Sometimes it's a simple mistake, but other times the food doesn't resemble anything like the original order. Here are some of the craziest things people have received that left them wondering what could have gone wrong.
Worst Hot Chocolate Ever
“My mom bought me a Hot Chocolate from McDonald’s and it tasted off. I opened the top half of the travel cup and inside of the Hot Chocolate was a used coffee filter. It was the most disgusting Hot Chocolate I’ve had in my entire life.”
“If It Makes You Feel Any Better…”
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“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,’ to which 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.”
“That Wasn’t Even The Weirdest Part”
“I was traveling and found myself in an airport and I got a burger from a local fast food joint. I deeply hate ketchup (there was an incident at a daycare when I was little, I don’t much like talking about it) and so asked for no ketchup. My burger arrived and I took a bite. First impression: that is ketchup on my burger. I gagged and spit it out. I can’t deal with ketchup. Second impression: this tastes weird. I opened the burger. That’s when I discovered there was plenty of ketchup, and definitely no meat. There were, however, about eight slices of cheese. But that wasn’t even the weird part. The employees were just as confused as I was when I brought it back. No one could remember making this thing, and no one knew why they’d make it. I guess I got a haunted grilled cheese instead of a burger.”
Going In Circles
“McDonald’s, 1 am. I pulled up to the window and ordered: ‘a mcdouble, a mcchicken, and a large fry.’ Easy peasy. I drive up to pay and the woman working there hands me a mcdouble, a mcchicken, and a large black coffee. ‘Large black coffee?’ I asked. ‘Yes.’ she replied. ‘I ordered a large fry actually.’ ‘No you ordered a large black coffee.’ ‘I’m pretty sure I ordered a large fry.’ ‘Nope, you ordered a coffee.’ ‘No I didn’t.’ ‘Yes you did sir.’ ‘Fine. Just give me the coffee.’ Being non-confrontational, I pull out of the drive-thru and drive back into the line to order my large fry. When I get up the window I make sure to clearly and loudly enunciate. ‘Yes I would like a LARGE FRY. A LARGE FRY. FRENCH FRY. LARGE.’ I get up to the pickup window for the second time and the same woman hands me YET ANOTHER large black coffee. ‘I definitely ordered a large fry.’ ‘No you ordered a large black coffee.’ ‘No, I ordered a large fry.’ ‘You said black coffee.’ ‘No I didn’t!’ ‘Yes you did.’ ‘Why would I drive all the way around and go through the drive-thru again and order a black coffee that, again, I don’t want.’ So after two round trips through the drive-thru, I finally got my large fry, along with 2 large black coffees, at 1 am.”
“There’s Not Even A Combo Number For That…”
“When my brother-in-law was fourteen or fifteen, he went to a summer camp for a couple of weeks. The whole time he was there, he ate standard summer camp fare–not terrible food, but he certainly didn’t get to indulge in one of his favorite meals: a McDonald’s cheeseburger. When my in-laws picked him up to take him home, that was his one request. More than anything at that moment, he just wanted a cheeseburger. They made a quick stop at the drive-thru, and the family was back on the road. Wrappers were passed around the car, and everyone started eating. Then, from my brother-in-law in the backseat: ‘Uh…I got a biscuit.’ His parents turned around. ‘A what?’ ‘A biscuit.’ ‘Wait. You mean a sausage biscuit? Or an egg and cheese biscuit?’ ‘No. A plain biscuit.’ Instead of a cheeseburger, they had given my brother-in-law a biscuit, and I don’t mean a ‘biscuit’ in the way Brits use the term—a sweet, crisp pastry. I mean just a starchy roll in a cheeseburger wrapper. No meat, no cheese. In fact, the biscuit hadn’t even been sliced open. You can’t even order just a plain biscuit at McDonald’s. There is no combo number for ‘Plain, non-sliced biscuit with nothing on it.’ After two weeks of longing for a cheeseburger, my poor brother-in-law just sat in the backseat of the car, staring forlornly at a dry hunk of baked dough. The hilarity of the situation struck my father-in-law so hard that he doubled-over laughing and had to pull over to keep from driving off the road.”
This Person Clearly Doesn’t Know His Food Groups
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“I had to stop going to my favorite Chinese take out place. They switched owners, and the first time I went there after, I ordered my usual dish (Beef Lo Mein, no vegetables.) When I got home and opened my bag, I only found a dish of oil and beef. When I went back, they insisted that pasta was a vegetable. I managed to get them to remake it, but they insisted on keeping the original (why?) Next time, a week later, I order the same thing. I get it home, and again, no pasta, just beef and oil. I call the place, and the same person starts yelling at me on the phone about how pasta is a vegetable. After getting yelled at, I get told to bring the food back and that they will make my dish right and give me a refund. I go back in, and they shove a paper bag in my hand and start grumbling about pasta obviously being a vegetable. I get home and look in the bag. Just pasta; No beef, no oil, just pasta. I call them back, and they tell me that beef is a vegetable. I hung up and no longer go there.”
Third Time’s The Charm, Right?
“A few years ago, I ordered a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with medium fries.
Five minutes later, I’m handed the bag and I tuck into it, only to find that my burger is missing the bottom bun. Because of how sticky and plastic McDonald’s cheese is, the burger is literally glued to the box.
Dismayed, I ask for a replacement. A brand new box is given to me, and I get back to my food…only to find this one is also missing a bottom bun.
I send it back and get yet another replacement. Guess what? Missing a bottom bun. You might have thought they’d be realizing something was up by now.
Turns out one of the people preparing the food in the back had dozed off a bit and just made a massive pile of burgers without bottom buns.
I watched all that delicious food get thrown in the bin. The agony.”
Someone Beat Him To It
“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.”
That Is DEFINITELY Not Suppose To Be In A Chicken Select
“When I was younger, we went to McDonald’s in the summer for lunch and headed to the local park for a relaxing time in the sun. I ordered chicken selects, as I was prone to do at the time.
We sit down at one of the tables and start eating our meal. Two bites into a chicken select and I feel a super sharp pain in one of my teeth, and the chicken starts tasting really weird. Turns out I had broken one of my molars clean down the middle because of a piece of bone in the chicken. Luckily, I was still young enough that it was only a baby tooth.”
A Simple Mistake Turned Into A HUGE Ordeal
“First a tiny bit of background, my wife at the time was not just lactose intolerant but would get earth shattering cramps, horrendous smelling diarrhea and feel like she was on fire reaction if she got just a little bit of any kind of dairy.
Well, she went to a McDonald’s right across the street from her crappy retail job and ordered a McDouble with no cheese, like she did about 3 times a week because it was cheap and close and she had very short lunch breaks at said crappy retail job. She gets back to her work and noticed hey there is cheese on this, so she has to go all the way back over there and walks into the restaurant and asks to have it replaced.
The manager comes over and asks whats 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 highschool 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 explains to him she is allergic to cheese and needs one without cheese. So he hands the sandwich back to the grill area and they scrap the cheese off rewrap it and try to give it back to her.
She then, trying to be polite as possible, explains she cannot eat a sandwich that has had melted cheese scrapped off of it BECAUSE SHE IS FREAKING ALLERGIC YOU STUPID WASTE OF HUMAN FLESH.
So he huffs and gives her more attitude and roles his eyes and angrily throws the sandwich away and asks the grill to make a new one, she gets it, asks him if he is sure it doesn’t have cheese on it, he says yes and she leaves. Gets back to work opens up the bag and guess what she finds on her sandwich… TWO slices of cheese.
So she gets permission from her boss since now she has already burned like 35 minutes to get a stupid sandwich from across the street, walks back over there and the manager sees her coming and asks her, ‘Now what?’
My wife asked to speak to a different manager, who didn’t give her any attitude, apologized personally, made her a new one, 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 crappy service manager A gave her.
We got some gift cards from corporate and the owner of that particular franchise verified the story with manager B and manager A’s employment was terminated. They asked my wife to come tell her story at an employee meeting but she declined.”
“The Manager Actually Told Me…”
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“When I was moving into my first house, I ordered pizza to serve the friends who were helping me move. I went to Papa John’s about a mile away from my house, grabbed my pizzas, and returned to my new home. When I opened up one of the boxes, I noticed a dark colored blob that shouldn’t have been on this cheese pizza. Upon closer inspection, it was a cockroach, lying on its back with its little legs sticking up, baked into the cheese. Completely disgusted and pissed off, I rushed back to the restaurant to complain. When I showed them my roach-topped pizza, they denied that they would serve food in such a way, offering no sort of remedy to this situation. I continued arguing and they finally offered to replace my pizza; did they really think I would want another roach-infested pizza? I told them I only wanted my money back, that I would never eat at their establishment again. The manager then argued with me that they don’t have roaches and it must have crawled on there after I took the pizza home. Well, I certainly didn’t have roaches, and even if I did it wouldn’t be lying on its back baked into the pizza. After many minutes debating back and forth, they refunded my money. That happened in 2004, and I have not eaten at Papa John’s since.”
A Sticky Situation
“My order personally has never been messed up, but after working as a cashier and chef at the fast casual restaurant ‘PDQ’ for over 3 years, I’ve been through quite a few messed up orders. Possibly the biggest mistake that comes to mind occurred when a customer asked me for a ‘crispy chicken tossed in honey mustard.’ It was my third day on the job, and I knew for a fact that we had a crispy chicken sandwich, and knew how to add special instructions to request a tossing in honey mustard. I made two major mistakes. The first was that I didn’t realize that we also had a crispy chicken salad on the menu, and that particular salad was traditionally served with honey mustard dressing. PDQ happily tosses any salad in a dressing of your choice, so the customer was obviously a regular that knew that they enjoyed their salad tossed in the honey mustard dressing. Sadly, I didn’t know this. My second major flaw was out of pure laziness. Rather than putting ‘toss in honey mustard’ down as the special instruction, I wanted to save time, so instead I wrote, ‘toss in honey.’ The end product came out to be a crispy chicken sandwich, with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo, all of which was dunked in a bowl full of honey. This included the bun and toppings. Don’t ask me what the kitchen crew was thinking, I wish I could tell you. Out came a sandwich absolutely drenched in honey, and I don’t think I’ve ever apologized more to a single person than I did to that customer on that fateful day. Our manager gave the customer multiple free meal and shake cards, we quickly fixed the order, and everybody had a good laugh about it at the end of the day.”
She Almost Died
“I ordered at a local Chinese food place…they claim to make everything fresh on the spot, so I ordered pad thai with chicken instead of prawns because I am deathly allergic. I specify to the lady at the counter that NO PRAWNS ANYWHERE NEAR MY FOOD OR IT MAY KILL ME. Get my food home and it smells so good, I am excited. I was sitting in my dark lounge room with a movie and my food on my lap, and two bites in I can feel it happening…My airway is closing and my face is swelling, and I start to panic – thankfully as I am scuffling about at the first aid kit looking for an epi-pen with 911 dialed into my phone, my sister happened to come home and saved me.
$900 ambulance bill and a night in hospital later, I’m alive although still resemble the Michelin Man. My parents and sister were furious and were all ready to take them to court, but honestly, it could have been as simple as accidental cross contamination on a cutting board, so, I don’t want to take down a small local business. I did, however, go back, still puffy and swollen in the face to blast them and warn them to be more careful and they offered me free food for a year, but I haven’t actually gone back, I’m a little bit terrified to eat Chinese food.”
“They Poured It Right On Top Of…”
“As a treat for myself before an early morning university class, I pulled in to a coffee shop drive-thru to get a steeped tea with milk. When I got to my class and took my first sip I realized that they had started to pour coffee into my cup and after a quarter cup they realized it was supposed to be a tea and then just poured the tea on top of the coffee. It resulted in an unholy awful drink that I have no idea why anyone would think someone would want. I understand forgetting which drink is which when it’s busy, but I don’t understand looking at a mistake and then shrugging and just adding the right thing to the wrong as if that would be okay. ‘Well they wanted tea and it’s 3/4 tea so this is 3/4 right! I guess I don’t need to dump this out and start over right!’ pats self on the back for logic“
“It Became A Game With The Kids”
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“For 18 years straight, my hamburger order at Wendy’s restaurants in Canada was messed up every time, it didn’t matter which Wendy’s I went to. Here is my order: A single, no cheese, with extra ketchup, extra mayo, lettuce and mustard only. That is literally exactly how I’d order it. I’ve had all of the following at one point or another: Single cheese with extra ketchup, extra mayo, lettuce and mustard only. Single, no cheese, with extra ketchup, extra mayo, extra lettuce and extra mustard only. Single, with everything plus extra ketchup and extra mayo. Single, with extra ketchup, extra mayo, lettuce, mustard and tomato only. Chicken burger. Double burgers. It became quite the game with my kids. They’d say, ‘Dad, let’s see if they get your hamburger right this time!’ I never returned the burger, I always ate it (except if it had cheese, then I got it replaced). Once I even carefully read the bill. It was correct. I then heard the cook being confused as to the order. The cashier went and talked to him. I heard her say, ‘No, he only wants 4 things on his hamburger: mayo, ketchup, lettuce and mustard. And, give him a little extra mayo and ketchup!’ – which is exactly correct! She then walked away. My burger that time had everything (tomato, onion, etc) on it plus extra ketchup and mayo! So 18 years into this silly little game, we are in Grande Prairie Alberta. I give the order to the cashier, I get the burger and it’s perfect, my wife and kids can’t believe it. I go to the counter and ask to speak to the manager. The staff looks nervous of course. I explain how, after 18 years, this one store was finally able to make the burger correct! The manager was happy I wasn’t complaining about something but also shocked that a simple burger order could be screwed up so many times!”
The Crimes Against Pizza
“I have three unfortunate examples. Unfortunate for them, because I never purchased anything again from that franchise location.
1) Papa Johns Pizza. Shortly after moving from Detroit to the Dayton Ohio area, my wife and I decided to try theirs. We entered the building and ordered a large pizza with 3 toppings. Paid for it and waited as they prepared the order. About 20 minutes later it was still not ready. A couple of customers that had ordered after us had gotten their food and already departed. I walk up to the counter and query the clerk regarding my order. He replied that it would be about another 10 minutes until it was ready because the cook had forgotten to put any cheese on the first one and it was baked sans cheese. Really? Um, like REALLY? Yup. Got a free liter of pop for their goof up. I guess good help is truly hard to find in this neck of the woods.
2) Papa Johns Pizza. I must be a glutton for punishment. Decided to give them another chance. Ordered over the phone and went to pick it up. Usual wait time after a phoned in order is about 15–20 minutes, and I was there about 15 minutes after I called. Went up to the clerk to pay for it. He told me it would be about 20 minutes more. Why? They forgot to put on any toppings. Another liter of Coke for free. Go back to farming boys. This pizza game ain’t for you. Domino’s here I come.
3) Local pizza joint. We got a flyer in the mail for this newly opened pizza restaurant. Not a chain, but an expansion of one in the next city north of us. Read all the reviews I could find online and it appears to be a pretty good tasting pie. Let’s order us up one of those. I wanted to have some leftovers so I get an extra large with three or four toppings. This one I have delivered. I think it was a Friday night so the lead time that was given me was between 45 minutes to an hour. No big deal. Not at all unusual. My mouth was watering. It had been probably two years since I’d tasted a good pizza. One hour goes by. Nothing. Another 10 minutes passes. The phone rings. It’s the pizza place. They told me it’s going to be another hour. They baked my pizza with the pizza dough screen in the crust. WTF? Wow. A free future pizza would be forthcoming for my next order. She said that my name would go into a book they have for just this purpose. They actually have a book with free pizza due customers. Really?
4) I go out and buy a pizza stone. At least the corn down here is good.”
That’s Not How The English Drink Their Cokes
“I was living in Canada and went to a lovely restaurant with a friend. I ordered a coke and a water. When my coke came, it tasted funny. It took a couple of sips before I realised that they had poured the coke and the water into the same glass.
I spoke to the waiter who said, “I thought it was a bit odd but you are English so I just assumed it was the way you had your coke!”
I got a fresh coke and a separate glass of water shortly afterward!
As Soon As He Picked It Up, He Knew Something Was Wrong
“I ordered one of those bacon and egg bagels from McDonald’s. Before they changed them, they were pretty good. Anyway, I hit the drive-thru and pulled out of the parking lot.
I picked up the wrapped bagel and I could tell something was wrong. The bagel was hard as a rock. There is no way in heck anyone would be able to eat it. I turned around, went back, marched into the McDonald’s, (and yes, I know this was rude) said to them, ‘My bagel’s a bit stale’ and rapped it on the counter. The manager’s eyes were wide with shock.
I got my money back and a free, edible bagel.”
Not Much Of A Fiesta
“Every time I go to Taco Bell, I will make sure to order one a side of fiesta potatoes along with my meal. But as I was eating, I found thin strips of plastic in them, ones that were strong enough to have been from a milk carton. There were about 10 strips in there, laced in between potatoes. One of my weirdest experiences ever. Soon after my mom and I complained, that Taco Bell location was shut down due to a rat infestation.”
Know Your Vegetables
“I stopped at a bistro in Chicago where I ordered a bagel sandwich. The employee that took my order asked me if I wanted Brussels sprouts on it. I thought, ‘Brussels sprouts? That’s kind of cool.’ ‘Yes,’ I answered. When I received my bagel, it had alfalfa sprouts on it. I (calmly) shared with the employee that what I had received were alfalfa sprouts, so that she would know how to ask customers about it in the future.”
I Said This But He Heard That
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“I’m not a Greek speaker, so ordering food in Athens was always going to be problematic. I was in a bar that sold both food and drink. I observed the ordering/delivery system, and it seemed that the lone worker would take an order, pass the previous person’s order to them, take the next order, pass the previous person’s order, etc. Out of phase by one order. It was hot, I was thirsty, so I ordered a Fanta. Because of the seeming out-of-step order/delivery system, I wasn’t surprised when he immediately prepared a plate of cheese. I WAS surprised when he delivered it to me. I said ‘Fanta’ but he heard ‘Feta.’ Fooled by my Kiwi accent, which tends to turn the letter ‘a’ into a short ‘e.’ I should have ordered ‘Funta.'”
