Super Dad and I received a gift certificate for $60.00 at Christmas to a local family type restaurant. This restaurant is advertised as family friendly, casual, and affordable. We thought it would be enough to take the whole family out to eat on a ¨kids eat free¨ day. We went today, because kids eat free there on Tuesdays and we had both worked all day. It was crowded when we arrived and several families were waiting to be seated. We were told that we would need to wait about 20 minutes for a table.

When we were seated, our server greeted us and took our drink order. About 20 minutes later, we received our drinks and placed our orders for our meals. Televisions were perched in the upper corners near the ceiling in the dining area. Each one was set on a different channel. Our four year old was trying to watch two of them in the mirror behind our booth. I thought the televisions made it seem more like a sports bar atmosphere than a family dining room.

The server eventually told us that they were running on a short staff tonight because two people had called in sick. It took about 40 minutes for our meals to arrive. We had heard from others how great this restaurant was so we were a little disappointed. Then we received the bill. It was $120.00. How do you get a $120.00 bill when five of the children were eating for free?

That is when I took the time to study the bill. Well children eat free except their drinks cost $2.00 each. Well that is an automatic $20.00. Our server was kind enough to ask each person if he or she would like mushrooms and onions with their steak. Only she didn’t mention that each one was an extra $2.00 per person. There was an extra $16.00. I’m sure you are beginning to get the picture.

Well, we won’t be going back to that restaurant. However, on a positive note, the children were all well behaved and I got a night off from cooking. Lane is our family dishwasher so he was happy about having the night off as well.

Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2008