Batch

09-01-2012 -- I decide to have dinner at the Melting Pot (fondue restaurant). I don't have a mystery shop scheduled, but I hope I can find a way to turn it in to one, as I would be able to get my money back after the fact. I'm sat at a table and start looking through the menu and figuring which courses I may want. But I eventually realize I may be hampering myself as to mystery shopping by not waiting to let the server suggest something.

Anyway, she comes up and asks what I would like, and I indicate I want the four course meal (supposed to be cheese fondue, salad, surf and turf, and then a chocolate fondue for dessert) and she agrees, and asks if I want deviled eggs or fried zucchini. What? There aren't supposed to be either of these on what I ordered. But I figure maybe they're being offered as an appetizer. So I ask for the deviled eggs.

There's a manager sitting at a table perhaps 10 feet away, and he seems to be keeping an eye on me, so I think he may suspect I am a mystery shopper. I still continue to occasionally take brief notes on timing. It takes forever, but they finally bring me a big platter of deviled eggs. Then the owner (female) comes up to me and asks how long I waited. I say about a half hour, and she seems satisfied. When I actually calculate it out, it is about 32 minutes, which I think is too long.

The eggs are tasty, but I don't eat too much of them because I am leaving room for everything else. I set most of them aside, planning to take them home. The wait for the next course is incredibly slow, and I find myself getting more and more sleepy. I almost trip on a small table next to mine, and end up pulling it under my table and pushing it to the back so it is out of the way. I'm getting more and more annoyed, and more and more tired. It's been more than an hour, and they still haven't brought the second course.

Eventually I fall asleep, and I guess they just leave me there, because I wake up in the restaurant, nobody is there, and it is something like 8 in the morning. I look around, and not only did they never bring any more courses, but they came and took away the rest of my deviled eggs, and I'm really rather annoyed. I stumble out of the restaurant and climb into the Jimmy (my new car, only had it a couple of weeks) and start to drive toward the parking lot exit.

But I realize I never paid the bill in any way, so I decide to go back inside and see if I can find anybody. Unfortunately, some idiot has a truck with which he is pulling two trailers, and he has parked so that he not only takes up two parking spaces, but the driving spot in between them, so I have to turn around and go another way. Idiot.

CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
VERY STINKING SILLY LONG TRUCK
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR

I go back in the restaurant, and though they aren't open yet, I can get in, and I approach my table, where I manage to hunt down the bill. They are charging me $31.66 for a drink and an appetizer, when they never brought me the rest of my food. I call a manager over to try and complain about things, but he never slows down and shuts up enough for me to tell him most of what went wrong. He just makes change for me, and gives me a side order of fried zucchini, which I have no interest in at all.