American food in England

So I went to an American Restaurant today.... I had heard before I came over here that the worst thing about England was the food. Well since I have been here I really haven't eaten off base to much. Twice to be exact. The rest of the time I have eaten whatever I had from base grocery store or eaten at the restaurants on base. Well... today at the "American Restaurant" I ordered a bacon cheese burger. Simple enough. The person I was with, Allison, ordered quesadillas. Kinda funny to have quesadillas at an American Restaurant but I thought... ok... there are lots of Mexican restaurants in the states an none over here... but the funny part was beside quesadillas on the menu in parenthesis it had it sounded out (kay-sa-dee-ahs). When we ordered drinks I ordered a coke and Allison ordered a Lemonade. They brought me a Coke in a glass bottle and a glass with 3 ice cubes in it. The Coke in a bottle is cool... the glass with 3 ice cubes is funny. However, I have never been to an American restaurant that serves Coke in glass bottles... which I personally think is a tragedy. Allisons lemonade turned out to be Sprite. Yeah... we both thought that was kind of weird.

So when we got out food I had a huge cheeseburger with fried ham on it instead of bacon. It wasn't quite as tasty as a burger I would get in the states but it was OK. Allisons quesadilas didn't have any cheese on it which defeats the purpose of calling it a quesadilas. Quesa is the spanish word for cheese. Couple other little quarks. They don't bring you water to begin with, they expected us to order all at once and not get the drinks first, when I ordered my burger I asked if I could get onion rings with that and they brought me a side of onion rings along with the french fries that came with the burger... I thought she understood that I wanted onion rings instead. I guess not. We didn't leave much of a tip because the service wasn't that good but I have been told that I shouldn't expect service in restuarants here like I get in the states. They just don't do it. I have also been told that a good tip is 10% where as, for those of you who don't know, common tip in the states is anywhere between 15 and 20%.

But you know... the Chinese food we get in the states probably can't compare to the real thing in China so really I should have expected that it wouldn't truly be American when I went in. Another thing I saw on the menu that I thought was kinda funny was that if you ordered a Hawaiian Pizza it came with ham, pineapple and corn on it... I don't think they grow much corn in Hawaii. There may be restaurants in the states that do that but I have never been to one. Not that it would be bad... I just thought it was funny. Oh... the main reason we even went to that place is it was the only place we could find that was open. Most pubs and restaurants don't open on Sundays.

So there you have it... an Americans review of an American restaurant in England. I'll probably go back but I won't get the bacon cheeseburger... maybe i'll try the pizza or the buffalo wings... now for a British farewell... Cheers!

- footprints of Chad, 4:23 PM

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