Eating 1000 Meals

We arrive en masse to lunch at this restaurant, which is known for its live jazz at night - 23 strong - an army of hungry number crunchers. We are greeted by a couple waitresses and celeb momentos on the window, on the wall, and on the pillar. A signed photo of Dustin, Nguyen that is, jumps out at me. You know him, the Vietnamese cop from 23 Jump Street, the TV series that propelled Johnny Depp into our collective consciousness. Whatever happened to Dustin? I hear he changed his first name to Scotty and has now become a fixture on the Vegas Poker tables. Just kidding - inside joke.

The ordering seems simple enough - pick a pasta and a sauce and that's what most people did. I, on the other hand, daring to be different, decide to order the same thing I had the last time here - the DaVinci Special, likely named after another cancelled made-in-Vancouver TV series. It's breaded veal and vegetable on focaccia bread. Perhaps I should have realized the implication of ordering a sandwich named after a TV coroner.

The sandwich arrived well into the hour. I made the mistake of eating the fries first and end up sampling a soggy salty sandwich. And did I mention it was salty. There was enough salt to preserve a cadaver.

Usually, I try not to leave food on my plate. I left food on my plate.

Obviously, this place can't handle large groups. This was our second time there. Last time, there were also complaints. We had called in advance, so they were forewarned. Service could have been better. Tip was 15% on top of the GST-included amount. So we tip on tax here. Interesting.

The value certainly was not there. I paid $13.47 for a lunch that would have costed $10 tops elsewhere. And it wouldn't have been as salty.