Chubby Dog's TableTalk

What's wrong with people?

What is it with restaurants and customers complaining? Look, I run a thai restaurant and we have our share of complainers. Most we try to appease to a win win situation, some we bend over backwards for, others we let go and move on.
I mean if something's really wrong with your meal...you'd complain. I would! It's only natural, we pay for what we expect should be an enjoyable meal and great evening. So by right if things don't go our way we seek redemption, we seek some form of acceptance by the restaurant that they were at fault.
Now, why am I raving like this? Well, it all boils down to this customer we had who complained about their food. Normally, this would be a standard occurance, with any restaurant, no matter up market or by the street stall...we all get complaints from time to time.
So standard occurance elicits a standard response...but not this time.
This customer complained that her portions were too small...ok fair enough, they're entitiled to their own opinion. But this customer took it one step further...they started to compare us to 5 other thai restaurants. I mean come on..every restaurant is different. We all cook differently therefore we serve our food differently. Contrary to popular belief we are not part of some gigantic multinational franchise! Furthermore, she even got a 20% discount because she took advantage of our Early Bird special!
Get a cheap meal and still complain about your portions!
Why do some poeple out there think that just because we call ourselves a "thai" restaurant, they can automatically lump us in one basket with all the others? Is this fair?
I would really like to know if others out there think the same way? Am I being to over the top? Or is the customer always right?
Please help! Let me know what you think! Am I in the wrong to have this opinion? It'd be interesting to know.
Good night and happy eating!

Ceasar Salad - at home

After last sundays unsatisfying meal, we felt a craving for Ceasar's salad. A nice Ceasar's for a change...nothing too soggy, or too many crutons, or too little lettuce. Just one that could satisfy us..a soulful Ceasar's. The only way to achieve that...we had to make it ourselves.
So we assembled the necessary ingredients and got right into it.

Cat was optional though. The items we used were:
Whole egg mayo, Olive oil, mustard, black pepper and anchovies, lime juice, cos lettuce, crutons and boiled eggs.
I didn't bother with actual measurements, so it was all to taste. Thankfully the consitency and texture turned out fine.

I started by mashing the anchovies with the back of my spoon, then added the mayo & olive oil. Stirring to combine the whole mixture. I kept adding oil and mayo until I got the right texture for the dressing. To counter the saltiness of the anchovy and richness of the mayo, I added a small dolop of mustard and a squeeze of lime juice.  As we didn't have any actual crutons, we decided to chop up some slices of whole grain toast and put them under the grill for maximum effect. Turned out quite good, crispy with the goodness of wholegrain. We also added some Tasmanian smoked salmon to finsih the dish.

The end result:

A home made Smoked salmon Ceasars Salad, which tasted very yummy and very satisfying!

Blue Olive – paradise point

Looking for something new to try, we found this small eatery in our local Entertainment guide. It came with a great first trial offer of 25% off the total food bill. Not being stingy but never one to pass on a risk free offer, we hopped in the car for our twenty minute journey to Paradise Point. It was an overcast day with intermittent showers, yet there was a certain freshness in the air. It seemed like the perfect day to sit back and indulge in what we hoped would be great food!

We enjoyed the simplicity of the cafe and the apparent warmth of the decor and relaxed atmosphere. Smooth jazz in the background enhanced the ambience even more. It was a small restaurant with seating for approximately 20 inside and another 20 outside. We chose to sit inside because of the weather. We noticed there was only one waitress on the floor and only one chef in the kitchen (the kitchen was really, really small!)

Seeing that our waitress was working by herself, we didn't mind the wait in getting the menus out to us. She was very friendly and seemed quite attentive. Asking whether we'd like water and seeing that we were bringing our own wine, whether we needed red or white wine glasses. Nice touch as most restaurants only have one set of wine glasses for both white and red.

The menu was limited but pleasantly interesting. It was nice to see that they had meals on offer different to the usual "cafe" fare. We settled on the Caesar Salad with Smoked Salmon and the Blue Olive signature pasta with Seafood. It took approximately 40 minutes for our order to arrive, even though we were the only ones left in the restaurant.

The dishes were well presented. I particularly liked the way the Salad came out as it was different to the norm. The semi fried egg was a nice touch as well as the toasted ciabata slices. The pasta seemed quite ordinary with quite a generous amount of spinach through it.

Overall we found the food quite frustrating, as the meals weren't as good as they looked. On the whole, the meals were quite bland. The Salad either needed more lettuce or less dressing as it was quite soggy. The sogginess didn't lend well to the overall taste and texture of the Caesar salad, it made it quite sickening.

The pasta dish wasn't much better. It was very, very spicy and it had a light Napoli sauce through it, even though there was no mention of Napoli sauce or spicy chilli in the menu description.  The pasta itself was not al dente, rather quite hard. The seafood was fine, a combination of prawns, scallops and calamari. No complaints there. Certainly not worthy of "signature" status.

Look, I don't really mind if I'd mistakenly ordered a dish after reading the menu but if it comes out different to what's been described to me, then something must be really wrong.

Furthermore, we felt that it was too overpriced for what we were served. We were charged $50 for these two mains; and we hadn't even ordered any entrees or desserts. We just felt that the quality wasn't there. Maybe it was the area, Paradise Point. Maybe they can charge more than other suburbs, because they're overlooking Sovereign Island and Ephiram Island.  But no matter where a restaurant may be located, you should never sacrifice the quality of food being served to your paying customers.

After all that's been said, the big question...would we be back? Would we give them another shot?

A resounding YES! Why? Well, me being me, I just had to forget to claim my discount when I paid the bill, much to my partner's frustration : (