La Feria
image: metavariable
Last night, Mary Alice, Marcelina and I went to La Feria on South Lamar with Joe & Sally. To my best recollection, I had never been to the place, and I had a gift certificate that I was waiting to burn from Restaurant.com. It was a $25 one, and usually they are regularly $10, but I was able to get it for $3 or $4, due to a coupon from their mailing list. I would highly recommend getting on that mailing list. Coupons galore, baby!
Anyway, I guess I should have taken as a bad sign that I had to get my own high chair - I mean, I know Austin is informal and all, but even at Arandinas or Dennys they’ll bring you a freaking high chair when you ask for one. However, it had only been five minutes since Sally had asked them to bring one, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Next up, it took them another five minutes to ask what we wanted to drink. This was the same five minutes that it took for them to bring the water that Joe and Sally had asked for when they were seated. Another bad sign.
We were finally able to order, and we had to get to $35, so we asked for the Choriqueso appetizer (which is quite tasty, by the way, even if it’s pretty much an artery-clogger) and that came another 15 minutes after we ordered. Luckily for us, we were starving, so we scarfed it down. If we hadn’t eaten it so fast, it probably would have been a problem, because they brought our entrees about 5 minutes after the appetizer.
Of course, that couldn’t go without a problem. Joe had ordered the enchiladas al carbon and they brought him tacos al carbon. Mary Alice had ordered the ground beef taco salad and they brought her the beef fajita taco salad. As far as Sally and I, our orders were correct, only by the grace of God.
Sally was definitely underwhelmed by her order. I don’t remember what Mary Alice said, but I think she said it was i-ight. I think her getting the wrong thing in the first place left a foul taste in her mouth. Joe said his order was actually very good, and I would have to say that mine was pretty good.
The total bill came out to $44 or so - but even that was messed up because the waitress (you won’t catch me saying server) tried to charge us for the fajita in the taco salad. It wasn’t an oversight, either, because they got the enchiladas al carbon right on the ticket. To the rest of our party, that was the last straw, so they insisted that I leave a $1 tip.
Now, you must realize that I am a big fan of the service industry (especially single moms). I always leave a generous tip, to the point that most of my friends and even my girlfriend think I’m an idiot for doing so. Well, I couldn’t leave less than a $3 tip and they were saying I should only leave a dollar. Actually, they suggested I only leave the 50 cents that she had just given me. I get what everyone is saying: that this was a shitty eating experience, and we’ll never return to this place again. But the whole time in the back of my mind, I’m thinking that $3 is still less than 10% of the total bill. It’s barely 2 Euros! That’ll show her! They’re right, though. She probably doesn’t give a shit.
In Austin, most Hispanic waitstaff at run-of-the-mill Mexican restaurants like this speak only Spanish. But this chick actually spoke English pretty well, so I don’t really get her lack of customer service skills. I don’t know - maybe she’s had a lot of pussies like me who tip high anyway, so she’s never had to learn a lesson. Maybe it’s because people mostly go there for drinks and happy hours, so most people don’t notice the putrid service. Either way, I can guarantee that we’ll never be there again.