Diwali Dinner

Happy Diwali (aka Deepavali) everyone!

Mr. Happy and I raised the roof by throwing a dinner party on Friday night.

Chef Happy created a delectable menu of Indian delicacies that included: Chana Masala, Chili Paneer, Palak Rice, Naan, Golbi, Samosa and Dahi vada.


Yum.

Despite a noticeable lack of enthusiasm in these shots, our guests were duly impressed.

I think one guest is trying to avoid the photo and blend in to the sofa.

Not sure what Diwali is? Don’t let me tell you…let President Obama!
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By the way, Saturday was the real Diwali and we went with some friends to Spice of India in the Pavilion. What a MISTAKE!

This dining experience was awful! We ordered their "special" Diwali set menu. They must have meant "it'll take a 'specially long time to get you your food!" We were there THREE HOURS.


The portions for four people were criminally small and the service was abysmal. No one filled our water glasses (despite repeatedly asking), it took more than 30 minutes to fill our drink order, no one ever cleared dirty plates between courses (despite our requesting this THREE times), and they ran out of certain items though, as I mentioned, we'd ordered them three hours beforehand. Actually, to be honest, we ordered the day before because they asked if we would be having the Diwali menu when we made our reservation. No excuse.


It was such a disappointment as we were looking forward to have a nice Diwali meal and they had advertised they could provide one. They told us they were shorthanded, but there were 5 waiters and 2 "managers" and only 5 tables of people. From our experience, I'd guess maybe no one was working in the kitchen.


Most of the time the waiters stood around gossiping and texting and ignoring our requests. They seemed to have a system where they could only do one single job. So if I asked one waiter to clear my table he wouldn't do it. He'd claim he'd ask someone else to do it. I actually didn't see a single table cleared of its dirty dishes and glasses the entire night and we were the last to leave. I should have taken a photo. One waiter was just sitting on a box popping bubble wrap!? Come on people! Get with the program! You definitely lost me as a customer and I won't bring Mr. Happy back either! We should have stayed home and eaten leftovers...