« Adventures in Food, Continued | Main | Cake! »
January 21, 2006
Bogota
One of the advantages of having a blog is the ability to rant about bad service at restaurant and hope that maybe some restaurant owner will stumble across it and feel a twinge of guilt (highly unlikely, but still a comforting though while you're fuming at your table).
A month or so ago, when it was absolutely freezing cold, we ended up at Bogota (at 5th Ave and St. John's) with some friends. We went there for drinks and found a friendly bartender and all sorts of nutty cocktail choices. There were fruity mojitos (just stick with the plain kind, which is the best) and other Colombian mixed drinks involving guava and coconut and mango. There were also interesting beer combinations -- there was spicy beer, which involved tabasco and burned your lips, and someone ordered a Colombian specialty: a glass half full of beer and half full of vanilla soda, which is exactly what it tasted like. Overall, it was fun and D and I promised ourselves we'd come back for the food, which looked tempting.
So last night, we did. And I have to admit that I was exhausted and cranky after a long week and just really wanted a good drink and good food and sleep. I was also hoping we'd find a great new place to eat, so maybe my expectations were too high. It was packed and I got there first, so I ordered the Bogota Especial -- a rum cocktail with banana liquor and fruit juices. It would have been fine, but something was a little off with the alcohol -- it tasted like vodka was used where rum should have been, and it was kind of harsh.
Derek arrived and we sat down at a table. Now, for a Friday night, I understand if it takes a while to order. So I tried to be patient, but it felt like eons went by, and other people who came in at the same time started getting food (or at least it seemed that way), and we still hadn't gotten to order. My alcohol wasn't dealing with my accumulated stress from the week, either, so I started getting obsessed with the service. I saw two waitstaff people talking to people at tables nearby and started to feel jealous, and of course once you get into that line of thinking it's hard to quit. The time started to drag, I was getting hungry, and I couldn't make eye contact with any staff at all. Derek found this all very amusing. Eventually, I asked him for the time and figured we'd been waiting for 25 minutes (D said 20), which is, even by a non cranky person's standards, too long. So my efforts to get attention were doubled, and I started trying to convince Derek we should just leave so we could get some food somewhere else. Finally a waiter came within earshot and my inner nasty person came out and said, rather loudly and well within earshot of diners nearby, "Can we PLEASE ORDER?!?"
So finally, there's the food. I ordered an arepa with avocado salad, which was okay but not terribly interesting. D had corn-on-the-cob with chipotle mayo and queso blanco ("it was okay"). Next D had a cuban sandwich which was "great", and I had chuletas -- pork chops. The chops were a little dry through the flavor was good, and I missed the usual accompaniment of applesauce. I really liked the special side, though: a sweet potato mash with plantains and some other stuff -- I probably would have been fine just eating that, since I couldn't finish half the food on my plate (it came with rice and beans). It was yummy. Derek also said his Mojito tasted a little harsh, possibly just because of the type of rum used and the amount of it (too much).
Our waiter apologized for the delay and checked up on us regularly after we finally ordered, so I felt better about things later on. We also got some free chips with guacamole. We'll probably go again to explore other menu options, but just not on a Friday.
Posted by csageday at January 21, 2006 12:30 PM