'I was like, is someone trying to kill me?' The Menu stars reveal their worst restaurant experiences

In the just-released dark comedy The Menu, Ralph Fiennes' famous chef orchestrates a nightmarish evening at his restaurant for a dozen guests, including characters played by Anya Taylor-Joy and John Leguizamo.

So what was the worst dining experience ever endured in real-life by the latter two actors?

"I've had a couple of horrible things," says Leguizamo, who plays a declining action star in the film. "This restaurant closed a while back, but I'm biting into my dinner, and I chew on something hard, and it was a giant piece of a jar! A jagged edge! It was so huge and I was like, is someone trying to kill me? It was so bizarre."

Taylor-Joy's worst restaurant experience was less life-threatening, but still a pain the butt (or stomach).

"Something that I now refuse to do is queue for food," says the actress, who plays Margot, the date of Nicholas Hoult's foodie Tyler in The Menu. "This comes from an experience where a friend of mind was insisting on going to this restaurant I shall not name. I've been a vegetarian since I was eight. She made me wait in line for two-and-a-half hours to get in there, and [I] realized the only thing I could eat was edamame beans. I was not a happy camper that day. I was not pleased about it. She ate everything, I ate about five bowls of edamame beans and then definitely went out for take out. Listen, they were delicious, but I was hungry. I was hungry at the beginning of the two-and-a-half hours, let alone at the end."

Asked to name her best time at an eatery, Taylor-Joy mentions a recent night out in Paris.

"I was lucky enough to be able to have dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower this year," she says. "The food was extraordinary, the whole experience was unbelievable, and I'll really treasure it. You want those things to be special. That's something The Menu talks about a lot. If you're constantly chasing this high, and wanting to be impressed, but you're an individual that is insatiable, and privileged, and blind to that privilege, what is the point of these things? It's supposed to be enjoyed, it's supposed to be a special treat, but that means that you have to understand that it's a special treat, and not feel entitled to it. We really skewer a lot of entitlement in this film, and I'm proudly behind that messaging."

Leguizamo, meanwhile, recommends the food at New York's West Village trattoria Via Carota.

"I've got to say Via Carota is my favorite spot right now," he says. "It changes for me, but right now, that's the joint, that's the spot."

The Menu is now being served in theaters. Watch the film's trailer below.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content:

• The Menu star Hong Chau was so convincing as a restaurant manager she got offered a job
• The secrets behind the authentically pretentious food in The Menu
• Anya Taylor-Joy ate Nicholas Hoult's leftovers while shooting The Menu