Am I becoming a grumpy old woman?

This morning I travelled down to the Mornington Peninsula to lead a worship service at Mt Martha.

This was my second visit to this very friendly congregation, and the service went well, and I received lots of very positive feedback from members of the congregation, which was nice.

I decided to take the scenic route home, driving up the coast along the Esplanade, and then the Nepean Highway, which with today's glorious weather was a delightful trip. The view out over the water was just stunning. I thought I would take my time, and stop somewhere along the way to have lunch and read the paper.

I stopped in the main drag of a town just south of Edithvale, and got myself a paper, and entered what looked like a nice little cafe to have lunch. After initially asking the waitress whether the establishment had an 'order at the counter' system or table service, she assured me that if I sat down, I would be served.

So, I sat down, and got out my paper and started reading... Time passed. No sign of said waitress or any kind of menu heading in my direction. I eventually managed to attract her attention as she scurried past after clearing a table, to ask for a menu. After I had perused the menu and made my choice, I then spent an interminable amount of time looking wistfully at the waitress, with menu in hand, each time she walked past me (and my table was very close to the counter, so this happened often).

Eventually she took my order, and I settled down to read again. The food was reasonably prompt in arriving once I had ordered, but it was nothing to write home about. Given that it wasn't outrageously expensive, I actually didn't mind this, but went away feeling like I had eaten, without really enjoying the experience.

However, once I received my meal (a fisherman's basket with chips and salad), I again needed to crash tackle one of the staff to ask for salt and pepper (to their credit, the meal was not already covered in salt, but the chips were a little on the soft and pale side, rather than the golden and crispy side, so they really needed salt to make them palatable).

The biggest gastronomic disappointment, however, was the iced coffee. Seeing as how it was quite a warm day, I thought an iced coffee would go down very nicely indeed. Unfortunately, the only thing 'iced' about it was the big lump of ice cream sitting at the top (underneath the mountain of whipped cream), and the actual milky coffee tasted almost warm... no luscious icy cold milk here...

As I said, rather a disappointment.

Am I becoming a grumpy old woman to think it was unreasonable that I had to ask for a menu, and later had to ask for salt and pepper, and almost had to crash tackle the waitress to attract her attention so I could order?

Am I turning into the kind of person who will specify: "must be a place with good restaurant service" in my ministerial profile under "where are you prepared/not prepared to be placed?"

Or is it just, that after such a great morning, it would have been nice to have had an equally pleasant and enjoyable dining experience on my way home? Maybe next time I visit that congregation, I should stop for lunch farther south, and not worry that it may only be 11:30 and not really late enough for lunch.

I guess you live and learn... but that's one cafe I don't think I'll be going back to.