Teased

There is a restaurant in my town that aspires to be "fine" dining. They worked hard to create their "brand" and to create "ambiance." However, they have a revolving door of chefs and managers. They tend to hire high school student for food wait staff and college students for bar wait staff. And, their menu changes around based on the whims of the kitchen staff.

Here are some of the problems I've had in the past at this restaurant:

On one visit, the waitress had only 4 tables in her section . . . two had couples and one had a group of 4. She spent more time hidden in the kitchen than waiting on her tables. In fact, the table next to us ordered dessert, and after 40 minutes left because they were tired of waiting. She ignored me and openly flirted with the Phenom. When she took our plates to the kitchen to package them to take home, she dropped the food on the floor.

Several times, I've had to order multiple times because so many items on their menu were not available and the wait staff didn't know what was available until they took the order to the kitchen.

The staff is unfamiliar with the food and thus cannot answer questions about preparation, taste, or ingredients.

On more than one occasion their "rice pilaf" was actually that crap you buy in the grocery and nuke for 90 seconds . . . oily, tasteless, and hard.

I was terribly embarrassed when I took the Chick there once and NO PART OF THE MEAL was satisfactory. The Chick rarely visits me . . . and if I'm going to take her to a restaurant rather than cook, I expect it to be edible.

So, why the rant? Because, today in the local paper, I saw an advertisement for this restaurant listing this weekend's "specials" . . . and so help me, I had a brief urge to go and try it out. The food descriptions sound like they'd be good. But, every part of me knows that a) the food in actuality would not resemble the food listed in the advert and b) the service would piss me off.

I'm all for the young people having jobs. However, it is a rare high schooler who understands that the best tips come from "hospitality" not "service." Service is when you perform the minimum tasks of taking the order and slinging the plates on the table. Hospitality is when the service leaves you feeling as if you've been a guest in their home.

And, what better way to talk myself out of trying out their newest chef than to rant about my many past bad experiences.