Ah, if only it had just been the waiter spoling the evening
I had the misfortune to visit a 'restaurant', quite an expensive one too, where the Maitre D' didn't think we'd need a wine list as he was going to suggest a suitable wine when we'd chosen our meals. He was quite put out when I refused his suggestion (not bad, but would have been too tart for my wife's taste) and asked to choose for myself. They then kept the wine in a bucket, nowhere near the table, so we couldn't serve ourselves. The waitress explained each item she delivered in minute detail, feeling it necessary to explain what an amuse bouche was and why they were giving us sorbet. The piece de résistance was when the chef came out of the kitchen to stand by our table. He just kind of stood there, hanging about, probably waiting for us to tell him how wonderful he was. He just made us feel even more uncomfortable and we wouldn't have wanted to tell him that his food was pretty mediocre, that's just not necessary.

Strange thing is, I had a look at the reviews of the place on tripadvisor and people seem to love it, so maybe I'm just too grown up to eat there.
(lardyboy Next stop, Fissplap Central, Fri 28 May 2010, 16:40, 1 reply)

My missus loves that sort of place...
...where the chef comes round and explains how the angle of each individual anchovy scaleBLAH BLAH BLAH. But I'm with you. I think there's a sort of U-shaped price/enjoyableness curve. If a place is very cheap or very expensive it'll be a shit experience.
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Fri 28 May 2010, 16:43, closed)