Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Worst. Bar. Ever.

It's 6pm in Hue and we've had quite a long day. Time for a drink in our hotel bar. The Hue Queen Hotel can best be described perhaps as 'formerly stately'. It is now somewhat a shadow of itself.

I was mostly looking for a comfortable spot to use the ubiquitous free wifi. Alex was already doing the same so I joined her and beckoned the waiter over to order a drink. Which was difficult since they had apparently sold out of half the menu. So, bowing to the inevitable, I ordered the same glass of red wine Alex was drinking (63,000 dong) only to be informed by her that it was terrible (which it was).

Joined now by Jo and with more optimism than anything else, I ordered a martini (a vodka martini since they didn't have gin). It was also 63,000 dong. This is about AUD2.80 and is still overpriced for Vietnam.

To our amazement and mutual incomprehension, what I got was a whiskey glass with something in it and a bowl of ice. And just in case I could blame this on some kind of communication breakdown, he informed us with a big, pleased smile that this was, indeed, a 'martini'.

Bemused, I wasn't sure if I should put the ice in the glass or the contents of the glass over the ice. I opted for the former and, while it was cold, I still have no idea what it actually was. This was even better than the time my martini was brown. And, subsequently after sending it back, yellow. And then pink. And then I went behind the bar and showed her what to do.

No, this topped that martini experience since the wrong Cointreau was the obvious problem in that situation. I had no clue how where to start to remedy this.

It was while we were still laughing and Jo was making faces at just how bad her glass of white wine was that they outdid themselves by bringing us roasted peanuts... covered in sugar.

Worst. Bar. Ever.

No comments: