blog blog blog...

that's something i haven't really done of late. well, the good news is that i have notes on the random stuff i'm want to blog about, so that means there will be at least some more blog entries to come. so, let's start slogging thru the blogging.

yesterday (sunday if you are reading this after monday), M & i decided that we wanted to go out to lunch. generally, if we go out to lunch, we'll cook dinner. in theory, the converse holds true, but i usually don't have much by way of lunch food, so we'll go out to eat. prolly for the best as lunch prices are usually lower than dinner, so i suppose in some twisted logic, the cost of dinner is usually absorbed by going to lunch and buying stuff for dinner.

anyways, we figured we'd see how long the lines were at the Cheesecake Factory. they opened one in burlington a few months ago, and the last time we tried, we weren't going to wait for 90+ minutes. this time, the wait was only 15-30 minutes (love how precise that was), so it was within that 30min max window we decided on. M was parking her car, i got our buzzer thing and we looked thru the menu. i spose that is a good thing, because they have a rather extensive menu, so if you are seated down quickly, you have to actually take more time to look thru the menu. maybe that's why it's as big as it is.

anyways, we had enuff time to look thru it and decide what we wanted to have before we sat down.

we were seated, and our server (i suppose waitress and waiter are policially incorrect these days.) introduced herself (began with an 'm' i think) and asked if we wanted drinks. we both asked for water w/lemon and she toddles off. M&i finalize our meal options, and decided on the Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes and The Navajo. we clearly stated that we were going to share them (keep this point in mind folks). she toddles off to place the order. we sit. we look around. we see the table next to us get their lunch. we see other tables with bread. we wonder where our bread is. M asks for a straw. our waitress toddles off. returns a few mins later with straws for us.

still no bread.

we start to get frustrated at the lack of bread as we are both getting hungry. FINALLY our waitress (oh, excuse me, our SERVER) returns carrying 2 baskets of bread, one for us, one for a table that was seated 10 minutes after us. our mood is starting to turn sour, but the bread is there and it helps to placate us for a few minutes.

less than 5 minutes later, lunch arrives. our waitress plops the 2 plates down, and with a bread in my mouth i just look up at her. we look at each other with some disbelief as she toddles off.

after a moment, i clear my bread plate and start scooping the tamale on to the bread plate. i take a bite/scoop. it's luke warm. it tasted ok. only i had expected it to be a little warmer. we finish and move onto the sandwich, which by this point has cooled down a bit. it turns out the grilled chicken is rather bland, not much avocado. we are very disappointed.

no water refills. in fact, our waitress just seems to up and disappear. we finish what we want and start to discuss where things went wrong. our waitress shows up and we ask for our check. pay in cash and off we go.

so, let's think back. now where did our waitress go wrong? well, we ordered an appetizer and a meal. and we clearly indicated that we were going to SHARE them. so, wouldn't you like to be asked if you wanted a second plate to share on? or at the very minimum, when serving, ask if we may need a second plate?

now the other question i would have liked to have been asked is whether we wanted the appetizer first (with a 2nd plate) or the appetizer and sandwich at the same time. i was figuring (as was M) that we'd get our bread, our appetizer and then our sandwich. instead, everything pretty much arrived at once. the sandwich was at least warm when it arrived, but because we had the (cold) appetizer first, it was cold by the time we started eating it.

needless to say, neither of us was particularly pleased with the meal. it's the first time i haven't had a good experience at cheesecake factory, but this was pretty bad.