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Rants In E Minor


monavano

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Last May while vacationing on Florida, we tried this cute little place called The Patio for our anniversary dinner. The place was the size a shoebox. We drove by earlier that day and made reservations for that evening. When we arrived the place was packed (all 8 tables) plus they were catering a large birthday party out back. We should have taken this as a sign to turn around and run....but alas, we didn't....Nowadays we can look back at the night and laugh about what a major trainwreck the evening was and it is certainly an anniversary dinner we'll never forget.

Admire your attitude. I am, frankly, a crank. And if there is a chance of redemption or a pretense of sophistication, I'll bitchslap a place. But sometimes things melt down so badly and so beyond help you have to either laugh or firebomb the place. Good for you for choosing the former.

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I was on an overnight Amtrack trip, at breakfast I ordered Sausage and Eggs. The order came sans Sausage, I brought this to the waiter's attention. He said Sausage? You ordered Sausage? Then proceeded to lean over the table in front of me, grab a guys plate of Sausage and Eggs, Transferred his Sausage to my plate, smiled and said, "Sausage?, now you got Sausage", true!

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I was on an overnight Amtrack trip, at breakfast I ordered Sausage and Eggs. The order came sans Sausage, I brought this to the waiter's attention. He said Sausage? You ordered Sausage? Then proceeded to lean over the table in front of me, grab a guys plate of Sausage and Eggs, Transferred his Sausage to my plate, smiled and said, "Sausage?, now you got Sausage", true!

Hey, all you can ask for is service with a smile. He sounds like a real problem-solver!

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Under the better late than never file, I draw your attention to selections 534 and 535 on page 3 of Pangaea's wine list. I defer to Mr. Rockwell and Mr. Slater to determine if this in fact constitutes some sort of "bargain" that escapes my pedestrain palate.

I was here between Christmas and New Year's last year and this stuck with me long enough to track down the list and share with the class. Other than a very tasty seared foie gras app., I can't remember what we ordered, but the lasting impression was that it was very good, but quite pricey.

BTW, we went with a half bottle of the Archery Summit Pinot Noir Premier Cuvée, Oregon 2000.

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I thought I'd start this thread after having a "are you kidding me?" moment. Maybe you've had one too. Mine was this: My husband and I were talking about perhaps having my (75 year old) mom over for the long 4th of July weekend. She'd be comming down from Philadelphia.

I know she could not hang around the mall et al to see the fireworks, so I started thinking of where we could go to view the event from afar. Well, not due to it's culinary, but rather it's scenic attributes I called the Marriott Key Bridge. Hey, OK food but a helluva show on the 4th.

I was surprised to find out that they had room to fit us in. In fact, they had a "special" menu. 5 courses. Wow. Hmmmmmmmm.

Get this...............$180.00pp

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??/

thank you, she said nicely. buh by.

------------

Ages ago in Baltimore county I went to a resturant with my friends for a 'long time no see' never been there before, didn't go back since.

We ordered the favorites, seafood of course. I had me a nice wine, fortunately they had Dead Arm Shiraz, my favorite in shiraz's. I wish I could remember the name of the resturaunt, no avail. Anywho I decided to order something called??? "dumbed down caviar"??? forgot that also, come on it was over 10 years ago! It had italian bread, rather toasted gently with some hints of garlic along with real nice and juicy raspberry jam with some honey mustard and tossed atop was I think the poor mans caviar black lumpfish.

It was great, I decided not to remember the price, I was happy off the shiraz.

Later after the shrimp, scallops, crab, shrimp again, more wine...

A friend was like "I'm glad we're all paying the tab, omg man what's with you Sam? 'You's' white trash caviar thingy is $30!!!" I nearly had a Maalox moment like Wow it was nice but no way! (it was 4 slices come on ok!? wasn't that bad? maybe I was wrong on the caviar they used.)

I paid, I had a good job back then.

For that price I should have asked for the extra Bacon and their choice of a sparkling wine that is suppose to go with it.

:)

The shiraz was $80, I expected that.

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On this the eve of Labor Day in America, I went to an ethnic restaurant where we ordered our food mild as was our want. One dish arrived so hot that even I, one who can handle things hot and spicy, went youza... Well, when we reported the problem to our server with a request to find out why it was not mild she scurried to the kitchen to inquire.

Upon her return she informed us that the sauce was premade and all they could do was hot. I checked the menu and it was not so marked. At this point we were nearly done with our dinner as time had passed. We requested that nothing be brought to replace the dish and to this she replied:

No, really you must accept something as we will charge you because if you don't pay I have to pay. It is our owner's policy.

Upon hearing this my mouth dropped; and I thought thank G-d for unions and fair labor standards. I felt terrible for the server as it wasn't her fault that the owner has a menu that does not reflect the kitchen and that the kitchen uses premade sauces.

Needless to say I spoke to the manager and said on the eve of Labor Day, in the shadow of the United States Capitol something seems unfair about making a server pay for the mistake of the kitchen and management. To this he replied "I was once a server and would you please feel out a comment card."

They ended up comping the dish and the server swore that she would not have to eat the cost, but to be safe I tipped enough to cover the cost of the dish as well as the meal.

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On this the eve of Labor Day in America, I went to an ethnic restaurant where we ordered our food mild as was our want. One dish arrived so hot that even I, one who can handle things hot and spicy, went youza... Well, when we reported the problem to our server with a request to find out why it was not mild she scurried to the kitchen to inquire.

Upon her return she informed us that the sauce was premade and all they could do was hot. I checked the menu and it was not so marked. At this point we were nearly done with our dinner as time had passed. We requested that nothing be brought to replace the dish and to this she replied:

No, really you must accept something as we will charge you because if you don't pay I have to pay. It is our owner's policy.

Upon hearing this my mouth dropped; and I thought thank G-d for unions and fair labor standards. I felt terrible for the server as it wasn't her fault that the owner has a menu that does not reflect the kitchen and that the kitchen uses premade sauces.

Needless to say I spoke to the manager and said on the eve of Labor Day, in the shadow of the United States Capitol something seems unfair about making a server pay for the mistake of the kitchen and management. To this he replied "I was once a server and would you please feel out a comment card."

They ended up comping the dish and the server swore that she would not have to eat the cost, but to be safe I tipped enough to cover the cost of the dish as well as the meal.

In general, though, I'm feeling like that an ethnic restaurant (to which one sometimes trolls miles outta the way just for sake of an "ethnic experience") the diner should arrive with the expectation of total spicing or whatnot-a potential gastrointestinal and tastebiudial inconvenience-at the very least...and that true-to-heart ethnic places shouldn't have to accomodate for a non-ethnic palate. That's no poke at anything or anyone, merely Meaghan's opinion.

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In general, though, I'm feeling like that an ethnic restaurant (to which one sometimes trolls miles outta the way just for sake of an "ethnic experience") the diner should arrive with the expectation of total spicing or whatnot-a potential gastrointestinal and tastebiudial inconvenience-at the very least...and that true-to-heart ethnic places shouldn't have to accomodate for a non-ethnic palate. That's no poke at anything or anyone, merely Meaghan's opinion.

Yes, but if you specifically request mild, shouldn't the server mention at the time of ordering (if it's not already on the menu) that mild isn't an option, and give you a chance to pick something else?

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Yes, but if you specifically request mild, shouldn't the server mention at the time of ordering (if it's not already on the menu) that mild isn't an option, and give you a chance to pick something else?
I should have added that it is a dish with which I am intimately familar, and have not exprienced the heat that was contained in the dish. Sometimes I have faulted the person with whom I was sharing the meal last night for having unreasonable expectations of encountering mild foods in a culture where milld is not the norm. (My best friend is of that ethnicity and is allergic to peppers; it is hard for her at times). What shocked me was the idea that the server should be responsible for the cost... I had no problem paying for the dish to begin with, but took offense at the server being charged for the mistake of the owner and kitchen.
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What shocked me was the idea that the server should be responsible for the cost... I had no problem paying for the dish to begin with, but took offense at the server being charged for the mistake of the owner and kitchen.

That would have shocked and offended me, too, and I don't understand the reasoning. To me that seems extremely unfair.

I have encountered menu items not marked as spicy that were, indeed spicy in the extreme (though since Chef Chiang I have learned to appreciate appropriate, authentic spicing). I chalk those up to careless menu printing, lack of proofreading, and carelessness of the restaurant management who don't bother to change the menus or warn folks ordering the dish in question. If I like the place well enough, I simply mark my own copy of the menu and carry on (or out).

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... I had no problem paying for the dish to begin with, but took offense at the server being charged for the mistake of the owner and kitchen.

Agree. Usually I don't want to give a place like that my money because you can bet that's not the only injustice... So, did the server go and consult with the owner before relaying the policy or did it appear that this was a regular drill? Was the owner on the premises?

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Maybe the owner has a general policy that servers have to pay if dishes are comped to keep a tight rein on servers comping for reasons that may not be justified (like for friends or the customer ordered chicken but then changed his mind after he got chicken and wants beef, etc.). The inflexible application of that policy to your situation would have been unfair but the policy could also have been intended for other situations in which the policy made more sense. Just a guess.

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That would have shocked and offended me, too, and I don't understand the reasoning. To me that seems extremely unfair.

I have encountered menu items not marked as spicy that were, indeed spicy in the extreme (though since Chef Chiang I have learned to appreciate appropriate, authentic spicing). I chalk those up to careless menu printing, lack of proofreading, and carelessness of the restaurant management who don't bother to change the menus or warn folks ordering the dish in question. If I like the place well enough, I simply mark my own copy of the menu and carry on (or out).

There is also the problem of language translation at times. I have been to many restaurants where the menu is in "fractured English" at best...and what may be spicy to someone may be mild to someone else. That said, it does not overlook a policy that's severely misguided.
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In a restaurant in Paris a few years ago, I was enjoying a very good cassoulet, until the the longest strand of hair I had ever seen emerged from my bowl. The waiter did not blink when I showed him what I had found, he just offered to bring me another bowl. I just could not do it, even more so after seeing the cat that belong to the owner sitting in the booth next to me.

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In a restaurant in Paris a few years ago, I was enjoying a very good cassoulet, until the the longest strand of hair I had ever seen emerged from my bowl. The waiter did not blink when I showed him what I had found, he just offered to bring me another bowl. I just could not do it, even more so after seeing the cat that belong to the owner sitting in the booth next to me.

Good thing you didn't order "langues du chat" for dessert :lol:

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In a restaurant in Paris a few years ago, I was enjoying a very good cassoulet, until the the longest strand of hair I had ever seen emerged from my bowl. The waiter did not blink when I showed him what I had found, he just offered to bring me another bowl. I just could not do it, even more so after seeing the cat that belong to the owner sitting in the booth next to me.
Hey, it was cooked for a long period. So any germs were gone. :lol: It weirds me out too,(the hair), but not the cat. In Troyes France, I watched an older gentleman as he ate his lunch alongside his dog and his wife. He would take a bite and then he would offer the dog a bite off the same fork. I asked him if I could give the dog some of my Troyes Sausage (andouillette?) which I found gross. He replied yes but only a bit as he had a delicate system. (the dog). (He was feeding it some sort of bean stew).
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In a restaurant in Paris a few years ago, I was enjoying a very good cassoulet, until the the longest strand of hair I had ever seen emerged from my bowl. The waiter did not blink when I showed him what I had found, he just offered to bring me another bowl. I just could not do it, even more so after seeing the cat that belong to the owner sitting in the booth next to me.

A long strand: not bad

A short and curly: bad

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Have you ever just wanted to vent about a restaurant or a dining experience, but don’t want to name names… it might have been an off night or hormones? Yes, getting it off your chest is the best medicine; you want to spew your venom… yet you don’t want to be patronized by someone “justifying” or “excusing” other’s actions.

This is the place. Rules: no names, no recriminations, no retribution. ;)

Okay… I’ll start: WTF came up with a $43 cheese plate??!! You get 5 slices of cheese… less than an ounce each… and just enough bread for one cheese – just bring out the whole damned loaf! – and you’re charged 43 dollars!!! Okay, maybe the milk comes from the teat of an Arakan forest turtle… but 43 f*cking dollars. Puh-leeze.

There! I feel so much better now. Your turn. :P

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Okay… I’ll start: WTF came up with a $43 cheese plate??!! You get 5 slices of cheese… less than an ounce each… and just enough bread for one cheese – just bring out the whole damned loaf! – and you’re charged 43 dollars!!! Okay, maybe the milk comes from the teat of an Arakan forest turtle… but 43 f*cking dollars. Puh-leeze.

My ass. $43? For five small portions of cheese? Name names, legant. Do it. This thread as a separate entity is doomed anyway, so just come out with it and I'll merge it into the proper restaurant's thread so it can be archived as a point of shame for ever-and-ever.

Cheers,

Rocks.

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My ass. $43? For five small portions of cheese? Name names, legant. Do it.

Ain't gonna to do it... no names. Someone will -- invaribly -- step forward and inform me that the cheese does come from one of the five Arakan turtles on earth... and I'll feel all regretful and embarrassed and sh*t. Nope... ain't gonna happen. Besides: Why deny you the pleasure of discovering this “gem” on your own?

The thread's not doomed. I have quite a laundry list. Just wait for the outburst on valet parking. And other tales from this weekend alone. Let me pour another finger of bourbon and I'll have populated this thread with two pages by tomorrow afternoon. ;)

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Ain't gonna to do it... no names. Someone will -- invaribly -- step forward and inform me that the cheese does come from one of the five Arakan turtles on earth... and I'll feel all regretful and embarrassed and sh*t. Nope... ain't gonna happen. Besides: Why deny you the pleasure of discovering this “gem” on your own?

The thread's not doomed. I have quite a laundry list. Just wait for the outburst on valet parking. And other tales from this weekend alone. Let me pour another finger of bourbon and I'll have populated this thread with two pages by tomorrow afternoon. ;)

Help us understand this. You ordered a cheese plate. Plate delivered. Did anyone bother to say "by the way, the cheese plate is $43?" I'm struggling to think who in town is this stupid. The cheese plaste at Citronelle is $15.

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OK, not nearly as bad, but remember this was about 3-4 years ago before Sideways the movie, before the euro went through the roof, etc.

"I'll have the Pinot Noir"...<tastes, mmm, good!> Pick up the bill from the bar, $15 for one glass... :P <grumble grumble, leaves $20 on the bar (tax)....

"Note to self, 'read, order, then drink' and 'Caveat Emptor dummy'!" ;)

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I recently ate somewhere that has a $43 cheese board, but that comes with extras. I'm pretty sure it would be more than 5 cheeses, as the price for half a dozen cheeses is less than the price of the board. I've never ordered the full board because that seems way too expensive.

My only contribution along these lines was requesting that a food be prepared without a major ingredient and being charged for the item as it is priced with that ingredient. Since they prepared it for me as a special request, I thought it would be poor form to complain. If I want to try that again, I will determine the price in advance.

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Help us understand this. You ordered a cheese plate. Plate delivered. Did anyone bother to say "by the way, the cheese plate is $43?" I'm struggling to think who in town is this stupid. The cheese plaste at Citronelle is $15.

No... I perused the menu. It went down like this: Dessert... Hmmm... Cheese plate... the Bavarian goat's milk sounds good... so does the Artic Char blue... I think I'll have the... wait a minute... WTF!!! $43!!! Check please!

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No... I perused the menu. It went down like this: Dessert... Hmmm... Cheese plate... the Bavarian goat's milk sounds good... so does the Artic Char blue... I think I'll have the... wait a minute... WTF!!! $43!!! Check please!
I'm confused as to how you know what you get with the order (e.g., the amount of bread, the size of the cheese pieces) if you didn't order it
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I ordered Sonoma's cheese board (which is currently listed on the website for $43) once, and it was absolutely immense. The details are a bit foggy as it has been some time, but I remember being absolutely floored by quantity of the cheeses and all of the various accoutrement, and we quite enjoyed the selection. Three of us attempted to split it, but we could barely dent it. Ended up taking home about half - which, as you can imagine, means there must have been a ton of cheese because there was enough of each to take home a sufficient quantity to make it worthwhile. Next time, I will order less unless I have a much larger crowd . . .

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I ordered Sonoma's cheese board (which is currently listed on the website for $43) once, and it was absolutely immense. The details are a bit foggy as it has been some time, but I remember being absolutely floored by quantity of the cheeses and all of the various accoutrement, and we quite enjoyed the selection. Three of us attempted to split it, but we could barely dent it. Ended up taking home about half - which, as you can imagine, means there must have been a ton of cheese because there was enough of each to take home a sufficient quantity to make it worthwhile. Next time, I will order less unless I have a much larger crowd . . .
I tend to go for the half charcuterie board, which comes with the "accents," and then get a separate plate of 2 cheeses ($8) to get the red wine jelly/sauce. Those two together come out to be $30. I feel like I need to choose between them, but if I were there with a big enough group, I guess it wouldn't matter. If I'm there alone, those items provide me with at least two, if not three, meals. For a large enough group of people, the full cheese board could be a decent deal.
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With my mom and Matt tonight at Ledo Pizza, Colesville.

First of all, this high-volume restaurant said "we just got our beer in 1 1/2 hours ago. All of them are in the refrigerator, but they're still warm." Okay, warm Heineken is better than no Heineken (though only when you're desperate, and I mean desperate, for a beer). It was between Heineken, Corona, Bud, Miller Lite, etc.

My mom orders Pasta Fajioli soup.

It arrives cold.

My mom never complains, but she was right: It was cold.

We send it back.

It arrived two minutes later, cold again.

I flagged our server down - a clueless but non-malevolent high-school girl - and spoke up. "I hate to bother you again, but this is still cold."

She took it back again, doubting us.

Five minutes later, she's walking out holding the bowl and scowling. She drops it on the table, and says, "I just burned my hands on the bowl, so if it's still cold, there's nothing I can do."

It was still cold! Actually, lukewarm at this point. The bowl was burning hot from the microwave, but the soup was still barely above room temperature.

Are you kidding me?

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Paging Dr. Darkwing...

Dark Wing speaketh.

Perk up, legant: As you sleep off your drunken melancholy, I've ordered a three-day moratorium on Jimmy Castor Bunch's "Bertha Butt Boogie" within a 75-mile radius of the city.

Okay, that might not be your song, but it's a song, and surely this will spare someone else, somewhere, having to endure a similar evening - you should feel pretty good about that.

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My own WTF came from this pizza/sub shop in the Outer Banks. My friend, my sister and I go in, order three calzones. Mine and my friend's arrive together and my sister says "go ahead, mine will be out soon"

We wait. and wait and wait. Finally we dig in. We've nearly done with our calzones and my sister still hasn't gotten hers. On the third time we ask the waitress what is going on, and observe how a table that came in behind us already has their food the waitress realizes that she gave my sister's calzone to the wrong table.

And then we wait, and wait and wait. And no calzone is forthcoming. The other party pays and leaves and we are still waiting.

I damn near should have just walked out. Instead we paid for the calzones we ate and left and went and got her a sandwich from subways.

And while I hate to be ageist since I'm 24 but I think everyone working in that resteraunt (including the people working in the kitchen- I took a sneak peak in there when the door was open) were 21 and under.

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I just finished reading a two-month-old article, was on the next-to-last paragraph, and saw this:

At minimum, the clip would seem to violate violates

I'm all for journalistic integrity, but doesn't anyone care about the quality of time spent reading something any more?

Online publications that make typos, and correct them like thusthis, need to hire more editors, or do something - anything - to stop this overreaction from perpetuating forward into infinity. This was a nice, conservative approach to editorial corrections, but isn't enough, enough? With the hundreds of millions (billions?) of articles now on the internet, protecting the "historical importance" of any one of them seems about as important as safeguarding the rocks in your back yard because they're antiques.

I know, I know, I'm anal about our own posts from way back, and sometimes go in and add links, or if I see a blatantly ugly typo, correct it for spelling. But as a reader, I'd get annoyed (and often do) if I kept coming across things such as thosthis.

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