Kate Connally wrote:
> Peter Aitken wrote:
>
>>"Kate Connally" > wrote in message
...
>>
>>>Goomba38 wrote:
>>>
>>>>Kate Connally wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>You know, I did just this very thing but not to avoid a
>>>>>service charge. I have always wanted to eat at Brennan's
>>>>>in New Orleans and when I got the chance to go there I was
>>>>>really excited. I couldn't wait to have the Bananas Foster.
>>>>>I made a reservation months in advance. I was meeting my
>>>>>sister and her husband there for dinner while we were both
>>>>>on vacation in N. O. at the same time. So, we get to the
>>>>>restaurant and are seated and the waiter comes to take our
>>>>>order and I ask for separate checks. No deal! Huh? What's
>>>>>the big deal? (I don't even want to hear all the "so why
>>>>>couldn't one or the other of you just pay the check and get
>>>>>reimbursed by the other" comments - there are reasons - okay?)
>>>>>So I'm furious. I ask to be seated at another table nearby.
>>>>>They think I'm nuts. Too bad it didn't work. If it had been
>>>>>a place where you didn't need a reservation months in advance
>>>>>it woulda worked. We ended up eating at Kakoo and Ralph's.
>>>>>It was great. Eh, their Bananas Foster is probably not all
>>>>>it's cracked up to be anyway. :-)
>>>>>
>>>>>Kate
>>>>
>>>>That's really a depressing story. It is like you cut your
>>>>own nose off to spite your face...very sad. I hope
>>>>whatever is wrong between you and your family can be
>>>>resolved so that you don't miss out on other nice things in
>>>>years to come.
>>>
>>>Well, I don't feel that way about it. I just don't like
>>>being pushed around by snooty restaurants or even non-snooty
>>>ones! It was a matter of principle. And there is nothing
>>>wrong between me and my family. If there were I would not
>>>have been dining with them! The reasons for requesting
>>>separate checks have nothing to do with a "family feud".
>>>Don't feel sorry for me. I can always make my own Banana's
>>>Foster from Brennan's own recipe so it's not a big deal.
>>>And we had a great time at Kakoo and Ralph's and great
>>>food. I had crab done 7 different ways, and except for
>>>the soft-shell crab it was all delicious. I would have
>>>actually felt worse about it if I had let Brennan's force
>>>me into doing it their way.
>>>
>>>Kate
>>>
>>>--
>>
>>The very reason for going to a top quality restaurant is so they can "do it
>>their way."
>
>
> I totally disagree. If I go there to have the house specialty,
> like Bananas Foster, then, obviously, I'm going to "have
> it their way", but if I just go there to eat and decide to
> order salmon and they refuse to cook it properly for me
> (as in *not* rare!), then I don't think they have the right
> to tell me that's the only way they will cook it. And if I
> want a dish without the mushrooms and it's not something that's
> already made up with the mushrooms already in it then I damn
> well will "have it *my* way". Of course if I had known
> then, what I know now about both parties charging their own
> portion on their own credit card, something I've done many
> times in the last 10 or 12 years, it wouldn't have been a
> problem, but they probably would have given me a hard time
> about that, too, with my luck. I don't know when that became
> a common practice. Anyway, this was almost 20 years ago.
>
> Anyway, as far as I am concerned the reason for going to
> a "top quality" restaurant is so that I can have well-prepared
> food and good service. Not to cater to the ego of some
> wacked out chef who thinks his way is the only way!
>
> Kate
>

If I go to a "top quality" restaurant, I kind of expect the chef to have
an ego and maybe be eccentric, but not the management and the waiters.

Bob