Doesn’t happen to me often, but I’ve had the experience of ordering something that came with a potato and “vegetable of the day.” I’m OK with most vegetables, but corn? Hello, that’s a starch! From now on, I’m asking what “of the day” means specifically.
You know what you can do with your buttered Marlon.
I don’t want my healthy veggies oozing with butter, and I don’t think it’s actually butter, anyway - it’s definitely oily, but I’d eat my hat if even 50% of the time it’s anything other than a cooking oil or margarine - yes, I’m a butter snob. I don’t want to waste my fat calories on something that has no flavour.
bouv, that makes me feel worse, thinking that restaurants are cooking the shit out of and oiling up fresh veggies. Damn. That ain’t right.
I’m living mine right now. We went to Carrabba’s last night, and I took half my pizza home. It would have been fine if there had been a little pepper. But there are huge clumps of it and I can’t just shake it off because it’s stuck.
So my bitch is with overseasoned and/or oversalted food. I want to taste tomato, basil and mozzarella, not black pepper.
My lips are burning.
Robin
The way I read this was “my bitch is overseasoned!” like your girlfriend has too much seasoning. I was just like “yes…that is a problem”
I’m all in favor of having a little spice in one’s relationship, but that’s nuts.
Robin
Hasn’t bothered David Beckham.
Mmm, spiced nuts.
Carrabba’s is the restaurant I was talking about in a previous post (where my friend had the Long Island Iced Tea) and we’ve never noticed the food there being overseasoned. But then, we’ve never tried their pizza; that may be the exception. I do agree that some places do seem to think that there’s no such thing as too much pepper or salt.
Who said we cooked the shit out of them? I’m sure plenty of places do, but ours gets nuked for a mere 45 seconds (granted, it’s an 1800 watt microwave, but that’s still not that long.) The veggies still have some firmness when they come out. I’ve eaten them, I know. And plenty of people send them back or as when they order for them to be extra done/extra mushy, in which case we nuke them for 1.5-2 minutes.
I’m not proud that I work in a chain place, but I am at least satisfied that we are better than 90% of the other chains out there, IMO.
It may also be a local thing because the pizza was made fresh in front of me.
Next time, I guess I’ll just ask for no pepper.
Robin
I have a parent who always insists on ordering an obscure regionally unrecognized cocktail in as casual of manner as if it were a rum and coke, and then gets huffy if the waitperson doesn’t recognize it. He’ll inevitably send the cocktail back to the bar, telling them they made it wrong, and then sulkily accept the second or third attempt.
I detest dining out with family.
Ah yes, I have one of those friends too. She delights in “instructing” the waitstaff on how the food was prepared incorrectly. “This is NOT a cobb salad. A cob salad has blah, blah, blah and it’s arranged on the plate, blah, blah, blah” or “You don’t know what a “obscure drink” is? That’s ridiculous! Everyone knows what a blah blah is!”, when the poor waitress has just said that she would check and make sure the bartender knew how to mix said obscure drink. And she never, ever just orders from the menu. There always has to be a change; something added, something left off, something on the side, something cooked in some particular way… And woe to the poor server who messes it up!
I don’t think I’ve ever gone out to dinner with this woman and not wanted to crawl under the table. The rest of the party ends up being as super nice as we possibly can, and I always make sure there’s a huge tip. Fortunately, we rarely see these people, but sadly, when we do, eating out is almost always part of the visit.
My mother used to date a guy like that (briefly). There was always something to bitch about - he didn’t like the table they were given, or his drink was too weak/too strong, his steak was too well done/too rare - always something. After going to dinner with the two of them a few times I declined any further invitations; it was just too embarassing to sit at the same table with him.
This is the absolute key to happy (or at least not pissed-off) customers, no matter what industry is involved. It’s amazing that so many businesses don’t get it*.
*especially airlines and utilities.
My biggest complaint… why is it that hostesses seem to think we’d prefer to sit directly next to another party? Some restaurants I visit have tables that are spaced uncomfortably close together, yet even when the restaurant is nearly empty, the dingbat will try to sit us elbow-to-elbow with total strangers. We then have to ask… “um… how about one seat over”, causing the hostess to roll her eyes and the other party to look puzzled as to why we don’t want to sit right next to them. It’s called personal space, most people prefer to have it in abundance whenever possible.
Why don’t you call her on the carpet about her bad behavior? I’ve done it before to other people, and I think I’ve done it while the wait staff was still there. It’s just rude to run someone around like that.
I guess I still want her as a friend. She does have other redeeming qualities. Calling her out would be a sure fire way to end our relationship. Also, I’m not a confrontational person so I’d just prefer to avoid the issue and try to make it up to the waitstaff.
Never mind that - worry about the salmonella and e.coli they leave behind! (Seriously, I don’t mind them, but I’m pregnant and we gravid gals are supposed to avoid them due to the risk.)
I think the worst thing inflicted on us by a restaurant was being “trapped” by the bill. On a lunch hour, we went to a restaurant, got served drinks . . . and the server disappeared forever. I think we wound up just dropping a few bills on the table and walking out.
Have I told you guys before about our former friends embarrassing us at restaurants? She was allergic or sensitive to - well, I should give you the list of things she *could *eat, it’s shorter. Yet, they liked to go to restaurants. One time sticks in my mind - she ordered spaghetti bolognese, but without onions, garlic, or spices. Totally demented, and dumb since real bolognese takes a long time to make, but the restaurant agreed. Her meal came, and she sent it back because “it didn’t taste right.” We about crawled under the table.
I can’t understand why you sometimes get your food pre-chilled, because it’s been plopped onto an ice cold plate. I used to work in a restaurant-they have plate heaters, and covers to keep the food hot. Use them!