I was in London, at an extremely expensive Japanese restaurant, and was enjoying the meal, until the 3rd course, which was what looked like a flower, but was in fact pickled octopus. I ate it, but extremely quickly had to dash for the toilet, and spent the next half hour throwing up. No one missed me until the 6th course (of 9) and then OH came to find me in a small heap on the floor, clutching the toilet like it was my best friend.

The journey home by tube was horrendous- I could barely walk, was sweating like mad and I kept retching into a bag. The other couple we were out with had a tremendous row after we left and stormed out- one missed his train and ended up in Hove rather than Brighton!!

I could taste the octopus for days afterwards, and had terrible cramps and diarrhoea too.

Glad I read this after eating my dinner

Mmmmm there have been a few but I think two of the worst have to be in Florida. One because it was a frozen meal that they defrosted and served it with warm white wine and the other because it was soooooo large it turned my stomach.

Had some shocking meals at people's houses but I can forgive that as I am a guest and not everyone can cook - it is about the company!!

Tiddler had major jaw surgery, few days in ICU on drips, first day on a general ward, jaws banded together, face swollen, possibly 1mm gap between teeth and they served her a plate that held one ice cream scoop of solid mash, one of solid squash and one of something indeterminate. Good job I'd taken in yogurts although even they were a struggle.

Maybe you needed the livelier version. My friend from uni lived in Korea for a few years and said dinner at her landlord's house one night included octopus legs, freshly removed from their owner, and still flipping around on the plate.

She ate one to be polite.

I saw a video on YouTube where what looked like a raw octopus was in a dish and then they poured soy sauce on it and it started waving its legs around...looked horrendous, but according to some of the comments its the sodium which causes the tissues to contract or summit...it's not actually signs of life.

I like octopus cos everybody gets a leg

Interesting. I have no idea if it was soaked in soy sauce or not. From my understanding, the legs were removed immediately before serving and she said it was some sort of autonomic reflex. I'm sure the sodium doesn't help though. Kinda like slugs and salt I guess.

I don't know about a meal but we went to a cafe in Southport (UK) where we had the worst cup of tea and instant coffee ever! Two sips and we were out of there!!!

I am feeling decidedly queasy at the tales of wriggling octopus legs.....'scuse me a minute.......

My mum and I went for a curry in Forster, NSW and it was awful. The starter was definitely warmed up from the day before and I'm sure the curry mains had been sitting around at least all morning. I was very worried we might get gastroenteritis, but luckily we didn't. Will never cross that threshold again I can tell you.

This is a close call between a restaurant in Llanberis in NW Wales and aGreek restaurant in Paris.

The meal we had in Wales was a shocker. We were really hungry and there weren't many options / places open. I think we had a stew type thing and my god!!!!! This meal had SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much salt in it! It actually made you catch your breath and and burn your throat! I can only imagine that there was an accident with a salt pot on a shelf above the cooking pot and the chef didn't taste his food! The pudding was supposed to be ice cream, but was just cold cream with hard lumps of ice flakes in it! No flavour.

In Paris we found a nice looking Greek restaurant that had a very eccentric waiter! He wrote your order on the paper table cover with a pen. We ordered moussaka but the egg plant was so bitter it was very hard to eat!

South of France, 2001.

A tepid meal. Complete muck.

Ordered a baked jacket spud in Maroochydore Plaza.

Some hideous price like $8 for a potato with cheese.

Half ! a largish potato on the plate and after one bite discover its rotten, black and smelly.

Took it back and the asswit owner accused me of eating it then returning it!!! Refused to refund money.

I took the half spud, placed it on his till and gave it one mighty thump leaving more than $8 of mess.