Do Not Go Here For Dinner, folks!

Mo:

Restaurant at Avalon Hotel =
0 recommendation, 0 points, 0 stars.

I had a brilliant evening this evening with K and her friends. Although K and I have known each other for 18yrs, this was the first time that I met her 3 cousins, her brother and 2 of her childhood friends. We met to have dinner and to celebrate K´s birthday.

The venue was the restaurant part of the Avalon Hotel (not the Bistro). This is the second chance I give this restaurant since it was a joke last time I visited concerning the service (and the food was mediocre to say the least).

Instead of improving, it had gotten worse...
Where do I start? I ask if they have freshly squeezed fruit juice (from fresh fruit...) as a non alcoholic apperetif and in that case can I please have it without any added sugar? The waitress looks at me blankly in response and asks: "So no sockerdricka in it?" (Sockerdricka is the sweet, Swedish version of 7Up or Sprite)
Me: (is this a joke?): "...ehhh, no thanks. No sockerdricka"
When the pre-dinner drinks arrive, I´m left without a drink. Suddenly the waitress appears again: "Is orange juice fine?"
Me: "Is it freshly squeezed? Otherwise I´ll just have some mineral water, thanks" She disappears and arrives with a barman (the head barman it later turns out).

He carries a packet of "God Morgon" Juice (think cheaper version of Tropicana). "Is this alright?"
Me: "So you don´t have freshly squeezed fruit juice? In that case, I´ll just have a mineral water without flavour"
Barman, whilst shaking his head (talk about mixed messages) "Yes".
Me: "No or Yes? You have freshly squeezed fruit juice"?
Barman: "Sure, I can fix that"
Me thinking: Am I in the twilight zone?

Juice turns up in a tumbler glass. 50% ice cubes and 50% God Morgon Juice. Same colour, same taste. Freshly squeezed juice have a very distinct colour and a very distinct taste. Me thinking: just keep calm, no need to kick up a stink right now.

Sea bass arrives. Tastes of nothing. Until I start getting slightly deeper into the dish, then it suddenly tastes of nothing plus a not very flattering flavour that I can´t distinguish. I don´t finish my plate (hey, how often does that happen???? Hardly EVER!).

Dessert. Average banana & chocolate dish, with a presentation that reminds me of the only one of Daisy´s diapers that I have ever changed. (So sorry, D, absolutely no offence to you).

Conversation is great. Laughter is all around. We´re having a jolly good time! K´s cousin M and I really hit if off. She is the mother of 3 and tells me about her future dream: leaving her job as a business controller to start up a gardening business together with her husband. She is a very intelligent and inspiring woman.

Time flies. We order the bill.
Instead of getting billed for one glass of wine, one of the guests gets charged 600SEK for a full bottle. My God Morgon juice is 68SEK. I ask to speak to the barman. To cut a long story short, he claims to, and these are his exact words
"....I went and found a fruit press and put 3 oranges and 2 apples in to make your juice" (Where did he "go and find" that??? I though that Mediamarkt was closed at 9pm Saturday evening?...)
When I told him: "That just cannot be true. I have a fruit juicer at home and I KNOW what colour apples make in a juice - BROWN - and together with oranges it becomes beige-yellow, unless you have used an orange press, with which you cannot possibly juice APPLES anyway - You´re lying."
Barman: "I have left my customers at the bar to come out here. I asked you if you wanted blablabla and you said no, so I made it fresh...blablabla...This is the price for the juice, I can´t do anything"
Me: "I don´t care about the money, it´s the principle that you come out here and tell a lie. You serve God Morgon juice and call it freshly squeezed, when it´s apparent that it´s NOT.
That SUCKS!" (I´m not really sure where that one came from, but it felt good to say it).

By this time, I´m fed up with having an imbecile moron taking up my time and my breathing space, so I look him up and down, slowly turn my back to him and go "So, shoo, leave now. Go back to your customers at the bar. Byebye"

Don´t worry, I paid for the juice. Of course I did. But I will also tell EVERYONE I know, where NOT to go on their next dinner out. Actually, the word has probably spread already without my help. The restaurant was not even half-full tonight, Saturday night after salary. Probably I´m not the only one who refuses to pay for lousy service and bad food.

Positive things with the evening: New dress from Whyred, new snakeskin tights from Zara, necklace & clutch bag from Hoss, fantastic company & great conversation!

Nitenite, sweeties.

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