In a branch of El Club de la Milanesa…
Waitress: Are you ready to order?
Henry: Yes, I’ll have a …
W: And what side dish?
H: Mixed salad.
W: And you sir?
Me: I’ll have a …
W: For your side dish?
M: Mixed salad too. You could just put the two together in a larger bowl and we’ll share it. There’s not a lot of space on the table.
W: Not a problem.
Lunch ensues… bill arrives. 38 peso charge for salad.
M: Why did you charge us for the salad? The side dishes are included with the milanesas.
W: No, you ordered a large salad to share.
M: No, we ordered our two side dishes as salads and asked you to combine them in one bowl to make it easier.
W: We don’t do that. You ordered a large salad to share. I just assumed you didn’t want any side dishes.
M: Obviously that wasn’t the case. You can’t charge us for the salad.
W: You ordered it and ate it.
M: It’s the same amount of salad as the two salads, maybe even less.
W: We don’t offer that option, the free salads only come in small bowls. If you want them in a large bowl you pay for it.
M: Can we see the manager?
W: Oh fine, I’ll take it off the bill. But you shouldn’t have ordered something you didn’t want to pay for.
M: Great….
Bill arrives back, 38 pesos down.
W: The bill doesn’t include my tip.
M (handing her exact payment): Neither does this.
<-- Conversations with Porteñas #2
Excellent!
Ha Ha, that NEVER happens in Buenos Aires. Two important lessons here. 1) Always have exact change when going out in BA for that reason. 2) Never do anything in an attempt to make things “easier” as it will label you a sucker, regardless of how good your castellano is.
That’s far too cynical of a viewpoint for me. In six years here, that’s the first time that something of that sort has happened to us, it was just amusing that it did.