The Gyro Sub at Mr. Submarine. I ordered a 12'' sub, and forced myself to finish the first 6." The meat had this chewy, googy, taste to it. I felt bad throwing away 6" of a sub, so I walked outside of work and handed it to the nearest homeless guy on the street...I wonder what he thought of it...

I bet he was happy just to get some food to eat however I am not sure you will get any angel points for it.

Went 0-4 last night at Bin in Wicker Park with my GF, which was surprising because I've had some very nice meals there.

- appetizer of cured olives. We'd had them before and enjoyed them. This batch was covered in fennel seeds and did not taste good. Sent them back.

- 2 bugers; 1 medium well,1 medium rare. Her's was a bit less than medium well, mine was raw in the majority of the center.

- 1 order of fries. Soggy, limp & oil-laden and the aioli didn't help.

At this point, we called our server over and let him know that none of it was acceptable. The GFs buger was borderline OK but she freaks at the sight of undercooked meat and my burger was cold and still squirming. The fact that it took almost 30 minutes to get our meal at 6:15pm when there were no more than 5 other tables in the whole place made it worse.

We left $5 on the table and called it a night.

tem wrote:Went 0-4 last night at Bin in Wicker Park with my GF, which was surprising because I've had some very nice meals there.

- appetizer of cured olives. We'd had them before and enjoyed them. This batch was covered in fennel seeds and did not taste good. Sent them back.

- 2 bugers; 1 medium well,1 medium rare. Her's was a bit less than medium well, mine was raw in the majority of the center.

- 1 order of fries. Soggy, limp & oil-laden and the aioli didn't help.

At this point, we called our server over and let him know that none of it was acceptable. The GFs buger was borderline OK but she freaks at the sight of undercooked meat and my burger was cold and still squirming. The fact that it took almost 30 minutes to get our meal at 6:15pm when there were no more than 5 other tables in the whole place made it worse.

We left $5 on the table and called it a night.

So you're saying you were unhappy with how your food was prepared & took it out on your server via a bad tip? Do you realize your server did not prepare your food??

rima wrote:So you're saying you were unhappy with how your food was prepared & took it out on your server via a bad tip? Do you realize your server did not prepare your food??

According to their menu, the stuff tem ordered cost $32. You are complaining that they should have left more than $5? How much more? As a restaurant employee, I'm surprised that your reaction was to criticize the tip the diner left rather than to ask whether the restaurant discounted the meal.

Well...they did undertip by $.76.

Darren72 wrote:

rima wrote:So you're saying you were unhappy with how your food was prepared & took it out on your server via a bad tip? Do you realize your server did not prepare your food??

According to their menu, the stuff tem ordered cost $32. You are complaining that they should have left more than $5? How much more? As a restaurant employee, I'm surprised that your reaction was to criticize the tip the diner left rather than to ask whether the restaurant discounted the meal.

actually, our bill would have been $20. 2x$5 burgers, 1 $5 order of fries, one $5 order of olives. So even if we enjoyed and ate more than 2 bites of *anything*, we left a 20+% tip if you count whatever the tax would have been.

tem wrote:

Darren72 wrote:

rima wrote:So you're saying you were unhappy with how your food was prepared & took it out on your server via a bad tip? Do you realize your server did not prepare your food??

According to their menu, the stuff tem ordered cost $32. You are complaining that they should have left more than $5? How much more? As a restaurant employee, I'm surprised that your reaction was to criticize the tip the diner left rather than to ask whether the restaurant discounted the meal.

actually, our bill would have been $20. 2x$5 burgers, 1 $5 order of fries, one $5 order of olives. So even if we enjoyed and ate more than 2 bites of *anything*, we left a 20+% tip if you count whatever the tax would have been.

I'm sure rima will be back shortly to apologize for the misunderstanding.

To be fair, when I first read the post I thought it meant that $5 was left for the entire meal! Now THAT would be rude. Glad to know I misread

tem wrote:
actually, our bill would have been $20. 2x$5 burgers, 1 $5 order of fries, one $5 order of olives. So even if we enjoyed and ate more than 2 bites of *anything*, we left a 20+% tip if you count whatever the tax would have been.

Ah, I figured $11 for each burger. In any case, I look forward to rima's return visit.

Lemon ricotta cake at Acre. So bad I made our waiter try a bite to demonstrate just how awful it was. Dry, possibly made days ago...awful.

Chicken 'souvlaki' <what's the bbcode for making text quiver and emit stench waves?> at the Pita Pit, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Vegetables were rubberized; pita wrap was not fresh. Chicken was removed from a pouch and momentarily griddled. Sandwich was assembled with a schmear of adipose tzatziki and a heaping mound of stinky feta. Not just a few sprinkles; 60% of the wrap volume was cheese. It was like biting into a cylinder of damp oregano-laced floral foam. Worse than the worstest Subway abomination. Terrible griddle ventilation in the space and multiple tables and seats were liberally coated in mayo and mustard. This will undoubtedly be revisited upon me as one ring in my personal Hell, in part for insulting Rich Melman, who should put this place out of its misery as a Wow Bao.

Pie.

I know, how can pie be bad, right?

You start with a Pillsbury frozen pie crust, add a can (yes a can) of apple filling and, well frankly the results speak for themselves. I was shopping with the older daughter when we saw the frozen crust and in a moment of outright lunacy I agreed that it couldn’t be that bad.

This was so bad it sat on the counter for a week barely touched in a house with three children. When your kids don’t want dessert you know that’s some bad pie.

Warm oysters at Acre. Swiftly taken away and removed from the bill. But seriously, warm oysters? The manager seemed stunned, since they're served on "ice." Except the "ice" is salt, and salt does not, like, keep things cold.

queequeg's_steak wrote:Warm oysters at Acre. Swiftly taken away and removed from the bill. But seriously, warm oysters? The manager seemed stunned, since they're served on "ice." Except the "ice" is salt, and salt does not, like, keep things cold.

Holy crap, that's not good. However, in light of the fact that sh*t does sometimes happen, it's cool that it was handled correctly by the manager (right down to the appropriate "stunned" response that you mentioned, as opposed to huffiness or eye rolling).

Funny to see another "worst" from Acre.

There are some very good things there too, but the stuff that's bad is really really bad.

The soup I made yesterday. It was "Russian Spinach Soup with Root Vegetables and Dill", and it was inedible. Mr. Pie actually liked it, and he's about to eat roughly a gallon of it over the weekend...oh why did I make a double batch?!

The black and white cookies at New York Bagel & Bialy.

It's been a long time since I've been served anything in a restaurant which was worse than mediocre. I'm not saying nothing to criticize, I mean inedible. I think this is because we've grown more skillful at avoiding the bad and choosing the good. About two years ago we had lunch near a college campus we were visiting with our daughter, and that was the poorest restaurant food we'd eaten in many years. Even so I think I finished my plate.

I often settle for bad food, such as out of a vending machine, when I haven't been able to plan ahead and find myself without lunch or the opportunity to leave my location. Another threat, often related to this, is that I'll ruin a meal in a microwave I'm not familiar with or that doesn't have any obvious way to control power levels. If what results is edible at all I'll try to get through it rather than go hungry.

Everything I tasted at Mark's Chop Suey on Halsted. It wasn't my choice, but I met a few friends there for a quick dinner. When I lived nearby, I occasionally ordered in from there, but nothing more than fried rice and egg rolls, so I really didn't know much about the food. I wish I had kept it that way.

Hot and sour soup - overly sour but no real flavor.
Moo shu pork - overly sweet, no discernible flavors, and the pancakes were dried out so they broke when folded. And a no-no in my book is serving this dish without green onion.
Szechuan chicken - I tasted ginger, a lot of it, and nothing else. And there was no heat (spice).
Mongolian beef - really sweet, like candy, but in a very bad way.
And wouldn't you know it . . . this is one of those spots that serve the awful fortune cookies. It was like kicking a guy when he's already lying on the ground, barely breathing and bleeding profusely.

I just wanted gloppy, Americanized, anytown-anystreet Chinese food . . . I wasn't asking for much. What I ended up with was my worst meal of the year, and nothing in memory is even close. Perhaps we hit them on an off night. If you go, I can almost promise that you will too.

Pie Lady wrote:My feeling is that restaurants with "Golden" in the title are bound to suck. Golden Flame, check. Golden Nugget, check. Haven't eaten at Golden Bear, but from what Mr. Pie's told me, it fits.

Yesterday, dear Mr. Pie brought home Chinese since I thought I'd be home too late to cook. I asked for vegetable beef, sesame beef, something of that sort. I was secretly hoping for sesame beef, a dish of nicely marinated meat with some veggies. What they gave him was not only chicken, but fried in that soft batter and stuffed like tetris tiles into a take-home container, stuck together with sweet-and-sweet sauce that made it taste like chicken candy. I couldn't finish and rounded out my meal with leftover microwaved green beans from Thanksgiving. Those were some fantastic beans.

Golden Star
652 Deerfield Road
Deerfield, IL 60015-3214
(847) 945-3380

Pie Lady wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:My feeling is that restaurants with "Golden" in the title are bound to suck. Golden Flame, check. Golden Nugget, check. Haven't eaten at Golden Bear, but from what Mr. Pie's told me, it fits.

Yesterday, dear Mr. Pie brought home Chinese since I thought I'd be home too late to cook. I asked for vegetable beef, sesame beef, something of that sort. I was secretly hoping for sesame beef, a dish of nicely marinated meat with some veggies. What they gave him was not only chicken, but fried in that soft batter and stuffed like tetris tiles into a take-home container, stuck together with sweet-and-sweet sauce that made it taste like chicken candy. I couldn't finish and rounded out my meal with leftover microwaved green beans from Thanksgiving. Those were some fantastic beans.

Golden Star
652 Deerfield Road
Deerfield, IL 60015-3214
(847) 945-3380

Ha! I've lived a mile from this place for 9 years and only needed to go once to know that I'd never, ever return. I'm astonished that it's even still in business.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:My feeling is that restaurants with "Golden" in the title are bound to suck. Golden Flame, check. Golden Nugget, check. Haven't eaten at Golden Bear, but from what Mr. Pie's told me, it fits.

Yesterday, dear Mr. Pie brought home Chinese since I thought I'd be home too late to cook. I asked for vegetable beef, sesame beef, something of that sort. I was secretly hoping for sesame beef, a dish of nicely marinated meat with some veggies. What they gave him was not only chicken, but fried in that soft batter and stuffed like tetris tiles into a take-home container, stuck together with sweet-and-sweet sauce that made it taste like chicken candy. I couldn't finish and rounded out my meal with leftover microwaved green beans from Thanksgiving. Those were some fantastic beans.

Golden Star
652 Deerfield Road
Deerfield, IL 60015-3214
(847) 945-3380

Ha! I've lived a mile from this place for 9 years and only needed to go once to know that I'd never, ever return. I'm astonished that it's even still in business.

=R=

Sign in the window indicates new owners - not that it matters.

Spaghetti and meatballs at Capriccio's in Northfield. It almost doesn't bear mentioning, as I had very low expectations going in. However, even my strategy of ordering defensively was of no use. Whenever a place can't make a decent version of a standard dish I get ticked off. Mushy, overcooked spaghetti, jarred style sauce, soft, tasteless meatballs. My dining companion's raviolis were held under the heat too long and beyond dry into a hardened slab. I don't know how the place can stay in business, but let's just say it's a matter of location, location, location.

Looking for late night BBQ and gettind denied at Joes, Colemans, Laymons, Rib Bazzar I stopped at JJs on central and Madison. Aside from the questionable age of the chicken and the food service fries cooked in oil that imparted heavy fish and burnt batter flavors they liberally powdered everything with some kind of spice mixture that was very fine grain and tasted equal parts citrus, and msg.

Even at 2 am after searching for food for an hour it was inedible - horrible.

Bought some Progresso roasted chicken and garlic soup for a pre-leaving town easy dinner. Ugh! It had a bizarre smell and slimy broth. Also, the chicken pieces had weird white spots on them (like there were bits of ligament or something) and looked almost like they were cut from a spam-like cube. Tried to at least eat the penne pasta in the broth, but had a hard time even doing that. My SO agreed, and we are now ordering pizza

Smokey's BBQ in the Timber Ridge lodge of the Grand Geneva resort, Christmas Eve. I really should have known better, but the BBQ slider sampler (brisket, chicken and pulled pork) was disgusting, each virtually indistinguishable from the next save for their (not pleasant) texture, and the fact that the brisket was significantly worse than the other two. Not much better was the Friday Night Fish Fry ("every night is Friday night at Timber Ridge!"), which was salty and generally gross, not any better than the flash frozen fries that took up 2/3rds of the plate.

While I stared at my food and/or passed it on to the kids, I heard a customer inquire about the "two pound challenge," which rewards downing all that disgusting faux 'cue with a free dessert. Considering I couldn't even eat those three sliders, I'd say that is indeed a lofty challenge, one the poor guy may not have even known he was in for.

I should say, the Grand Cafe breakfast buffet was reasonably redeeming. Good coffee, even.

Vitesse98 wrote:Smokey's BBQ in the Timber Ridge lodge of the Grand Geneva resort, Christmas Eve.

I've eaten there and it was some of the worst food I've ever eaten anywhere. Period. I thought I posted about it but I can't seem to locate the post. I feel for you. The place is an abomination.

=R=

The worst thing I've eaten lately...was not the "worst" because it tasted bad, or was too cold or too hot or presented by a musk-scented server or anything like that. It was in fact a delicious hot link, bbq'd with love by a friend, and consumed on New Year's Eve. I enjoyed it at the time, but the next morning, it attacked, and I was reminded of why I can't eat certain things anymore. You know you're getting older when your hangover results from what you ate instead of what you drank.

Reminds me...

Free To Good Home:
1.5 lbs of Jewel Deli's "Deviled Egg Potato Salad."
My own fault for craving deviled eggs at the moment, and walking into Jewel with an appetite and very limited time until Jr had a hunger meltdown himself. I saw their fried chicken coming fresh out of the fryer, and remembered that at a party a few years ago up in Lake Zurich somewhere, one of the offerings was Jewel fried chicken, and after severeal cocktails, I thought it was absolutely delicious. So, I bought some fried chicken, and decided on "Deviled Egg Potato Salad" as a side dish. The chicken was better than I expected it to be, but this potato salad... I swear I'm starting to think I'm crazy by thinking that mayo based salads should not be sweeter than ice cream. Am I nuts or what? Who eats this stuff? It was like a potato, onion, egg and mustard dessert. Loaded with sugar. Sitting in the fridge here if anyone wants it.