How Disappointing
Renee and I went out for lunch/early dinner today, and since it was early we went to one of our favorite restaurants that we hadn't been to in a long time. We ate there a lot when I was still working and we would go out to dinner every Friday after I've been paid, but with me not working anymore dinner usually comes up later and that place is really only sane to be in earlier in the evening; around eight o'clock, they set up either a DJ or a live band in the corner, and holy shit it is way too small a place for music that fucking loud, no thanks.
It was once one of our favorite places because it had good food for decent prices (or at least what I want to eat was) and the service was really good, the waiters were friendly and efficient and knew us by name after one or two visits. Apparently, in the time since our last visit, the restaurant had changed management. But still, how much could it have all really changed, right? A lot, it seems.
So we get there and are handed instead of a menu, a single sheet of laminated paper. The menu had been completely gutted, most everything that we loved there was gone and what was there to replace it...well, let's say I noticed they only had two desserts offered, and they both involved fucking potatoes. :-P (gagging face)
The waitress was nice and all but it was impossible to get her attention since she spent the great majority of her time in the back (even though, aside from the obnoxious assholes getting drunk at the bar, we were the only ones there). I don't know if she was actually doing something or what, but you would think being somewhere where your customers can flag you is just basic policy, never had that problem with waiters before. There were other people working there although it took a while before I realized they actually were working, since they weren't in any sort of uniform and were just sort of stalking aimlessly back and forth with a fucking ipod/PSP on. When we first arrived and were handed the menu it was about twenty minutes before the waitress reappeared again.
We were not happy but decided to go for it because hey, the food was good before and that couldn't have changed too much, right? Bwahahahahaha!!!! :-P (gagging face again)
So, we ordered pit beef sandwiches (I actually wanted something with pork until I was informed there was no pork, sigh). What came back to us was this thing that someone made by slapping down a piece of bread (yeah, fucking bread, not a roll or anything, bread), threw some weird meat that tasted vaguely like fish (oh eeewww, fish is so fucking vile) and then pour fucking barbecue sauce all over before slapping the other piece of bread down. There was more fucking barbecue sauce on the plate than there was on the sandwich, and of course the bottom piece of bread was absolutely soaked in the shit on both side, so it was soggy by the time it go out to us and the sandwich all but dissolved as soon as you picked it up into this horrible mess in your hands and all we had been left to clean ourselves up with was a single cocktail napkin each. And it wasn't like the barbecue sauce they used to use, which was really good stuff, this was some nasty cheap shit with a horribly overwhemling flavor, and with as much as was used it would have been sickening even if it was good, so I got halfway through my sandwich before I started to gag and Renee barely started (of course she was also eating chicken tenders, where we had asked for barbecue as a dipping sauce, you know like it was advertised in the menu, and instead got chicken tenders literally soaked in that nasty shit and ranch dressing as a dipping sauce, you know just like we asked for, oh wait no we didn't).
Renee complained and they offered to make her another sandwich with the sauce on the side. And got twenty-five percent off the bill. We took the replacement food home, we didn't even want to be there anymore (took another twenty minutes after our food was delivered to get our check, although the waitress wasn't in the back this time, she was sitting at another table shooting the shit with someone like she had nothing better to do). Haven't eaten it yet to see if the meat still has that odd fish flavor, she's kind of scared.
Holy shit, change of management or not, how did this go from a place where people knew how to cook to a place where even basic concepts (like a small sandwich does not need a whole bottle of barbecue sauce as a topping - or did they consider a massive pool of spilled sauce to be some sort of presentation piece? I don't want to know) are beyond them. Gods, I can't cook for shit and I could have put together something a lot fucking better than that. What the fuck happened there?
Ugh, well there's another place we'll never be going back to.
Too bad, because that was one of the places we had thought of to take Renee's parents to if they visit (because her step father is both picky and the type of person that will throw a fit and bitch out the waitress like she was responsible for the menu or the condition of the food, and I've already told Renee that is something I will not put up with). Yeah, her parents are still planning to actually come and visit this weekend (for the first time in the seven years since she moved down here even though they are in easy driving distance; the excuses for why they haven't so far are epically stupid) although we won't know for certain until the last minute, which I'm not thrilled about but its not like they don't have an excuse since their other daughter will be having her baby the day before. I'm trying to get myself in the mood for it, and I can't say I really am, even if I didn't have a lot on my mind right now. Renee's mother barely spent any time with me but has already come up with a ton of little judgments about me and has told Renee before she sees no reason to take our relationship seriously because we have nothing in common (she knows we don't listen to the same music or watch many of the same movies and that's about all the informaton she has to run with to come up with the conclusion that she knows me better than her daughter that lived with me for nearly two years before dating me). Plus there was that incident with the dog when I first met her and honestly its going to be a long time, if ever, before she comes off of that one, it made for such an obnoxious first impression (for those who weren't here or don't remember, she took us over to visit Renee's brother and the cardboard cutout he was dating and they had a pair of huge, hyper and ceaselessly barking dogs, and if you don't know yet I don't like dogs, I don't like hyper dogs and holy shit that barking is like glass running up my spine and being driven into my ear. I was polite and offered to just wait outside rather than go in there and deal with that but they insisted they could put the dogs in the bedroom and it wouldn't be a problem, and while I never asked them to do that for me once the offer is made and I'm brought into the house I kind of expect that you'll keep your word. But no, her mother actually went back there, got one of the dogs, and brought that jumping screeching thing into the living room and tried to shove it in my face, then after Renee yelled at her to knock it the fuck off she actually came back and lectured me because there is obviously something wrong with me and I need to get over myself and be a better person and learn to love dogs and not "fear" them, because apparently the I don't want the animal on me and the barking drives me nuts much in the same way a crying baby does would not get through her head. I just gritted my teeth and nodded along but oh my gods, I wanted to bounce her self righteous head off the wall).
Ugh, yeah its not been a very good week. Too much going on. Too much to do, too much to think about.
It was once one of our favorite places because it had good food for decent prices (or at least what I want to eat was) and the service was really good, the waiters were friendly and efficient and knew us by name after one or two visits. Apparently, in the time since our last visit, the restaurant had changed management. But still, how much could it have all really changed, right? A lot, it seems.
So we get there and are handed instead of a menu, a single sheet of laminated paper. The menu had been completely gutted, most everything that we loved there was gone and what was there to replace it...well, let's say I noticed they only had two desserts offered, and they both involved fucking potatoes. :-P (gagging face)
The waitress was nice and all but it was impossible to get her attention since she spent the great majority of her time in the back (even though, aside from the obnoxious assholes getting drunk at the bar, we were the only ones there). I don't know if she was actually doing something or what, but you would think being somewhere where your customers can flag you is just basic policy, never had that problem with waiters before. There were other people working there although it took a while before I realized they actually were working, since they weren't in any sort of uniform and were just sort of stalking aimlessly back and forth with a fucking ipod/PSP on. When we first arrived and were handed the menu it was about twenty minutes before the waitress reappeared again.
We were not happy but decided to go for it because hey, the food was good before and that couldn't have changed too much, right? Bwahahahahaha!!!! :-P (gagging face again)
So, we ordered pit beef sandwiches (I actually wanted something with pork until I was informed there was no pork, sigh). What came back to us was this thing that someone made by slapping down a piece of bread (yeah, fucking bread, not a roll or anything, bread), threw some weird meat that tasted vaguely like fish (oh eeewww, fish is so fucking vile) and then pour fucking barbecue sauce all over before slapping the other piece of bread down. There was more fucking barbecue sauce on the plate than there was on the sandwich, and of course the bottom piece of bread was absolutely soaked in the shit on both side, so it was soggy by the time it go out to us and the sandwich all but dissolved as soon as you picked it up into this horrible mess in your hands and all we had been left to clean ourselves up with was a single cocktail napkin each. And it wasn't like the barbecue sauce they used to use, which was really good stuff, this was some nasty cheap shit with a horribly overwhemling flavor, and with as much as was used it would have been sickening even if it was good, so I got halfway through my sandwich before I started to gag and Renee barely started (of course she was also eating chicken tenders, where we had asked for barbecue as a dipping sauce, you know like it was advertised in the menu, and instead got chicken tenders literally soaked in that nasty shit and ranch dressing as a dipping sauce, you know just like we asked for, oh wait no we didn't).
Renee complained and they offered to make her another sandwich with the sauce on the side. And got twenty-five percent off the bill. We took the replacement food home, we didn't even want to be there anymore (took another twenty minutes after our food was delivered to get our check, although the waitress wasn't in the back this time, she was sitting at another table shooting the shit with someone like she had nothing better to do). Haven't eaten it yet to see if the meat still has that odd fish flavor, she's kind of scared.
Holy shit, change of management or not, how did this go from a place where people knew how to cook to a place where even basic concepts (like a small sandwich does not need a whole bottle of barbecue sauce as a topping - or did they consider a massive pool of spilled sauce to be some sort of presentation piece? I don't want to know) are beyond them. Gods, I can't cook for shit and I could have put together something a lot fucking better than that. What the fuck happened there?
Ugh, well there's another place we'll never be going back to.
Too bad, because that was one of the places we had thought of to take Renee's parents to if they visit (because her step father is both picky and the type of person that will throw a fit and bitch out the waitress like she was responsible for the menu or the condition of the food, and I've already told Renee that is something I will not put up with). Yeah, her parents are still planning to actually come and visit this weekend (for the first time in the seven years since she moved down here even though they are in easy driving distance; the excuses for why they haven't so far are epically stupid) although we won't know for certain until the last minute, which I'm not thrilled about but its not like they don't have an excuse since their other daughter will be having her baby the day before. I'm trying to get myself in the mood for it, and I can't say I really am, even if I didn't have a lot on my mind right now. Renee's mother barely spent any time with me but has already come up with a ton of little judgments about me and has told Renee before she sees no reason to take our relationship seriously because we have nothing in common (she knows we don't listen to the same music or watch many of the same movies and that's about all the informaton she has to run with to come up with the conclusion that she knows me better than her daughter that lived with me for nearly two years before dating me). Plus there was that incident with the dog when I first met her and honestly its going to be a long time, if ever, before she comes off of that one, it made for such an obnoxious first impression (for those who weren't here or don't remember, she took us over to visit Renee's brother and the cardboard cutout he was dating and they had a pair of huge, hyper and ceaselessly barking dogs, and if you don't know yet I don't like dogs, I don't like hyper dogs and holy shit that barking is like glass running up my spine and being driven into my ear. I was polite and offered to just wait outside rather than go in there and deal with that but they insisted they could put the dogs in the bedroom and it wouldn't be a problem, and while I never asked them to do that for me once the offer is made and I'm brought into the house I kind of expect that you'll keep your word. But no, her mother actually went back there, got one of the dogs, and brought that jumping screeching thing into the living room and tried to shove it in my face, then after Renee yelled at her to knock it the fuck off she actually came back and lectured me because there is obviously something wrong with me and I need to get over myself and be a better person and learn to love dogs and not "fear" them, because apparently the I don't want the animal on me and the barking drives me nuts much in the same way a crying baby does would not get through her head. I just gritted my teeth and nodded along but oh my gods, I wanted to bounce her self righteous head off the wall).
Ugh, yeah its not been a very good week. Too much going on. Too much to do, too much to think about.