Birthday Flan - not a given
Our waiter was very loathe to change anything on the menu, like "instead of sour cream can I have extra guacamole"? was a big fat "no", even after we had already mentioned we understand if the cost is different. If you wanted extra guacamole you had to buy the big 7 dollar tub of it. :/
They wouldn't change anything on the menu. Whatever, some places aren't as organized to do that kind of thing, but for the price we pay for the not so good food I was honestly kind of surprised.
Also we later learned from our waiter that they can't do split checks. So here we have a large group (12 people), we're all drunk save for our two DD's, and they're going to ask us to do math.
A person in my group went to talk to the manager about the surliness of our waiter (please don't flame me for this I was actually really embarrassed by this, I don't feel he was being surly I think he was just repeating policy like a broken record, its not like he made the rules) and the manager came over to talk to me since I was the birthday girl. I told him that the only real complaint was that it's my birthday, I don't want to do math, we're all drunk and drunken math isn't good for anyone, and that we're all pretty good tippers (always 18-20%, I myself always tip 20%) so if they were trying to ensure the 18% gratuity they'd actually end up losing out.
The manager just laughed and said "oh I understand totally okay lets see what we can do I think I have a little birthday surprise for you that will make it all better." It turned out to be birthday flan with a candle in it. How nice. Even though they took away my tortillas to make room for the flan so I couldn't finish my meal (I was obviously still eating).
Fast-forward to the end of the meal, they didn't allow us to split the check afterall, come to find out without so much as another word about it, so we're sitting there past closing crunching numbers with our heads swimming from the incredibly powerful margaritas while the waiters glare at us cuz I'm sure they want to go home.
Also, that "very special surprise" birthday flan? They charged us for it. Now, I don't expect restaurants to give free birthday desserts all the time, that is hardly the case. The reason I'm bugged by this is because the manager came over as a direct result of someone in our party complaining about the service, hearing my side of the story and my concern about inevitable drunken check calculating, and then having him say that its my birthday I shouldn't be unhappy and HIM volunteering to give ME a birthday surprise (without anyone in my group asking for one) and bringing flan that I ended up being charged for.
The kicker? I hate flan. Like..hate it. It has the texture of snot and I didn't eat any of it. I just blew out the candle and said thank you.
I understand that this might get me some flack, but I just went there to have a good birthday party, not do math, have a lot of drinks and be happy. Ending the evening with numbers and a birthday dessert I didn't eat but still had to pay for really just soured me, especially considering this place is KNOWN for being a place where you go to drink stupidly (they offer pitchers of the strongest margaritas ever, which we ordered several of among our group).
I don't think I'll have a party there again, as good as their margaritas are. Oh well.
So yeah..I just..I don't understand the logic :/