Sunday, January 21, 2007

Incredible or Incredulous? Only in Honduras!!

My wife invited her mother and aunt out for lunch one day last week to 'La Creperia' (reviewed in blog post of Nov. 29). My wife and I had really enjoyed the place and she wanted to share it with her mom and aunt. This restaurant was one of Don Godo's favorites, but no more. My mother in law ordered a sandwich and later asked the waiter to bring her some mustard. Everyone enjoyed their lunch. Incredibly, and beyond their wildest dreams, when the bill came, there was a 20 lempera charge for the mustard! That's $1.05 for mustard served as condiment for a sandwich!! Hello, Tegucigalpa isn't Paris or Tokyo...

My wife, her mom and aunt incredulously looked at the waiter and then proceeded to tell him their thoughts on the subject. He explained that the mustard was an additional service, not included on the menu, and the restaurant policy was to charge an extra 'service charge'.

Needless to say, my family will never patronize 'La Creperia' again. I'm just glad that they didn't order ketchup and mayonnaise as well!!

Well... I guess that's Honduras Living!

2 comments:

La Gringa said...

That is the kind of silly thing that some Honduran restaurants do, not realizing what a "bad taste" it leaves in the mouths of their patrons.

We were at a restaurant last night in which the menu offers guacamole with several dishes. The guacamole didn't arrive, as it hasn't on the last two occasions and the waiter told us that avocados were too expensive.

We asked if the price would be reduced (no) and then if they would substitute something else (onions!).

Another restaurant we used to go to had sandwiches that included a side dish of potato salad per the menu. In four trips, they never had potato salad, never reduced the price and never offered something in its place.

It would make much more sense just to raise the price of the meal to cover it's costs (and anticipated costs of a teaspoon of mustard) or at least change the menu. Instead patrons leave feeling that they have been cheated.

In case anyone reading this thinks we are just being picky Americans, the ladies that Don Godo wrote about are HondureƱas and they had the same feelings.

Honduras Sprout said...

I will try to remember this when eating out. Good to know!