“There are too many North Americas moving here these days.” This from our waiter after I had waited nearly an hour for my “frappe de cafe frio,” (iced coffee) and then received a hot cappuccino, which I patiently explained
was not what I had ordered. He tried to prove to me that I had ordered a cappuccino by showing me on the bill what he had charged me for! I asked if they had any kind of cold coffee drinks and he said no. I asked why they showed it on their menu and he said because they were going to offer them someday. So I said I would like an iced fruit drink, which he agreed to bring me, but then asked for the payment for it. I told him I had already paid and he said that was for the cappuccino (which I did not order and did not want and did not drink!). Once we got over that, I waited another 15 minutes and he came back and told me they could now make me an iced coffee if I would like. I agreed. (It's true that I am a glutton for punishment and was dying of thirst by now, but this was really getting interesting.) A few minutes later, he came to the table and told me that I had to pay him an additional 6 soles because the iced coffee drink costs more than the cappuccino he had charged me for. While I went out front to look at the board with the prices again, my drink appeared – and he informed me I needed to pay him only an additional 1 sol. At that point, it was worth it to me to pay him the extra sol just to get him to go away and leave me in peace to drink my iced coffee. A bit later he came back to the table to ask where we were from. He then went to the kitchen to get someone to translate for him. The translator informed us that he wanted to tell me that “there are too many North Americans moving here these days.” I told him I thought he was absolutely right and that I would help to alleviate his problem by not returning and by suggesting to my North American friends that they not frequent the place either. It was quite an afternoon.
was not what I had ordered. He tried to prove to me that I had ordered a cappuccino by showing me on the bill what he had charged me for! I asked if they had any kind of cold coffee drinks and he said no. I asked why they showed it on their menu and he said because they were going to offer them someday. So I said I would like an iced fruit drink, which he agreed to bring me, but then asked for the payment for it. I told him I had already paid and he said that was for the cappuccino (which I did not order and did not want and did not drink!). Once we got over that, I waited another 15 minutes and he came back and told me they could now make me an iced coffee if I would like. I agreed. (It's true that I am a glutton for punishment and was dying of thirst by now, but this was really getting interesting.) A few minutes later, he came to the table and told me that I had to pay him an additional 6 soles because the iced coffee drink costs more than the cappuccino he had charged me for. While I went out front to look at the board with the prices again, my drink appeared – and he informed me I needed to pay him only an additional 1 sol. At that point, it was worth it to me to pay him the extra sol just to get him to go away and leave me in peace to drink my iced coffee. A bit later he came back to the table to ask where we were from. He then went to the kitchen to get someone to translate for him. The translator informed us that he wanted to tell me that “there are too many North Americans moving here these days.” I told him I thought he was absolutely right and that I would help to alleviate his problem by not returning and by suggesting to my North American friends that they not frequent the place either. It was quite an afternoon.
This is La Lucha, across the street from Parque Kennedy just before Starbucks. It looks like a really cool place with its outside counter and tables both inside and out. The sandwiches look good and the drinks sound appealing. There were numerous people “working” there, but all of the customers (20 or so, including a nun) were complaining about the long waits and terrible service (or lack thereof). I think we are spoiled. The service that we normally receive everywhere is so wonderful that we are actually shocked when something bad happens.
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Forest Gump put best when he said, "Stupid is as stupid does." And that waiter was stupid! He just dug his hole deeper and deeper, along with the management for their silence.
Hi Laurie,
First let me say thanks for reading our short story blog and my personal one. Fortunately for me, experiences like yours at La Lucha have been extremely rare for me but then again I tend to try and stay away from places that surround Parque Kennedy. Try Cafe Z on the corner a few blocks towards the ocean on the same street. Service is slow but I'm never in a hurry these days.
I like your blog layout and great photos. Welcome to Peru and Lima in particular. I love it here as you can tell from my blog.
Rodney
Rodney: Yes, I read your blog because I can see that you love Lima as much as we do. I just edited this blog entry a bit to try to make clear that this is NOT the norm here. We love trying new places and of the hundreds of restaurants we've eaten in here, big and small, fancy and casual, expensive and dirt-cheap, this is the first time we've experienced anything seriously bad like this. We've actually never tried Cafe Z, I think because it always looked very touristy. But after reading about it in your blog, we plan to try it. Maybe we'll see you there!
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