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.

"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.

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!

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.

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.

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

"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! :^)

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

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

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

"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)

"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)

"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!

"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

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