Flat pricing on Valentine's Day: A Story

[BevReview Steve]

I was fortunate enough to have my girlfriend take me to a nice restaurant on Valentine's Day. She made reservations and we had no problem getting in.

However, when we arrived, were seated, and had partook of the drinks and appatizers, the menu came... and it was one of those deals where you pay a flat price for certain elements due to the holiday.

Now, I've eaten at places like this before, and this restaurant normally doesn't do things like this, and more importantly, this special pricing was not mentioned over the phone during the reservation, though the manager swore it was...

Still, it was quite odd for my girlfriend, who wanted to do something different and treat me, however didn't have the money to pay for their jacked up special prices.

Needless to say, being the night in shining armor that I am, I talked with the manager and arranged to leave after just paying for the appetizer/drinks. Still, it was embarrassing...

Has anyone encountered a simular situation before, or have any advice on how I could have handled this better?

Thanks.... (we did go to another place and had a great time! )

A similar thing happened to us last Valentine's day! Since we had a kid, our valentine's days have become something other than romantic! So last year we decided we would just go out to a little family restaurant that we like near us. Its the kind of place where our son can draw on the tablecloth..... so we like it! We walked in and our familiar hole in the wall had been transformed to a romantic bistro with candles on every table, they were charging twice as much for the usual fair and had added a lobster dinner for the special occation........ It was obvious that our son was not welcome on this night of romantic dive dinning... so we left and had pizza at home... This sort of thing seems to go on a lot, my theory is that a really good resturant will pull in valentine lovers based on thier good rep,... but some smaller places have to beef up and act like they have something special to offer.... too bad, they would have done better sticking to what they do well.... spaghetti and meatball, cheeseburgers, ect....... I was almost embarrassed for them....trying so hard to play with the big dogs... Chili, I hope you had a great Valentine's day anyway!!! This year, we BBQ'D.......nothing says lovin like BBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!YUM

[m brown]

I have learned to call and ask lots of questions before going out to dinner. Last night our family of 5, one in a high chair went for pizza. I called to see if there was a table, high chair, specials, were coupons honored on this "holiday". No problem.

Once I went to a Tai reastaurant and was blown away as Vinnie our gomba waiter took our order for $8.00 apps and $18.00 entrees. When I go out for tai, the meal for four is 25.00. Learned my lesson!!!! (this was a great restaurant but not tai, just tai influenced.$$)