We had two very bad dining out experiences in a row. The first was Friday night (post the writing of my Day 20 blog), after the football game. We left in the middle of the third quarter because the game was getting boring. The home team could not even begin to compete with the #3 team in the area and the points kept increasing...against the home team on Homecoming night. Oh, the agony. We decided to leave and go grab a bite to eat on the way home. Bad idea.
We stopped at a hole in the wall pizza place about a mile from our home. I know that pizza is not on the challenge, but it was late, we were hungry, and it was open. When we sat down, we weren't thrilled with the look of the place, but thought we'd try bread sticks with marinara sauce. That sort of fits within the challenge, plus it gave us time to review the menu, while still getting some food quickly. Bad idea, again. Fifteen minutes later, the waitress came back to our table for our order, without the bread sticks. I have NO IDEA why we placed an order at this point, but we did. There was fish and chips on the menu, so I decided to skip the pizza and try that instead. Yet another bad idea.
We settled in to watch the football game that was playing on the TV, while waiting for our food. A couple of minutes later, this fellow came in and started talking to us about the game. We chatted for a few minutes, then he left and went to the kitchen. Turns out that he was the cook. No wonder we didn't get our food yet... he had been on break since before we got there! About seven minutes later, out came the bread sticks, without marinara. The cook came out to say our food was ready then, and did we want him to hold on to it for a few minutes while we ate our appetizer. We said yes, please. He then noticed we didn't have any sauce and asked if we wanted some. We said yes, please, once again. He left and a minute later, the waitress came out with some horrible marinara and our food. (Insert heavy sigh here.)
Brian ordered shrimp and chips and they were fine. My fries were good, but the fish was burnt black. Seriously. I (what was I thinking?) ate a bite and it was bone dry and very burnt. Our waitress was nowhere to be seen, so I got up and went back to the kitchen to let them know I couldn't eat it. The cook came out to see why I said it wasn't edible, and I showed him the seriously, black pieces of fish. He asked if I wanted him to make more for me. (Here is where my judgement becomes completely questionable...) I said yes, please. About 4 minutes later, here come two more pieces of black fish, only these two were swimming... in grease. Ugh!
The cook came and sat down next to me when I got the fish, to see how I liked it. I told him that it was still burnt. He asked if I had kids. I, of course, said no. After evidencing much surprise, he told me that it was too bad that I didn't have kids because they LOVE fish cooked the way he made it. Seriously, WHY didn't I throw in the towel at this point? All I can say in my defense is that it was past my bedtime. INSTEAD, I agreed to let him try to cook one more piece of fish for me. The bad ideas just seemed to keep coming.
He came back in 2 minutes, this time with a raw piece of greasy, slightly burnt fish. When I tried to cut into it, the fish was so far underdone the knife wouldn't cut it. The cook told me that the grease was old, so that was why he was having such a hard time. (Why would you ever tell a customer that?????) I suggested that it was too hot, which is why it was getting burnt on the outside, while not done on the inside. He took it back again and returned in just a minute with the underdone piece, now recooked. To stop the madness, I said it was OK and ate most of it, with him watching. BAD IDEA! It was both burnt and tasted of rancid oil. Where was my brain? Where was my personality? I would never have settled for this kind of grossness normally. I claim a momentary madness. That is all I can say for myself. Bottom line, we left that place as soon as possible. We shall NEVER return.
The second food experience was Saturday night (which was how long it took for my stomach to settle from the burnt, rancid oil fish). We went to McMinniman's pub after watching a marching band competition. After the bad night before, I thought a wood fired pizza would be just the thing. When we got there, they had a special of sea scallops, one of my favorite things. So, we decided to order the scallops instead of pizza. Excellent choice. Except... we got there at 9:40 pm and by that time they were out of scallops. Bummer! So, back to the original idea of a pizza.
The pizza menu was quite limited. We decided to go with the simplest which was likely to have the least cheese: the Margherita pizza. We had it with a side of hummus (excellent choice). When the pizza came, it looked great, except the tomatoes were less red than I prefer. We bit into the pizza and the tomato was mealy and flavorless. The crust was prefect and the small amounts of mozzarella were to die for. But to tomatoes... bleh. At that point, I simply picked them off and ate the pizza without anything else. I figured there was some horrible karma against me for food this weekend, and the best thing I could do was stop eating out.
The one question that keeps going through my mind: what are these restaurants thinking? Seriously, who would eat that???
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