Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

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Walking Around Paris to Celebrate French Husband’s Birthday: The Worse Meal EVER

Walking Around Parisc corey amaro

 

Yesterday was French Husband's birthday. Sacha, Chelsea, Alice and Mr. Espresso joined us for a day of hanging out.

All was well, until dinner… let's just say that if Paris had a horrible place to eat, one that you would take the devil to, (or this is for you Cheryl one that you would take that chick potato to), or to a place which you would NEVER EVER GO AGAIN… we ate there.

I cannot tell you how bad it was because I become sick just thinking we PAID to dine there.

Mr. Espresso kept cheering us on by saying, "At least we are altogether." In which French Husband would agree and smile happily. But even he did not finish his dinner, and usually French Husband makes a garbage can look difficult to fill… We all begged him to finish our plates and well he couldn't.

Depressing.

But we were altogether in our misery celebrating his 53rd.

(Above photo collage via Alice Aplin.)

 

Walking Around Paris corey amaro

 

 

Oh glorious Paris who could tire of you?

If ever you should fall Eiffel Tower, I hope you will fall on that horrible restaurant, of course excluding the people who are sadly eating there. And that the cook gets such a scare that she takes up scuba diving.

 

Walking Around Paris corey amaro

 

 

I went to the brocante.

I missed by seconds some of the best things ever… I blame it on indigestion, and the terrible thoughts regarding the chef that I was carrying around. Bad thoughts get me nowhere.

To THINK we PAID for that meal.

At one point during our meal I had to get up and walk out for air. Then I walked back in and stuffed Chelsea's plate content in a napkin so Chelsea could stuff it in her purse. Poor purse. French Husband was not pleased. Total people pleaser, talk about kissing up the cook. But then in all honesty none of us wanted to insult the cook by being honest. Instead I am writing the post.

 

 

Walking Around Paris corey amaro

 

 

(Photo collage via Alice Aplin)

 

Walking Around Paris corey amaro

 

 

Have you ever had and paid for a bad meal?

What would you have done?

Vomit?

Loudly?

French Husband is rolling his eyes, and blowing out his mouth like the French do in disgust.

Alice, Sacha, Chelsea and Mr. Espresso agree with me.

We were altogether and that is all that matters.

Sorta.

Comments

21 responses to “Walking Around Paris to Celebrate French Husband’s Birthday: The Worse Meal EVER”

  1. Marilyn

    Oh I hate when that happens!!! Happy Birthday to your husband, but I think he deserves another meal to help forget this experience. I hope I don’t go there on my next visit to Paris. Wonderful pictures of you by your Alice.

    Reply
  2. g

    corey sorry about the meal but you will all have this memory and in time will laugh about it…but 2 other things I must comment on –the grouping of the photos of you are BEAUTIFUL-you are doing what I call the Stevie Nick’s twirl-and you look heavenly and 2 and please answer what did you miss out on I MUST KNOW!PLEASE ANSWER I AM BEGGING YOU-

    Reply
  3. Diogenes

    When I read ” The Worse Meal EVER…” I wondered if I had cooked for you. But then I remebered, you’re in France and I’m not.
    From what you’ve written I’m guessing it was 58 Tour Eiffel?
    I did once pay for a meal and got up and left, without hardly touching the food, for the same reason.

    Reply
  4. Merisi

    Mamma mia! 🙁
    It was not my worst meal, but it had a funny sort of ending:
    A country inn south of Rome. All was good until I had eaten about half of my salad and discovered a big fat live snail between the leaves. The inn was family run, including an about 6 year boy who acted as the server. I showed him the snail and he took the plate back to the kitchen. In the next scene, way later, be brought the bill. Salad charge: half price. I asked the boy why they had charged me for the salad? Well, he answered, you have eaten half of it, haven’t you? I tipped him well, the clever fellow. 😉

    Reply
  5. Kathie

    The worst restaurant meals have been those that resulted in food poisoning: nearly all were likely due to tainted meat, so the problem has abated in the past quarter century.
    Worst non-poisonous meals? In both cases we were famished, poor, and traveling, so we had to eat at cheap places:
    A long-ago pepperoni pizza in New Haven, Connecticut, that was so fatty we had to blot the grease off the top with loads of paper napkins before we could eat it, and even then it was way too greasy.
    A long-ago chicken à la king in a village along the north shore of the St. Lawrence in Québéc, while we waited for the next auto-ferry across river — so much flour in the cream sauce it was like paste — and the staff there either spoke no English or at least pretended not to in order out of hostility.
    Best meals ever? At the student-run restaurants at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York (the chef insisted on preparing me a special vegetarian platter, despite my protests, and wow, was it fantastic, as was dessert!).

    Reply
  6. Cheryl

    Yep, that chick potato was probably the cook….then she sped off in her new shiny car before you had a chance to say “what do you think this is ,Bunny week?” !!!

    Reply
  7. Karen C

    We returned to a restaurant a second time after an error was made with our account. The second visit was totally disastrous. When it came time to pay my husband gave correct money and the owner said jovially “What? No tip?” To which my husband replied, “a tip? You’re expecting a tip? The first time we came we were overcharged $100, this time our order was completely messed up, we had to ask for dishes to be brought out and a glass was shattered over the table. A tip? Here’s your tip – there won’t be third visit!!”

    Reply
  8. Ann

    Terrible when that happens. I had one of those meals that I would rather starve than eat. We stayed in a 5 star hotel with awesome food in Mazatlan, Mexico. But we decided to venture out and experience other restaurants along the coast. We decided to eat breakfast at one coastline café and I asked for fresh orange juice which our hotel always served, but they brought orange soda and it only got worse.
    This breakfast was not edible. I didn’t eat one bite of the worst breakfast ever.

    Reply
  9. dee

    Corey, you have such a way with words….you totally crack me up!

    Reply
  10. Leslie in Oregon

    The worst meals I ever had were in my hotel “dining room” in Moscow during Soviet times. As a student, I had been required to pre-pay for food and lodging. I was there for five weeks in the dead of winter, when there was no fresh produce anywhere, and every meal consisted of (no choices then) old, hard potatoes; old, tough chicken or old, tough beef; delicious pickled cucumbers and a variant of plain yoghurt with jam. There were no actual restaurants and buying food at a store meant depriving some Russian standing in line of whatever I purchased. I subsisted on pickled cucumbers and yoghurt and was grateful to have them.

    Reply
  11. Andrea

    You are hilarious!
    We could so picture it all!
    Thank you for sharing
    I am still in laughter!

    Reply
  12. Ed in Willows

    Not complaining about a bad meal is the worse thing you can do. It might be good manners in France to not say anything but it’s bad business. If customers don’t complain, an owner can’t get feedback on a chef’s performance. My son is a chef and customer reviews are the only way of finding out how the food is. If it had been me, I would have stopped eating as soon as I realized the food was bad. I would have complained to the staff and if nothing was done, I would have paid (no tip) and left. In the US there are web site for rating restaurants and that place would be getting a bad review.

    Reply
  13. RebeccaNYC

    I had a terrible meal recently….a Kale salad at a place in Woodstock Vermont. The Kale was in full leaf, not chopped or massaged at all, just plopped on the plate and dressed with only vinegar. It had a little bit of crumbled goat cheese and a few pecans on it. That’s all. It was $12. Did I complain? Oh I wish I had sent it back and gotten something else! I went to bed so hungry that night….

    Reply
  14. Teddee Grace

    Well, if you can’t divulge the restaurant, can you at least tell us what you had and why it was so unpalatable? I’m all ears!

    Reply
  15. Paulita

    I think you should share the restaurant name, otherwise, other readers might go there and be equally disappointed in their meals. You can also write a review on yelp to warn other diners.

    Reply
  16. Teresa Young

    Tell sweet Yann a Happy Birthday! We all have has those terrible meals…then we can focus on eat other and not the food.

    Reply
  17. Teresa Young

    Gosh…I should have spell checked! I think you probably got it. I hope you enjoyed the time together.

    Reply
  18. Julia Thelen

    Please give the name or at least the address, so that I never go there, or worse, take guests! Please!

    Reply
  19. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    What oh what did you have?? And what made it so awful for each and every one of you, that not one got a tasty dinner? I want details, more details.
    and, I’m intrigued by your layered garments, and is the bottom-most black layer sort of puffed in at the hem (can something be “puffed in”?? gathered I suppose is the right term) to give it that wonderful shape? I want a closeup of that attire.
    xoxR You never fail to amuse.

    Reply
  20. monika

    Oh please tell us what made it so terrible!! I can’t believe there are truly bad meals to be had anywhere in France — mediocre, maybe, but bad? No, that shatters my illusions about France 😉
    The worst meal I ever had wasn’t in a restaurant, it was at a friend’s house (a university professor and his wife, a famous writer). Cold congealed Spam with (salty) pineapple on hard dried-out rice. Second worst meal: undercooked eggplant and tempeh soup ( another university professor’s wife… hmm, I am sensing a pattern here!!) — absolutely inedible.

    Reply
  21. Brenda, Walker, LA

    If they ask, I tell them, nicely but stay factual, no one likes a bad meal, much less have to pay for one. Perhaps the chef is disillusioned about her cooking and presentation thereof. It could help them in the long run.

    Reply

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