By Rita R. Robison
My garden makes me happy, but I had more bad consumer experiences this week than I would have liked.
My best consumer experience: My garden is beginning to produce
Although I planted my garden in June, I’m getting produce already.
When I returned from a week’s vacation, I found:
A few more raspberries.
Cherry tomatoes ready to eat.
Great looking kale.
A new wild strawberry plant in my backyard.
Unfortunately, I bought and planted pole beans instead of bush beans like I’d planned. I need to figure out how to stake them up.
My worst consumer experience: Dinner out at a Mexican restaurant
Since I was working on a photo project with a friend, I missed out on meeting my daughter, her family, and a friend for dinner. So, I had dinner while they went to the Wallingford Center to have cupcakes.
After checking with the waiter on whether a dish with chicken, mushrooms, and bell peppers wasn’t spicy, I ordered it. The dinner came with rice and tortillas.
The chicken dish was too spicy, as was the rice. The food made my mouth “burn.” I asked the waiter to bring me some less spicy food.
Right after I made my complaint, the waiter walked to another table across the room and asked the customers if they thought the rice was spicy. What a rude thing to do.
My daughter and her kids and friend came to join me. I ate part of my plain chicken and rice replacement dinner, then asked for my bill.
When I went to pay, the waitress asked me if I wanted any change. Normally, I would have said no, but the meal and service were so awful, I said yes. I knew I would be leaving a tip of some sort, but I thought the waitress was brazen to assume I would give a tip when the service was poor and the waiter was insulting.
The bill was about $17.50. I gave her a $20 bill.
I was shocked when she got out a large white purse, took out some bills, and counted out $2 for me. Then she dumped out the tip jar and gave me about 50 cents from it.
I couldn’t believe it. I went to the table, put the $2 on the table, and left.
I think this restaurant should be nominated for a makeover from “Restaurant Impossible” on the Food Network.
