It boggles our minds how low some restaurant workers’ standards are, and just how little pride some individuals have in their jobs. No, the customer may not always be right, but they do deserve to be treated with respect and politeness. They deserve to have a nice meal! Alas, that’s not always the case, as some folks end up finding bugs, cigarette butts, and mold in their food.

Bored Panda has collected photos featuring some of the most atrocious restaurant experiences from all around the net. We hope you’re not snacking on anything at the moment because the odds are that these pics are going to ruin your appetite. Scroll down to see what to never ever do if you own a business that serves food.

#1 My Chef Found This At Another Local Restaurant. I Never Saw A Mop Sink Used For Defrosting Before

Image credits: theblackgate19

#2 McDonald’s Secret Menu Item – The McNope

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#3 Local Restaurant Where I’m From. Who Needs Food Safety, Right?

Image credits: Connman1151

Practicing proper hygiene in the kitchen isn’t just a matter of the lack of respect—it’s also a question of health. If you’re serving your customers undercooked, sloppily prepared food with God knows what detritus mixed in among the ingredients of questionable freshness, you might make someone seriously sick while also severely damaging the business’ reputation.

#4 This Restaurant Bathroom In Florida

Image credits: Patient_Antelope_298

#5 When The Restaurant Says They Have “Vegan Options”

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#6 Towards The End Of My Meal At A Fancy Restaurant, I Bit Into Something Chewy Which Was A Cigarette Filter

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And if you’re making your customers fall ill that can have major repercussions for the future of your career in the food service industry. It means that you can lose your job. You’re also leaving yourself open to lawsuits while your place of work can be shut down for not following hygiene protocols.

#7 I Ordered A Pizza From A Local Restaurant And Found A Latex Glove In It. Bolton, UK

Image credits: VeNzorrR

#8 I Was Told Mold Is Just Penicillin

I went to the freezer and pulled this out. The owner told us to pick out the good parts. It won’t hurt because mold is just penicillin. We threw the whole thing away. I’m looking for another job.

Image credits: pretty_girl_can_bake

#9 I Was Servicing The Exhaust Hoods At A Popular Chain Restaurant. This Was Under The Fryer

Image credits: TheSmartestMan

Not only that, serving substandard dishes is an indication that the chef lacks empathy for their customers, they may be too lazy or burned out to enforce decent standards, or there are other serious issues at play in the background. You can easily tell if a chef has fallen out of love with their job or is overworked to hell and back: you’ll see it when the server brings their dish to your table, and you’ll taste it in that first yucky mouthful.

#10 This Restaurant Didn’t Understand Why I Sent My Burger Back. They Said It Was Cooked Perfectly

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#11 I Work At A Restaurant And Our Water Is Dirty. This Is What Coming Out Of The Kitchen Faucet

Image credits: Mr_Lunt_

#12 I’ve Picked Up A Pizza Order, And Is That A Baby On The Counter?

Image credits: Funkiebunch

Improperly storing ingredients is a major problem in some kitchens. This comes down to either a lack of training, a lack of managerial oversight, or a lack of care about the consequences of one’s actions. If food is stored sloppily, you can end up with pathogens growing in it or you might end up with cross-contamination.

#13 McDonald’s Happy Meals Now Comes With Jewelry

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#14 I Found Roach In My McDonald’s Coffee In Kailua, Hawaii

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#15 Snapped This Picture At A Vegas Restaurant. They Were Serious

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Bacteria, fungi, viruses, and various microorganisms thrive in some food items more than in others. For example, some of the most fertile breeding grounds for pathogens include raw eggs, raw chicken, raw flour, seafood, and unpasteurized milk. As a rule of thumb, ingredients that have a low acid and a high moisture content tend to go off very quickly.

#16 I Ordered Boneless Wings For The Big Game. Only Three Were Not Completely Raw. It Was $76, And DoorDash Refuses To Give Us A Refund

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#17 Restaurant Bathroom In Hong Kong

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#18 BBQ Chicken “Wings” Served At A Local Restaurant

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On the flip side, food items with high acidity and low moisture content can be left out for longer. So it’s not a disaster if you leave out lemons, jam, pickles, rice cakes, and crackers for a longer bit of time. However, the opposite is true for, say, raw shrimp, which needs to be utilized ASAP.

A good chef will know how quickly each ingredient needs to be prepared and how to store them properly so there’s no danger to the customer. Broadly speaking, the so-called danger zone for pathogen growth is between 4 to 60 degrees Celsius (that’s 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit). 

#19 I Found This Hanging Behind A Chinese Restaurant In My Neighborhood

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#20 Guy At My Local Taco Bell Found Fly Eggs In His Meal

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#21 I Was Eating Breakfast At A Restaurant When I Noticed This. It Says “Not Clean”

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Every proper restaurant should have a hygiene checklist for both the kitchen staff and the front-of-house employees so that everyone knows what needs to be cleaned and when. The Canadian Institute of Food Safety suggests cleaning and sanitizing splattered kitchen walls, food prep areas, and sinks every single day. Kitchen staff should also sweep and mop the floors, walk-in fridges, and storage areas daily, too, as well as clean the inside and outside of garbage cans.

#22 I Work In Refrigeration And Found This While Working

Image credits: Gaddafo

#23 I Used To Live Behind A Chinese Restaurant That Was Named As One Of The Ten Best In LA. I Came Out My Door One Day And Saw This

Image credits: Smock511

#24 I Work At A Chain Restaurant. This Somehow Made It Past The Prep People And Almost On To A Customers Plate

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Not only that, but wash rags, towels, aprons, and uniforms should be washed daily. Garbage has to be disposed of every day, too. And staff should take the time to manually clean grills, fryers, beverage machines, coffee makers, microwaves, and toasters. That’s a lot of work! But the entire point of it is to maintain high standards and ensure top-quality food.

#25 I Found A Tape Roll Sealed Inside A Bag Of Fries At McDonald’s

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#26 I Saw A Mouse In A Restaurant And Looks Like I Wasn’t The First Customer To See It

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#27 My Friend Received Ants In Her Icing From The Burger King

Image credits: CandyGrenades

Meanwhile, walk-in fridges and freezers ought to be sanitized once a week. Other weekly restaurant kitchen tasks include manually cleaning the floor drains, the ovens, the deep fryer, and the floor mats. Meanwhile, once a month, the kitchen staff should manually clean the walls and the ceiling, the area behind the hotline, and the vent hoods. They can also use this opportunity to empty the grease traps.

#28 I Ordered A Popeyes Chicken Sandwich The Other Night And Cracked My Tooth On A Metal Screw Embedded In The Chicken

Image credits: melonsoycoy

#29 A Subway Worker Was Fired After He Recorded Himself Trashing The Restaurant, Walking On Top Of The Food With His Shoes On, And Placing Meat On The Toilet Seat

Image credits: HipHop_Local_Legends

#30 I Present To You, The New McDonald’s Sydney Creation, The McPenicillin

Image credits: darkmaninperth

Which of these awful restaurant pics disgusted you the most, Pandas? What’s been the worst restaurant experience that you’ve ever had? What were the hygiene standards like in the kitchen if you’ve ever worked in the food service industry? Drop by the comment section to share your thoughts.

#31 Multiple Restaurants Refused To Properly Dispose Of Their Grease And All Blamed Each Other

Image credits: StagnantSweater21

#32 We Asked Our Waitress For A Glass Of Ice And Some Guacamole. This Is What We Got

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#33 My Sister Got This Bagel From Tim Hortons Restaurant

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#34 I Ordered What This Restaurant Had Aptly Named “Curry Surprise”

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#35 The Restaurant I Went To Added A 3% Fee Just Because, But If You Ask, They Can Take It Off

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#36 We Found This In A Delivery Bag. Delivery Drivers At The Pizza Place I Worked At Didn’t Care

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#37 This Toilet In A KFC Restaurant Is Not Free Even For Customers

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#38 All Of This Meat Was Left By A Chef. These Dates Are Crazy, And Some Are From 2014, 2018

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#39 So I Work At A Bar In A Strip Mall Next To A Chinese Restaurant. They Keep The Food They’re Prepping In The Dirty Back Hallway That The Employees Smoke In

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#40 This Is What I Get For Cheating On My Diet

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#41 I Got This $10 Salad At A Restaurant

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#42 Hooters Wings Messy Kitchen

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#43 This Is Why I Don’t Get Ice At A Restaurant. This Thing Is Nasty

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#44 This Is How Prep Station Looks At My Local Chinese Restaurant

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#45 I Just Bit Into A Hidden “Prize” I Got From Pappas Greek Truck For Lunch

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#46 I Went To A Local Restaurant And Ordered A Water. This Is What I Got

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#47 My Friend Ordered A Pre-Cooked Turkey From A Local Restaurant

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#48 I Ordered A Take-Out From A Local Restaurant For Lunch Today, And This Is How My Burger Came

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#49 I Spotted This In A Paris Restaurant

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#50 Because Money Touching Pizza Is Better

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#51 The Little Screens At This Korean Fried Chicken Restaurant Shows Children Watching You While You Do Your Business

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#52 Silverlake Ramen San Diego

1st. Cooked chicken stacked with raw chicken.

2nd. The broth was left out overnight, reheated, and sold. 

3rd. Not even sure what’s going on here, but it’s being scraped out by hand.

4th. Grease thick enough to scrape.

5th. Filthy under-the-stove burners.

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#53 I Found A Restaurant I Won’t Be Eating At

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#54 Do I Have A Moral Obligation To Report A Restaurant I Just Quit?

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#55 $3 Pasta Salad I Ordered From Jamie Oliver’s Airport Restaurant

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#56 My Sister Was Just Served This At A Local Mexican Restaurant

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#57 Lentil “Soup” That We Serve In The Restaurant That I Work

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#58 Thanks, Taco Bell. I Really Wanted That Cardboard With My Cheesy Gordita Crunch

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#59 I Got Seated At A Local Restaurant And Saw This

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#60 The Filthy State Of A Mug Given To My Blind Colleague At A Local Cafe. I Only Discovered This When It Was Too Late. This Is Appalling

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#61 What Do You Think Of This Mold In A Local Restaurant?

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#62 This Is What The Norwegian Food Safety Authority Found In One Of The Norway’s Largest McDonald’s. It Was Shut Down On The Spot

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#63 My Coworker Pulled This Giant Shard Of Glass Out Of Her Mouth From A Meal She Got At Taco Bell. About An Inch Big

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#64 In The Kitchen Of A Thai Restaurant, I Work At. I Don’t Eat Here Despite Free Meals

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#65 A Friend Of Mine Just Ordered Some “Fish And Chips” At A Local Restaurant In Duluth. She Certainly Got What She Asked For

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#66 I Ordered Caesar Salad For $15 From One Of The Local Restaurants

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#67 Urinal At A Restaurant In Nevada

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#68 Caprese Salad Takeout From The Local Restaurant

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#69 I Ordered Some Food For Delivery Today, And There’s A Massive Metal Handle In My Food. I Got A Partial Refund From The DoorDash

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#70 Restaurant’s Charcuterie Board As Advertised vs. What I Got

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#71 This Salad I Got From Italian Restaurant In Egypt Hotel

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#72 I Found This In My Take-Out From My Favorite Chinese Restaurant

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#73 I Paid Extra For Cheese

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#74 I Ordered A $12 Salad

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#75 This Steak I Ordered. Who Serves A $50 Steak Without Side Dishes?

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#76 The Boyfriend Still Ate It

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#77 I Ordered Sushi In Pakistan, And This Is What They Made

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#78 I Ordered Frites With Anchovy Dressing. I Think It Was Lost In The Translation

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#79 I Spent Like Two Hours Trying To Completely Clean This Nasty Fryer, As Everybody Else Only Does It Partially Or Doesn’t Even Do It At All

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#80 I Found Larvae Worm Or Maggot. It Was Served To Me At Santa Fe Hotel & Casino In Grand Cafe

The situation was handled horribly. I never leave reviews especially negative ones, but I have a right to speak up about what happened as a customer.

Image credits: idkhowtousethisshiz

#81 I Asked For A Water At The Restaurant, And They Brought This Out. I Figured That’s Just How They Do Their Water, But It Turns Out They Charge $8 For It

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#82 There Are 6 Of These On The Walls In The Employee Bathroom Of The Fairly Expensive Restaurant I Work At

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#83 I Ordered A McDonald’s Breakfast Because I Was Hungover, And There Was No Food In The House. I’ve Made A Mistake

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#84 This Restaurant Provided Us With Plastic Cups Because We Were In Everyday Clothing. However, Other People Around Us Had Normal Glasses

We had to ask twice to even get service and the glass glasses.

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#85 Kids Talked Me Into Taking Them To IHOP. We Waited Over An Hour To Get Uncooked Pancakes

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#86 I Ordered Fried Pickles As An Appetizer. I Got 1 Pickle Cut Into 4, And It Cost Me $10

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#87 My Burger From A “5-Star” Restaurant Today

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#88 How They Served My Boyfriend’s Buffalo Mozzarella Salad In A Restaurant In Rome

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#89 French Toast Doesn’t Fit Together, From The Restaurant I Ordered

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#90 I Went To A Fancy Restaurant, And My Caesar Salad Came With A Little Extra Protein

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#91 I Found A Piece Of Plastic In The Burger

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#92 This Is Our “Reopened” Burger King

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#93 I Worked At A Retirement Home As A Server, And A Resident Ordered Scrambled Eggs With Cheese. Chef Messed It Up, And When I Corrected Him, He Gave Me This

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#94 At A Gas Station/BBQ Place Off The Highway In Colorado. It’s Literally A Dirty Dishwasher Tray

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#95 I Don’t Have Super High Expectations At Olive Garden, But What Is This? The Waitress Acted Like Everything Was Okay

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#96 The Amount Of Uncooked Fries In My McDonald’s Order

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#97 I Got This Steak From My Local Restaurant

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#98 Restaurant Owner: “We Service Our Refrigeration Systems Every 6 Months”

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#99 The Day Taco Bell Betrayed Me

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#100 This Is Actually Disgusting. Kebab With A Side Of Rust

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#101 They Packed My Leftover Spaghetti Bolognese And Fettuccine Alfredo In The Same Container

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#102 McDonald’s McCafe Ham And Cheese Toastie

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#103 This “Large” Starbucks Drink. I Haven’t Taken A Sip

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Source: boredpanda.com