My husband took me out to a nice restaurant last night. I orders Alcatra (a Portuguese dish kind of like pot roast for Americans) and my husband ordered some type of fish served with rice. While we were waiting on our food they brought us bread and butter with jelly and some type of goat cheese. About 10 minutes later they brought a deep fried sausage out to us. We thought, "how nice!" A while later, the waiter brought out my Alcatra and tells my husband that the chief got his order wrong and he can try it or he can have him make what he originally ordered. My husband of course said he would try it, wouldn't want food to go to waist, plus it took a while for the chief to make that one and we didn't want to wait any longer. He tried some and then apologized to the waiter because he did not like it. He told the waiter that he would just share the Alcatra with me. There was plenty for both of us with some still left over. It was very delicious and cooked perfectly. For desert I ordered Chocolate Mouse! Mmmmm!
After we were all done we went to go pay. The total was €33 (about $43) which at first glance wasn't bad for a nice dinner. Then I remembered that we only ordered one dinner (Alcatra €12) and two drinks (coca cola €2.50 and Sprite €2.50) and a desert (Chocolate Moose €3.50). I looked at the receipt and there was a lot more than that on there. They charged us for the bread, butter, jelly, cheese, deep fried sausage, and not only that, because my husband shared my meal with me, they charges us €8 each when it was the same amount of food that they give for one person. We paid and tipped the waiter, because he was one of the nicest waiter we have had in Europe and non of it was his fault, and we left.
Hey, at lease they didn't charge us for the food that my husband didn't order! We probably wont be going back to the restaurant again unless we are craving Alcatra. But honestly, it doesn't matter where you go because they charge people for water, for bread and butter per person, and what ever else they put on the table. Even if you didn't eat it you have to argue with them before they will say fine, and think, "stupid Americans", in their head.
