My birthday was yesterday, so David and I wanted to have lunch together. We went to one of our favorite places. It’s a Vietnamese place near where he works. I am in love with their Bun (vermicelli noodle salad) and the service is always good. I thought it would be a great place for a birthday lunch. Not yesterday.
When we arrived, we were seated quickly and then a new waitress (it was her first day) came and got our drink order. When she returned, we placed our lunch order. We both ordered the Bun. I ordered the Beef Lemongrass and David got Chicken Lemongrass. I specifically mentioned I wanted the Soy Scallion sauce and she said it would be on the side (which I knew), so I know she had my lunch correct at that moment. After my husband ordered the chicken, he also ordered two Shredded Pork summer rolls. She initially thought he said shrimp and pork, but he corrected that quickly as all fish and seafood makes him ill. The waitress said she’d make sure there was no shrimp and she left. After that, things got odd.
Initially, when the waitress brought out the summer rolls, she only brought out one. She realized immediately that was wrong and went to correct it. Problem was, the summer roll had shrimp. I figured if the other one came out only as pork, I’d just eat the shrimp one cause I love shrimp, so no big deal. But no, she brought out a second one that also had shrimp. When David mentioned it was support to be pork, she said he ordered shrimp and pork. He reminded her that no, it was shredded pork an she went back to the kitchen to correct it. Eventually, she came back with two shredded pork shrimp rolls.
When the waitress brought our meals a little while later, no Bun. Instead, we had two dishes we’d never ordered before. Both with the correct meat, but otherwise bearing no resemblance to what we ordered (and both more expensive). After she got a menu, so I could show her what we ordered, she was going to return the food to the kitchen to try again, but we were out of time. David had to be back to work. We told her we’d just eat what we had. David really liked his, but my sauce was overly sweet for my taste so we asked for a “to go” box for mine. The poor waitress tried to remove my meal from our bill, but didn’t have the ability to do so. That’s when things got even weirder.
The poor waitress says she is going to pay for it from her own pocket. We told her she did not have to do that, but she just insisted. My husband then went to go pay the bill and insist she keep the money she had given us. That poor girl could not afford to cover my lunch. She was crying and apologetic and really did not want to take the money. David insisted and she finally took it. He then paid, gave her a tip and we left.
I don’t know what she would have done if we had been truly angry customers. I do not think she could have handled it. We never raised our voices or anything. The poor girl was definitely having a bad day. I hope she has a better one today.
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