We have all come to expect certain standards when we stay in hotels or eat in their restaurants- clean rooms, friendly staff, and delicious meals that are served without any unpleasant and unexpected extras. While this seems simple enough, there are lots of horror stories about the revolting and repulsive things that people have found hidden in their hotel food.

Annoyingly, this is a far cry from the days of “waiter, there’s a fly in my soup.” Some of the items people have found in their food haven’t just been unpleasant, but have been downright dangerous, ranging from condoms, bodily fluids, poisonous insects, and even snakes. Consequently, restaurants which have a relaxed attitude towards kitchen hygiene are not only putting their business reputation at Brisk, but also the health of their customers!

As you read this don’t have too many nightmares, though. After all, the chances are still slim that you will be unlucky enough to find an unwanted addition to your meal next time you stay in a hotel. As the following list of the 15 grossest things found in hotel food shows, it doesn’t do any harm to give your plate a quick once-over, before you dig in to your meal. Just to be on the safe side.

15. Clam Chowder with a Side of Prophylactic

Worryingly, there are lots of stories about condoms being found in meals and food products. Thankfully, they are usually unused condoms, so at least the poor victim only has one gross thing to worry about. One woman, who was eating clam chowder at a California hotel restaurant, thought she had found an unexpected piece of calamari when she bit into something rubbery in her bowl of soup. Unfortunately for her, the offending item turned out to be a condom. She sued the owner of the establishment, who in turn tried to sue the company which had supplied the clam chowder, but a judge ruled that it was the kitchen which was ultimately responsible for the whole unpleasant episode.

14. Smell A Rat

If you had to guess, you would probably come to the conclusion that rats and mice, or at least their droppings, were the most common gross items found in hotel and restaurant food. After all, these vermin are drawn to dirty kitchens, where food is left out unattended, and where they can enjoy a good meal. Hardly surprising then, that there are so many horror stories about rodents being found in hotel food. One couple, having decided to go healthy and order the salad, were horrified to find that their meal contained a dead rat. This just goes to show that eating salads isn’t always the best thing for your health.

13. Bloody Steak

I know some people like their steak bloody, but this next terrible tale is surely taking things a step too far. A diner at the Bull & Bear restaurant in New York’s exclusive Waldorf Astoria hotel, reported that he ended up with a used and bloody tampon in his mouth, after taking a bite of his $40 filet mignon. He wound up spending the night in the emergency room, being tested for blood-borne diseases like Hepatitis and HIV, and has probably never been able to look at, never mind eat, a steak ever again.

12. Snug As A Bug

If rats and mice are among the most common gross items found in hotel food, then cockroaches can’t be far behind. Tucking into his hotel breakfast one morning, one diner took a bite of his hash brown, only to discover that it had a little extra crunch than usual – a dead cockroach. Impressive that this particular hotel kitchen was able to at least kill the roach, especially since these particular creepy crawlies are supposed to be able to survive a nuclear bomb, but naturally the diner didn’t see things that way. Worse was still to come because when the diner complained to the staff, he was offered a coupon for another free breakfast as an apology. It’s unlikely he took them up on their kind offer, after his experience first time around.

11. Bite The Bullet

While cockroaches may be relatively common in hotel kitchens – especially dirty ones – you wouldn’t really expect bullets to be left lying around on kitchen counters. Yet, one diner found one in her hot dog, when she bit into the “dog” and hit her tooth on something hard. This shockingly turned out to be a live 9mm bullet. Thinking she had had a lucky escape, she went about her day – only to be rushed to the emergency room with stomach pains later on, where it was discovered that she had actually swallowed another live bullet from the same hot dog.

10. Bad Blood

Everyone has heard the horror stories about grumpy kitchen staff spitting in the food of patrons who complain too much, but there have been plenty of cases where other kinds of bodily fluids have been found in hotel food. One woman ordered a BLT and fries from her hotel restaurant, and only noticed after she had started eating, that there was blood on the fries, and on her sandwich bread. Turns out one of the chefs had cut himself while prepping her meal, but rather than take the time to go and get one of those natty blue plasters kitchen workers are supposed to wear, he decided to just carry on cooking, blood and all.

9. Finger In Every Pie

A finger in every pie? Well, in this case, it is a finger in every serving of frozen custard. When one diner ordered the dessert at a hotel, she initially thought that it had come with a free topping of candy. However, one mouthful was enough to reveal the revolting truth – that it was actually a human finger. Amazingly, the horror had occurred because an employee had lost a finger during an earlier incident in the kitchen. However, rather than make sure that they found the lost digit, the employees simply carried on with their work – including scooping the severed finger into the next serving of frozen custard that went out of the door.

8. Glass Jaw

A night out with friends to enjoy some Spanish tapas ended in a trip to the emergency room for one UK woman, when her pulled chicken and potatoes dish contained a little something extra – shards of glass. She had cuts to her mouth and also had to visit a hospital for a check-up to see if she had ingested any of the glass and suffered internal damage. She was offered a replacement meal by the restaurant, which she understandably rejected, but received no offer of compensation, or even an apology for the traumatic experience.

7. Worm Your Way In

Cockroaches are far from the only insects that manage to find their way into hotel kitchens and our meals. A Texas diner became seriously ill after eating out, and was eventually found to have tapeworm larvae infecting his brain from a tapeworm that had been in the food he consumed. And then there’s the old joke: What’s worse than finding a worm in your food? Finding half a worm! Only this was no joke to the Arizona woman who found just that – half a worm – in her baked potato, when she was eating lunch at a local restaurant.

6. Finger Lickin’ Bad

Fried chicken may not be the healthiest of meals, but it is certainly delicious, especially when it is done right by a good hotel chef. Sadly, one woman did not get the tasty fried chicken that she ordered when she was eating out in Virginia. As she made her way through the portion, she came across an oddly-shaped piece of fried chicken, and was horrified to realize that it was a deep-fried chicken head, complete with beak. Luckily, her traumatized child spotted the offending item before she could eat it, but the incident was still truly revolting for all concerned.

5. Snake In The Grass

A diner at a New York eatery was shocked to notice something unusual lurking amongst his side order of broccoli- a severed snake head. Naturally, he complained to the waiting staff who were just as revolted as him. But were completely at a loss to explain how the reptile had made it into their stock or their kitchen, or even whether the rest of the snake had already been served to less eagle-eyed customers! This diner had a lucky escape, but this should teach us all a lesson to check what’s on our plates before we chew.

4. Pizza With Extra Gross

Another tale of an eagle-eyed diner from New York, who managed to spot a bloody band-aid that had somehow been baked into the crust of the pizza he ordered from his hotel restaurant. Unlike most eateries, however, who go out of their way to try and keep dissatisfied customers happy (or at least quiet), this particular establishment decided to go another route, by shamelessly claiming that the customer had made the whole thing up, and that he had placed the band-aid in the pizza himself! This is surely a classic example of how not to handle a customer service complaint.

3. Gimme Some Skin

After ordering a lunchtime sandwich from his hotel, a Florida man was appalled to find a flap of bloody skin lurking among his lettuce. Lucky he thought to check under the bun before he started eating! Apparently there had been a kitchen accident earlier that morning where one of the staff cut themselves while using a machine to slice the lettuce. However, rather than throwing out all the affected leaves, the employee simply patched things up, and got right back to slicing. Chances are the diner who made the discovery was not the only person who got a little something extra in his sandwich that day.

2. On Pins And Needles

When a US Army sergeant was eating at a Hawaii hotel, he felt a sharp pain in his mouth, and discovered to his horror, that there was a syringe needle lurking in the layers of his burger. Shocked but essentially unharmed, the sergeant headed back to base, only to be rushed to the emergency room a few hours later, suffering from severe abdominal pains caused by a second needle which he had unknowingly swallowed. He faced an agonizing wait to see if he had contracted any blood-borne diseases, and had to spend six days in the hospital recovering.

1. Number Two For Two

Finally, a life lesson on what can happen when you make a complaint to a hotel restaurant.

A couple dining at a hotel in Sydney, Australia, made a number of complaints to staff about the loudness of the music. At the end of their meal, as an apology for any inconvenience, they were presented with two free chocolate ice creams. Only when they both became violently ill the next day, did they suspect that the generosity of the hotel staff might not have been genuine, and tests later confirmed that the chocolate ice cream had, in fact, been laced with human faeces.