Husbank and I had a rare night out "sans enfant" on Friday night. We went out to celebrate his birthday and also his promotion. The clever boy has managed to get himself promoted in the midst of a recession! (He's very clever. I think I'll keep him!)
Anyhoo - we first decided to get a bite to eat and decided on Thai. I had seen a new Thai Restaurant just around the corner from our new house, so we'd thought we'd give it a whirl.
We arrived and were shown to a table. The restaurant was about 35% full, not bad for early on a Friday evening. The little Thai waitress brought us our menus and left us alone to peruse them. She appeared again after 5 minutes to take our drinks order. Pete ordered a beer and I wanted to start with a coke before moving onto wine as I had a killer head-ache. I asked for a coke, to which she replied: "No coke, only sprite or sprite zero" This was our 1st warning that all was not as it should be, but being optimistic we over-looked the fact that they had no coke (what restaurant has no coke???) and I settled for a sprite.
The waitress then dissapeared again, and we chose what we wanted from the menu.
10 minutes later she came over to our table to take our order. Or so we thought. She mumbled something about corn cakes and beef and pork - and we thought she was telling us the specials. Her English was not fluent, so we struggled to understand what she was saying. But as we had already spent 10 minutes staring at the menu and SELECTED what we wanted, we didn't really bother with trying to decipher what she was saying.
So we proceeded to give her our order. I asked for Chicken Satay for starters and was about to order Chicken Cashew Nuts for mains when she interuppted me and said loudly: "No!"
Ke? No? She continued "Corn cakes.... corn cakes only." Now I'm not entirely sure what corn cakes are, but I had no desire to try them, let alone order them for my starter.
SO - we stared at her with blank faces, and this must have given her the urge to talk, because then she blurted out:
"Corn cake only starter, no chicken. No chicken main. Only beef and Pork. No Prawn and no chicken"
And then the phone rang, so she made a hasty escape leaving us staring at each other in wide eyed disbelief! And then I started giggling and could not stop! And then all the diners in the restaurant started laughing! I mean what restaurant runs out of CHICKEN???? On a Friday night before 7.30 pm??? And prawns for that matter. And all 11 of their other starters on the menu?
And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, the Thai waitress emerged from the kitchen and announced: "Ah herro prease... but no pork, only beef!"
And with that the restaurant erupted into laughter and every single one of us walked out to find somewhere else to eat!
OK - so you can come to my restaurant and LOOK at all the delicious things on my menu... and you can order anything you want, as long as it's corn cakes and beef!!
So - husbank might be bucking the trend with a promotion in the midst of a recession... but this restaurant sure as hell aint gonna get afloat in a bouyant market, let alone a recession!
You'll be pleased to know that we landed up in a cosy little Italian Restaraunt and had a delicious, romantic meal!
tres random!! xxx
Posted by: ali | July 13, 2009 at 10:13 PM
You sure know how to find 'em!
Posted by: Liz Sarucco | July 13, 2009 at 10:22 PM
You better tell me which resturant that was so I can make sure I NEVER go there!
Posted by: Shaz | July 14, 2009 at 12:44 PM
Oh my word - that is horrific. Our favourite restaurant when we want to spoil ourselves, without kids, is Kong Roast in Douglasdale - it is awesome!!
Posted by: Jacqui | July 14, 2009 at 02:40 PM
So funny!
Go on - admit it:
I bet you were thinking
what a great story it would make for your blog a nano-econd after the hysteria subsided?
Posted by: allie | July 15, 2009 at 07:07 AM
Oh no, that really doesn't sound so good as Thai is one of my favorite foods. Though, I am glad to hear you made off to a romantic Italian dinner. If I recall, there aren't too many Thai restaurants in Jo'burg. The one and only Thai restaurant I have gone to was in a shopping center (not too far from my in-laws in Fourways). It had fairly good ambience..samll and cozy, dimly lit, loads of bamboo walls, and a gold Buddha here and there. I remember it being fairly good. Now if only I could remember the name. Just tried searching for it but I think it may be defunct. :(
Posted by: kate | July 17, 2009 at 12:30 AM