Dicken's of a dick

The few times I had been to Dicken's Inn, I was never really swayed either way as to whether I liked the place, or disliked it. Sometimes it was ok, sometimes it was average.

I did, however, like the fireplace, and the large screen television. Both of them great for watching international rugby games in front of.

However, this coexistence of cordiality between myself and Dicken's Inn came to an abrupt halt one evening when my partner (husband) and I decided we would dine there.

We had a pleasant server, who seated us at a nice table with a view to cater to my tastes (I love people-watching). She took our orders (I think I ordered a fettucine and my husband, well, who knows? I hardly even remember his name some of the time -jokes!), handed them in to the kitchen and trotted off to fetch our drinks.

We waited for about twenty minutes for our dinner, which I think is fairly reasonable. We were, however, the only diners in the restaurant at the time, so who's to say whether dinner should have arrived sooner or not? Actually, it may have been a slightly longer wait, because now that I think back on it, I distinctly remember feeling slightly peevish at how long it was taking, and hoping that the meal is well worth the wait.

Sad to say, it wasn't.

When our meals arrived, I took my first mouthful and nearly choked. There was so much pepper in my dish that it could have made a heard of elephants cry. I took a second mouthful from another part of the dish, and then asked my husband to try a mouthful as well. Each and every time, the verdict was the same. Eye watering amounts of pepper, and choking sounds (I don't handle hot or spicy very well).

We called over the waitress and told her the problem. She went into the kitchen and reported it to the chef, who wasn't very happy that we had sent the food back.

Suffice to say, we refused any replacement dishes, especially when we found out that my husbands dinner was also drowning in pepper.

We took a full refund and walked out the door, to find ourselves somewhere else to dine. To this day, we haven't been back.

Now, to her credit, the server didn't charge us for our drinks. She gave them to us for free to try and make up for the poor experience we had that night. She alone was the shining light in the whole miserable experience.

I think we went and got pizza after that, and I was thrilled, because I love pizza.