Specials

I had dinner with friends last night and they told this story of how they were in a restaurant a few months ago and ordered something on the special menu and were later floored when they got the bill. This is an issue I've come across myself and will no longer assume anything when it comes to situations like this.

A few years ago, I was having a boys-birthday dinner. (this is a very exclusive dinner party which happens only seven times per year with the invite list being limited to the seven guys I went to high-school with, no exceptions). We have had the birthday dinner tradition for 10+ years and have used it to hit every major steak-house and top restaurant in and outside of NYC. We've had great dinners, so-so dinners and some dinners that gave me the runs before the D Train crossed the Brooklyn Bridge heading back home but all-in-all they are a ton of fun and I always expect to spend $100 a pop. Back in the days before we were high-powered bankers, hospital execs, diamond salesmen and pen-shop managers the price-tag meant this would probably be our only big night out for a while. The one way to justify the $100 in 1999 was that as a group we were getting about 2 chicks per year combined so really there were not a lot of other things to spend our money on.

Well I remember sitting down one year at a place in Northern Jersey whose name I forget. It was a nice place decent atmosphere and had a good reputation, if I remember correctly the food was mostly steak and seafood and as we went through the menu I remember seeing that most option on entrees were about $28-$35 and sides are in the $8-$10 range. We are putting down a couple of beers when the waiter comes over and reads off the specials including some special filet, a free range chicken and some kind of crab-stuffed lobster or something. We place our order and five out of seven jump at the lobster/crab option while the other two settle for the pizza burger and the overcooked salmon or something equally lame.

Fast forward about 2 hours later as the bill shows up.. I was absolutely floored when the entire thing came out to $1000 which divided by six (the birthday boy doesn't pay) came out to about $165 a person.

After inspecting the bill the crab-stuffed lobster was about $95 a piece which explained the outrageous price but my issue is as follows:

when the price of a special is significantly more expensive than any other item on your menu, it is your duty as a waiter to inform the guests what the price of the specials are.

Now obviously we could have (and should have) asked about the price before hand but I don't think there was a single one amongst us who imagined it would be twice as expensive as the next option on the menu and since the check included auto-gratuity so we couldn't even take it out on his tip

From that day forward I always ask for prices of specials which when courting a hot-chick does put a bit of a dent on the high-roller lifestyle you are trying to give off.