My parents were visiting today and it being a rather busy mid-week, I opted for a simple lunch of fresh bread from Hart's Bakery (a fabulously tasty sourdough loaf) with some cold meats and fresh figs. Nice and easy, but it went down well as a slow help-yourself lunch to chat over.
In the evening, I'd booked a table at the Lido, one of our local favourites and somewhere that's relaxed and easy, but has some interesting food too. Unfortunately, although most of the meal was well up to the usual standard, a misunderstanding with the waiter over a couple of our orders meant that me and my mum ended up with rather boring main courses that weren't really what we thought we'd ordered. I went for roast pork that came with "salsa mojo" - when I asked the waiter about it, he said it was a basically a mix of garlic, oil and herbs, which sounded great, but when it turned up, the main ingredient was actually green chilli and it was way too strong for my taste. My mum went for roast poussin with peppers, aubergines, yoghurt and flat bread, but because she was having flat bread with her starter, she asked if she could substitute it for some potatoes instead. The waiter, whose English wasn't great, misinterpreted her request as being for just the chicken with potatoes - thus missing out all the nice veg and yoghurt, which were what really made up the dish. He did apologise about his mistake with my sauce and offered us a free drink, but he wouldn't back down on my mum's, I think because he still didn't really understand when I tried to explain the mistake. It was a real shame, as it did slightly mar what would've otherwise been a great meal. I've got nothing against foreign waiting staff - who, to be honest, often have a better feel for what good service should be - but it's no good if their English isn't good enough to understand the customers.
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