What cracks me up is when you go to a restaurant, and they ask if you've been there before, and then they say, "Well, we do things a little different here", and then it's exactly like every other restaurant, but more expensive.
@RickiTarr I went to a 'rude on purpose' restaurant where the staff yells at the customers, and that's what they said also. But it really wasn't that much different than other restaurants 🙂
I had to say I know what Creme brûlée is, I ordered it.
I think they just wanted to warn they use vanilla bean so there might be black specks in it, because presumably someone complained about the black specks?
But don’t condescend to your customers by fluffing up your dishes. Be confident in serving as they were in ordering it, let it speak for itself.
@RickiTarr@Alice I went to a swanky pasta restaurant in North Carolina where they said they don't serve rolls but do have hand crafted milk-bread. It came baked in a terra cotta ramekin and was very expensive and very good.
It was also just a regular-ass dinner roll, because adding milk to make an enriched dough is literally how you make a fucking dinner roll. 🙄🙄
… I’ve seen some of those places…I litterally saw people paying 10 dollars for 1/2 homemade banana pudding. It’s just made old fashioned with high quality ingredients and marked up well.
That was 18 yrs ago it’s probably 20 now…
@RickiTarr At one of those, they made guacamole right there at the table! The place without stainless steel surfaces that get cleaned while you work, instead of sorta wiped down after every load of customer, and where people can see you doing it wrong in very small batches. Otherwise completely the same restaurant as everywhere else.
@RickiTarr There was a hipster-ish bar here opening up and their spiel was "beer brewed German style" with prices thrice of what a regular pint would be.
People looked at them like they were crazy, so they felt the need to explain. It turns out their "German style" was simply to brew after the German Reinheitsgebot.
Their horrified faces when they understood that EVERY drink in Germany with "beer" in the name is brewed like that because it is literally the law. (you can brew differently, you just cannot name it beer then)
The story has a good ending though. Their beer was actually good, they adjusted the price to reasonable and focused on making their bar cozy. It survived until both of them wanted to return to the States.
@RickiTarr what drives me bonkers is when what they decide to do differently essentially violates the FDA.
Outback Steakhouse likes to explain "what medium-rare means at Outback," as if the term "medium rare" wasn't a technical term that's extremely specific, which it is.
@RickiTarr
Being autistic, I never know how to answer that if it's a chain restaurant. Yes, I've done business with your brand, but never at this location. Does that matter?
I've never eaten at a Michelin Star place (my spouse has, and enjoyed it every time -- but there aren't any in Texas) but that sounds like someone was trying to do molecular gastronomy poorly.
I've had AMAZING molecular gastronomy. (Houston is really, really, really good for food. Authentic anything you care to name, some amazing fusion restaurants -- if I get the hell out of Texas, the only thing I'll miss is the wide array of culinary options in Houston)
Eh, I'm okay with them defining that in terms of "what it means here" because, well, I've met people.
And I cannot at all blame a steak place for going, basically, "I know SOME OF YOU are going to say "medium rare" and then when it shows up be all mad because your idea of medium rare is rare or well done, so we're just gonna tell you what color it is so everyone is aware that if we GIVE you steak cooked like that, and you send it back, it's because you fucked up not us"
Because I've seen people do that -- and if it's cooked medium rare like they ASKED and they really wanted rare, they can't uncook it a bit.
@EmilyGB2023@RickiTarr The itty bitty teenie weenie courses are what gets me, over 4.5 hours! I’ve heard keep them wanting more but like…not as in wanting calories.
I mean in the end, it's a full meal. Every time I've tried molecular gastronomy it's been that way. Although it was more like 2 hours not 4.5
But I also kind of view that as dinner and a show, as they do a lot of plating and fun stuff in front of you, so you're watching them do fun sciency stuff to food. And generally with the head chef talking you through the dish, what's in it, how it was made, often with stories about why.
Last time I went, for instance, the chef had to explain how to eat this tiny little..sea thing. It was something he'd had in this tiny seaside town in Spain and wasn't common outside it. He loved it on a visit, and has been regularly importing some since.
Stuff like that is half the reason to do long long dinners like that.
The difference though is, well, I had an amazing time and amazing food that was just the right amount of food and time. And this Michelin Star place apparently sucks at most of that...
@RickiTarr Misread this (distracting day). This happened to me last night and the only unusual thing about the restaurant was it was insanely expensive.
I hate the question "have you been here" because it makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong.
@RickiTarr Haha I almost always lie and say I HAVE been somewhere before to preempt that nonsense.
Even in those super-rare cases something IS actually different, the menu always spells it out. Like not being able to get a chef’s tasting menu unless that’s what the entire table orders.
@RickiTarr then you go to somewhere that does do things differently, and they do something ridiculous like putting your steak in a mason jar and giving you a ladle to eat it with.
Having gained awareness that this is a marketing tactic to deliver advertising for the place I'm already in, and a crass solicitation for repeat business before even trying it once, I now answer it with "Do you give a first-timers' discount?" which is a calculated adversarial response, because I don't actually care about discounts as much as not receiving lines from a marketing script.
@log@HouseOfSten Okay, to be fair, I went to a bakery recently and they lady helping me asked this and I said No, and she just handed me a free cookie and told me I had to try it, and damn it I ordered like 6 more cookies, she got me lol
@RickiTarr There was a place in Waikiki that had grills and they brought out your order raw and you do the rest. I think not so uncommon in beach communities. But I’d like to take it to the next level. The customer goes into the kitchen, cooks the food and brings it to the staff, who eat it. Then the customer washes the dishes, puts them away, pays, and leaves. It’ll be called Inverted. Help wanted, must have crazy fast metabolism.
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