20 Of Just The Worst Meals You've Ever Seen

Daniel Mitchell-Benoit
A tray of charred black McDonald's pies.
reddit | saiaromaake

Have you ever encountered a meal that just looked so particularly awful you couldn't even begin to imagine how anyone could bring themselves to eat it? If you haven't, brace yourself, and if you have, see how it stacks up here.

In this list we'll be featuring some pics of just terrible food, be they actual offenses to the tastebuds or perfectly yummy. This is about appearance, we're talking sad and gross, just the worst meals you've ever seen.

Not a seasoning in sight.

An aluminum tin containing a light flesh-colored sausage and plain spiral pasta.
reddit | Apprehensive_Ask3910

"My wife's flight got delayed for over 12 hours, so the airline is supposed to provide food for the passengers, and that's what they're treating them too."

The color of that sausage is too close to my own skin that eating it would feel illegal.

"Some ship's biscuits I made. The hardest substance known to man."

A plate of round cookies with holes poked in them.
reddit | A_Lizard_Named_Yo-Yo

Their title continued, "When you're really hungry, you can use them to grind up rocks into flour."

At least they found an alternative use for their baking disaster, that's how you look on the bright side!

"[Takes] a while to make but worth it."

A plate of bread-shaped cereal made into tiny sandwiches with chive cream cheese between them.
reddit | Yuzernam

This is a level of dedication to something that cannot be that good that I almost respect. Chive cream cheese? With sweet cereal pieces? That flavor combo is questionable but hey, it's your breakfast.

"Baked beans, fish and beetroot 'cake' with ketchup 'frosting'."

A dish as the title describes with a slice taken out of it, showing the nasty-looking cross-section.
reddit | Lanoroth

Hey, why? Just wanted to swing by and ask why you would ever do this? What devilish train of thought caused this? What evil spirit possessed your body in order to make this? What sadistic urge made you post it online for everyone to see?

"This pizza we ordered at a restaurant in Altoona, PA."

'Pizza' with thick slices of American cheese on top and thick crust, the rest not visible through the cheese.
reddit | ImMelissaning

I'm not quite sure what this is just looking at it, but it sure as hell is not pizza. Calling this pizza is an insult to pizzas everywhere. This isn't even related to pizza, they're not in the same family tree, this dish was jealous of pizza and tried to copy it.

"This pizza I ordered from a local wing place. Never order pizza from a place that specializes in wings."

A pizza with random slices of light cheese scatered about, not covering all the sauce, either not melted or burnt.
reddit | theRealEcho-299

Not another one, what's everyone's problem with pizza now? It's a pretty simple meal to make, feels like you have to deliberately try to mess it up like these people did here. Do they just expect people to be cool with it?

"Leftover Kale Gnocchi from Trader Joe’s."

A plastic tupperware container containing small chunks of 'kale gnocchi' that look like dog feces.
reddit | narkgarfie

Hmmm. I'm not going to say what it looks like, but we're all thinking it, right? Definitely not gnocchi. Actually, not much like food at all. Not even something edible.

"I asked my gf to cut the potatoes in half. Those are teeth marks."

A pan full of mini potatoes that have been bitten in half.
reddit | DearScreen7887

This one is actually kind of funny. Your girlfriend seems a little...different, but in an entertaining way. She didn't even bite some of them all the way through, she just figured it was good enough and walked away.

"I made a potato chip and cheese sandwich for no good reason."

Rippled potato chips in between two pieces of bread.
reddit | elle_desylva

I'll admit, I've dabbled in adding potato chips to sandwiches, hotdogs, burgers and the like, but you do have to have something else of substance on there for it to be less embarrassing. No, just cheese isn't something else of substance.

"Microwaved sweet potato."

A small sweet potato that has been charred in the microwave.
reddit | and1984

Did it happen to also catch fire while it was in the microwave? Was it perhaps the victim of a gas tank explosion or something of the like? I didn't even know microwaves were powerful enough to cause something like this.

"FaceTiming my mom who was super proud of her 'shrimp fried rice'."

'Shrimp fried rice' that looks very watery, more like soup.
reddit | BLACKBEARDBLACKBEARD

This is a far cry from the worst thing on this list, actually, it's just kind of...watery. She can strain it or rebrand it 'soup' and it'd probably be fine. I'm proud of your mom, too.

"Ground Beef, canned spinach, velveeta. I ate every bite."

A bowl of what looks to be brown, unidentifiable slop.
reddit | Dragoninatophat

I can't even pinpoint what I think this looks like, but I don't see ground beef, spinach, or Velveeta in there. I see multiple shades all melting together, it's like an optical illusion.

"It came to me in a moment of insanity--Behold: Mac and Cheesesteak."

A sub bun that has steak and box mac and cheese on it.
reddit | BChart2

Among my friends, I'm notorious for eating garbage gimmick food, which means this is exactly the type of thing I would get and enjoy. It would make me feel sick, but I'd love every bite.

"Lutheran Sushi (ham and pickle wrap) served in Tupperware."

A wrap with ham and pickles as well as an unknown white sauce cut up into slices.
reddit | Xx_scrungie_boi_xX

You could have just called this a wrap and I would have let it go. A little gross-looking, but far from the worst. Trying to say it's some alternative to sushi, though? Right to jail.

A little non-traditional.

A very sad looking burger with a beef patty, cabbage, and cottage cheese mixed with paprika.
reddit | jebenicope

"Local fast food chain agreed to give us 100 burgers for free for an event. Didn’t know they would look like this. The condiments are cottage cheese, paprika powder, and cabbage"

Potentially dangerous.

An 'egg' sandwich but the eggs are grey and look like rubber.
reddit | IITigerGuyII

There's no way that's eggs. Nuh uh. That's fried rubber and I refuse to believe otherwise.

I really hope whoever made this didn't eat it, because I fear for their life if they did.

"I'm absolutely skint... pot noodle and ham rolls for lunch."

A round bread roll with a slice of ham and a scoop of ramen inside.
reddit | fanny_wagon420

Apparently 'skint' means 'broke', so this is a little forgivable. Many of us have had moments of penniless desperation where we piece together what we can. With that context in mind, this isn't too awful.

"Favorite midnight snack: handful of cold pasta with Ketchup in front of the fridge."

A hand holding a few pieces of spiral pasta with ketchup ontop.
reddit | nura_hypnoticus

Man...people realize that they deserve better than this, right? You can strive for better for in your life, even better snacks. I promise, you're worthy of some fruit or a handful of chips, it doesn't have to come to this.

Overdone.

A tray of charred black McDonald's pies.
reddit | saiaromaake

"I used to work at McDonalds. Came in for the Overnight shift and no one told us Pies were in the oven. Checked 6 hours into the Shift and found these."

"You've heard of bread bowls. Now bear witness to the soup tube."

A small baguette that's been hollowed out and filled with soup.
reddit | John_CT

You get points for innovation at least, though I wonder if hollowing out that baguette was worth the effort. Did it stay together while you ate it? Did you have any soup seepage? I need reports.