After the movie, which was GREAT!, our group met Uncle Gene at Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. They have a pretty delicious salad bar.
I made myself a yummy salad w/ dark greens, mushrooms, green peppers, cucumbers, tomato, cheese, creamy caeser dressing, cheese (yep, more - two kinds of cheese!) & croutons made of a dark, dark bread.
For my entree, I was going to have mahi mahi, because I really like it! Liked? Gene & Nancy told me it was dolphin. :( I joked about it, but I didn't want to eat Flipper! Actually, I think I let them psych me out... Cuz, I don't really care. I eat meat. I eat fish. I don't feel guilty about it... but dolphin?? So, why does that bother me? Weird. And likely not permanent! *laugh* However, I have since learned that it's not FLIPPER dolphin, it's some other fish that is in the dolphin family. So that makes me feel better, and also makes me want to go back to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner! *laugh*
Anyway! Since I got psyched out by my aunt & uncle, but still wanted fish, I ordered trout. I chose sugar snap peas and spaghetti squash as sides.
The trout was served on the skin. Is it always? Should I have known it was going to come attached to skin? Oye. Anyway, other than being a little weird peeling it out of its "shell," I enjoyed it. It was covered in almond slivers & served with a really delicious almond sauce. : ) I also enjoyed the sugar snap peas, which were buttery but not swimming in it. The spaghetti squash was a disappointment, however. :( I was prepared to like it - hello, I LOVE squash! Alas, it was not to be. LOL
Aunt Vickie's entree was spaghetti squash w/ marinara, which she enjoyed. She also had yummy cheddar biscuits (and shared one w/ me, thank you!).
Holly & Mom each had just the salad bar. Uncle Gene chose the crab cake, and said it was really good. He cleaned his plate, so I'm thinking he must've really liked it!
Aunt Nancy had lobster pasta, which was also enjoyable. Everyone was obviously very pleased with their meals! Which was nice, considering my last memories of RT's food were not so fond!
However - let us talk about the atmosphere of the restaurant for a moment. First of all, we had 7 in our party. This obviously necessitated a larger table. So, we waited. Waited. And waited some more. Ppl left, ppl arrived and were seated immediately. Including a party of 5. ?! Now, I don't think a five top would fit at one table, but perhaps I'm wrong. At any rate, they were seated right away, while we sat waiting and getting increasingly hungry! The hostess did come out - after Aunt Nancy gave her the stink eye - to apologize and thank us for waiting so patiently. Finally, we were led to our tables. The thing I didn't get, tho, was that it was just two tables put together. Now, while we were waiting, and when the hostess came out & said she was waiting for ppl to leave so she could get a space big enough, I kinda assumed the tables were really small & they were going to have to put together 3 of them, which would be more difficult, and the wait understandable. But two tables? Idk, it just didn't seem like it should have taken as long as it did. ALSO, I think that a good hostess would have offered free appetizers, or drinks, or dessert - something - for the table to compensate us for our wait, and thank us for staying to give them our business!
Do restaurants do that any more? One striving for excellent customer service would, in my opinion.
The temperature was perfect for some of us (me & Aunt Vickie!), tho too cold for others (Mom LOL). The lighting left lots to be desired, tho. I've spoken before of my dislike for restaurants that choose this kind of "mood" lighting. So, that was annoying. Small annoyance, tho, as the food was mostly star-quality, and the staff was nice. I'd give the whole experience a solid B+.
The company, however, gets an A++! : )
After dinner, Mom, the Aunts, and Uncle Gene left for their homes. Holly, Jaycie & I headed over to Biagi's for coffee, dessert, and an actual meal for Jaycie as she hadn't ordered anything at RT! *laugh* Biagi's has realllllly good coffee! : )
Jaycie ordered a Margherita pizza, which was pretty (and I had a small piece, very good!). She said she liked the "confetti" look (of the basil). : )
Along with my coffee, I had a piece of Tiramisu. Cuz I wanted more coffee. LOL It was scrumptious!!
All in all, an excellent Harry Potter night!!
Unit next time - send in some suggestions of what you'd like to see a post about! It's probably not going to be another CFA post... LOL
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