It's been a while since we last visited the Red Hot World Buffet & Bar, the last visit had us sitting in two lines with one line squashed against a rail that meant if the middle person wanted to pay a visit to the boys room, everyone had to get up. This time we were seated away from the infamous rail again in two lines. As we were shown to our table we noticed how the waiter was pushing together the seats such that 7 seats along one side (and 7 opposite) all fit together nicely, leaving no room to actually get into the seats. Now we had a cunning plan, well actually it wasn't a plan, but did work out well. As there were only 12 of us, we bought ourselves some elbow room and the ability to actually get in and out of the seats. So here is a top tip if you are visiting this establishment with a crowd, say there are 2 more of you than there actually is!!
So, this month we had the hard core of Bill, Alan B, Tony, Colin M, Pastor Ian meet up with regulars Ian R, Tom, Alan P, Nathan and newer recruits Paul M, Swiss Pete and Lindsey (it was Lindsay's first Curry Club!).
The great thing about this place is you can get going with food straight away, however it does mean less initial conversation. While half went for the first round of what proved to be many rounds for some, the other half visited the bar for their first drink. Once seated, the early conversation was about Benny Hill. Pastor Ian started to recall a story of someone having seen Benny walk past them with several minders. Now, I assume Bill did think that Benny had long since departed this world, so it was of some surprise that he was seen. It was at some point that Ian pointed out to Bill that it was Benny Hinn, the TV evangelist and not Benny Hill that was spotted. Would you believe that it is not the first time the Benny's were mixed up, one appeals to the hearts of many through the medium of TV with laughter, anecdotes, clever words and songs the other is no longer with us.
There was a discussion about chocolate fountains, Red Hot used to have one, maybe it was broken? Several people around the table confessed to owning one, Bill said he had stuck his head in one. Well it was either Bill or Dawn French. Tony confessed that he needed to reduce his cholesterol and that it would be a challenge to find a dish that wasn't swimming in oil. It wasn't a big problem there is a good variety and the freshly made stir-fry had a tiny amount of oil. Someone said they had had snail porridge at a Little Chef. Now I'm sure they meant it was slow being delivered, or maybe it was a bit slimy, I'm not too sure.
As the evening unfolded it was observed that Pastor Ian, who is by far not the largest person, was in fact on his 3rd pudding! Using some accurate mathematical equations along the lines of 3 courses, 3rd one was 3 visits, we established that Pastor Ian probably attended the food bars 9 times! In a normal group this would have been seen as excessive. However, not every group has a Nathan. Nathan, who was on pain of death if he didn't give a score of 5 for quantity this month, had been up countless times. In fact he spent so much time at the food bar that someone asked where he was this month. Later he came up with a very weak excuse that he visited often and took little, unlike Bill who was sat with a mountain of food in front of him after one visit. From an evidence point, I do have Nathans scoring sheet that has against food (where we normally put cost), the words "Everything (Nearly)". It also had the words "Bill Smells!". I'm not sure if that was meant to be Bill smells nice?
So to the scoring and we start with the obvious, Quantity got 5 from everyone, Quality not so good 3.42, Price received a 4 (but we'll come back to that), Staff got 3.34 (not a lot of interaction when you serve yourself, though there was an attempt to charge Tony too much for 2 drinks) and finally ambiance was 3.5. This totalled 19.26. When the bill came it should have been really easy, 12 * £11.95 (people bought their own drinks at the bar). However, there had been a 5% service charge added to the bill. To be fair it did say underneath that service is discretionary. But if that is the case why add it to the bill? Surely, you should leave it off.
Soapbox mode on. This whole service charge thing is annoying. The charge for the food should be all inclusive (chef to cook, cost of food, cost of heating it, waiter(ess) to serve, dishwasher to clean etc). Now if you had a really good meal and great conversation with the waiter(ess) or they looked after you in some special way then you decide if you want to tip the appropriate person and maybe you should. How many of us have tip the airplane pilot who lands us safely in a gale, or the bus driver. Yes I know waiter(ess) are probably paid poorly, but lets be realistic it's about writing down an order, bringing over a plate to the right table and taking away the empty dish. Tipping is for that extra special care that they have afforded you to make your visit good. Soapbox mode off.
So, if we had seen the bill before we had scored, I believe, from comments, that the score would have been lower. However, we had a good evening as usual, company was great, the food was good and everyone went home well fed (even Nathan).
The views and opinions expressed here are purely personal and represent the day and time we visited. Next month we will find another of the local establishments to visit and then July possibly sees a special evening hosted by the Curry Club, with 5 chefs cooking (including Bill & Tony). More on that to come ...