~Yummy in Our Tummies~

I will start off by saying that this is not our typical post.  There are no photos or praise in the passage below.  This is simply an account of failure at a grand level. I recently dined at a restaurant with some friends and had such a terrible experience that I feel compelled to warn anyone out there considering eating there.  The restaurant is called The Ticket Kitchen and Bar and prior to renovations was known as Players Chophouse.  Anyway, we ventured there on a Sunday evening but this restaurant was deserted.  Keep in mind that it is in the heart of downtown, steps away from BC Place.  And so it begins.  The hostess arrived and asked us for drinks and gave us the menus.  We informed her that we had two groupons to split between the six of us and asked if there were any menu restrictions.  We were guaranteed that there were none.  Four of us ordered drinks which arrived in a few minutes, the two of us who ordered water waited 10 minutes and had to prompt once more for water.  Then the waitress (not the same person who brought us drinks) arrived and took all of our orders.  About 25 minutes later our food arrived.  Twenty-five minutes in a restaurant that was deserted?? Wow.  From my seat I could see into their prep kitchen and saw about 5 or 6 people just standing around chatting and playing with utensils the entire time we waited. Anyway, the food was mediocre.  The bread on my burger was burnt on the outside and my fries lacked crunch, freshness, and flavor.  I don’t think they make their fries themselves; they tasted like store bought ones.  The steak was alright but nothing spectacular. Once we finished eating, our table was cleared and we waited patiently for the bill.  After what must have been half an hour, the bill finally arrived.  Not sure what took so long because the entire time I could see the staff just standing around in the kitchen chatting.  The bill totaled ~140 dollars for the 6 of us (5 steaks and 1 salmon burger); yes quite pricey for bar food. This is where the experience just blew up. When we showed our groupons to the waitress, she was upset and taken aback.  She said in an incredulous voice “Are you kidding me!? You know you’re supposed to show me that at the beginning right?  There are restrictions on the menu and you guys ordered stuff that doesn’t qualify.”  We explained that we did declare our groupons and were assured there are no restrictions.  This prompted a short lecture by the waitress. “There is a difference between hostesses and waitresses.  You’re supposed to know this...” And so on and so forth.  Since when is the customer responsible for this?  The onus is on the staff to have proper communication and be accountable for the customers and their requests.  Secondly, you do NOT lecture your customer regardless of what the issue is.  WTF. Needless to say, the combination of average food, exuberant prices,  rude staff and slow and terrible service all sums up to one thing: a terrible experience.  To add insult to injury, we were made to feel stupid and guilty.  One thing is for sure.  We are never going back.  Ever.  In Taylor Swift’s words: We, are never ever EVER, getting back togetherrrr. Eater beware... Update Dec 19/12:  In the past two weeks, I have been in communication with a member of the management team at The Ticket.  Readers and eaters, rest assured that steps are being taken to ensure a positive and pleasant experience at this restaurant.  Props to the management team for being vigilant and taking initiative to prevent such an experience from repeating itself. View Larger Map

I suddenly had a hankering for fish and chips around 4 pm today and I tried to convince my parents to venture out to Steveston so we could have Pajos, but there is no convincing them out of their lazy Sunday afternoon state of being and so it was a lost cause. So then I made plans to hit up Pajos with my brothers and MooseMan and his brother, but turns out Pajos was closed by the time we decided to go. And so MooseMan and I attempted to decide on another food spot. We went through a list of names and finally settled on Red Rooster. Why Red Rooster? Well, because there is a very apparent shortage of Halal restaurants in Richmond and when one does open up, word of mouth contagiously spreads the message around in the Halal-eating community. And Red Rooster opened up 9 days ago and is Halal so naturally, we were going to try it out.

As I had mentioned in my earlier post, because of the small portion sizes at Hapa Izakaya, the boys were still quite hungry at the end. We had heard that Burger King had recently revamped their fries, making them thicker (thicker than a No. 2 pencil according to the Americans) and have 20% less sodium compared to previously. We were eager to see how these fries matched up against the competitors. Plus, they were offering free small fries that day. We had already paid a premium price for our dinner (more than our usual dinners anyhow), so off we went to Burger King on Main St. and 1st Ave. 

Today, we graced Moxie’s Classic Grill in Richmond with our presence while celebrating Turtle’s birthday.  Moxie’s is a chain of restaurants which serves typical westcoast/Canadian cuisine with menu categories similar to what you find at Milestones, White Spot and other Canadian/westcoast restaurants.  As their website and newly launched TV commercials suggest, Moxie’s attempts to deliver an upscale casual dining experience focusing on quality, value and service.  Lets see how they stack up against their image.

The ambience of the restaurant is what you’d expect from a restaurant wanting to create an upscale casual dining environment.  The lighting is dim but alright, seating arranged in the open or semi-private arrangements, and classy dark furniture finely compliment each other to create a pleasing aura.  The extensions built into the walls and seats that act as coat hangers are a nice touch and something I hadn’t seen before. One complaint is that some of the seats are situated VERY close to each other. Ying and Richard’s chairs were back to back with another table’s chairs, this gave us very little leg room and flexibility to move.