I swear the restaurant mafia is out to get me!

I have a standing lunch date with a friend of mine for the first Tuesday of every month (except we've been lazy lately so we missed the last 3 or 4 months) and today was that day. I picked her up at her office and she asks how I feel about having breakfast for lunch, as she's been craving some good breakfast food, but her boyfriend won't go eat it with her. I didn't really care where we went so we headed over to IHOP for a little mid-day breakfast.

I should mention that this is one of those friends that I get along so great with b/c when we're together we normally just sit around and throw sarcastic comments back and forth the whole time! Plus we have one of those wonderful relationships with few boundaries that we just really speak our minds to each other all the time too. It works out well for us, but when we're together we do sometimes have a bad habit of talking about people around us (oops).

So our waitress comes up to take our order and my friend orders the Vive la French Toast. I wasn't really listening to her order, but she made some special request that something be put on the side, rather than on top of the toast. Our waitress, in her broken English, asks my friend if she wants her scrambled egg on the side too. Sarcastic Friend (we'll call her that...at least for now) kinda looks at the waitress puzzled and says "Doesn't the egg normally come on the side?" The waitress tells us "No, it comes on the French Toast." Of course, Sarcastic Friend and I exchange very confused glances and she clarifies again "So the French Toast comes with scrambled eggs as a topping?" Anyway, this went on for a little bit longer and we both were just sitting there looking really confused at the waitress, not understanding why scrambled eggs are served on toast and not as a separate item. It was truly a very odd exchange...but not the point of this post, so I'll move on.

When it comes to my turn to order, I order Strawberry Banana French Toast with a side of hash browns. The waitress brings out our orders and I'm initially overwhelmed by the amount of whipped cream and strawberries and other items on top of my entree. Sarcastic friend notes that I might need some insulin at the end of that meal. I was about to dig in to my french toast when I realize...wait...this French Toast is round...and rather flat. Much like a pancake! Yeah...the waitress definitely did not bring me what I ordered, but instead brought me a big 'ol stack of pancakes with various toppings (fortunately, no scrambled eggs as toppings, though).

Even though I had kinda got my stomach all excited about some French Toast, I decided that, in light of my previous incidences with restaurants this week that I wouldn't push my luck and would settle for the pancakes. About halfway through my pancakes, though, I realize further that these pancakes don't just have fruits and sugar on top of them, but they're actually cooked with bananas in the batter. Yeah...there little slices of banana cooked into my pancakes. Ewwww! It just wasn't very good at all. I really only made it about halfway through that meal.

Honestly, I don't know what it is about restaurants here! I seriously am going to have to eat at home until this whole thing blows over I think. Oh well...they say bad things happen in threes, right? Maybe that means I'm done now! Ugh!!

PS - I called Ruby Tuesday's Corporate office to file a complaint about the horrible service the other day. They took the message, told me they'd pass it along to the District Manager and that he'd be giving me a call to discuss the issue. On Monday afternoon I got a voicemail regarding the matter...from no other than Manager Mike!! I couldn't even listen to his voicemail I was so infuriated. I mean I gave this guy a chance to fix the problem when it happened and he didn't effectively handle the situation then, so why would I want to hash it out over the phone with him now. Not to mention...if he's the one I'm complaining about, why would his DM think it's a good idea for me to talk to him again? Doesn't it only make sense that you should talk to the supervisor of the person you're making a complaint against, not the person themselves? I called the corporate number back today and left them a voicemail informing them that I would not be calling Manager Mike back, that I was done dealing with him and requested that his supervisor contact me, not him. We'll see how this goes! Grrr!