I shoulda known when I saw the sign on the car park door:

Where do we go from here?
In case you went look­ing for another exit after this one.

Next to the Regent Hotel is that very old branch of that Amer­i­can chain of restau­rants known as Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill, and that’s where me and two female com­pan­ions decided to eat after a spot of shop­ping (buy­ing cloats).

The only good thing about din­ing at one of these places is that you know what you’re gonna order because the menu hasn’t changed for twenty odd years. But the waiter who assigned him­self to our table was still a lit­tle too quick to ask what we wanted. Roughly 0.0345 sec­onds had passed after we set­tled our back­sides into our seats before he asked to take our order.

Then he came back about 0.0996 sec­onds after we had told him to please give us a minute, and asked to take our order again. Good thing this time we were ready and we had resolved to order the ribs. Because, y’know, you eat ribs at Dan Ryan’s?

When he was jot­ting down our orders, we noticed some­thing strange. He was address­ing only me and ignor­ing my female din­ner companions.

“Can I repeat your order, sir?”, he said.

“How about some drinks with that, sir?”, he said again.

2.457 sec­onds later, he came by again and asked, “Would you like any drinks with your meal, sir?”

And 1.753 sec­onds after the rack of ribs landed on our table, he popped up and asked, “How’s the food sir every­thing alright?”

Less than an hour must have passed when we threw in the moist tow­elettes and asked for the bill. The bill was pre­sented to ‘sir’, who passed it to his female friend who wanted to use her Citibank credit card. The processed bill came back and was re-presented to ‘sir’, who, by this time, was wracked with try­ing to sti­fle laugh­ter, and meekly pointed at sir’s din­ing com­pan­ion, at which point, sir’s assigned waiter went ‘oh’.

It was time for the final exit.

Img 1715
…come and enjoy an most authen­tic Amer­i­can brunch,

Img 1714
…and receive a free dessert when dine-in.

I dunno. Maybe they spik like that in the Sin­ga­pore part of Chicago.

iTunes is play­ing an ille­gal copy of Born At The Right Time from the album “Anthol­ogy, Disk 2″ by Paul Simon of which I have the orig­i­nal CD.

Surf stop: The High Lev­els

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  • http://eLsi3.blogspot.com eLsi3

    hahaha. hilar­i­ous.

    some waiters/waitresses are like tt.

    some of them speak too fast.

    some of them speak too soft. (think u talk­ing to ur gf/bf IZZIT!)

    but at least they’re bet­ter than those who look down on ppl.

    cant stand it.

  • http://eLsi3.blogspot.com eLsi3

    hahaha. hilar­i­ous.

    some waiters/waitresses are like tt.

    some of them speak too fast.

    some of them speak too soft. (think u talk­ing to ur gf/bf IZZIT!)

    but at least they’re bet­ter than those who look down on ppl.

    cant stand it.

  • Prab

    how old was that waiter ?

    Per­haps the waiter hasn’t got­ten over the mid teenage cri­sis some guys face of being unable to face women and talk face to face with them… ROFL..brings back memmories…

  • Prab

    how old was that waiter ?

    Per­haps the waiter hasn’t got­ten over the mid teenage cri­sis some guys face of being unable to face women and talk face to face with them… ROFL..brings back memmories…

  • http://mqube.blogspot.com MQube

    Hahaha! That is so stereo­typ­i­cal!! Who­ever said the men are the ones with the abil­ity to pay??

    I once went for cof­fee with my brother at Takashimaya, and when the bill came, it auto­mat­i­cally went to him, who then redi­rected the wait­ress to me.…me! who was look­ing at her expec­tantly as she walked over while my bro was buried in a book.…aiyoh…at least pause and see who pulls out the purse first mah!

  • http://mqube.blogspot.com MQube

    Hahaha! That is so stereo­typ­i­cal!! Who­ever said the men are the ones with the abil­ity to pay??

    I once went for cof­fee with my brother at Takashimaya, and when the bill came, it auto­mat­i­cally went to him, who then redi­rected the wait­ress to me.…me! who was look­ing at her expec­tantly as she walked over while my bro was buried in a book.…aiyoh…at least pause and see who pulls out the purse first mah!

  • http://michaelchua.blogspot.com Michael Chua

    What a sex­ist waiter. Was it beca­sue your female com­pan­ion look unpleas­ant or fierce or unap­proach­able? Or was he gay?

  • http://michaelchua.blogspot.com Michael Chua

    What a sex­ist waiter. Was it beca­sue your female com­pan­ion look unpleas­ant or fierce or unap­proach­able? Or was he gay?

  • http://nadnut.blogspot.com nad­nut

    maybe tat waitor recog­nises you, SIR! =P

  • http://nadnut.blogspot.com nad­nut

    maybe tat waitor recog­nises you, SIR! =P

  • caleb

    What a twat.

    Any­way the food there isn’t very good.

  • caleb

    What a twat.

    Any­way the food there isn’t very good.

  • http://lee.cue.to lee

    sir, maybe the waiter wanted you to blog about him sir, and he prob­a­bly thought you’ll pick up the check sir, or per­haps he wanted to hit on you.. actu­ally I think he was try­ing to be polite. honestly.

  • http://lee.cue.to lee

    sir, maybe the waiter wanted you to blog about him sir, and he prob­a­bly thought you’ll pick up the check sir, or per­haps he wanted to hit on you.. actu­ally I think he was try­ing to be polite. honestly.

  • http://statichorizon.blogspot.com Unknown

    hehe. funny.

  • http://statichorizon.blogspot.com Unknown

    hehe. funny.

  • http://www.toomanythoughts.org/blog/ Tym

    I really, really hate it when wait­ers assume the guy is in charge like that.

    PS: I thought Dan Ryan’s opened in Sin­ga­pore in 1990 or 1991? So notch yet twenty years, right?

  • http://www.toomanythoughts.org/blog/ Tym

    I really, really hate it when wait­ers assume the guy is in charge like that.

    PS: I thought Dan Ryan’s opened in Sin­ga­pore in 1990 or 1991? So notch yet twenty years, right?

  • http://tantive-iv.blogspot.com virgin_undergrad

    wow, how did man­age to take all those pho­tos for ur ICT? do they allow cam­eras in camps now?

  • http://tantive-iv.blogspot.com virgin_undergrad

    wow, how did man­age to take all those pho­tos for ur ICT? do they allow cam­eras in camps now?

  • http://pmg.finickyfeline.net PM-G

    What the heow?!? He actu­ally came back to ask if the food was good? Never hap­pens to me in Sin­ga­pore. Hap­pens all the time in the US, even at Applebee’s. Won­der if they get to keep the tip. That’s usu­ally the rea­son why.

    I will say the Raf­fles Hotel has good ser­vice. Best I’ve expe­ri­enced in Sin­ga­pore. But Tony’s in Saint Louis… OMG! They’ll warm your plate on a tif­fin if you go to the bath­room in the mid­dle of a meal. So your food stays warm. They even bother to learn my unpronounceable-to-angmoh sur­name. All I had to do was tell the greeter my name and next thing i know my cap­tain, waiter and bus­boy knew my name. So cool!!

  • http://pmg.finickyfeline.net PM-G

    What the heow?!? He actu­ally came back to ask if the food was good? Never hap­pens to me in Sin­ga­pore. Hap­pens all the time in the US, even at Applebee’s. Won­der if they get to keep the tip. That’s usu­ally the rea­son why.\

    I will say the Raf­fles Hotel has good ser­vice. Best I’ve expe­ri­enced in Sin­ga­pore. But Tony’s in Saint Louis… OMG! They’ll warm your plate on a tif­fin if you go to the bath­room in the mid­dle of a meal. So your food stays warm. They even bother to learn my unpronounceable-to-angmoh sur­name. All I had to do was tell the greeter my name and next thing i know my cap­tain, waiter and bus­boy knew my name. So cool!!

  • http://witandspit.blogspot.com the screwy skeptic

    Not even a tad of Sin­ga­pore in Chi town, unfor­tu­nately, but I’d love to see some­body speak Singlish here. Singlish, by far, is the most befud­dling lin­guis­tic con­coc­tion cre­ated by any Asian cul­ture, ever, to Westerners.

    And the only Dan Ryan we have is the Dan Ryan Express­way, as far as I’ve seen.

  • http://witandspit.blogspot.com the screwy skeptic

    Not even a tad of Sin­ga­pore in Chi town, unfor­tu­nately, but I’d love to see some­body speak Singlish here. Singlish, by far, is the most befud­dling lin­guis­tic con­coc­tion cre­ated by any Asian cul­ture, ever, to Westerners.

    And the only Dan Ryan we have is the Dan Ryan Express­way, as far as I’ve seen.

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