The one about my inner psycho

I organized a dinner on Friday night with some friends. The restaurant that we all agreed on has decent, reasonable priced dishes which explains its popularity. Earlier on during the week I called up and made the booking, reserving a table at 7.30pm. We all turned up at 7.30pm only to be told by the waiter ‘we thought you were coming at 6.30pm – your booking was at 6.30pm’. I am certain that I did not make the booking for 6.30pm as I was coming from work and no way was I, or anyone else able to make it to the restaurant by 6.30pm from our respective offices. As expected on a Friday night the place was packed and the manager told us that we would have to wait for a table and he threw in a ‘Next time please call us if you are going to be late’ with a condescending smile. I could feel steam coming out of my ears. Not only had they stuffed up our booking but this guy had the nerve to assume that it was our fault. Did it ever occur to you that your staff may have made the mistake? Before my head exploded I replied firmly and politely with ‘Excuse me but I don’t think it’s a matter of us being late – there must have been a miscommunication and you have booked our table for 6.30pm instead of 7.30pm’. The manager's smile became a bit frozen after that because I don’t think he expected us, or rather me, to stand up for our selves. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the mouth of a dinner companion drop open. Said dinner companion is the meek, non confrontational type. He is also very cantonese and I could see the thoughts flashing through his mind "Tiu did she just tell the manager off?!! Double tiu they are going to spit in our food and they are going to make us wait even longer. I'm so hungry already what does this silly girl think she is doing."

I suppose with a restaurant that popular the staff couldn’t care less about filling tables as there are always customers with empty stomachs lining outside your door. So its no biggie to this guy if we wait or not. As with a lot of Cantonese/Chinese restaurants, a listing of reservations for the night is made on a separate piece of paper to the diary and I suspect this is where the mistake has been made. Whoever made the list incorrectly booked us for 6.30pm as I distinctly remember the person whom I made the booking with confirm it was for 7.30pm.

So…rather than giving these people our $$ we left and ate somewhere else because the place was packed and it could be another 30mins before we got a table. And also because I don’t take kindly to being told that it was our mistake when I am positive it is not. Plus plus plus, I know what goes on in restaurants being an ex-waitress and who knows whether our crab noodles with ginger and shallots might be tinged with extra ‘salt’. Yum. I might be crazy but I am not dumb. Although, some might argue that I am as who knows whether they have pinned up my photo in the kitchen with instructions to put 'extra special ingredients' when I next dine there.

We still got to eat our crab noodles with ginger and shallots at another place down the road so all in all, a good night. Don’t think I will be going back to evil restaurant. Too busy that they can’t even get my booking right, and staff have just become too arrogant. Serves that guy right for trying to tell me off. Don’t think you can tell me I’m wrong and get away with it. I have an inner psycho that doesn't come out as often as it used to. But when it appears, I am sure my second head looks damn ugly and you might up having nightmares after a confrontation with me. But please don't think I am real tough or a meanie. After all, someone who posts photos of cute dogs can't be all that bad..right?