Either as a customer or as a staffer. Do we have any restaurant managers here? I bet that’s a fun job 🙁
I’ve researched this topic inside my head and can’t come up with too many examples of bad restaurant meals. Lucky me! Hunh. Cautious me. There’ve been a few times when Mr. has eyeballed a place and I eyeballed him right back with one of those are-you-even-kidding-me eyeballs that are so useful between friends.
Dining in Viet Nam did present some issues. We were there long enough (2 weeks) for me to get my head around a couple of issues. One, you’re going to have dining troubles if you just. hate. chilis. Yeah, go ahead, heap me with scorn. Look, it’s not a character flaw, it’s just a food preference, ok?
Also, it’s hard, there, to be a person who can’t stand even the least little bit of visible fat on their meat. First world troubles, I know. People in VN don’t have enough food that they can afford to waste calories over silly squeamishness. Nonetheless, there I was, spending so much time in maniacal trimming that my dinner got cold before I considered it fit to eat.
And, yes, I tried ordering vegetarian dishes. See above, chilis.
You had to be careful with your drinks there, too. Beer, for instance, usually came in a chilled can, unopened. It also came with a glass that contained a cylinder of ice only somewhat smaller than the inside of the glass itself. If you poured the beer in and tried to drink, the ice bonked you on the nose. But here’s the pro-tip: you don’t pour the beer in in the first place, because you don’t know what kind of water the ice was made from. I once – ONCE – let a teeny bit of local water into my mouth (brushing my teeth with tap water, not bottled) and paid for the slip with two days of, um, intestinal malfunction.
Russian food. Extremely variable. We’d have, at the same meal, a mushroom soup the glory of which was indescribable. Followed by what we deduced, after much discussion, must have been gefilte fish. Steamed, chipped whitefish, bound into little wads with flour, steamed again, served with a white sauce made with water and flour. Served on top of white rice. If I’m lying, I’m dying. Delicious apple dumplings for dessert.
Permit me to wind up with my biggest North American restaurant complaint: too much damn food on the plate! Ok, not the chi chi moderne places, but I don’t spend too much time in those places. Regular restaurants insist on bringing you a veritable CANOE full of food. I hate waste, I hate leaving food on the plate. And if you ask them for a smaller portion they look at you like you have two heads. Bah.
Image: Flickr
