The worst experience at a restaurant ever

Things happen to you almost every day - some good, some not so good. But there are some that you can never forget, some that you think over and over about. The very mention of that brings you to laughter. A similar incident happened with me while I was on vacation in Florida last year.

No sooner did we step out of it than, I promised to my friends that I’ll take the pain to write a review of that place. The place in question is Shalimar Indian Restaurant, a self proclaimed top notch restaurant in Orlando, Florida. But later on it came to me more as an afterthought that it won’t be a justice to ordeals that we went through in those two hours if I’d just write a review. Hence the blog!

It was Christmas and we were completely drained out after a long day in the Universal Studios. So a unanimous decision was made to have some Desi food for dinner. The other day we had come across the name of Shalimar Restaurant in the guide book of the hotel we were staying in. That was reason enough to believe that it’ll be a good place to eat. Anyway, I’d not waste any time on not-so-important things and get to the point real quick.

There was something very weird about the place right from the outset. There was this guy who was sitting at the entrance as if he was there to get the guests seated; but that was not to happen. Rather we ran into a waiter who got us some place to sit. This waiter – let me call him the Arabic guy; for he was not an Indian nor a Pakistani because he did not understood a word of what we spoke to him in Hindi and he himself spoke English in Arabic accent. I asked him how big will be a plate of Biryani. To my surprise he said it will be good for three of us. One of us being a non-vegetarian asked about Nihari Curry if it was a chicken-dish. He answered in affirmative. The mention of Rumali Roti in the menu excited one of us. We were ready with our order. A minute later this Arabic guy comes up saying that the Nihari Curry contains beef, so we had to order something else.

Fifteen minutes later. He keeps a basket containing some chapattis on the table. While wondering over the fact that those chapattis by no means resembled Rumali Rotis, we started having couple bites of them. Suddenly the Arabic guy shows up again. He says, ‘Sorry!’ and without even giving us a chance to react takes the basket away. A few minutes later on, he is up with the complete order. The basket again had similar chapattis not Rumali Rotis, by the way

Before we begun, one of us counted the number of chapattis in the basket and was amused to find five of them. For the record, we had ordered for three Rumali Rotis; and five by no means fits into the scheme. They should have been either three or six for that matter. To add to that the chapattis were not even hot. We called for the Arabic guy once again and send the chapattis back with him so that he could get them corrected both in quantity and quality; though I somehow felt that the drama is not going to end so soon. He returned but with the same number of chapattis again. This infuriated us.

We asked the Arabic guy to call some supervisor. For a long time no one showed up. Out came another guy –lets call him the American guy; there is precisely no reason for this except that he spoke English in American accent ad more so because I don’t want to mix up the characters. At first it looked like he will be able to address our concerns, but unfortunately he could not do much. All he could manage was to call the head cook (as he termed it). The head cook was an elderly man who spoke to us very politely. He clarified that the chapattis that were served were all he had to offer in the name of Rumali Rotis and he would certainly get the number of chapattis amended.

In the meantime we had called for some water. A guy with a couple of glasses of water showed up. Lets call him the Indian guy – for he was the only Indian waiter in an otherwise Indian restaurant. We had earlier called for him but he did not even bother to pay us attention. One of us was prompt in asking him ‘Why did you not even bother to reply when we were calling you?’

His reply took us by a shock. He said, ‘I was busy and anyway I’m not supposed to serve you.’

That was reason enough for one of my friends to get irate. He gave him a good taste of his own medicine.

Let us return to the main track. We had received some chapattis in a basket once again. But to our extreme surprise, they were again five in number. We started laughing at this. The American guy suddenly appeared from nowhere with reply to a question we had never asked him. We somehow got rid of him. There could be seen a Chinese waiter.  I don’t think he had got anything to do over there. All he would do was walk back and forth from one corner of the restaurant to the other. When I called him he simply pointed towards the American guy and moved ahead. 

The scene was getting annoying but funny at the same time. We now decided to be a little mischievous. We called the phone number of the restaurant and asked them to send someone to our table – all this while we were sitting in the restaurant. This did not go down too well with the head cook who showed up.

His first question was, ‘Sir, what is your problem?’

I said, ‘Excuse me! Give me a break. I’m the one who should be saying that.’

At this he got hold of himself and said, ‘Alright sorry for all this. It is festival time. You are busy as well as I’m busy. Lets not make a scene.’
I replied, ‘That is what we’re trying to do since more than last one hour. And if you are so busy then why run the restaurant!’

Without taking the drama any further we decided its time we shall leave the place without eating a single more bite. We asked him to get the check. He tried to persuade us not to leave but without any success. We insisted on check without the 15% tip that they said will be added to the check directly – Though it is the practice here to give out a 15% tip but that is rarely a part of your bill. Moreover, since we were not at all pleased with the service, there was no question of tip. 

Just when we started to believe that the action was finally over, he turned up with the check. The total amount appeared to be relatively high. Upon checking I found out that we were charged for items we had never ordered. He promptly identified that it was not the correct check. The three of us burst into a huge laughter. He went inside to get the correct check. He returned with the corrected check after a while.

While the head cook was away, I took the opportunity to ask the Chinese guy about the note that was put up at the entrance saying the restaurant was rated Excellent by Zagat (Zagat is a website that rates restaurant based on reviews provided by diners). I questioned the genuineness of that claim.  He was very abject in saying that he did not have any idea about that. 

We paid the amount due and left with some bitter (or maybe sweet or maybe hilarious?) memories of the place. We could not stop laughing and talking about the place before we went into our beds. As I had rightly termed back then – That was indeed the worst experience at a restaurant ever.