Expensive Dinner...

So last night we went out to dinner with a friend of ours because it was his birthday on Thursday. His girlfriend went and so did my brother. So there were five of us.

We went to a new place. It used to be a Copeland's Cajun restaurant, but apparently it did not do well, so this place moved in.

The idea of it is very neat. The execution, not so much.

First of all, the price is way, way high. I know that now, but it isn't something you would know unless you go there. I had thought that you could order off the menu. No. There is no real menu.

They have a "salad bar".

This is really like a side bar. They have soups, salad, cheese, bread, tuna steak pieces, shrimp stuff, crab stuff, eggplant stuff, olive stuff, potato salad, and other assorted things that I cannot remember.

The bad thing?

Well if you happen to have a food allergy, specifically a shellfish allergy, you are pretty much screwed.

I of course have a shellfish allergy. So it was actually pretty scary for me. I had to determine what had shellfish, and what didn't, and pray for the love of everything holy, that shellfish bits had not been accidentally dropped into non shellfish things.

I could have had a panic attack right there. So right off the bat, I am not getting my money's worth with that. As I could only have a few things. And I had to be sure to check everything before eating it, so as not to have cross contamination. Talk about a literal pain.

Then you have all the meats. They roast all of these different meats, put them on a spit and send servers around with mini machetes to slice off pieces for you to try.

You don't get a whole steak, or pork chop, or even a piece of chicken.

You get what amounts to bites of things. Of course they tell you you can have as much as you want. The problem is , is that the pieces they slice off, are tiny. And you have to wait for the meat men to come back around to get more.

Not only that, they manage to fling meat juices and bits of meat everywhere when they are carving the chunks of meat. Not a neat table.

They bring out sides to go with the meats.

Now when I say they bring out sides, let me clarify and describe the size, a small brulee dish is the amount you get. Not for one person, but the whole table.

You get fried cinnamon sugar crusted bananas, fried polenta cakes, and garlic mashed potatoes. You get what amounts to 1/2 of a banana, and 3 small triangles of the polenta, and then the little dish of mashed potatoes.

Again, they tell you you can have as much as you want.

Problem?

They never came back to ask if we wanted more. There were 5 of us sharing these things. Not that we really ran out, but still, it would have been nice to have an offer of more.

I ordered some sort of drink that was supposed to be a fruity type ginger ale concoction. It was 4 dollars, and not all that great. I should have stuck with the coke.

The meats were ok, I mean I can get better steaks at Costco for a fraction of the cost. And, I can grill them to perfection.

The wait staff had no clue what they were doing. They were very disorganized. At one point we had two waiters bring out two sets of drinks for the same two people in a matter of 5 minutes. There is obviously very little communication. Not only that, but some of the wait staff do not speak english, which I don't have an issue with, except that if you asked them a question, they had absolutely no clue what you were asking, and thus looked at you like a puppy looks at it's master: Confused like.

Then we have the issue of the dropping of dishes. Someone was clearing away plates and bowls from another table. Of course they have to walk by us, to get to the kitchen.

Well the person had way too much in his hands, and of course he drops a bowl, or spoon that happened to have lobster bisque in it/on it.

Why is this an issue?

Well I got splattered with a substance I am highly allergic to, and Rob's leather jacket got splattered as well. And by splattered I mean covered.

The waiter never bothered to let us know or offer us a napkin, until I pointed it out to our waiter. I freaked out. I had to use my napkin to wipe my hands, my legs, my shoes and Rob's coat off. I then had to go wash my hands so I didn't get the lobster crude in my mouth, or near my face.

They never offered us a new napkin, so I had to use my brothers napkin since he was done eating. Consequently I broke out in hives around my mouth.

I suppose I should have mentioned to them, that I was allergic to what I was splattered with, but I was just focused on trying not to ingest or breathe it in.

I did not think that the particles that obviously got dispersed into the air would affect me.

And they did. Not pleasant.

They also did not offer to comp the meal because of it. I am not talking just a small splatter. I am talking about like a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of liquid lobster death flung all over me and Rob. Nice.

So I was not all that impressed and now that I think about it, I am not happy at how the liquid lobster death flinging was handled.

So I have just dropped a hundred bucks for hives. Not to mention we were told business casual was the required dress code and jean wearers would not be seated. Yeah, there were a ton of people wearing jeans there.

Argh.

Color me annoyed.

Liquid Lobster Death Flingers.