Oh my god. This was a long time ago, but the awfulness of the experience is still fresh in my mind.

Scenario: My wife and I are having a pre-cinema early evening meal out at a recently opened restaurant within walking distance of the cinema complex. The first time either of us had tried the place.

For the main I ordered a jacket potato with some filling (can't remember, doesn't matter). The bottom third of the potato was rock-hard. It had obviously been originally cooked much earlier and just been bunged in a microwave to re-heat it, but had been left in to long, such that the base of the potato had been completely baked solid by contact with the hot plate it had been standing on.

While trying to chew this, the waitress walked up and started to pour wine into my glass… which was odd because I hadn't ordered any because I was driving.

While I was explaining this to the waitress a bloke three table further along was saying “excuse me, I think that's meant for me”. The waitress didn't apologise, just picked up my glass and moved it to the other chaps table.

I was ready to leave, but my wife wanted a dessert. I didn't much fancy anything, so I went for cheese and biscuits.

After a long wait the waitress bought my wife's dessert. Then she said a sentence that I remember to this day.

“The chef says we don't have much cheese left, and he wants to keep it in case someone else wants to order it later”.

I was quite literally momentarily speechless - which was all the time the waitress needed to scurry away.

I couldn't get my head around the fact they had some cheese, but didn't want to sell it to me just in case of… what?

• A more deserving customer?
• Someone with better money than me?
• A surprise royal visitor?

… turned up later in the evening.

What did I do?

• Didn't leave a tip, and
• I never set foot in the place since… I reckon about 32 years ago now.
• If anyone ever asks me for a restaurant recommendation I always make sure to warn them off this place.