Saturday, February 25, 2012
Laundry. Breakfast at home: 2 hash browns, 2-egg omelette with Tillamook cheddar. Ripped the cd of Madonna's Give Me All Your Lovin' that I got yesterday for free, but it turned out to be only the one track, not a cd single with many versions of the same track—a bit disappointing. Worked on the spa website. Errands: dropped off shoes to be shined, picked up lunch from Kingdom of Dumpling. Today's visit to Kingdom of Dumpling mirrored many of my previous experiences: the food is excellent, the service is regrettable. Today, when I tried placing a to go order, I learned that many of the items I tried to order were not available. There must have been at least 8 unavailable items on the menu, but the woman taking my order didn't know what items were and weren't available, so she would take my order, go the kitchen, return to apologize that an item was unavailable, take a different order from me, go to the kitchen, and return to apologize that an item was unavailable. After several rounds of this, I politely asked her to determine the items they did have and come back to take my order. After some more time we sorted it out, and, as has happened in the past, I ended up placing an order for items with meat when I would have preferred to place orders for vegetarian or seafood items only. While I waited, a car double-parked outside the restaurant and began unloading a lot of trays and bags of fresh and frozen dumplings. I chatted about this with another patron waiting outside, explaining that these items were coming from their dumpling-making shop on Noriega. The car took so long to unload that people in a blocked parking space were waiting to leave and another car waiting to take the soon-to-be-vacant parking space was waiting in the street. Inside, since there's no receptionist and no waiting area, one woman who came in after me didn't know how to place her name on a waiting list, so she stood in the dining room trying to get the attention of one of the (3?) servers. I had overheard later that there was a waiting list, but I never saw it. Partly because it was cold and windy outside and partly because there is no receptionist and partly because there is no waiting area, many customers end up standing in the center of the dining room, which makes it awkward for customers who are seated and which makes it difficult for servers to navigate. It is unfortunate that the excellent quality of food at Kingdom of Dumpling leads people (including us) to endure horrible service. Their dumpling-making shop needs to be adjacent to their restaurant, and they need a bench or two outside, a receptionist, a waiting area, better customer service skills, and better management. Worked on the spa website. Dinner at home with Patrick: shrimp tacos, hot water. Watched Contagion on Netflix DVD with Patrick. I agree with Ebert that Jude Law's character was distracting and not that relevant to the story. Neither Patrick nor I enjoyed the music. Otherwise we both like the film. Nap. Drinks and dancing at Shangri La at Endup. It's the annual red party, opening by DJ Pegasus, midnight performance by Teesa ("Follow Ur Heart"), afterhours by Sean McMahon. Met or encountered arthur cody dale scott lawrence max than ryan jim peter p normandy (another here whose name I forgot) jeff chu (cvri) jeff temple jim liu ryan travis dane marty grimes ken john nathan nathan james. At Endup I paid $16 before tip for a Goldschlager double, then later $5 for a 16-ounce Gatorade. (!)