Birthday Flop!

Hello!

Last night Eric and I went out for his birthday. Here we are prior to leaving for a late dinner. Do you notice a certain shirt I am wearing?? Yup, that is the same flower shirt I was thinking of buying a while back (remember back in March when I brought you into the change room with me?). I actually found it on the sale rack 75% off the other week!!!! :) Sometimes it pays to wait.

I ended up taking him to a place called Oliver and Bonacini. We had never been there before, and in the spirit of trying new restaurants, I booked us a reservation.

Little did we know we were not going to have a good experience at this restaurant! :(

To our disappointment, the patio was full so we opted for a booth in the bar area.

Decisions, decisions…

They brought us bread to the table, which I let Eric have (he was starving and about to chew his arm off!).

I ordered 6oz. of Sauvignon Blanc and Eric a beer.

Then it came time to order our apps and main course and this is where the fun started.

I asked the waiter if the vegetarian plate could be made vegan (there was some soufflé in it with egg whites) and he said he would check with the chef. So he came back and told me that the chef could prepare me a vegan plate and that it would be a ‘surprise’. I was like, sure…no problem! Sometimes I like when chef’s can just bring our their skills and whip up something really cool.

And then the waiter starts asking me questions about being a vegan. He goes, “Yea I have two friends that are vegan. You know, you should be a vegetarian but not a vegan. My friends started to waste away from being vegan. You can be a vegetarian, but you just shouldn’t be a vegan. It’s just not good.”

I know, right? What does someone say to that?

I said that while it is challenging it can be done properly is one is aware of what their body needs. I also said that vegetarians can be unhealthy too if they are not getting an adequate diet. I really had to bite my tongue though because I wanted to tell this guy, a la Stephanie Tanner, HOW RUDE! I mean how can you be a waiter and tell someone that how they are eating is WRONG? I was so miffed that someone could be so ignorant!

He went on and on too! Like this conversation didn’t end.

Oh and then he got on about the honey part. He goes, ‘Oh honey, I just don’t understand. It’s honey, come on!’

Obviously, I know that many people don’t have issues with honey or understand why that it isn’t vegan. I was like that too when I first started out. And then I made Glo Bakery completely vegan by removing the honey from all products. It doesn’t bother me that this waiter has a personal issue with veganism, what bothered me is that he was completely rude to me and left a very bad taste in my mouth, especially on an occasion that was so happy and celebratory. I just brushed it off and we carried on with dinner and just ignored the jerk.

My salad was nothing special. Spinach and mushrooms with vinaigrette.

Eric had Caesar salad that he said was good:

Then my surprise vegan platter came out and I will admit it was pretty interesting…

• Watermelon and tomatoes in a vinagrette

• EXTREMELY garlicky hummus on bread

• Vegetables
• White bean puree croquettes
• White rice (in back left)

Where do I start? First I will voice a couple complaints:

• The vegetables were dripping in oil
• The food was heavily salted (I mean heavily)
• The croquettes were deep fried

It bothers me when chef’s think that they need to douse vegetables in oil and salt to make them taste good. I don’t know about you, but if I was cooking for a vegan, I probably wouldn’t deep fry anything either.

The hummus bread had huge chunks of garlic in it. Way too much garlic. I felt like I was fuming after one bite! I ate half the bread, all the rice, all the vegetables, 2 croquettes, and all the watermelon and tomatoes. I was stuffed at the end. :)

Eric had a lamb burger and fries…

Eric didn’t like the burger and he said the fries were really salty (I tried one and they were, much like my food).

All and all, it was a really disappointing experience. Don’t you just hate when you take someone out for a special dinner and it is a flop?? I felt so bad!!!

We made the best of it though…

After dinner, Eric dragged me to see GI Joe for a late show at 10:20pm. Let me just be brief and say this- it is 2 hours of my life that I will never ever get back. ;) Horrible. The acting, the cinematography, the script. Everything. Dear God.

And then on the highway on the way home, we got stuck in traffic on the 401 for 40 minutes! So we didn’t get home until 1am. I reclined my chair as I was so tired.

It was sort of just ‘one of those nights’, ya know? I still feel so badly because I feel like Eric didn’t have a good birthday. :(

I tried to make the best of it by being goofy and silly after dinner though…

Sadly, this restaurant experience reminded us why we don’t go out to eat. It is expensive and we can often make much better food at home for so much less. Live and learn I guess!

I am sorry for the downer post guys! I would never hide my true feelings on this blog though. And I would never pretend that everything is fine and dandy when it was not.

What you see is what you get! Bad experiences happen to the best of us, right?!

~~~~~

This morning Eric’s mom is working on the alterations for my bridesmaid dress. Let’s hope we get this thing fitting a bit better!

Off to bake…