I went out to a really nice restaurant that I heard a lot about here in Raleigh with my friend Scott last night, and we had the worst service either of us had ever had at an upscale restaurant. The restaurant described itself as serving "Global Street Food," and we were both excited to try it out.

The waiter seemed nice and attentive, but was possibly the most clueless individual I have ever encountered, especially since the waiter at a restaurant at that price level is supposed to be more than clued in and be your guide for the evening.

So here’s what happened:

I think I stumped him when I asked for a sample taste of a particular wine. Scott and I were not sure which one we wanted and since I had more of an opinion than he did, he allowed me to take the lead. Obviously that threw our dear waiter off his game.

Then it was the appetizers. We both ordered the crab and corn tamales. With a flourish, the server presented two large green papaya salads and we, of course, said we’d ordered the tamales. While the salads looked wonderful, I was really hankering for those tamales.

Our waiter then appeared and said he was under the “impression” we ordered the salads. I was incredulous. Neither of us had even mentioned the salads. At the same time we ordered our first course, we ordered the second and both wanted the Charred Sirloin Pho. As he cleared the appetizer plates, he said, “Your black truffle roasted chicken will be right out.”

What?

Wrong country, wrong protein, WRONG order. We quickly corrected him that we had both indeed ordered the Pho, and he looked at us as if we were trying to mess with him. Off he went, to obviously change the order. So a good 20 minutes later out came our Pho, which was delicious.

When it came time to order dessert, we jokingly said we’d eat whatever they served us, but luckily we received what we had ordered. All in all, our meal from start to finish was over 2 ½ hours, with a lot of down time between courses. I silently thanked the heavens that at least I enjoyed the company and conversation.

Can you imagine what dinner would have been like if my date had been a bore?
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