Right now, my girlfriend and I should have been enjoying coffee and desserts with my dad and my brother. Instead, we are back home, and my girlfriend is suffering through an allergic reaction. Why?
Because when she clearly ordered her Mr Hong meal without paprika (her allergen) and the waiter repeated "Without paprika", we all assumed she would be served her meal without paprika.
There is a saying about assumptions. Tonight, we proved it right.
When it finally arrived, my girlfriend's dish was very much not without paprika. Fine. Mistakes happen. We returned the dish to the kitchen, and surprisingly quickly, a new one arrived, this time apparently without paprika.
But at Mr Hong, appearances can be deceiving.
After having eaten a good portion of her meal, my girlfriend discovered that it still contained a few badly hidden pieces of (no points for guessing right on this one) her dear old enemy paprika!
Apparently, the staff had figured that simply picking out the most obvious pieces was a vastly superior strategy to actually making her the dish she had ordered in the first place.
My girlfriend's eyes started getting sore, she began coughing, and nausea set in. We quickly and furiously settled the bill (minus the Allergen Special), and thankfully managed to get home before she became too violently ill.
On the upside, my girlfriend got to meet my dad for the first time, and the delayed service gave them a bit of time to get to know each other. On the downside, the evening ended with her coughing too violently for the two of them to properly say goodbye.
Mr Hong, consider this my goodbye to you. See you never. read more