At this stage it might be useful to point out that very fortunately for us we do not usually encounter so many problems while traveling abroad and certainly do not incite or relish any of these incidents in any way. On the contrary, similarly to most normal people we are happiest when all goes to plan without any hassle, problem or extraordinary incident.

This trip however did certainly start off on the wrong foot, especially insofar as our dining experiences are concerned. I simply put it all down to bad luck and just a matter of several unfortunate circumstances. I am definitely not suggesting any conclusion other than this.

It just happened that our first highly anticipated gastronomic evening in Strasbourg turned out to be a terrifying ordeal when we were first forbidden entry into one restaurant and then poisoned in another!

After all these traumatic experiences you would instinctively want to forget the past and move on, and above all look forward to the future and what a new day may bring. But try to imagine our predicament. We woke up to the looming prospect of returning to a restaurant were we were rudely locked outside, which we exposed to the world in social media, where we denounced the staff, angered the chef patron and naively accepted to return enabling them, in their own words, ‘to make it up to us’!

You might be asking the same question that we were throughout that entire second day in Strasbourg – wasn’t being poisoned in one restaurant enough? If the first restaurant could do it so effectively without even trying, imagine how good this second one could be when doing it with great purpose and intent!

So needless to say we had very mixed feelings about my wise judgement the night before to return there. Would we be treated in a friendly or hostile manner? Would this attempt at reconciliation end up in some massive argument? Would the poisoning be at least quick and painless? I desperately suppressed visions of a video I had seen a few years ago called disgusting chefs caught on camera…

I’m not quite sure what fueled our determination to retain our reservation, but in spite of our very dubious feelings as well as our ever deteriorating physical condition, we probably felt that things couldn’t really get much worse. I also felt that under the circumstances we really couldn’t bail out at the last minute after having accepted their ample apologies. So that evening we walked rather gingerly to the rude restaurant, really not quite sure what to expect.

When we got there and entered, through an easily opening door, may I add – we were greeted by the same waitress from the night before. She was visibly uneasy and doing her best to act normally. We were shown to what looked like their best table, took off our coats and asked where we could put them. In a snappy manner she indicated that we had just passed in front of the coat stand and then must have realised that she was out of order and came forward to take our coats herself.

I seriously began asking myself why on Earth we had decided to come back here, really not in the mood of being served by a rude waitress the day after she literally left us out in the cold. But in the end very thankfully our patience and perseverance paid off, as in time we fully realised that her approach was not out of arrogance or spite, but simply out of an inherent lack of people skills. She went about her business serving everyone in the same super efficient manner but with a marked lack of charm and warmth. Her colleague too could be easily described in a similar manner, although admittedly of a slightly friendlier disposition.

To put the whole situation in context, this is Strasbourg, a big city in eastern France, which offers many attractions of which spectacular hospitality is not one. People do their job very quickly and efficiently and often do not feel that dishing out charm and making friends with customers is part of their job description. Us Maltese on the other hand are probably at the very other end of the spectrum in this regard. When dining out particularly, we often chat and gossip aimlessly with the staff as if we were long-time buddies. We find it perfectly acceptable for a server to ask us personal and even somewhat delicate questions, because often this is the order of the day. In many places such as Strasbourg this would be considered much ruder than leaving clients alone and getting on with your business.

So having sat there and observed the girls at work, I soon started to see the other side of the story. Clients walked in and out of this busy little restaurant at leisure, were greeted by a very curt ‘bonsoir you may sit there’ and without much fuss everyone went on their business. Is this too clinical an approach to catering even in a place such as Strasbourg? Probably yes and admittedly in most other restaurants we were met with a bit more warmth, sometimes visibly forced and apparently not so genuine, but at least some form of effort was made. Should people working in catering and the entire hospitality industry be adept in social skills and customer care no matter where the place may be? My reply would again be yes, otherwise if this is not for them they should work in a different industry. If this restaurant like so many others abroad, trains its servers to get along with their work very efficiently but with no human rapport with its clients necessary, then shouldn’t it also employ a maitre d’? Definitely yes. And my last question in this series which requires no answer – was it wrong to leave us standing outside when we were visibly trying to get in, especially if they were aware that the door often gets stuck?

In today’s world where we speak not of a meal but of an overall dining experience it is more than obvious that the art of handling customers should be a priority in any restaurant’s agenda.

But anyway enough of this. The girls did warm up to us a bit during the meal and the visible awkwardness did somewhat abate and above all we finally and most gratifyingly had our first truly excellent and faultless meal of the trip!