We’ve all had a moment where our world was utterly destroyed by the findings of something curious or disgusting in the meal we order from our favorite restaurants.

I remember my moment — 13-years-old at the time, eating tacos in the backseat of my mom’s minivan. It was pure bliss — Taco Tuesday my mom driving thru my once-favorite hole-in-the-wall. On my second taco, I found a piece of used chewing gum stuck to the shell of the taco. Being the germaphobe that I am (and I feel in this case, rightfully so), I squealed like a chew toy until my mom pulled the car over.

We were too far away from the taco joint to voice a complaint, but the damage was done. I threw everything away, traumatized. To this day, I can’t look at hard shell tacos without double-checking each side for stray chewing gum.

Luckily, when the Internet was asked about the weirdest and nastiest things they’d ever found in their food, they responded with gold and I in that moment I knew I wasn’t alone.Of course, it’s the Internet, so we may have to take some of these stories with a grain of salt:

Bugs are the worst

A slug. It was in my bento box. Luckily, I hadn’t touched the food yet. I called the waiter over, and pointed it out. She thought I was asking what the food was, so she started explaining. I shook my head, and pointed again. She yelped, and took the food away.

A few minutes later, she apologized, and gave me a fresh one. It turns out that they used pre-packed lettuce, and the slug must have come in the bag. They were really apologetic, and gave me a voucher for next time.

Still my favourite restaurant. 10/10 would eat there again. (verte_aile)

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Cock roach half hanging out of victim’s mouth when she took a bite. We ordered the same thing.

When a manager showed up we were told not to make a scene.

Ended up yelling their was a cock roach in our food and you don’t want to refund us but want to give us a coupon to come back?! Yup. Pretty much the entire restaurant left. (Kiky23)

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Reminds me of something my uncle did.

He was eating at some Asian restaurant when he found a roach in is soup. He calmly took the roach out and put it off to the side and then finished the entire soup. He then put the roach back in the bowl and went to complain to get another bowl of free soup. (alonso23422)

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Not as nasty as most, but I found a fried fly in my McDonalds fries. (RikkuHoraiji)

Probably contained more nutrients than the fries. (elitemember)

When someone else gets to your food first…

McDonalds. There was literally a bite in my burger when I opened it up LOL. (BlackenBlueShit)

Used bandages pop up more than you’d realize…

A used bandage with blood on it in my guacamole — yea — found it when it went into my mouth.

I made a big stink about it and everyone in the restaurant heard what happened, a few people actually walked out of the place.

I’ve never gone back, not even sure if they are still in business. (MadLintElf)

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Same thing happened to me but with Chinese food.

I chewed on it thinking it was just a tough piece of chicken. It was takeout, and found it while eating at home. I let out the loudest and longest “ewww” of my life. Got a refund though. Never went back. (LucianAltair89)

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I worked in a courthouse and one of the judges had a case where a teenage girl at a Chinese buffet restaurant sued because she found a bandaid inside a fried dumpling. Her family had her tested for aids, hepatitis, etc. all tests came back negative.

The restaurant’s lawyer offered a lowball settlement amount of $4,500. His argument: while gross, the girl wasn’t really injured. the family argued that the girl went through high school known as the “AIDS girl” due to the incident. This was South Philly- not a place known for sensitivity and respect.

Case went to trial and she got $4 million. While Philly residents are insensitive, their jurors are also pretty generous.

Mediators still show that verdict to defense lawyers who give lowball offers.

EDIT: found an article from before the trial. I was a little off on some of the facts, but this happened 11 years ago. I’ll see if I can find an article about the verdict.

EDIT 2: Verdict was FOUR MILLION DOLLARS! (gnujack)

When the food is not what you expect…

One time at Checkers I ordered a vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Chocolate sauce turned out to be barbecue sauce, both bottles looked the exact same apparently. Luckily I was stoned and just ate it anyway.  (MuffinMilky)

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When I worked at a retirement home, I was putting together some bowls of ice cream with chocolate sauce for the 4 old dudes who didn’t like the dessert that night. Only one of them noticed that it was off and complained to me. Turns out they had vanilla ice cream covered in balsamic vinegar reduction. (themittenstate)

Hair and food don’t mix…

A clump of black hair nestled deeply in my cheesy fries at Steak n’ Shake. Never been back. (SwanRonson23)

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There’s a Harley bar in Okinawa near Camp Foster. I ordered a Jack and Coke and there was a hair frozen into the ice cube. It was about a foot long. As I’m holding it up, the bartender/owner looks over and without skipping a beat, says “Cunt hair, that’ll cost you extra.”

I tossed it aside and finished my drink cuz I ain’t no bitch. (Cheef_Queef)

Quit screwing around in the kitchen…

A giant rusty bolt. Like, Frankenstein’s monster’s neck-bolt. In my stir-fry. Like a bitch I still paid tho. (Beyonce_Fanatic)

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My buddy found a 2″ sheetrock screw in his soup at Olive Garden. (MyKidsAreOCD)

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Technically this was at a movie theater, not a restaurant.

I was with my family at the local movie theater and we had gotten there a little early. I was munching away on my popcorn without a care in the world, waiting for the lights to dim and the previews to start. I had been talking to my parents while shoveling the popcorn into my mouth when my mom stopped mid-sentence and grabbed my arm to stop me. She exclaimed, “what is that??”

We stared down at the kernel in my hand and could barely make out something small and round on it, but it was hard to make out as it was covered in that yellow powdery popcorn seasoning. At first glance, we thought it may have been a bug but we realized it was actually the cap of an OPEN SAFETY PIN with a piece of popcorn wedged into it!

Thankfully the lights were still on or I would have blindly shoved the entire thing in my mouth. We now get free popcorn/snacks for life at this theater. They know us as the “safety pin” family. (meowzmeow)

Note: Stories edited for grammar, punctuation and context.