I think you call it intermittent rain, I put my washing out, half an hour later it rained. It seemed as soon as I took it in the sun came out. I did it three times and then gave up.
In between showers we did a bit more in the garden. I sorted out my lemon grass as it has gone a bit wild. I will have to cook a few Thai curries to use some of it.
I gave Rosie a good shower and brush to get rid of her dead ticks and cleaned all her bedding and the rugs.
In the evening we went out with Christa and Robin. We decided to go for a nice meal as it was their last night before returning to Germany. Robin’s suggestion was to go to the Grand Center Boutique Hotel which they had discovered in Girne. (www.grandcenterhotel.com) We arrived having booked a table to find that the chef was ill so we couldn’t eat there. They were very apologetic.
No problem, so we left and thought of somewhere else to go. Robin suggested Niazi’s Lagoon Restaurant as he said they served an excellent fish meze for 30tl. We walked along to the Lagoon. We sat at our table, were given menus and discovered that the fish meze is now 42tl but it still sounded good value for money as you could choose your main fish course from the main menu. I wanted the turbot and Mal was thinking about having the Dover Sole. Christa only wanted the stuffed pepper to start and then sword fish kebabs. Robin, Mal and I chose the full fish meze. We ordered, our drinks, they arrived later and then after half an hour we were still sitting there, not even a bread roll in sight!
A group of men then came in and sat at the next table. Their meals appeared before ours and we were still waiting. In a nutshell it was an awful evening. The service was diabolical, Robin asked after so long “please can we have some food?” I think the four of us were invisible. Eventually cold mezes arrived….no salad, 7 pieces of small toast for 4 of us. The final insult was a small plate of ‘something’ fish for the main! How do we divide the two small red fish into three? I think they were expecting a miracle. We hadn’t even been asked what our choice was for the main. We said what we had wanted and were told Turbot and Dover sole were off the menu…..but they hadn’t asked anyway. A waiter came and asked if our meal was OK. I replied “no” to which he replied “thank you” and walked away.
Next a waitress with the same question. By this time I was getting rather angry and told her all our complaints, including that we seemed invisible to all the staff where as other tables were not. She was the first person to apologise and said the owner would come up and see us. We waited and waited…of course he didn’t. We asked for the bill (FULL PRICE) and on our way out I saw the waitress and told her their customer service was awful and why hadn’t the owner had the decency to speak to very unsatisfied customers. All I got was the ‘Cyprus shrug’ and she walked away from me. The chipped plate in the picture was the main course to be divided by three plus two tiny pieces of swordfish each.
Needless to say we will never go back. They don’t want our custom, just our money. I was brought up in a catering background and I could never imagine my parents ever treating their customers in such an appalling manner.
It seems we are not the only ones. This is from Trip Advisor:
“service! what service? – I love kyrenia and find the people very friendly and welcoming……that is until i went to the Lagoon fish restaurant. Unless you are a turkish cypriot, then service is non existent. No eye contact, smiles or friendly gestures and didnt even ask us if we enjoyed the food. Food tasted bland and presentation poor. We even had to ask the waiter to clear our dishes away, as he was too busy smiling and attending to other diners i.e. turkish cypriots. I have never felt so unwelcome, unwanted and ignored in a restaurant before…and this is one place I wont be going back to!”
Quite honestly I would rather eat at Fast Food in Alsancak, excellent service, excellent food and a fraction of the price and they value your custom.
Shame on you Lagoon.
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Thought for the day – “Food is an important part of a blanced diet” ~ Fran Lebowitz