Amazing Supper

I was a little embarrassed last night. There is a group of wonderful ladies that gets together once a month to network, talk about husbands and kids, and generally have a good time. Last night the restaurant was a little tapas bar on Main Street.

I'd never been to a tapas bar. I did some research online, even going so far as to look at their menu and write down the four things I was interested in. They were all from $5.95 to $7.50. (The menu items went up to $16.00 in some cases, more for wine.) I figured that I would bring a $10 bill, which I did. This would cover an $8.00 dish and leave $2.00 for a tip. Seemed fair to me.

I got there and found out that the group had ordered white sangria, which I had never had. They poured a glass for me. It was delicious. A theme of this post will be, "I don't usually like (insert item here) but it was so good!" I don't normally like white wine. I'm not a big wine drinker in general. However, I have to admit, this sangria was fantastic. I had one glass; the one that they poured for me.

The group had ordered a bunch of food with most ladies ordering 2 tapas items to start. They were brought out as they were prepared rather than when everything was ready. I enjoyed this feature. I tried a few things at the urging of the others including items that I would never have dared try. Tuna tar tar, for example. It was delicious. I also really don't like salmon. I try to like it. In fact, any time I can try some I do. Usually it's one bite, chewed for far too long as my gag reflex tries to make me spit it out and I sip water to try and get it to go down. Last night I ate several bites. It was yummy.

The evening ended with the bill. The group had decided that they were going to each order 2-3 items and then split the bill. There were seven of us and with eighteen items the cost, including tax and tip, was $27.00 per person. Oh crud. I had a $10.00 bill. Luckily one of the ladies was more than happy to put in for me and laughingly said to tack it onto the end of her next massage. So she gets fifteen more minutes of pampering and I got a great discount on a fabulous meal.

I left the restaurant stuffed. I had tried every dish except those that had shellfish, since hubby is deathly allergic, and didn't find anything that disagreed with my pallet. My favorite memories of going out to eat all involve multiple people; this time certainly fit the bill.

But that bill...

I'm going to send an email to my friend that put in for me and ask her if she'd do me a favor and email me some hints for dinners in the future to avoid faux pas. I hadn't eaten at a tapas restaurant before. I understood the concept of sharing, but I didn't get the whole picture.

Would I have gone if I knew that it would cost me around $30.00? I'm not sure. Hubby and I both get $50.00 per month to cover our wants. Most of the time we end up treating it as an extended entertainment budget. Near the end of the month we'll take each other out, treat for ice cream, and that kind of thing. $20.00 of mine goes to craft supplies. Do I want to commit the rest of it for one meal?