Veto List - Fajitas & Ritas

Friday night was Todd's birthday dinner. We picked Fajitas & Ritas, but unfortunately I had to veto the place before the night's end. It was a bit of an impetuous veto, and a little borderline, but nonetheless a veto occurred. Vetos cannot be reversed.

I remember it as having been a decent place to eat the last time I went there. Nothing special, but nothing terrible.

Our party of 8 arrived around 9pm. Ryan had called ahead twice.

When we showed up, they had no record of our calling ahead. Figures.

So we waited.

And waited.

Right there in the dining room across from the bar. 8 people standing around. We watched as couples and parties behind us (including a party of 7) were seated before us.

I took a walk to find an ATM, and upon my return, a round of tequila shots magically appeared, thanks to Christopher the magician.

So we continued waiting and soon realized it was 9:45. I kind of flew off the handle then.

I walked up the the chip boy who was helping us - no host was in site - and asked when our table would be ready. He said he did not know and couldn't tell us.

Seriously? 45 minutes of waiting and still nothing? Parties seated behind us after we called ahead? I'm thinking this is a joke.

So I told him that we were leaving. I turned around, told my friends that he didn't have a table for us nor knew when he would have one.

When I'm hungry, I can get grumpy. And with no progress in sight, I got a bit huffy.

Doug tried to diffuse the situation by saying that the chip boy was going to buy a round of drinks for us. I thought that was odd. So I turned around, asked the chip boy if he was buying a round of drinks for us.

He said no. So I said OK, let's go.

I would have been more patient had I felt that they were putting forth an iota of effort. Tables went visibly unbussed for extended periods of time. But more importantly, when we called ahead twice, showed up to find them shrugging their shoulders, and watched them seat a party of 7 who showed up after we did, I was done.

We went next door to Max & Dylan's where we had put our name in 20 minutes prior. While our table wasn't ready, they were more than accommodating to put together a few bar table hightops and make it work for us. That was very nice of them.