Last night George and his daughter and I went out to dinner. We do not see her often and this was a chance for us to get together. We went to a Thai restaurant in the next town. It is a cute little place, under new management, and I had been there for lunch once a couple of weeks ago and the food was fragrant and delicious.
We arrived at 7:15 p.m., along with about five other diners. There were 7 tables in the restaurant and it soon became apparent that one waitress was going to serve everyone, (about 14 people) and we were not even sure that there was anybody at all working in the kitchen. In 10 minutes we had three glasses of water. Then, nothing arrived at all for the next 30 minutes. By this time, all the expectant and dismayed diners were looking askance at each other, maybe wondering who was going to get up and leave first. More than one of us had the idea to storm the kitchen and find out what was going on, but our politeness got the better of us. One table of young people were having a great time and seemed in no way dismayed at the long delay in getting dinner. The rest of us started to sulk and look longingly at the kitchen door each time we heard footsteps. After a full hour we got our bowls of soup, and 30 minutes after that our main dishes arrived. It was 8:50 by the time our dishes had arrived and we were eating dinner. The food was delicious, just like I remembered, but by this time, we were all a little weary of the whole experience.
In hindsight, we should have left after 30 minutes when we saw that the restaurant was clearly understaffed. At one point I said that perhaps we should plunk down a $10 bill and leave, paying only for our soups. But, of course, we didn't. We stayed. And stayed. I wanted to order a pot of tea, but was afraid to, thinking that we might not get it until tomorrow!
Later, we found out that there was one waitress and one cook. They were cooking the dinners one at a time, and that is how they were served. As one table got served, you could hear the food hit the hot pan in the kitchen for the next order. The food was fresh and fragrant. However, by this time we were tired of the whole experience. We still had a really nice time together, having such a long time to talk, but after we ate we quickly paid the check and left. As I walked out the door into the night air, I was grateful to be out of there and wondering how long it would be before we went back. Probably a long wait.
