"No special orders"-Ha!

[GwenRN]

On our way back from visiting his mother on Sunday, my bf and I decided to try a nice dinner. We stopped at this Chinese restaurant in Saugus called Kowloon's (very very famous in the area, many stars have eaten there) As usual, the place was PACKED with literally hundreds of people, but hearing it was only a 20 minute wait, we decided to stay.

So upon being seated, we were very surprised to see that they had a limited "Mother's Day" menu, which clearly stated "no special orders i.e. no msg, no salt" My heart sank, thinking I might be stuck with white rice while I watched Mike eat.

Knowing that white sauces are typically safe, I decided to ask the waitress if any of the dishes had a white sauce and take my chances... but the minute she heard the word "allergic" she literally walked away. I was thinking maybe this wasn't a good idea, when the owner of the place came and introduced himself, asked what I could and couldn't have, what I liked, and if I could describe the type of dish I was looking for.

So, "no special orders", my butt, I had a lovely plate of lobster, scallops, and shrimp with mixed vegetables (lots of yummy mushrooms) in a garlicy white sauce which, the owner pointed out, was thickened with cornstarch, and some fresh steamed rice.

Moral of this story, never be afraid to ask for what you want!


Gwen

[JUDI42MIL]

Oh good Gwen, glad you had a nice meal. When i managed restaurants, on moms day we said no special orders also.....BUT...... if someone allergic we did it.......It just kind of stopped the little picky people from driving us nuttier.

[GwenRN]

Judi,

There are days when I feel bad, asking so many questions of the waitstaff, etc, and I feel like I must seem very "picky", so I figure others must feel the same, that's why it's so important to realize that when we ask for what we want, we're more likely to get it! 


Last night, to celebrate the new job, we went out for Thai food. Now, there's one Thai restaurant we go to often that's always been very eager to help (they let me bring in my own gf "cake" for Mike's birthday"), but we decided to go to the one closer to me. I asked two questions: does the pad thai sauce contain any soy sauce, and are the noodles just rice (having learned at Kowloon that some rice noodles CAN contain wheat) The waitress was certain about both, so I decided to order it, but she came out a minute later to tell me the oil they use for the pad thai had "a little bit of soy sauce", and that they couldn't make it without it (which I don't understand)

I ended up ordering a dish called "cilanto shrimp" which had shrimp, in a honey and cilantro glaze, some mixed thai greens (very interesting) and broccoli. Not my first choice, but very good, and I'm glad I was sort of forced to experiment.

Unfortunately, Mike's spicy chicken wasn't as good, and appeared to have soy sauce, so I didn't try it.

Maybe we'll go back to the tried and true next time, but it's always fun to experiment.


Gwen