Literally positioned partly over the water, it is hard to get a more unique spot than this. The view across St. Georges Bay may not to truly stunning, but it still never fails to impress, especially on such a glorious late Autumn day.
We were very pleased to be accepted for a very late lunch and were warmly welcomed and also advised that we could park our car in the Eden parking for free, by presenting them with our ticket before leaving. So we moved our double parked car into their car park and settled in right at the water’s edge, while enjoying the rather chic ambiance and slick service.
We started off with a bottle of South African Two Oceans blend of chenin blanc and sauvignon blanc, which sounded quite novel and interesting. However it did not turn out to be such a successful mix, as it tended to lose the lovely floral and aromatic flavours of the sauvignon, as well as the crisp and acidic characteristics of the chenin. So it wasn’t an excellent choice on my part.
We were not excessively hungry, so we decided on one dish. My wife requested a carpaccio, which was naturally listed under starters, and asked for this as a main course. However, must to our dismay, she was informed that it couldn’t be served in this manner.
I have already commented on this before. I do understand that portioning and costings and presentation, as well as other related matters are of great importance, however restaurants unable to arrange for such a simple manipulation are doing something seriously wrong. It really is not rocket science to provide a larger sized portion of most dishes, unless it is say a whole fish, whereby providing one and a half fish makes no sense.
So I pushed her into having two different starter sized carpaccios, one octopus and prawn, and one veal. Both were excellent in taste, texture and presentation.
I went for the tagliatelli ai frutti di mare, which were only listed as one size and one price, however instantly I was asked whether I preferred a starter or a main course portion. I nearly choked on my wine when I was told this… talk about irony!
In any case the pasta was also of good quality, so certainly no complaints on the food.
The service was fine throughout – smart, efficient, prompt and technically correct, with service and clearing always conducted from the right hand side, which seems to be fast being forgotten these days. There were times when it did feel a bit superficial and not so genuine, in a five star hotel sort of way, but we can live with that.
What certainly was not in keeping with five star hotel standards, was when suddenly towards the end, we heard mad and enraged singing coming from the kitchen, which was not only audible, but even rather loud from where we sat, which was a great distance away. This wannabe Pavarotti must have been really singing at the very top of his voice, and I am not in any way exaggerating. I actually asked the waiter what on earth this racket was, but he only smiled and shrugged his shoulders and admitted that yes, it was the chef who often just loses it completely. Lovely, we thought, as we desperately hoped that this was the only way he manifested his apparent madness, and not in any way which might affect the food he cooked.
You might be thinking that there is little connection between the two. But when someone is so crass and negligent to scream at the top of his voice in the presence of customers, in what is meant to be a rather classy establishment, I think that my questioning does have some basis.
We went for coffees and drinks and I asked for a Hennessy and I enquired which malt whiskies they had in stock. I was advised that amongst others they had Macallan, which I particularly enjoy. So it was a Hennessy and a Macallan that we ordered.
However when the bill came over I noticed that we were charged €12 for a Macallan Amber, which is a superior special edition version, and €8 for a Hennessy VSOP Fine de Cognac. Therefore €20 for two drinks.
This is another common trick I have often mentioned here and have been pointing out that many restaurants are using to dupe customers into spending more. There have been instances when for certain valid reasons, such as being offered several on the house, I decided to take it in my stride, but frankly the frequency of this devious trick led me to put my foot down on this occasion. Enough is enough! Why should I pay €20 for two drinks when these were not what I ordered!
There is something within me that seems to shift instantly from laid back nice guy to pig-headed, iron-willed maniac, and if I think I have been cheated and decide to speak out, they could bring the tough guys, the cavalry, the Spanish Inquisition and more, but honestly nothing on this planet will make me budge. I remember some time ago on a similar cheated experience in Gozo, the establishment threatened on calling the police, and I said oh no no you won’t, I will! And I really proceeded in calling them and insisted that they come on site without delay. At which point the restaurant staff dropped their claims and called the police back themselves to inform then that the issue had been amicably solved.
In this case however, I am glad to say (for the establishment that is) that they had the foresight of immediately apologising and fumbling up various excuses. First I was told that they served us doubles by mistake, then they decided to take back the bill and to replace it with one with different descriptions and clearly stating Hennessy VS rather than VSOP.
Being an aficionado of alcoholic drinks, which sounds so much better than alcoholic, I can usually even recognise such variances, and I do believe that it was a Hennessy VSOP Fine de Cognac, which I know well. Also, although I am not very familiar with Macallan Amber, I am with the standard Macallan, and this one did seem a bit different. So in all probability we were served these superior versions, however very simply this was not what I ordered. End of story!
I very strongly suggest that everyone follow suit and act in the same manner as I have decided to do from now on. When ordering I will purposely not bother specifying that I request a standard spirit and let them serve me something better, if they wish to treat me. But believe me I’m not paying for anything more than that!
This practice makes so little sense that suffice to say there are bottles which cost literally thousands of Euros under certain brands and Hennessy is one of them. So am I supposed to receive a bill including a tot of cognac for say €500 only to be told – oh yes that is because we served you a Hennessy Beaute du Siecle, which would roughly equate to the price of one tot.
Incidentally I also found that €4.20 for a bottle of water, €12.50 for a starter carpaccio and €18.80 for a main course pasta was over the top.
So I paid up, half the original requested prices for the two drinks, admittedly still a bit disgruntled, handed them my parking ticket for validation, and we proceeded to the Eden car park for our car. However when I tried to exit, the barrier wouldn’t open. I gave my ticket to the security guy and also showed him my Paranga bill. He passed my ticket through the machine and told me that it hadn’t been validated at the restaurant and that I must have forgotten to hand it to the staff there for this purpose. I told that that I had, at which point he said he really couldn’t understand what had happened, as it clearly hadn’t been processed on their side.
I am not sure if it was simply because he was a nice guy, or because I also insisted on showing him my restaurant bill, or perhaps because he sensed my intentions of walking back down there, picking up their best cognac and malt whisky bottles and screaming at them “Just try to stop me!!!”, that made him decided to let us through.
So I suppose it is always best to insist not to pay for more expensive drinks than you ordered, when you aren’t parked in the restaurant’s car park!