irritated
vakkotaur and I have about 4 restaurants in Fairmont we patronize regularly. (Most of the rest of the ones in town either suck, or are too smokey.) Tonight was dinner at The Ranch, a place that serves American food. While there, I was greeted with one low-level annoyance after another...1) Noisy, out-of-control kids.
2) Parents of same. Why do people inflict their noisy, out-of-control kids on the world? In particular, why do they allow them to scream, bang on the table, and run around loose, with no attempt to stop them - or even encourage them to do so? Is there something about having a kid that suddenly turns a respectable adult into an indulgent, simpering idiot with an inordinate tolerance for pain?
3) Soup recipes with orange yuk. This place seems incapable of making any kind of soup without adding carrots to it. I can understand them in vegetable soup, and chicken noodle - but bean with ham, or cheese broccoli?! "Soup" does not imply "carrot"!
4) Patronizing waitresses. There's one there who rubs me the wrong way every time she opens her mouth. "How are we doing?" I don't know about you, lady, but I'm getting pissed off. She also has the highly annoying tendency to draw out words: "Here's your priiime riiiibbb..." She does this in such a way as to convince me that her intelligence is measured with a tire pressure gage. I just want to bitch-slap her.
5) Signage with glaring grammatical errors. Why, for $DEITY's sake, do they have to put quote marks around the words "dollar amount": GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE, any "dollar amount"? Apostrophes are sprinkled about as though there is a quota they have to use up.
6) The salad bar is right next to part of the choking section. Sometimes, as tonight, it's not too bad; others, it's nearly impenetrable.
Why do we keep going back? Well, all of those annoyances aside, the food is not bad, and the prices - even with a recent 10% or so hike - are within reason. Still, it would be nice if they took care of some of these...
