Eating out on Mother's Day

Do restaurants take advantage on people on Mother's Day?  Definitely, I say.  My son, Noah booked the new restaurant at The Trump for 14 people on Mother's Day.  Just over a week prior he was advised it would cost $1,400 for 8 adults and 6 kids.  They had now changed their format to buffet and if you didn't give your credit card prior,  your reservation would not be held.  Well, Noah decided that he would book somewhere else and didn't notify them because they weren't going to acknowledge his reservation without his credit card anyway.  At 10:23 a.m. he had a rude message saying he was 23 minutes late... it goes on but where do restaurants get off on being rude?  Is there such an overwhelming demand that they can offer poor service and still get customers.  It appears so.

The alternate restaurant chosen was Terroni.  The food was very good but the snobbery was intolerable.  With 6 kids under 7 years old, we asked for butter with the bread.  The waitress went back to the kitchen and came back empty-handed saying that they didn't offer butter with bread...and they don't have any.  Can you imagine, an Italian restaurant that didn't have butter in their kitchen?  Can you imagine ANY restaurant without butter in their kitchen?

 

Secondly, Paul and I were the first to arrive.  I was really looking forward to a skim milk latte but they only have 3.5% milk or whole milk.  Now, it is true that some European restaurants don't have skim milk but most will at least have 2%.

 

We already knew, that this restaurant did not serve its pizza cut.  You had to cut it yourself.  We joked we should have brought our pizza cutter. 

 

Okay, let's go forward.  There are not possible changes to the menu.  My daughter-in-law, Melinn asked for a Caprese salad with grilled chicken breast on the side.  Unfortunately, Terroni doesn't have chicken.  There was a Cornish hen on the menu but made their way and it certainly wasn't even offered to her.  When her Caprese salad arrived, it had zero dressing.  When she asked for Balsamic she was told they didn't make it that way.... NO BALSAMIC... NO OIL... NO DRESSING.  And they said they didn't have Balsamic in the kitchen.  Another waiter passed and we asked him and got the same answer.  So my son sarcastically asked for Balsamic and the waiter rudely replied "you know the answer".  Now my other daughter-in-law, Erica had a mushroom salad and it had Balsamic so it was decided to ask for Balsamic for her salad.  Well, that seemed okay.  They could do that.  The poor waitress came back with the Balsamic and in tears.  The kitchen people must have given her shit.  For the rest of the meal she had someone replace her.  By the end of the meal, before we left, she returned to say good-bye, with her eyes red and swollen. 

 

I don't care how good the food is or how great the chef is, it is intolerable to be so arrogant as to say you eat the food my way or the highway.  Consequently, we won't be going back there.

 

I laugh to myself as I read Weight Watchers weekly flyer.  The topic this last week was dining-out do's and don'ts.  It says "Have it your way.  Don't be shy about asking questions and making requests".  In this case we asked for butter because of the children but you should be able to ask for no butter, grilled instead of fried, sauce on the side, double veggie, etc.  It goes on to quote one of the leaders who says "I've been amazed and pleased that waiters do what I ask without hesitation".   Well, I guess she isn't eating out at the restaurants I have and she certainly didn't go out on Mother's Day.