Category: Eats

The title of this post may as well be “How Joey and Jill got screwed at dinner.”

The Mrs and I went out for date night and had dinner at a chi chi restaurant in Hamilton before going to our first parent-teacher night.

So this place has been hit or miss in the past.  Some times I’ve had fantastic meals here and some times I’ve sat at the bar and wondered how the hell they could hire such an incompetent bartender at such a fancy joint.

Well this particular night there were no seats at the bar so we got a table just off of the bar and in sight of the the TVs.  It’s kind of our thing.  We like to be somewhat social when we go out for dinner.

Anyway our server was like a character right out of a Seinfeld episode.  I’m not saying she was coked out but she was basically in your face and way over the top high energy.  Remember that character from Seinfeld, the close talker?

Well they changed the menu and our favorite salad (the one that made the place worth going to) was no longer listed.  Okay, fine.  It took forever to find something else but we managed to pick out some things that sounded interesting.

Here’s where we messed up and got royally bent over.

The Mrs asks the crazy server for a glass of the “house red”.  Well there apparently is no “house red”.  So she asks the waitress for something fruity and not too heavy.   The server says fine and brings back a glass of red that was very enjoyable.

Skip over the blah meal to the check.  We get the check and the wine that the server brought over was $13 a glass.  I glanced at the menu and it was the most expensive wine by the glass that they have on the menu.  $13 dollars a glass when there were plenty of reds for $6-8 a glass is just plain ridiculous especially when the person ordering the wine is asking for a “house red”!!!!!! By the way, $13 was the most expensive glass of wine that they served by the glass.

When you ask for the house wine you imply that you’re not looking to spend as much for the wine that you are for your entree.

I completely messed up.  I tipped as I normally do, the standard 20%.

Seeing as I never plan on returning to this place again, I should have let the server know that she wouldn’t be getting the tip she should be getting and that the reason for that is because I feel like she took advantage of us.    I should have taken the $13 off of the tip and told her next time maybe she’ll think twice before pouring a $13 glass of wine for someone who asks for the house wine.

Understand I’m not cheap, I just don’t like feeling like I was taken advantage of.