Dr Winston O Boogie jr
02-14-2014, 10:03 PM
We just a horror show of a Valentine's Day. First, my wife made reservations at Carrabba's, her favorite restaurant. When we arrived fifteen minutes before our reservation time, they couldn't find our reservation. They searched and searched and couldn't come up with it. Finally I asked how long the wait was and was told 145 minutes. For those of you that are mathematically challenged, that's two hours and 25 minutes. But they would make a note and try to push us up.
We decided to go to Little Joey's. We ate there before several months ago and really liked it. This time however was a different story.
We arrived and was told that it was a 25 minute wait. We saw them add our name to the list on a notebook page. We decided to sit at the bar and have a glass of wine. The notebook was right in front of us. We could see we were next on the list when a girl came by and picked up some menus and called out "Steve". That is not my name. We watched while she seated the people who were the next ones after us on the list.
She came back and realized her mistake and apologized. I wasn't too upset and we made a joke out of it. We got seated very soon after that.
We waited quite a while for our server. When she finally came, we knew exactly what we wanted and ordered. She asked if she should bring the appetizers and salads first and we let her know that we were very hungry.
The soup and salad came very quickly and I asked her about bread. she apologized and said she forgot and went to get us some bread.
She was gone for quite while and finally came back with the bread and our appetizers.
I asked my wife how her soup was and she said that it was very salty. A lot of soups are salty so I didn't think much of it. Then I tasted my appetizer. Clams Oreganata. It too was very salty. But, I hadn't eaten all day so I ate it up. Jenny ate about half her soup.
The the entrees came. I had Veal alla Joey and Jenny had Shrimp and Chicken Scampi. Again, both dishes were incredibly salty. If I wasn't so hungry, I wouldn't have eaten it. I ate about half and Jenny had about two bites of her pasta. The meals were delivered by a different waitress who asked if we needed anything else. I asked for another glass of wine which I never got.
When I say salty, I really can't describe how bad these dishes were. I hate when people use this term loosely, but this food was inedible. For me not to finish a meal is highly unusual. The food was so salty I was beginning to feel ill. Imagine drinking the Atlantic Ocean and you begin to get an idea what I'm talking about.
A number of years ago, I had a cook that worked for me and everything he made was super salty like this. Turned out he was a heavy smoker. Smoking kills your taste buds and smokers tend to use a lot of salt because of this. I'm guessing that this chef is either a heavy smoker or is addicted to salt.
Anyway, when the waitress finally returned she saw that we had hardly eaten and asked if we wanted desert. Duh! We told her no because we were afraid that it might be too salty. She looked surprised and asked if the food was too salty and we nicely explained that it was indeed. She said that she was sorry and thanked us for letting her know and said that she would tell someone.
Then the bill came and I was charged $4.00 for the wine I never got. We called the waitress back and showed it to her and she was surprised that I never got my wine. She apologized again. She took the bill and subtracted the cost of the wine. We gave her a credit card and when she came back with the credit card slip it was for the amount with the wine still on it. She took the bill back again and came back with the correct charge and a voided slip.
I understand that it's Valentine's Day and places are super busy so the stuff with the waitress and hostess was not a major issue for me. But the salt, salt, salt salt and more salt is inexcusable. Believe me, I do not use the term inedible lightly.
So I got home and decided to send the restaurant and nice e-mail advising them that they might have a problem. I can't find a website or e-mail address for them. How do you operate a business in this day and age without a web site or e-mail address prominently displayed?
Maybe I'll drop a note in the snail mail tomorrow.
We decided to go to Little Joey's. We ate there before several months ago and really liked it. This time however was a different story.
We arrived and was told that it was a 25 minute wait. We saw them add our name to the list on a notebook page. We decided to sit at the bar and have a glass of wine. The notebook was right in front of us. We could see we were next on the list when a girl came by and picked up some menus and called out "Steve". That is not my name. We watched while she seated the people who were the next ones after us on the list.
She came back and realized her mistake and apologized. I wasn't too upset and we made a joke out of it. We got seated very soon after that.
We waited quite a while for our server. When she finally came, we knew exactly what we wanted and ordered. She asked if she should bring the appetizers and salads first and we let her know that we were very hungry.
The soup and salad came very quickly and I asked her about bread. she apologized and said she forgot and went to get us some bread.
She was gone for quite while and finally came back with the bread and our appetizers.
I asked my wife how her soup was and she said that it was very salty. A lot of soups are salty so I didn't think much of it. Then I tasted my appetizer. Clams Oreganata. It too was very salty. But, I hadn't eaten all day so I ate it up. Jenny ate about half her soup.
The the entrees came. I had Veal alla Joey and Jenny had Shrimp and Chicken Scampi. Again, both dishes were incredibly salty. If I wasn't so hungry, I wouldn't have eaten it. I ate about half and Jenny had about two bites of her pasta. The meals were delivered by a different waitress who asked if we needed anything else. I asked for another glass of wine which I never got.
When I say salty, I really can't describe how bad these dishes were. I hate when people use this term loosely, but this food was inedible. For me not to finish a meal is highly unusual. The food was so salty I was beginning to feel ill. Imagine drinking the Atlantic Ocean and you begin to get an idea what I'm talking about.
A number of years ago, I had a cook that worked for me and everything he made was super salty like this. Turned out he was a heavy smoker. Smoking kills your taste buds and smokers tend to use a lot of salt because of this. I'm guessing that this chef is either a heavy smoker or is addicted to salt.
Anyway, when the waitress finally returned she saw that we had hardly eaten and asked if we wanted desert. Duh! We told her no because we were afraid that it might be too salty. She looked surprised and asked if the food was too salty and we nicely explained that it was indeed. She said that she was sorry and thanked us for letting her know and said that she would tell someone.
Then the bill came and I was charged $4.00 for the wine I never got. We called the waitress back and showed it to her and she was surprised that I never got my wine. She apologized again. She took the bill and subtracted the cost of the wine. We gave her a credit card and when she came back with the credit card slip it was for the amount with the wine still on it. She took the bill back again and came back with the correct charge and a voided slip.
I understand that it's Valentine's Day and places are super busy so the stuff with the waitress and hostess was not a major issue for me. But the salt, salt, salt salt and more salt is inexcusable. Believe me, I do not use the term inedible lightly.
So I got home and decided to send the restaurant and nice e-mail advising them that they might have a problem. I can't find a website or e-mail address for them. How do you operate a business in this day and age without a web site or e-mail address prominently displayed?
Maybe I'll drop a note in the snail mail tomorrow.