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Irrespective of the location, what's been your funniest or worst
restaurant experience/s you've had so far - as in the food and / or service being terrible, or the food and service being fine and very good, but something else amusing occurred. |
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"Rob" wrote in message
oups.com... Irrespective of the location, what's been your funniest or worst restaurant experience/s you've had so far - as in the food and / or service being terrible, or the food and service being fine and very good, but something else amusing occurred. I was able to turn a bad experience into a good one. A group of about five of us went to a well know restaurant in Philadelphia. My wife had poor service there once so we never went back, but our friends from out of town really wanted to try it. Mid week, not a particularly busy night and we were early, the place was just opening for the dinner hour.. We gave our name to the hostess and waited for a table. Many others came in after us and were quickly seated. I inquired and was firmly told just go sit and wait until we want to seat you. So, I went to the pay phone in the lobby and called the owner. I explained the situation and told him we were headed out the door to another place to dine. He asked that I wait and in about two minutes we were seated, given one of his "private" tables, and one of the best waiters I've ever encountered. Turned out to be a delightful evening and dessert on the house. |
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On Fri 25 Nov 2005 08:07:25p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Rob?
Irrespective of the location, what's been your funniest or worst restaurant experience/s you've had so far - as in the food and / or service being terrible, or the food and service being fine and very good, but something else amusing occurred. This was a very strange and funny experience, even though the food was worth what we "endured". Years ago when I was in New Jersey for a week-long seminar, I asked one our seminar hosts (who was Chinese) if she could recommend a good, authentic Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, NYC that specialiced in dim sum. She praised her recommendation while writing out the name and address for me. As a frequent traveler to NYC, and having eaten in Chinatown many times, the restaurant she recommended was one I'd never heard of. At the end of the seminar I drove to NYC for a week's vacation. On the Sunday of that week we went to the restaurant that was recommended. As soon as we entered I realized that this was truly *authentic*, as there wasn't an Occidental face in the place, neither staff or diners. It was terribly crowded, mostly with Chinese family groups, some rather large. Most of the women were wearing flowers. Most tables were set for 8-10 people. The host took us on a rambling trip to a room upstairs and in the back and indicated that we should sit in the two chairs where six members of a family were already seated. Not seeing any other tables, we complied. We realized we were in even bigger "trouble" when we learned there were no menus, only a placard in Chinese in the center of the table, and a chalkboard of what I imagine were specialites on the wall. Soon we spotted a waitress pushing a dim sum cart and discreetly motioned for her to come to our table. She complied. No one spoke English, and we never heard a word of English in the entire restaurant during our stay. There was no flatware, only chopsticks...not surprising. We began selecting items from the procession of carts that came through, and every item we chose was delictable, that is, until just at the end. We spotted several dishes that each boasted a single beautifully glazed meatball. Assuming it was probably made of pork, we both indicated we wanted one. What we ended up with were balls of tripe! Chewing was almost impossible for our teeth were bouncing off the meatball. With only chopsticks, it was impossible to break small pieces apart. We left most of it uneaten. All the while, the other party at our table would smile bashfully and sometimes gently laugh. When it was finally time to go, we were given a check that was written in Chinese. We made our way to the front and presented the check to the cashier. We had no idea how much we owed, but we had consumed a fair amount of food. I proffered three twenty dollar bills. The cashier handed two of them back, then proceeded to make change from the third bill. She handed back a bit more than nine dollars in change! As we were walking down the street, it suddenly dawned on us why the place was so crowded. It was Mother's Day, and the Chinese (at least in the US) were celebrating in full swing. It was a delicious meal of dim sum, even if we were not a little self- conscious the whole time. -- Wayne Boatwright *¿* _____________________________________________ A chicken in every pot is a *LOT* of chicken! |
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In article .com,
"Rob" wrote: Irrespective of the location, what's been your funniest or worst restaurant experience/s you've had so far - as in the food and / or service being terrible, or the food and service being fine and very good, but something else amusing occurred. Several years ago, a few friends and I went into a diner in Philadelphia to eat dinner after we saw a movie. As our food was served, a waitress brought over a friend's chicken parmasian. This friend was the final person at our table to be served. The poor waitress' hand slipped as she was about to remove the platter from her serving tray. Instead of placing the food in front of my friend, she received her dinner in her lap and all over her shirt! Fortunately, my friend was just dressed in inexpensive casual attire. The friend who had the food dumped on her was every bit is beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside so she reacted very politely and calmly. The look on the face of the waitress was one of horror. The waitress could not have been more apologetic. My friend stepped into the ladies' restroom, cleaned herself up reasonably well. By the time she returned to the table, a fresh plate of food was waiting there for her and we had all our meals comped by the management. We tipped generously, including the dumpee, because the poor waitress really did look like she was having a bad day and the restaurant was packed at the time. |
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Worst:
We were in TGIFridays (not a place I like to go anyway, but I wasn't in charge of picking that night) I took my 6 year old to the rest room after dinner while my DH was settling up the check. Our waitress burst into the bathroom while we were standing there washing our hands, went into a stall and started vomiting. I felt bad for her, and stuck around to see if she needed some help. She exited the stall, I asked are you OK? She said yes, walked out the door and kept on serving. Please take note that washing her hands was NOT part of this encounter. I told the manager, but at that point DH had already paid and all I wanted to do was get out of there. "Rob" wrote in message oups.com... Irrespective of the location, what's been your funniest or worst restaurant experience/s you've had so far - as in the food and / or service being terrible, or the food and service being fine and very good, but something else amusing occurred. |
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On 2005-11-26, Knit Chic wrote:
We were in TGIFridays..... It's a safe bet one-time patrons of TGIFridays vastly outnumber regulars. I'm one of the former for more reasons than I care to relate. nb |
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![]() "Rob" wrote in message oups.com... Irrespective of the location, what's been your funniest or worst restaurant experience/s you've had so far - as in the food and / or service being terrible, or the food and service being fine and very good, but something else amusing occurred. My now ex-wife had just finished graduate school and had accumulated enough frequent flyer miles from interviewing that we could fly to Bermuda for free. We changed planes in Tampa but a severe thunderstorm delayed the last leg of the flight into Bermuda. We finally arrived well after 1:00am only to find that our bags didn't make the trip. After filing a claim with the baggage department we caught the very last taxi out of the airport to our destination way on the other end of the island. We arrived to find, not unexpectedly, that the office of the cottage resort was closed. We slept for awhile on some benches next to the bay. In the very early morning hours, we decided to try to find cleaning people or kitchen staff to let us into our cottage. We walked around to the front of the office to find the front door was open and a carpet was dragged half way out the door. It looked like cleaning people but my sixth sense told me to watch for awhile from behind some bushes. We were in a different country and everything seemed unusual. In the darkness we could barely make out several people milling around while we heard one of them trying to start a van that was parked outside the front door. They had a lot of difficulty starting the van but they finally got it started and drove off. We emerged from behind the bushes after we were sure they were gone and walked inside the office. The place looked like a mess but it wasn't extraordinary for cleaning people to move things around. We found the register on the front desk, signed ourselves in, and made our way to the cottage where we crashed in a real bed. We were so tired. We called for room service for breakfast several hours later as we still had on our traveling clothes from the day before and could not present ourselves properly in a restaurant. Breakfast soon arrived and our server excitedly told us about the robbery that had occured the night before. Some thieves stole a large safe where guests' valuables were kept. We suddenly realized that we had witnessed the whole thing! Needless to say, we spent the whole morning at the police station giving our story. The police later found the van, thanks to our description, burned out on a beach - the contents of the safe were gone. Long story short, all of our bags didn't arrive together. Our bag packed with casual clothes arrived the next day but another bag of formal attire hadn't shown up yet. We had been invited to dine with the owner/manager of the resort who was also a senator in the Bermuda government, and his wife. They were horrified and apologetic that we were subjected to such an experience on our first night in Bermuda. Dinner at the exclusive resort was semi-formal in traditional British style. We looked and felt like dregs dressed in shorts and T-shorts but we had a very pleasant dinner with our gracious hosts. They also sent us a bottle of their finest champagne that evening. The rest of the week was pleasant and uneventful (except for the storm-damaged sailboat we had rented nearly sank as we sailed into the bay, we bailed the whole way back). We remained anonymous as all of the other guests talked of the bold robbery and the strange couple who had witnessed it! :^) |
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On 25 Nov 2005 19:07:25 -0800, "Rob" replied:
Irrespective of the location, what's been your funniest or worst restaurant experience/s you've had so far - as in the food and / or service being terrible, or the food and service being fine and very good, but something else amusing occurred. [I posted this after one of our trips to Sandy Eggo. Hopefully it's as entertaining to read as it was to write.] Jammer's Java 218 N El Camino Real # A Encinitas, CA 92024 (760) 942-5282 http://www.jammersjava.com/ Stopping in here was an impulse buy, plain and simple. In our rush to get down South, I missed packing the daughter-units' sandals. We needed some and TJ Maxx seemed like the perfect choice: cheap and throwaway if they didn't work. SWMBO¹ was assigned that odious task while I waited in the SUV with three very hyped kid-units. It dawned on me as I listened to Spawn crankin' down on her sister-units, Alpha and Beta, that I'd missed my morning latte infusion. The wail that erupted from Spawn as both her sisters finally explained (in sibling fashion) that they were tired of her abuse and were now willing to retaliate brought forth the Linda Blaire in me; my head spun about on my shoulders and I growled a Dad Tone. Dire threats and a louder voice quelled any further outbursts from the Gallery and I went back to looking at the coffee shop. The longer I looked, the greater my impulse became. It's unremarkable exterior and hidden-from-the-street location gave me momentary pause but caffeine deprivation soon had me unbuckling Spawn and ordering the other two out of the car. As we walked the 20 feet through the deserted parking lot, I reminded them all of how much shorter the day would be if they misbehaved. Promises assured, the four of us entered the coffeehouse. ObHimmel²: The interior was as unremarkable as the exterior. High ceilings, several deuces with seating for four per table, purchasable bric-a-brac along the walls... No clientele. A tall fellow greeted me from behind the bar. Alpha and Beta had instantly become "bored" and wandered over to a table to play Rock-Paper-Scissors. The thwap as rocks crushed scissors gave me a simple preview of the remaining day. The menu, posted high on the wall behind the counter, listed over a dozen combo drinks, all with different prices and sizes (three) for each. I ordered a large triple latte. The gentleman smiled and quickly started making it. He was very out-going and personable. I started asking about the different iced drinks on the menu. Beta had grown "bored" with getting hit (again) and came over to stand by me. During one description, a chocolate mocha infusion of some form, she perked up and asked if she might have one. I ordered three. Hyper, caffeinated and sugar-whacked, kids; what a combo. SWMBO had long-since found suitable footwear for the daughter-units and when she saw that we weren't where we were supposed to be, "just knew where I'd taken them." (Sad: I am that predictable.) To appease the Goddess of my Real Life®, I ordered her a tea. To my pleasant surprise, he fill a tea-filter with loose-leaf Earl Gray and poured boiling water over it and in a cup for her. I ended up getting a few pastries and those little boxed cereals for our group. The bagels were fresh. The cereal choices nice (lots of sugar-bomb-based cereals for the kids to ogle and choose.) Total bill came to less than US$24 -- cheaper than any $tarBuck$ run by US$10. I took a sip of my latte. It was excellent! As we were leaving, the gentleman was receiving quite a regular stream of customers, confirming that the latte wasn't a fluke. If you find yourself in this portion of the PRC, just south of Carlsbad along El Camino, stop in. You /can/ do a lot worse with all the $tarBuck$ around. The Ranger ¹ She Who Must Be Obeyed ² ObHimmel: In the Bay Area (of the PRC³), we have a restaurant reviewer^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hhack that is more interested in the interior of places than the food. ³ People's [DemoKratic] Republic of Californi[cated]a |
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We went to this restaurant that had ribs as a theme ... not a
rib joint, actually, but a restaurant. I don't remember what we ordered, that was some time ago, but I guess we ordered an appetizer, dinner, dessert, there was a bread basket, couple of rounds of drinks. I think that pretty well describes it. Sat down, ordered drinks, over came the drinks, ordered the appetizer, that came along with the requisite little dishes for each of us, then came dinner. Along with another drink, no doubt. Now, to describe the setting; we were sitting at a table for two, to say, not as large as my desk. Rectangular and not much wider than a person on the sitting sides. (laugh ... did I mangle that badly enough?) Drinks, appetizer, bread plates, salad ... this was really a stretch, but we got everything to fit. Next came dinner. Well, the waitress didn't take anything away with her. As in empty plates/glasses. Luckily or fortuitously, there was a ledge that the table butted up against, it held a large planter. Enough room so that we started stacking dishes on it. Well, we didn't order THAT much food, but everything came on a separate plate, ribs on one plate, vegetable in a little bowl, etc., you get the idea. We were laughing our ass off, I swear, we left after paying the bill, you didn't even have a place to put the thing down so you could sign it. None of this seemed to faze the waitress AT ALL. Honest, I was waiting for Peter Funt to come over and say we'd been had. nancy |
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It was some years ago,
driving through the boondocks of New Jersey .. Decided to stop for coffee and a late night snack. The only place open was the "Truckstop Diner" We were turned away at the door by the waitress; "This restaurant is for truckers only" ???? Who turns away business ?? Why ???? rj |
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![]() "Nancy Young" wrote in message ... We went to this restaurant that had ribs as a theme ... not a rib joint, actually, but a restaurant. I don't remember what we ordered, that was some time ago, but I guess we ordered an appetizer, dinner, dessert, there was a bread basket, couple of rounds of drinks. I think that pretty well describes it. Sat down, ordered drinks, over came the drinks, ordered the appetizer, that came along with the requisite little dishes for each of us, then came dinner. Along with another drink, no doubt. Now, to describe the setting; we were sitting at a table for two, to say, not as large as my desk. Rectangular and not much wider than a person on the sitting sides. (laugh ... did I mangle that badly enough?) Drinks, appetizer, bread plates, salad ... this was really a stretch, but we got everything to fit. Next came dinner. Well, the waitress didn't take anything away with her. As in empty plates/glasses. Luckily or fortuitously, there was a ledge that the table butted up against, it held a large planter. Enough room so that we started stacking dishes on it. Well, we didn't order THAT much food, but everything came on a separate plate, ribs on one plate, vegetable in a little bowl, etc., you get the idea. We were laughing our ass off, I swear, we left after paying the bill, you didn't even have a place to put the thing down so you could sign it. None of this seemed to faze the waitress AT ALL. That was seriously wierd ![]() |
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![]() "The Ranger" wrote in message ... On 25 Nov 2005 19:07:25 -0800, "Rob" replied: I took a sip of my latte. It was excellent! As we were leaving, the gentleman was receiving quite a regular stream of customers, confirming that the latte wasn't a fluke. If you find yourself in this portion of the PRC, just south of Carlsbad along El Camino, stop in. You /can/ do a lot worse with all the $tarBuck$ around. G Thanks Ranger ![]() |
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![]() "RJ" wrote in message ... It was some years ago, driving through the boondocks of New Jersey . Decided to stop for coffee and a late night snack. The only place open was the "Truckstop Diner" We were turned away at the door by the waitress; "This restaurant is for truckers only" ???? Who turns away business ?? Why ???? Last summer we were away for the weekend and went looking for a restaurant for lunch. We pulled up outside a nice looking hotel and went inside. There was a large dining room with a small mezzanine space to one side. The place was empty except for a long table on the left full of jolly bikers. We went to sit down at a table for four as we couldn't see a table for two. The waitress told us she only had a table in the smoking section. Since we were the only people in the room apart from the diners I questioned this. The mezzanine section was for smokers and only in that area did she have tables for two. I said I preferred to stay where we were since we don't smoke anway. She told us that was impossible and when asked why, we were told that a party of four might come in. She did however ask the bikers if they would mind us joining the end of their table! Please don't misunderstand me. We have nothing against bikers and they were a friendly bunch but to refuse a table for 4 for 2 people, when the rest of the place was empty seemsed to be stupid and unwelcoming. I told her to keep her tables, thanked the biker's nicely and left. We found somewhere else that appreciated our custom! |
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![]() "Ophelia" wrote "RJ" wrote We were turned away at the door by the waitress; "This restaurant is for truckers only" ???? Who turns away business ?? Why ???? would mind us joining the end of their table! Please don't misunderstand me. We have nothing against bikers and they were a friendly bunch but to refuse a table for 4 for 2 people, when the rest of the place was empty seemsed to be stupid and unwelcoming. I told her to keep her tables, thanked the biker's nicely and left. We found somewhere else that appreciated our custom! Now, *those* are two weird stories. Too funny. nancy |
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Nancy Young wrote:
We went to this restaurant that had ribs as a theme ... not a rib joint, actually, but a restaurant. I don't remember what we ordered, that was some time ago, but I guess we ordered an appetizer, dinner, dessert, there was a bread basket, couple of rounds of drinks. I think that pretty well describes it. Sat down, ordered drinks, over came the drinks, ordered the appetizer, that came along with the requisite little dishes for each of us, then came dinner. Along with another drink, no doubt. Now, to describe the setting; we were sitting at a table for two, to say, not as large as my desk. Rectangular and not much wider than a person on the sitting sides. (laugh ... did I mangle that badly enough?) Drinks, appetizer, bread plates, salad ... this was really a stretch, but we got everything to fit. Next came dinner. Well, the waitress didn't take anything away with her. As in empty plates/glasses. Luckily or fortuitously, there was a ledge that the table butted up against, it held a large planter. Enough room so that we started stacking dishes on it. Well, we didn't order THAT much food, but everything came on a separate plate, ribs on one plate, vegetable in a little bowl, etc., you get the idea. We were laughing our ass off, I swear, we left after paying the bill, you didn't even have a place to put the thing down so you could sign it. None of this seemed to faze the waitress AT ALL. Honest, I was waiting for Peter Funt to come over and say we'd been had. nancy This is why, if I owned a restaurant, there wouldn't be any duces (tables for two) except in the bar area where most likely only an appetizer would be served along with drinks. Part of a good servers' job is to pre-bus the table - remove empty bowls, plates, glassware. God, where do you have to to go get good help these days?! Jill |
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