Fast food restaurants aren't necessarily known for their amazing service or incredible quality. But, sometimes it's too outrageous. Missing an order of fries is nothing compared to the stuff some customers have seen!
We've found all the best stories shared to Reddit about horrible experiences at fast food places! These people were shocked by how bad these restaurants truly were. Content has been edited for clarity.
An Unexpected Addition
“Once I went to Boston Pizza with my girlfriend and ordered their ‘Panookie,’ which is a pan-sized brownie cookie. My first bite had a mixture of cookie, brownie… and onion. When I told the waitress she said, ‘If it makes you feel any better, it was probably an onion from out of the dishwasher.’
I replied ‘Yes, it makes me feel better that the onion was first on someone else’s plate before mine.’
Our meal was free that day.”
Oh, You Wanted The Whole Burger?
“After working a 14 hour day outside and driving home starved, I popped into a McDonald’s drive-thru, ordered a value meal, and headed home. I did the usual ‘snack on the fries as you drive’ routine and was greatly looking forward to devouring my burger when I got home. I sat down at my table and when I opened the burger box, there was a massive bite taken out of my burger. I tried to recall if I had done it, but there just wasn’t a way I would have gotten to it while driving.
I was starving, so much so that I tried to rationalize eating the burger. ‘They wouldn’t have spit in a burger they took a bite from, it’s probably fine.’ In the end, I didn’t eat it and had something like cereal for dinner. I called to report the issue and the manager seemed not to believe me. Hard to be mad at that. I would later go back for my free meal, bite free. Hard to forget the disappointment of a starving man coming home and opening the box only to find that someone beat me to it.”
They Couldn’t Get A Simple Burger Right
“So my bad experience was at a Burger King. On a road trip, I decided to stop by a Burger King to get a Whopper. When I do get a Whopper, I order it with no tomato or onion. Simple change. I tell the woman on the speaker my order and proceed to drive to the window.
When I got to the window, I was greeted by the cashier. She gave me my total, I paid, and, she handed my bag. As per usual, I do a quick check of the burger to see if it had been made right. Lo and behold, there were tomatoes and onions on my burger. So I gave my bag back to the cashier and told her I ordered no tomato or onion.
Then the cashier reaches into the bag, unwraps the burger from the paper, and proceeds to pick off the tomatoes and onions right in front of me. She was not wearing any gloves and was handling money with god knows what on it all throughout her shift, and for whatever reason thought that would be an okay thing to do and hand back to me. I immediately stopped, parked, and went inside to watch them make a new Whopper, from start to finish.
Even though I knew for certain that my new burger was exactly the way I wanted, I still didn’t even take a bite until about 25 minutes later. I didn’t eat Burger King for a year after that.”
A Bit Of An Overreaction
“So I’m in a drive-through line at a combined KFC/Taco Bell, to pick up some food for other people (who weren’t there, and I wasn’t getting anything). There are two cars are ahead of me, and five minutes later I finally get up to the microphone/menu thing to order. It’s moving very slow considering they’re not busy, but no big deal. It’s eight at night and they’re probably understaffed. So, I place my order of a few burritos and a chicken sandwich, and then wait another five minutes or so for the one remaining car ahead of me to get their order, and then I pull up to the window.
No one was there. After about two minutes of staring into an empty window a young lad comes by, swings open the hatch, and holds out a hand, presumably for my debit card. I pay, and get my card back and a receipt without a word being exchanged. Five minutes go by without another soul coming to the window. Now unless Taco Bell and KFC actually import their ingredients from Mexico and Kentucky, I can’t figure out what was going on.
The young lad finally comes by with my food, and I very politely say ‘I know it’s not your fault, but can I speak to your manager? I’ve been here a very long time.’
‘Yeah hold on.’ This is no exaggeration: ten minutes after getting my food, my car is still in park sitting in front of the window. The line, even at this late hour, is getting rather long. I decide it’s time to head inside. I pull around, park, then go wait in line. There’s only one older woman ahead of me, and she just finished her order when I walked in. As soon as I came through the door, everyone behind the counter headed to the back and disappeared. So I’m just standing there holding my hands in front of me. A friendly smile passes between me and the old lady.
Another 5 minutes or so pass, and suddenly I see flashing red and blue lights reflecting off of the walls. I look out the windows to see FIVE police crown vics and SUV’s POURING into the parking lot like a bank was being robbed. I exchange a glance at the lady next to me, both of us feeling perplexed. An officer comes in through the door, glances around, and says to no one in particular ‘What’s going on here?’
I turn to him, shrug, and say, ‘You’re probably here for me.’ The manager appears from amongst the cooking appliances, flanked by two other employees. All of them have their name tags removed.
‘OFFICER! GET HIM OUT OF HERE. HE WAS HOLLERING AND BANGING ON THE WINDOW.’
I turn to the officer and he nods his head toward the door. I tell him what happened, and he rolls his eyes and says, ‘It’s a private business, so they technically can say you’re not welcome if they choose.’
As we’re standing out in the parking lot, he says to me the 911 call they received was, ‘We need the cops.’ Click. They thought the worst at this time of day, and hence the large police response.
The final interaction between the cops and me was: ‘Are we blocking you in? We can move if we are.’
‘Kind of, do you mind?’
‘Not at all! Have a good night!’
‘You too!’ I live in the same town and I haven’t been back there in the five years since.”
They Refused Him Service For The Most Frustrating Reason
“I went to Chipotle with my sister and brother in law a couple of years ago. My brother in law looks really young but is over 30 years old at this point. I’ve seen him get harassed about his age or his ID, but this was worse than that.
He hadn’t had anything to drink yet that day. I know this because I’d been hanging out at their house for a while before we left to go to the movies. I’d been there since breakfast. However, on this particular day, this establishment refused to serve my brother in law because they said he had been drinking already.
Why? My brother in law has a stutter and he stuttered when he ordered his drink. As he asked the woman behind the counter why she wouldn’t sell him the drink, he pulled out his ID to show that he is way over the legal age. She said no, that he slurred his speech when he ordered.
He was embarrassed, but he still tried to defend himself. She said she didn’t care, she could refuse to serve him if she wanted to.
When he came to the table and told us what happened (we could hear it from where we were sitting anyway), I went up to ask if she was seriously going to refuse to serve him because of a speech impediment. The cashier said she wasn’t going to change her mind. I asked to speak to the manager and the manager said that there was nothing she could do, that it was up to the discretion of each cashier whether or not to serve someone.
That was the single worse experience I’ve ever had at a fast food restaurant.”
Sometimes You Can’t Have It Your Way
“There used to be at Burger King Express in a mall that I worked at. I was pretty poor back then, so I couldn’t always afford to eat, but when I got paid or I got a bonus, usually I would treat myself in the morning to a coffee, two bacon egg and cheese croissant sandwiches, and hash browns. The manager at that location got to know almost all of the employees in this dead mall, so she was pretty friendly to me early in the morning. But this one time, I got this new employee who was dumber than a bag of hair. She got my order, but she got a bag that was too small for what I ordered. And she couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t fit two sandwiches and my hash browns into the small bag.
She kept trying like she didn’t understand how spacial distance worked. Finally, I interrupted her telling her that she didn’t have to put the two sandwiches in the tiny bag, I would just take them and my coffee with the bag of hashbrowns separately. She completely did not understand what I told her. She aggressively asked, ‘What!?’ I cheerfully told her that I could just take the sandwiches, and the hash browns separately and be on my way. ‘Have it your way,’ she said in a sarcastic and passive-aggressive voice, and MASHED everything flat with the palm of her hand. The manager saw this, horrified, and immediately made me new sandwiches and hash browns. ‘She’s new, sorry…’ Later that week, she told me she had fired that woman because she was the stupidest person she’d ever seen.”
Intolerant Of Lactose Intolerance
“First a tiny bit of background: my wife at the time was more than just lactose intolerant. She would get earth shattering cramps and feel like she was on fire if she got just a little bit of any kind of dairy. Later we found out this was caused by a faulty gallbladder that was since evicted.
Well, she went to a McDonald’s right across the street from her awful retail job and ordered a McDouble with no cheese like she did about three times a week because it was cheap and close. She had very short lunch breaks at her job. When she got back to work, she noticed, ‘Hey, there is cheese on this.’ So she had to go all the way back over there and ask to have it replaced.
The manager came over and asked what’s wrong. When she said she ordered it without cheese and they put cheese on it, he responded with a flippant ‘So?’ Now this manager was not some just out of high school kid. He had to be in his 30’s, so you would think somewhere along the lines he had grown up but I guess not. She explained to him she is allergic to cheese and needed one without cheese. So he handed the sandwich back to the grill area. They scrape the cheese off, rewrapped it, and tried to give it back to her.
She watched them do this but he was too far away for her to stop them before he got back to the counter. She still tried to be polite as possible and explained, again, that she cannot eat a sandwich that has had melted cheese scraped off of it because she is freaking allergic!
So he huffed and gave her more attitude and rolled his eyes. He angrily threw the sandwich away and asked the grill to make a new one; she got it, asked him if he was sure it didn’t have cheese on it, he said yes and she left without checking it. When she got back to work, she opened up the bag and guess what she found on her sandwich? Two slices of cheese!
So she got permission from her boss since now she had already burned like 35 minutes to get a stupid sandwich from across the street. She normally only gets a 30-minute break. The manager saw her coming and asked her, ‘now what?’
My wife asked to speak to a different manager, who didn’t give her any attitude, apologized, and personally made her a new one. He also opened it in front of her to verify there was no cheese on it and refunded her meal as well. My wife, of course, got both managers’ names and their store number.
We then proceeded to report the entire story to McDonald’s corporate with a glowing review for the manager who handled it correctly and a very condemning retelling of the horrible service the first manager gave her.
We got some gift cards from corporate and the owner of that particular franchise verified the story with the second manager. The first manager’s employment was terminated. They asked my wife to come to tell her story at an employee meeting but she declined.”
Who Let The Dogs In?
“There used to be a KFC just outside of downtown Napa, California. It was located within walking distance of a pet supply store that was happy to let customers brings their dogs, cats, goldfish, or whatever else with them while they did their shopping. Unfortunately, the proximity of these two businesses meant that some people would occasionally try to have their pets accompany them for lunch. Although the management frowned on that, they didn’t do very much to curb the behavior, either.
On the day in question, I had stopped into the restaurant for what I hoped would be a quick meal before a job interview. It wasn’t the smartest detour, I’ll admit. To be entirely honest, the smell from outside the establishment had attracted me. Unfortunately, the moment that I walked through the front door, I was hit by an almost debilitating wave of nausea as the thick, pungent stench of wet dog filled my nostrils. It was almost enough to make me turn around and leave, but I foolishly decided that since I’d already made it inside, I should still get something to eat.
My first mistake – if you don’t count my continued presence in the restaurant – was looking for the source of the smell. I wound up making eye contact with a large woman sitting near the front counter, who was alternating between dropping ice cubes down various parts of her clothing and pouring small amounts of water onto the floor. These puddles were being consumed by an equally large dog of an indeterminate breed that looked as though it had recently been in a fight with a particularly irate landfill.
My second mistake was mentioning the unpleasant aroma to the girl who took my order. She expressed sympathy and told me that the manager had already been informed. However, my complaint was overheard by the woman who was responsible for the odorous beast.
‘Heh?!’ she yelled, sounding rather like a creaky hinge. ‘What’d you say about my dog?!’ When I didn’t respond, the woman shouted again. ‘Heh?! Heh?! I’m talking to you! You got a problem with my dog?’
Seeing no other alternative, I turned to face the woman. ‘He doesn’t smell very nice,’ I said.
‘Heh?!’ the woman replied. ‘You got a problem with how he smells?’ Before I could think of a response, the woman hurled her half-full cup at me, thoroughly drenching my suit. Furthermore, it turned out that she hadn’t been sharing water with the canine, but rather some kind of clear soda.
I wound up having to rush away for a change of clothes before I could complain to the manager, and when I returned later on that afternoon, I was told (by another employee) that I was too late to report anything. That was the last time I visited that particular KFC.
The smell, incidentally, was still lingering when I left.”
A Quesadilla Landed Her In The Hospital
“Taco Bell, hands down. I ordered a chicken quesadilla at the drive-thru and when I drove off, I bit into one of the slices and I had a sensation I’d never had before. At first, I thought it was a syringe in there…something really shocked me! But, come to find out, I’d bitten into a RUSTY BOX-CUTTER BLADE!
It sliced open the roof of my mouth in FOUR slits. It was horrible! Their quesadillas are pre-made and it was determined that someone had cut open the box with a box-cutter and the blade broke off in the package I got.
Yep, I sued them and won. My cruise was fantastic, so was paying off my car and my student loan. Waiting for the Hepatitis and HIV tests were not so much fun.”
Bless You?
“We were at an A&W in a mall, I think in Springfield, Illinois. There was only one girl behind the counter and she also filled the french fry orders.
The person in front of us ordered but wasn’t watching the counter girl. My wife and I both saw her fill up a paper carton with french fries, SNEEZE on said fries, brush the top few out of the carton, and hand them to the customer, who apparently missed the whole thing.
We were both so horrified, we couldn’t say anything. We just walked away.”
The Fries Came With A Little Something Extra
“I worked late one night so I decided to pick up dinner on the way home. I went through the Burger King drive-thru. I was starving so as I drove off with the food, I reached in the bag, grabbed some fries and shoved them in my mouth. Immediately, I felt a sharp pain move around my mouth so bad I started gagging and had to pull over alongside the road. I tried to vomit but couldn’t. I spit out some blood and what looked like twigs. But, when I looked at one closely and I realized it was a roach leg.
So I guess grabbed an unsuspecting roach that was chilling in my fries and put it in my mouth. The thing freaked out when I bit it so it ran straight down to my stomach faster than I could spit it out. I had just worked a 16 hour day and didn’t feel like arguing with a bunch of fast food workers about a roach that was already gone. Just wanted to go home. But still, not cool.”
Road Trip Ruined
“I was driving from the Oregon coast to Seattle with a hungry family. We don’t eat fast food but the traffic had been terrible and we knew we were in for a long ride, longer than normal. So we pull into a roadside Burger King because it’s the only thing to be found for miles that my wife would agree to eat. Because of the traffic and lack of options, the place is packed. Tables are dirty, people aren’t cleaning up their trash, workers are in a foul mood. We eat as quickly as possible and get out of there.
About half an hour later, I have to pull over because I’m totally nauseous and about to blow out the back end. Luckily, I found a bathroom. My wife resumes driving because I can barely hold my head up. I throw up in my empty cup of tea along the way. It starts bucketing rain.
An hour in, one of my kids throws up in the car. The other completely poops himself and throws up, too, shortly after. I am too sick/weak to do much about it and my wife is doing her best just to drive us home. The car reeks of vomit and diarrhea.
We’re about an hour from Seattle and my wife hurriedly rolls her window down and hurls. We’re going 55 down the highway. She’s driving, leaning her head out the window in the pouring rain, water is streaming down her face, the kids are crying from the wind and the cold and the vomit and diarrhea.
We pull over and I resume driving while she occasionally pukes out the window.
Worst road trip ever. Worst fast food experience ever. I have not eaten at a Burger King since, and this happened 12 years ago.”
Breakfast On Tiffany Didn’t Turn Out So Well
“So I used to go to this Taco Bell down the street from my high school after finishing band practice with my friends. We went enough times that the drive-through lady named Tiffany would be ecstatic to see us and give us free stuff. She called us ‘baby’ every time we went through, it was great.
I bet you’re wondering how could any of this be bad? Well, the story takes a turn for the worst very quickly. So we do the usual Taco Bell run and order the same thing, get the same free stuff. We get to the window and Tiffany is all smiles when her manager comes up to us and asks to see the receipt. We are kinda deer in the headlight and Tiff is nervous. The manager grabs the receipt and asks why we are getting free food and drinks in addition to our one quesadilla.
Tiff just kinda looks down and mumbles while the manager berates her on giving people free food, then fires her. She began crying and pleading for the job saying she needed it for her son, but the manager threw her out and gave us our order, the one quesadilla of course, and said he would be keeping an eye on us. So my worst experience was getting a very friendly employee fired.”
