Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have had supposedly fresh crab legs that had that urine/ammonia taste and sent them back and the seafood house brought me something else.
Years ago, I had the nastiest margarita ever at Billy Goat's Tavern in Chicago and they were pretty ugly about it when I asked for something else. They were supposed to be known for their brusque treatment of customers but this was over the top - they were verbally abusive and offensive - telling me that because I was a woman that perhaps I didn't know what a real drink tasted like and the bartender glared at me as well. I just got up and left and never went back.
I've been to some wonderful Chinese restaurants where the food is phenomenal, and the staff bends over backwards to please their customers. I'm sure my experience was an anomaly.
It sounds as if at this particular restaurant, the owners thought they could say spoiled food was supposed to be like that because they arrogantly assumed their customers were too stupid to know the difference (even though it really makes no sense from a liability/reputation standpoint of a restaurant owner).
It surprised them that you did know the difference.
I would really worry if it was the same place. There have to be a lot of things being overlooked for bad food to make it out to a table. Somewhere along the line, no one said "wait, that feels off/smells off", I don't know if is just people being cheap, stupid, just not giving a crap or a combination of all. If management gave guff, I would simply walk, never to return again. Screw that.
I've eaten food fried in oil that had passed its prime and permeated and ruined the taste of the food.
I've been served fresh-squeezed lemonade that tasted like turpentine. The server tried to pass it off as some people just not liking that there were lemon slices in the drink. No, sorry, it's really apparent when the oils in citrus fruits have gone rancid.
No, never knowingly been served bad food in a restaurant, though I did get food poisoning once, but had no idea the beef was bad at the time I ate it.
I have on 5 separate occasions though, with 5 different people, been at restaurants with people who were clueless about what an ingredient was or what something was s'posed to taste like. Super embarrassing! Not saying this was you OP, but ugghh, I've been so embarrassed. My MIL from a little teeny town of 80 people, close to a bigger town of 800, sent back french onion soup at TGI Fridays b/c it had something weird on top & she thought something was wrong with it (croutons & cheese), it just wasn't served that way in her little country town.
I had a friend who ordered a chocolate cake with habanero in it, who thought she was eating "rat poison" (yes she really said that) & was TOTALLY freaked out & upset. We pointed out that a restaurant would be unlikely to get many repeat customers if they served rat poison & this was a highly rated, popular independent restaurant. Then we explained to her what a habanero was. She returned it & the restaurant was gracious, but it was totally her fault. Recently I ate at a cool vegan farm to table place with a friend who normally eats at McDonald's & diners. She was upset that her vegan take on an egg mcmuffin had something sweet in it. I asked her, what she thought fig jam was? Even in the cases where the customer was completely in the wrong though, the restaurants were gracious. In general, a good restaurant doesn't want you to eat something you hate & will bend over backwards to make you happy.
Only once...and it wasn't the food. It was the ketchup. A lot of places "marry" the ketchup so they upend one bottle into another bottle and oh my...let's just say I got a new dish, and fresh ketchup bottle. And our whole meal comped.
And they've stopped marrying condiments. Pretty easy now so many come in replaceable bottles at reasonable prices.
I once traveled quite a way to get Chinese food as we don't have a good restaurant here. When I returned home I opened the container and it smelled like Lysol (the old brown bottle Lysol). I thought I was imagining it. I took a bite, it was just broccoli and noodles, but it was strong on the Lysol. I tossed it. I always meant to go back and tell owner but just decided to never go there again. I went to a big fancy Chinese place in El Paso, meaning to go to PF Chang's. I went to Paco Wong's by mistake. Never. Ever. Again.
I've eaten food fried in oil that had passed its prime and permeated and ruined the taste of the food.
I've been served fresh-squeezed lemonade that tasted like turpentine. The server tried to pass it off as some people just not liking that there were lemon slices in the drink. No, sorry, it's really apparent when the oils in citrus fruits have gone rancid.
I might be hyper-sensitive because I frequently identify rancid oils in restaurant food when others don't -- and occasionally even at home!. But I don't think I am imagining it. Bad thing is, I can't enjoy food that others do, the good thing about it is I consume relatively little rancid oil and rancid oil is NOT healthy.
I also am frequently able to taste things like that that others don't, and I don't understand how they can't. But like you say, maybe it protects us from eating bad food.
Someone brought homemade oatmeal cookies to work and while others complimented the cook, I had to leave the room and spit out the cookie it tasted so stale and "off." It was obvious (if only to me) that the oatmeal, flour, or some ingredient had been sitting on the cook's shelf for a very long time and absorbed other odors.
I was unable to sample any of the homemade goodies my college roommate's parents sent from home because they reeked of what appeared to be airplane glue. She was impervious. When I visited her home, I discovered the source: the basement, accessed from the kitchen, smelled overwhelmingly of fiberglass resin to the point that it permeated their food.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Don in Austin
I might be hyper-sensitive because I frequently identify rancid oils in restaurant food when others don't -- and occasionally even at home!. But I don't think I am imagining it. Bad thing is, I can't enjoy food that others do, the good thing about it is I consume relatively little rancid oil and rancid oil is NOT healthy.
Don in Austin
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
