What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate

Paul and I went out for a date to a new sushi place on Thursday after work.  We had a few classic Abu Dhabi moments that I thought we’d share…

This photo is actually from one of our dates to Abu Dhabi Golf Club which is the best sushi in town and is close to our home!

ACT 1

First, I called ahead to make sure they were open to get a reservation since it was a Thursday (aka Friday) night and we wanted to have dinner at 7:30 then catch a movie.  When we got there…we were the only ones in the restaurant.  When we left at 8:30 there was 2 other groups there.  I still have trouble comprehending how hardly no one goes out for dinner until 9pm or later.

ACT 2

Waitress:  What would you like to drink?
Paul:  I’d like a sprite
Waitress: Ok, and you mam?
Josclyn:  What other sodas do you have?
Waitress:  We just have sprite and club soda
Josclyn:  *odd look* .. ok…
Paul:  You don’t have Coke?
Waitress:  Oh, we have coke
Paul:  You don’t have Fanta?
Waitress:  We have Fanta
Josclyn:  Ok, I’ll just take a Fanta

Act 3

We call the waiter over for our bill and give him our Entertainer coupon (you know, the books that kids sell as fundraisers that have a lot of buy 1, get 1 deals).  The waiter is gone for over 10 minutes and I look over to where he is and he’s talking with what looks like management.  I mention this to Paul and we prepare for some sort of misunderstanding, etc.
The waiter finally brings over our bill.  He took off the edamame instead of one of the sushi rolls.  The coupon clearly states “Buy one main course, get one main course free.”  We mention to him that we had asked the waitress that sat us if the coupon applied to sushi and she said yes and pointed to the section of sushi rolls that we ordered from.  We point out that edamame is in a separate section and is an appetizer.  He leaves and I see him talking with what looks like the head chef.
Eventually the chef comes over and explains how he just instructs his people to take of the cheapest thing on the menu.  We explain that the coupon specifically says main course and that we asked about this before we ordered.  This went on for about 5 minutes, but one of my favorite lines was “We she must have made a mistake, this is my restaurant and my rules are that I take of the cheapest thing.”  Really?  You’re admitting that your employee made a mistake in what she told us and you want to charge us, your client,  for her mistake?
Eventually I think he may have (or maybe not) realized that he was being ridiculous and he changed the bill.  It was like he was doing us some great favor.  And he warned us that next time we come back that it would not work this way.  As if we’ll go back….
Only in AD would we even think that we would need to clarify an Entertainer coupon before we order, and yet we do that and they still try to pull one over on us :)