Birthday Special?

Tomoe was able to get out of work earlier than she expected so we met up in Simokitazawa to look for someplace with a good birthday special.

After thirty minutes or so of wandering around,we could not even find a restaurant we liked enough to bother asking about a birthday special (we can never find anyplace to eat out because generally most restaurants server what we can make ourselves -just a little worse- and they charge four times what it would cost us). Finally we decided to just pick one, and so we did. I think is was called "Goo" or something like that.

I asked about the birthday special, and they said that for 1,000 yen ($10) they would give us a piece of cake (about $1 worth) and a bottle of wine. The bottle of wine sounds like a good deal, since two drinks would come to 1,000 yen anyway, but wait... there's a catch! We can't drink the wine there! So now as we understand it, the birthday "special" is that we pay them 1,000 yen for a 100 yen piece of cake, and a 300 yen bottle of wine that we can get at the corner 7-11 on the way home. Yipee!

We were hungry and tired of looking around, so we decided to stay there anyway, and Tomoe ordered one birthday wine... if we can drink the wine there. The waiter agreed under the condition we both order one other drink, and he told us he would go to the store to buy an extra nice wine. No problem. Thanks. They even brought out two pieces of cake!

So we paid the bill and left. When we looked at the receipt though, we noticed they had charged us for two birthday specials! What craziness is this! Not only is the birthday special designed to be a rip-off (if we had not insisted on drinking the wine there), it is also a mandatory fee if you happen to eat there on your birthday!

We went back to complain.

Him: But it was both of your birthdays.
Us: Yes, but we only ordered one birthday special...
Him: So I gave you an extra special bottle of wine.
Us: But we didn't want an extra special bottle of wine. We only ordered one birthday special.
Him: But it was both of your birthdays.
Me: So it's a rule that if it's your birthday you have to get the birthday special?
Him (changing his story): But I told you I would use both of your birthday special money to get an extra special bottle of wine.
Us: Bull-unko! (unko means poop)

In the end, once he realized we are not going to leave, he refunded the thousand yen. Crappy "special" aside, I'm sure it was an honest misunderstanding on his part. He wasn't trying to rip us off (any more than the special is designed to). But what amazes me is how long he argued about it. Sure he's young, but that kind of basic sense that tells him that 1,000 is big deal to us, and we have nothing to loose, that it will not have a negative impact to never eat there again (and we wont after that), shouldn't be so hard for him to grasp.

This may sound like a bad story, but actually it turned out very nicely. We need some kind of drama like that to enjoy our night. There's nothing like arguing with the manager in a crowded restaurant. Seriously.