18 percent?

Okay, now this was the culminating meal in a longass day of celebration for TC...


Dinner was TC's choice - Mea Kwan Thai at The Shops at San Miguel Ranch in east Chula Vista...


Joining us were my sis and her two boys, my bro, my parents, and my MIL. Most of them hadn't been here before and a few have never had Thai food before. I was hoping that their first experience here would be a positive one...

Unfortunately the service was the worst we ever experienced in the past year or so we've been going here. It was slow and the dishes came out sporadically. The waitress also forgot two identical dishes with one coming out right away and the second more than half an hour later (after being reminded by me).

Nephew #1's Thai BBQ chicken. His was the first dish. We were wondering why nephew #3 didn't get his order of the same thing. Total fail. Turns out they forgot his order and then, he got it second to dead last, before his mom's food more than half an hour later! WT.....f! On a nicer note, the chicken was pretty good and if we do go here again, I'd order this!

My MIL's Chicken Salad (came with one chicken satay skewer) with sides of peanut sauce and house dressing (not pictuted).

My sister's coconut drink which was served atop a dessert glass. I'd never seen a coconut this pale and shiny.

She liked the juice and ended up scraping some of the coconut meat from the broken "lid" or top.

My brother's Crispy Duck, which smelled so good, but then again, we were starved just waiting for everyone's food to come out.

My Drunken Noodles with Seafood (squid, scallops, shrimp, and mussels). I had this before and I ordered a mild '2' for the spice level. The sauce was a little too sweet but there was a tiny kick to it. They were generous with the seafood as well.

My mom' first taste of Thai food - Pad Thai Shrimp which she really liked. She wanted me to choose something that wasn't fried so I chose the safest (but certainly tasty) dish I could think of that wouldn't scare her off Thai food.

Bert's Pad Thai chicken (TC got the same thing). Same photo as above. Different meat. Oh yeah, and this was served pretty late too.

My Dad's Garden Delight with Duck - wok stirred vegetables. Seemed a bit bland but then my dad can't handle the spicy food either. Sometime after this, the other nephew finally got his damn BBQ chicken. Poor kid.

and the dish that wins the FAIL prize for coming in DEAD LAST 35 minutes later...

My sister's Pad Thai with Seafood. WTF people.

Service - Total Fail

I was already conferring with Bert that I was PO'd about their policy of adding 18% to the total bill for parties of 6 or more. We were 10. I was fuming inside but trying to be polite about it. The service was slow. Waters were given way late instead of right away. Orders were forgotten and the orders that weren't were paced at odd intervals as if they didn't have enough people working the kitchen or something.

The one thing that kept the BITCH within me from coming out was the apology from our sheepish waitress. She apologized and said that they would not add the 18% service charge because they "didn't take care of us".  She said she hoped we would still visit in the future. I'm glad they took the 18% off the bill or either myself or Bert would have had words with the manager about it.

So that kind of redeemed the night, but we spent a little more time there than we had planned because of the slow and sporadic service.

Bert ended up tipping only 10 percent. I though he was being pretty nice about it.

Dessert was at our place immediately after dinner. TC chose this Chocolate Cherry cake from Hans and Harry...

Loved the cake and even the maraschino cherries within and on top!

We still have some leftover cake!

OMG, I am finally on vacation! Thank (diety)!!!!!! I can finally sleep in and by sleep in, I mean anything past 5:30 am! Time for some R 'n R and quality time with TC and Bert!

More posts to come!

Currently reading:
"Game of Thrones" <----This is going to take FOREVER to finish! So I may just end up reading other books in between the lulls!