74th Birthday Disappointing Meal at Denny's

 My 74th birthday brought a lot of love from friends and acquired family, for which I am ever so grateful, and fun with my dear friend Larry as we went shopping for Thanksgiving!

To my surprise, I received a beautiful globe of flowers from Anthony, and from Andrea a beautifulbox of handmade biscotti, a gourmet gift box of sausage, cheese, crackers, condiments, chocolate hazelnut cream-filled wafers, and nuts! 💝

Larry, so sweet, gave me an Echo Show, a Hula hoe (which I desperately wanted), and a lovely poinsetta and pansy pot.💕The night before, I'd gone out to check the gate in the dark of night with a flashlight, but was focused on skirting by the azelea, any spiders on the fence, and the gate lock, so didn't look down. Larry thought I'd seen the flowers, that he'd set to the side of the gate, so he brought them in early for my birthday.

A fly in the ointment made my birthday dinner memorable... we went to Denny's, which I used to completely enjoy. It had been our go-to for decades across the country.

It was the first time we'd encountered blatant false advertising at their restaurant that previously had good food. I ordered nachos that are NOT in my diet, but had been one of my favorites in decades past. What came had lots of chips, no meat, and $2 extra for a few thin semi-slices of avocado, although the menu description and photo (on left) clearly shows ground beef mounded on chips. ☹️

I asked the waitress and manager who both confirmed they use "meat sauce," not ground beef and that it was extremely popular.😲

I started to eat it, but it was soupy, like gravy on chips, not like nachos. Quickly the chips became soggy. It was such a bad dish that I had to laugh. This would be one of the most memorable meal disasters I'd experienced. 🫤

I can't imagine that Denny's would put a deceptive plate on the menu. 🤔 My suspicions kicked in for the cause of such disparity between the described and served plate and how many other people had been duped the by meat sauce instead of ground beef? Was someone at this particular Denny's skimming the food budget to produce a lower grade plate than Denny's had carefully make with cost restraints?

Another difference from years ago was the manager removed the cost of my meal from our bill, since I ate very little, but offered no compensation. While I would have graciously declined such an offer, I was surprised that they think that the fact that they ruined a birthday celebration didn't deserve a profound apology. But, that's another blog... How to Apologize.😉