Maggs Restaurant

[whitedesire]

I did laugh at the plate of tomatoes Jun.

Some of these establisments just don't wanna do what they're meant to do

I remember in Jomtien once, I had a couple of boiled eggs and some white bread, I was what it was what I asked for, no problem, but the white bread was blue on the edges, mould of course, the waitress, couldn't work out what the fuss was about, I just walked out.

[Jun]

The owner is usually there. Why didn't you complain to him? I know he would have apologized and made it right.

Since this thread was on Maggs, I only offered a shortened version of the Yupins story.

Almost all of my discussion was with the owner of Yupins. I got the impression he had zero understanding or interest in vegetarian food, since he was suggesting dishes minus the meat, but cooked in Oyster sauce.

For the main course, I had to settle for a salad, minus the carnivorous component.
Having to choose a salad in the first place wasn't ideal.
Having it minus the protein, without an alternative source of protein offered is worse. Boiled eggs or tofu would have been fine, but these were not offered.
Even worse than that, when the main course salad arrived, it had traces of the carnivorous component still in the salad, so they had failed to keep promises. So I sent it back.

Making a salad vegetarian by excluding meat or fish is the easiest menu modification you can get. The last time I experienced a failure like this in a restaurant was over 30 years ago in Germany.

So Maggs was superior in every way. They gave the impression that they understood vegetarian food, provided some proper menu adaptations and they seemed to care.

From the other reports, I guess Yupins is OK if you want to eat something from their 1970s style menu. If you're one of the 10% or so of the world population who are vegetarian, or have other specialist needs, keep walking.

[Gaybutton]

keep walking.

Then the next question is why didn't you? There are plenty of other restaurants in the area. If you were looking for a vegetarian dinner, I don't know why you went there in the first place.

[Jun]

If you were looking for a vegetarian dinner, I don't know why you went there in the first place.

When enjoying the company of others for dinner, compromises on the choice of restaurant sometimes have to be made.

[Gaybutton]

When enjoying the company of others for dinner

That's different. You didn't say you were eating with others. I thought you were eating alone.

[Jun]

I thought you were eating alone.

In that case, I'd have followed your advice, read the menu and kept walking.
I guarantee you that the only time I set foot in a mid market restaurant without any veggie options is when invited along to join a group of nice people.
In most cases, the restaurant works something out. A few more salads than I would like, but usually they don't foul that up & it's a small compromise to make for a good evening out.

[Gaybutton]

In most cases, the restaurant works something out.

I know this is a topic about Magg's, but I think we've adequately covered Magg's. I want to say Yupin's is quite popular and I have never had anything other than a thoroughly enjoyable meal there. I'm truly surprised by your experience. Yupin's is certainly capable of making a proper salad, the way you want it, when requested. I'm sorry things went wrong when you ate there.

It kind of reminds me of more memories of Richard Burk when he had the Amor restaurant. I won't be surprised if several people reading this had similar experiences with him. It didn't matter how many people were at your table, Richard would always come over and start chatting, which I think is what a good restaurant owner should do. Richard's problem was he didn't know when to stop and most of the time he quickly wore out his welcome, but just never realized it. Also, it didn't matter what people at the table were talking about. Richard would always talk about his restaurant. And when he asked how your food is, if there was something you didn't like, Richard would often make it right, but whether he did or not he would stand there and tell you why you should like it.

This is reminding me of all kinds of Richard Burk stories. When it came time to pay the bill, it would always take longer to pay than the entire meal took. And when Amor finally failed - after 16 years - he partnered with another restaurant and opened a deli at the same location, called 'Street Life'. I thought it was good, not great, but at the time it was the only one in town. It too eventually failed after about a year or so. But Richard was always Richard. One night I ate there with RichLB. As an appetizer RichLB wanted a half bagel with cream cheese. Richard said he only sells whole bagels. RichLB said he'll be glad to pay for a whole bagel, but just give him half. Richard refused. "What am I supposed to do with the other half of the bagel?" He's lucky he didn't ask me that question. I would have happily told him what he could do with the other half . . .

[whitedesire]

I laughed at that story GB, yes I remember Richard, it was all about his sauces that made his chicken what it was, chicken with an orange sauce, chicken with some other sauce, the list went on ...