Goodbye 2007

With 2007, I am kissing goodbye to expensive dinners. Last night will be the last for quite a while. This is actually one of my resolutions---waste less money on food.

For New Years, three girlfriends and I went to dinner at a local restaurant. They were having some kind of special set-up with a four course meal and a "free" glass of champagne all for a set price.

For the first course, I had an arugula pear salad. It was pretty good. I'd say one would probably pay $7.50 at that particular eatery, or maybe about $5.50 at one of my more regular haunts.

The second course was a butternut squash soup. It was HORRIBLE. It tasted to me as though the chef couldn't decide what it should taste like and simply dumped all the curry in the kitchen into the pot. Never would I imagine butternut squash soup to taste like curry. Had the wait staff been more attentive, they might have asked me why I wasn't eating it. Then perhaps I could have sent it back, or at least somehow had it taken off the bill...

Third course was a petite fillet. I didn't eat it. I had a bite and took the rest to go because by the time at arrived, we had already been at the restaurant for two hours and I was no longer hungry. I'd say a person would pay $20 tops for it in the future.

Then the dessert and champagne came. The fourth course. I can't remember what it was called but it was pretty good. There was some kind of tiny creme boule and a little cake that had the consistency of a Hostess Ding Dong but the flavor of one of those chocolate oranges. I did eat that and had a sip of the drink. I don't think I'd pay more than $5 for the dessert though because it was pretty small.

The total bill just for my portion was enough to buy a nice dinner eight times over. It would buy me lunch 16 times. Therefore, no more spending for me. I'm tapped out. Quite literally. I don't want to bitch or complain because I still had a fun night out with my friends, but I have NEVER paid that much for one meal before and I would certainly have expected better service at the very least for how much the whole thing cost.