Are you being served?

Over the weekend we had relatives come over & so we decided a trip to Santa Cruz boardwalk was the best thing to do with three kids - one of whom who really wants to get into the beach, even if she was sick, and one grey haired lady who never denies herself the beach if the possibility arose. So anyway, we made the trip (more on that later). And what fun it was, and after 3 hours of rides, sand and water we decided it was time to come back to reality.

Since it was already 8PM by the time we reached the car, we decided to eat out, before the kids feel asleep in the car ride back. So honey checks his new ultra gadget (phone) and finds a restaurant and the directions for the same. We get there and ask for a table for 8. The owner/manager asks the waiter to join two table together so we can be seated together. We sit down and wait. So good so far, then our luck turns!

Now when you are with kids its a big gamble on what they might or might not eat, so after much discussions, we finally order some rotis, 4 curries and full plate veg birayni that supposdly comes with extra pulav, raita and roti, we were hoping that if the biryani turned out spicy they can at least have the pulav and raita.

When the food finally arrives, the kids love the panner pakoras over everything else. But the mommies wouldn’t let go in trying to add some rice and vegetables into their tummies. So we check with our waiter – where’s the pulav? He apologizes and decides to go & check back with the chef. Comes running back and says Veg Biryani does not come with pulav. We are puzzled and explain it says on your menu and ask him to get the menu and pointdely point it out. He checks the menu and had the decency to look embarrassed and walks up to the owner/manager – explaining the situation. Not sure what is 'really' exchanged between the two but our waiter comes over apologizing that we still cannot have our pulav, but if we switch our order of a curry to a dinner he can get a plate of pulav, raita, roti and salad. We look at each other in disbelief and say “ok Fine”.

Now you would think this was the last straw but no, when the receipt comes for the dinner, they seems to have added extra gratuity just for the fact that we joined two tables!!! WTF!

I have heard stories about bad etiquette at the restaurants before, like the time when my friend saw the waiter check the tip she left behind, but this one takes the cake. I mean I am sure they had enough pulav, raita to offer us, and instead on just saying ‘sorry our mistake’, they pretty much asked us to change our order around to accommodate them! And for what a few extra bucks?!

The food was fine, except maybe a tad too oily, but I wouldn’t go back there ever!

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Edited to add: Just checked online and it looks like they have a history in bad service … wonder how it’s still running!