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I will happily share my worst meal ever because even though it happened in the mid 1990s it still haunts me to this day. A friend and me were visiting England (I know, ominous start) and we were going up to Oxford from London to visit a student friend later in the day. We were so new to Oxford and England that we didn't quite get how small and close everything was. So we got off the train at the Oxford station and proceeded to walk through the town into the next village thinking we were still in Oxford. My friend and I were both New Yorkers at the time so we were used to walking great distances while carrying stuff. We probably only walked five to eight miles or so, but when we started seeing grazing sheep we figured something was amiss. So we stopped into a pub and learned that we walked right through the town without seeing the University (in all fairness to us Oxford at the time wasn't exactly open to the public).

We were famished and this was a country pub so we thought well let's at least have lunch. The waitress was wonderfully friendly the menu looked good. I ordered the chicken parmesan and my friend got the pub favorite shepard's pie. And some hard ciders. What I got was something fried to the point of resembling dark shoe leather doused in cheese whiz. I am not exaggerating. My friend's shepard's pie was worse. We weren't going to even try this food. The cheeze whiz was glowing and just poking the chicken I learned it was brittle. We gulped down the ciders, paid the bill on the table (with generous tip of course -- our waitress not only didn't make fun of us for being tourist dweebs but drew us a map and explained how Oxford was set up). Then we RAN back to the pizza hut near the Oxford train station for lunch before we met our friend. (Mind you we were carrying our luggage backpacks.)

Anyway, love your blog and thoughts!

claude r

The worstmeal I ever had in a restaurant was at LUPA.

Tried to go many times and finally went for my birthday.1st we waited 45 minutes for our reservation.

Then we were sat in the aisle right outside after requesting a nice table when we made the reservation.Waited another 15 minutes for a waitress & another 15 for bread water etc.

Finally placed our order and got dry salami & proscuitto like leather, overdressed salad and

the sardines were off.

Then our waitress comes over to inform us she is leaving and the busboy will handle our table!!!!The mains arrive and I tell you it was shocking.The deep fried cauliflower was burned,which I was told it was supposed to be like that and the saltimboca was so salty and the fontina was like a sheet of brittle.

The sauce was non existant and my dates food was just as bad.

Then cold espresso and and some really horrible desserts.

I was really amazed that this was the food people were lining up outside for and to top it all off we were leaving and Mario is sitting in the front dining area with 2 of the guys from REM getting wasted.

That was and will be the last time I ever set foot in his restaurants after having a similar,previous experience at Esca.

His places are way over rated.

For the* best baked roast pork bun* go to Chatham Restaurant, located at 9 Chatham Sq. Their pork buns are really tasty. It's filled with copious amounts of pork and onions, and it has a salty-peppery taste from the sauce. It's not filled with excess pork fat and gelatinous sauce that is really unappealing to eat, that I find from the buns in Flushing, Queens. This place is the real deal and I'm the second generation who's eating these buns from the same spot.

Here's a few photos of the place and the bun itself:

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