for: critters and insects, gloves and hats on cooks (ever seen a cook sweat?), washing hands, dust on fixtures and in heating/cooling units, food holding times and temperatures, cleanliness of refrigeration, soda and juice machines.
Makes one want to stay home and cook.

i saw a roach

I love going to China and don't like to scare people because China is a great place to visit, but it is too good a story not to tell. It is scary, and funny at the same time.
I was with a group of Cantonese women one pleasant morning in Cheng Du the capitol of Szechwan Province when I suddenly lost my appetite.
We were having breakfast in a local noodle shop when I noticed a young woman working in the bathroom. She was preparing to mop the restaurant and I watched as she plunged the mop up and down into one of those squat toilets to "clean" it off. She then grabbed it with her bare hands to ring it out and proceeded to mop the floor of the resturant. The horrifying moment came when one of her coworkers told her that we needed some additional rice bowls and she dropped the mop to retrieve them and place the rice bowls on our table! Did I mention that she never washed her hands?
Everyone stopped eating the moment I told them what had happened and all ten of us got up and walked out of the restaurant. I hope that someone in our group more proficient in the language told them why we left so suddenly. More than likely nothing was said to avoid any "losing face" ;an important aspect of the asian culture.
Your nausea will subside shortly after finishing this article.

I once found a fly in my salad at McD's I couldn't eat that salad I brought in the drive through. I thought I was eating somewhere clean the restraunt had an A but I guess the grade doesn't count for anything. My husbands grandma found an earring in her sub sandwich

this is at my school. no joke.
okay, so this chick is mixing something in a pot, long booger falls out of her nose, into the pot, so she scoops it out, gets a new spoon, and keeps on mixing. never ate at my school again, ever.

I agree with desiree re: sushi place. And as for the rodent tooth I am gagging....

recently i went to this mexican to go place and normally they are really good. i was waiting for my bean and cheese burrito and i watched the cook take a raw chicken breast out, put it on the grill and then grab my tortilla with the same hand and put it on the grill. he never used gloves or washed his hands.. i lost my appetite right then and there!