One of the fancier hotels in our area has a new chef who is redoing the menu. Apparently the owner is friends with Brij, and she asked him to invite some of his fellow teachers for a tasting. How fun, right? We thought so too. So that's what we did last night: at 8pm the six of us wandered on down to Villa Paradiso for dinner.
It was definitely some of the best food I've had here. Honestly, it was some of the best food I've had, period. There was a dish with "aubergines" and apples, a savory pear selection, and some others that were closer to traditional Indian food with chickpeas (channa) and flatbread (roti). The chef had made a chicken pasta dish that was damned tasty, and apparently the mutton was good too, but I didn't have any. I felt just a little bit like a judge on Iron Chef. I think this is fun.
This morning Marie went down to another of the very local cafes, where she captured this image:
It's blurry, but yes, it's a rat. What can I say? Standards vary.
Then tonight Marie, Gill, and I headed over to Jimmy's Italian restaurant in McLeod Ganj. Marie had come here earlier in the week and said the food and wifi were good, so we figured we'd check it out. Soon after sitting down, Rinzin and Gustie came in with a student and so we all sat and had dinner together.
Jimmy's Italian: hands down the absolute worst service to date. I think it even beats (in a bad way) the abysmal service we got in that St. Louis IHOP on our way home from Winter Warpdrive last year. However! The food was actually some of the best I've found so far here in town. Conundrum....
This is even considering that in India typical restaurant service includes a server who doesn't pay any attention to you until you go out of your way to gain his or her attention. Furthermore, most places are not very good about getting all the food at a table out at the same time. If your server delivers your food and no one else's, you might as well get started because if you don't, it'll be cold by the time the rest of the food comes out. Everyone seems to understand and accept this and so far I haven't had anyone offended by everyone not eating at the same time. Asking for a glass of water and never getting it, though, and even ordering dessert and having to remind the server again 10 minutes later because everyone else's food has come out and your two scoops of ice cream are nowhere to be seen... that's not exactly acceptable customer service.
We are now making up for it by using all their internets. Balance is restored.
It was definitely some of the best food I've had here. Honestly, it was some of the best food I've had, period. There was a dish with "aubergines" and apples, a savory pear selection, and some others that were closer to traditional Indian food with chickpeas (channa) and flatbread (roti). The chef had made a chicken pasta dish that was damned tasty, and apparently the mutton was good too, but I didn't have any. I felt just a little bit like a judge on Iron Chef. I think this is fun.
This morning Marie went down to another of the very local cafes, where she captured this image:
 |
| Do you see it? |
Then tonight Marie, Gill, and I headed over to Jimmy's Italian restaurant in McLeod Ganj. Marie had come here earlier in the week and said the food and wifi were good, so we figured we'd check it out. Soon after sitting down, Rinzin and Gustie came in with a student and so we all sat and had dinner together.
Jimmy's Italian: hands down the absolute worst service to date. I think it even beats (in a bad way) the abysmal service we got in that St. Louis IHOP on our way home from Winter Warpdrive last year. However! The food was actually some of the best I've found so far here in town. Conundrum....
This is even considering that in India typical restaurant service includes a server who doesn't pay any attention to you until you go out of your way to gain his or her attention. Furthermore, most places are not very good about getting all the food at a table out at the same time. If your server delivers your food and no one else's, you might as well get started because if you don't, it'll be cold by the time the rest of the food comes out. Everyone seems to understand and accept this and so far I haven't had anyone offended by everyone not eating at the same time. Asking for a glass of water and never getting it, though, and even ordering dessert and having to remind the server again 10 minutes later because everyone else's food has come out and your two scoops of ice cream are nowhere to be seen... that's not exactly acceptable customer service.
We are now making up for it by using all their internets. Balance is restored.
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