Enjoy Fine Dining?

Do you often dine at restaurants; have you had surprises with the service there?

I’m not a frequent restaurant customer but I’ve had some new experiences lately.  A friend of mine had made a table reservation at a popular restaurant. The time he told me about it, he had been in the reservation queue for about two months. Once the date of the reservation got closer he noticed that he had an overlapping appointment and requested me to take advantage of the reservation. Oh, yes of course, what an opportunity! That’s how I responded. I was aware of the long queue and had noticed the reputation of the establishment rising, but I knew nothing else about the place. I still thought this was a great chance to take my wife dining out to a fancy and popular restaurant.

As we entered there I was a bit surprised about the basic furnishing and simple interior decoration as a whole. We were taken to a table but it took some time before our waitress appeared again. I had already had time think about the rude strategy:  To just say, without eye contact “Two Diet Cokes please”. But no, I held that back, took a firm eye contact and let her begin.  After Hello’s and introduction she said she’d be at our service the whole evening. Then she went on to present the two menus of 3-4 courses they had available. She went through the recipes  and progressives methods of their Chef  very thoroughly. I tried to cut in and wonder: “just these fixed menus”? She went forward stating that their customers usually are happy to select of these two, and proceeded to introduce me to the wine list with some great French wines. A bit annoyed I insisted to order not the total menu but just some bits of it from here and there. We were not that hungry and besides the price for the menu; it summed up close to what is our standard monthly grocery expenditures. The waitress seemed a bit disappointed but an agreement over the order was reached. Oh yes the wine: a pitcher of water was our choice. While waiting for the portions we had time to gaze about the crowded restaurant. It was not a very tempting atmosphere and I wondered whether it was the reputation of the Chefs and the long queuing time that lead to side effects in the service standards I could not find entirely comfortable. I even thought that there would be a risk of finding a “Senior Citizen Discount” on my bill as I had been a difficult customer  with my order.

Looking after a simpler choice!

All went fine from there on. We got our orders reasonably fast. The food was good.  Even the billing was prompt (and there was no Senior Discount :D). Well one more thing maybe: The pitcher of tap water was priced at 10 Euros! I tried to avoid excessive whining for my wife to listen to. So I just smiled to the waitress, praised the service and food and paid with cash.

I enjoyed being on the sidewalk again, fresh air and an evening breeze! It just might be that I'm not in the target group for that restaurant! What was the most important thing? My wife was happy with the evening!