A dining story that should not happen again....

One day while in Bismarck, Jerry, my mother and myself went to this fine dining restaurant a few minutes before noon.

Jerry and MB (my mother) ordered the salad, soup and bread sticks. The young lady who was our waitress told Jerry that this was her first day then asked each, "What kind of salad dressing do you want?" MB said she would like thousand island. Jerry ordered his choice. In this process she also asked what kind of soup do you want. Both wanted the Broccoli soup. She came back, "We don't have the broccoli soup ready. What other kind do you want? (Their choice was now down to two. ) Both said Tomato Basil. She left then came back, " We don't have the Tomato Basil, all we have is the Chicken Noodle soup." They both agreed to this although neither one wanted the CN soup. Now we were starting to chuckle about this but it gets worse.

Some time later the waitress came back, "Sorry, we don't have any Thousand Island dressing. What other kind would you like?" A new one was chosen. After several minutes the waitress brought the salads and said, "We are waiting on the bread sticks." After they were almost done with the salad the bread sticks arrived. Now I ask you, "Why would they not have Thousand Island dressing and the bread sticks ready for the noon crowd?"

She was again at our table several minutes later saying," the Broccoli soup was ready and if they wanted that they could change their order and get that". Both Jerry and MB agreed. Now this is getting rather ridiculous but better later then never. After some time she brings "ONE" bowl of soup and sets it down in front of MB.. Her next statement about sent us into bursts of laughter. "We don't have any more bowls". After another few minutes she is back and tells us, "We are still waiting for the bowl, it is in the dish". We have never in all our years of eating out had this kind of experience. Jerry waited patiently for his soup and it did arrive after several more minutes. Jerry's bowl was still hot from the "dish". :-)

Now we all agreed that the food was good, we were entertained although rather disturbed about the service. This was just before noon in Bismarck at a very busy restaurant and they should of been better prepared. We were there before the noon crowd, before the food should of all been gone and the food should of been fresh and just out of the oven/stove. They should of had the food ready, soup made, bread sticks baking, etc. They also overcharged us. We did not complain as it was just too funny.

Who knows maybe the chef was having a bad day or else someone was yanking this waitresses chain since it was her first day. She did not get flustered and was very friendly. As were we. We did not hassle her nor rant and rave. We should get an "A" for patience and tact. If anyone else had the same experience I hope they gave her respect and another tip as she deserved one. We had our laugh of the day.

I do not believe we will be in this particular restaurant for some time to come. We will take our chances somewhere else.