Going out to dinner again, Be prepared for another dining experience thread tonight

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larry_stewart

Master Chef
Joined
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Well, a few months ago we went out for chinese, and the infamous soy chicken thread was born as a result, causing DC members to be at each others throats. Then there was the Rude waitress experience last weekend, which caused not as heated of a discussion, but ruffled a few feathers as we all voiced our opinions. So, today I decided to try a different approach. We are going out again :ermm: Italian this time. Definitely No soy or vegetarian products will be served. Definitely a sit down restaurant ( not take out). Definitely during peak hours ( 7:30pm on a saturday). Reservations already made, and confirmed . So, will there be a problem ?? or will it be uneventful ???

Any tips on avoiding another 'thread-starting ' experience ???

Ill tell you what will probably be an issue. Since we are vegetarians, usually our meals are significantly less in price than the others ( family members). Also, they drink ( alcohol) a lot, and we dont drink at all. I bet they try to do the good old " oh, lets just split the bill evenly" as if we were stupid enough not to realize that theirs were 2x ours ( gotta love family) . Anyway, Ill let u guys know how it goes.
 
Good luck Larry. We are all pulling for you. At least it is not Chinese food this time :LOL:
 
Well, a few months ago we went out for chinese, and the infamous soy chicken thread was born as a result, causing DC members to be at each others throats. Then there was the Rude waitress experience last weekend, which caused not as heated of a discussion, but ruffled a few feathers as we all voiced our opinions. So, today I decided to try a different approach. We are going out again :ermm: Italian this time. Definitely No soy or vegetarian products will be served. Definitely a sit down restaurant ( not take out). Definitely during peak hours ( 7:30pm on a saturday). Reservations already made, and confirmed . So, will there be a problem ?? or will it be uneventful ???

Any tips on avoiding another 'thread-starting ' experience ???

Ill tell you what will probably be an issue. Since we are vegetarians, usually our meals are significantly less in price than the others ( family members). Also, they drink ( alcohol) a lot, and we dont drink at all. I bet they try to do the good old " oh, lets just split the bill evenly" as if we were stupid enough not to realize that theirs were 2x ours ( gotta love family) . Anyway, Ill let u guys know how it goes.

OH, the reservations will be lost, they will seat you in the worst place, you will have a hard time finding your waitress, and you don't wanna know what they are doing to your food in the kitchen because it had meat in it and you sent it back....
:LOL::ROFLMAO::LOL::ROFLMAO:

Sorry, couldn't resist, sometimes we just gotta laugh at ourselves. Failing that laughing at someone else is an acceptable substitute!:-p
 
:LOL: Im laughing already , at my own expense :ohmy: I just found out that it will be separate bills ( my wife took care of that already ahead of time ( her family...))
 
I may need to bring my computer and keep in tune with DC, so u guys can coach me through dinner. OR, better yet, I can turn on my cam so u can share the experience with me :-p
 
Well, a few months ago we went out for chinese, and the infamous soy chicken thread was born as a result, causing DC members to be at each others throats. Then there was the Rude waitress experience last weekend, which caused not as heated of a discussion, but ruffled a few feathers as we all voiced our opinions. So, today I decided to try a different approach. We are going out again :ermm: Italian this time. Definitely No soy or vegetarian products will be served. Definitely a sit down restaurant ( not take out). Definitely during peak hours ( 7:30pm on a saturday). Reservations already made, and confirmed . So, will there be a problem ?? or will it be uneventful ???

Any tips on avoiding another 'thread-starting ' experience ???

Ill tell you what will probably be an issue. Since we are vegetarians, usually our meals are significantly less in price than the others ( family members). Also, they drink ( alcohol) a lot, and we dont drink at all. I bet they try to do the good old " oh, lets just split the bill evenly" as if we were stupid enough not to realize that theirs were 2x ours ( gotta love family) . Anyway, Ill let u guys know how it goes.

HURRY...I CAN"T WAIT! This is bound to make some great reading! :ROFLMAO:
 
#One son has a charge card. Nobody else does so they all use his card. Is he getting stuck with the tip? I should think so but he calls them friends and turns me off. Some of the tips can be quite costly since they all agree to leave 20% tip. Or isn't that enough?

Anyway, hope you leave your charge plate at home. I resent using the stupid charge anyway cause I wind up spending more than I actually budgeted for. I just don't get it why none of them have a charge! I know he won't ask them why. You should see the amount of the bill when I have t o pay it! For group of 9 or more 'friends'.

larry, good luck. Hope you enjoy the meal.
 
ok, im back.
Basically, it was me, my wife and 2 kids, my wifes brother,wife and child, her other brother and wife, and her mother and stepdad. All of us have wedding anniversaries this month, so that was the reason for all going out together.

Got there at exactly 7:30, reserved table waiting for us with 3 baskets of bread. Sliced Italian bread with a dish of olive oil/ garlic to dip it into, and cut up focaccia ( tomatoes, olived and onions on top). Also 3 carafe's of water at the table ( I like this, because I hate having to get the attention of the busboy when I need water).

Kids got place mats with crayons to color ( and shut them up) along with childrens menu.

Waitress presented friendly and with a smile, giving us plenty of time to decide what we want, yet making her accessible for when we were ready to order. She finally took our order and was very accommodating to personalize our order to our likes/ dislikes ( extra feta cheese for my sons salad, mushrooms added to my marinara sauce ...)

Salads came, fresh mesclun, grape tomatoes, cucumber, croutons, house Italian with some parmesan sprinkled on top.

Soup, huge bowl of freshly made minestrone.It definitely was made today. The vegetables were fresh, tasted like themselves, not like a vegetable that was sitting in the soup for days, cooked over and over and ultimately having all the same flavor.

Finally, all 11 entrees were brought to the table at the same time (and we each had our own plates too). 2 busboys along with the waitress served our meal.

Im boring, I got linguini with marinara and mushrooms, my wife lentil soup and grilled portabello mushroom, kids, what else, pizza...

Busboy went around the table asking if we wanted freshly grated ( and it definitely was fresh) parmesan cheese.

Food was great, all cooked perfectly, and warm/ hot ( unlike hells kitchen where everything is cold and undercooked and is sent back)

3 busboys returned at the end of dinner and asked if we wanted our leftovers to be boxed, and they took it in the back and returned with individual baggies for us.

No fights over the bill. Actually, my wifes parents decided to treat as an anniversary gift, which was very nice .

Only problem of the night was, on of my wifes brother and his wife left the table at least 6 or 7 times each to go out for a smoking break ( we were ther for 1 1/2 hours, so thats about oce every 15 minutes each. ( they were also looking at their cells, so i assume there smoking break was also a cell phone break, maybe making other plans, which was kinda rude)

My wifes other brother and his wife took about 3 smoking breaks each,she is 5 months pregnant and although it is not my business, she shouldnt be smoking, but, whatever.

Anyway, really nothing to complain about ( sorry to disappoint anyone looking foward to more excitement from my dining experience, but as long as I dont get a sudden case of nausea or diarrhea, I consider tonight a success , and redeemed my view of a good dining experience.
 
Awesome! Except for the constant smoke breaks sounds like it went well. But uh, yea, now what we gonna talk about?? LOL.
 
I'm glad you had a good experience, Larry, although I'm sure some of us were looking forward to a really good story....oh well. Better that you had a nice dinner! What's with these smoke breaks? I am painfully addicted to tobacco (as I have revealed in previous posts) and I can certainly sit for 90 minutes without a cigarette. What do these people do when they go to a movie?
 
I'm glad you had a good experience, Larry, although I'm sure some of us were looking forward to a really good story....oh well. Better that you had a nice dinner! What's with these smoke breaks? I am painfully addicted to tobacco (as I have revealed in previous posts) and I can certainly sit for 90 minutes without a cigarette. What do these people do when they go to a movie?

Same thing I was wondering there... LOL
 
If I had to guess, they never left without their cell phones , so my guess is they were coordinating the second half of the evening along with the smoking breaks. I couldnt care less if they smoke, but its kinda rude to up and leave 6 + times during a social dinner. There were others to talk to, so it didnt bother me, but it was definitely noticeable.
 
Yes, that was kinda rude. Not a huge huge deal, but they could have been a little more prepared so it took less 'co-ordinating' during the evening. IE less trips outside or something along those lines.
Hey, we found something to talk about after all!! LOL.
 
Well, the good thing is, the two that kept leaving for smoke breaks are the two that we aren't that crazy about :ohmy: so maybe it was a blessing after all!!!

On the other hand, it seams they weren't too crazy about us either :ermm:

But, as much as Id like to complain or find something to complain about going out with the in-laws, it really wasn't bad at all. And to top it off, the kids wanted to sleep over her parents house, and they did !! So we had a night of no fighting over the television, ' she hit me', ' he's annoying me' .....or at least, not from the kids doing it anyway :LOL:
 
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