Another adventure

Picture, if you will, a young restaurant critic seated at her computer...

It has been over a year now since our last adventure to a restaurant, not because our kids get us thrown out, but because if someone isn't trying to kill me with pepper, Michael is so disappointed with the food he gets a little unbearable. Fortunately, tonight was his turn. On our last visit, we chose a Red Lobster. I decided on a perky Captain Morgan's Pineapple Shrimp. My favorite rum, my favorite seafood and a lovely fruit to blend them together in sweetness. Now who would ever dream of adding pepper to that? Well, Red Lobster. And as I was gasping for air and trying not to soil their carpet, three different people came to tell me that I was not actually having a reaction because they had all read the ingredients and there was no pepper involved. This was a completely miserable experience only to be topped off by someone actually confessing that they had no idea what was in it because there was a dry batter involved that had no label. Did I mention that our appetizer had a hair in it? Twice?

So: on to our new adventure. I've grown a lot since then. Second guessing recipes just doesn't work because you never know if they're using the grill that they just used for blackened catfish or the tongs that they are also using to saute the habaneros. Waffles. Waffles and French Toast are usually pretty safe. So I order the waffles. A little later our petite waitress tells me they are out of waffles, and would I like pancakes instead? Well, ok, but at our house we pretty much just put the pancake batter in the waffle iron, but whatever. Pancakes are good. (You don't even have Eggos in the freezer for break time??)
Now Michael has ordered something that only a chef could pronounce and includes ingredients that, had they not been on a menu, I'm not sure I'd guess they were food. What he got was rock hard bread, grisly chicken (he mentioned something about knuckles in it), and cold onion rings. He later realized that some of those ingredients I couldn't remember weren't there, either. Anyway, their chef sent the waitress back to tell him he was wrong. She was very flustered. I filled our friends in on the wonderful relationship between waitress and chef. Michael and I lasted three months, if that. Anyhoo... after she heard what she was saying, she offered to get the chef to come talk about the sandwich. Big mistake. Michael was astounded that someone would actually treat a customer like this guy did. He just reiterated how wrong Michael was and how this was exactly how this sandwich should be made. I had to remind Michael about Red Lobster.
So, no stars for the Avenue Grill. Sorry.