Dinner nearly aborted

The Shanghai Community Center puts out a monthly newsletter called Shanghai International Family. I've been reading it cover-to-cover and finding it immensely helpful. I feel like my family fits squarely into their target audience. The section I've thumbed to the most often is the listing of "Kid Friendly Restaurants."

Shanghai is a restaurant town. The restaurant scene is ever-changing, and the hip, new places get the buzz. But for most of our meals, we're looking for noisy, fast, and easy-to-clean. Or at least child-loving and quick service. So the list of kid friendly restaurants served us well.

Until last night.

Here's the description:

"Vegetarian Lifestyle - Savory and creative describe the Chinese cuisine at this socially conscientious restaurant that's nonsmoking too! ... Staff is patient and friendly and well accustomed to dealing with kids."

L--'s eating habits have been outside of adventurous, and besides the dishes of garlic broccoli that she finishes on her own, she's hardly touched a vegetable since we arrived. So a vegetarian, non-smoking restaurant sounded perfect. This description doesn't mention that they serve only organic food as well - right up our alley!

The location was a bit out of our way, but closer to our current digs than to our new home by far. It was a place to hit while we still live in Puxi, so we loaded up the stroller and headed out. We left home around 5:00 pm, knowing that both girls would be ready to eat by 6:00. Darkness arrives early in Shanghai during this season, and quickly night had fallen. Shanghai is a fun walk in the evening. With a comfortable breeze to ward off the high humidity, we enjoyed our walk. We took some major roads, but also veered off to walk on the neighborly streets. Much more stroller friendly, they also provide a wonderful view into local life. Smaller streets allow us to peer down lanes, where most of Chinese life occurs. We can see people doing their washing, feeding their animals and their families, eating at small noodles stands and closing down their shops. One street seemed to be a bit of an animal market. Chickens walked the sidewalk next to our stroller (we quickly strolled past, before they had the chance to sneeze on us and spread avian flu), and crickets sang loudly from their little shops. I haven't figured out the significance yet, but crickets are sold alongside fish and birds - I believe as pets. And these crickets are often quite large - easily the size of my palm, although you won't see one resting there anytime soon!

After a nearly 1-hour walk, we found the place. It being listed as Cheap Eats in the Family Friendly section of our guide books, we expected a hole in the wall catering to expats. These tend to be small and very casual affairs, so we walked up wearing our cargo shorts and mildly sweaty t-shirts. L-- sported her Cubs T, since we're watching them in the playoffs every morning.

Quite the opposite, Vegetarian Lifestyle is a hip joint. Reservations highly recommended. The sleek lines, slate floors and exposed industrial ceiling along with the well-dressed locals showing up through the door with reservations made us feel entirely out of place. True to the description, the hostess was quite patient and allowed us to wait for a table. The wait turned out to be nearly 45 minutes, and although she enjoyed playing with our kids when she was free, the sleek lobby of a restaurant is still not the best place to store hungry babies.

We were shown to our table a bit before 7:00. The menu had both Chinese characters and English descriptions, as well as photos next to the descriptions. The girls were brought plastic spoons and bowls, and played happily. The staff brought a high chair for S--, and she began to eat. I was quickly ready to order, and we thought things may go smoothly from here.

Quite the opposite, we could no longer find someone who spoke English. This wouldn't have been a problem, except that we could not communicate that we were ready to order. And no one came to our table. We sat for another half an hour. Waiting.

Finally, we decided it was time to leave. Armed with 30 kuai to leave on the table for the tea we had been sipping, we began to pack up and call the trip a failure. It was time to abort the dinner mission.

Jus then, the friendly hostess brought someone who must have been another diner from upstairs. He treated us rather condescendingly, saying that he had been asked to translate. When we told him that we couldn't order, he seemed very disappointed in us. He showed us that the menu was in English, and started to walk away. We explained - no, we can order. They won't let us. Allow me to recall an earlier conversation:

Lynne (upon grabbing the attention of the friendly hostess, when no wait staff approached our table): We would like to order.

Hostess: Water?

Lynne: No, no. We would like to order.

Hostess: Menu?

Lynne: Yes, we are ready to order off the menu.

Hostess: Menu is here.

Lynne: No. We are ready to order our food.

Hostess: Sorry. I don't understand.

Lynne (looking pleadingly at Dave): Can you think of any other way to say this?

The aforementioned condescender became a bit less-so upon hearing the problem, translated, and the wait staff quickly took our order. Apples and melon were brought to the table immediately, which kept L-- happy for quite some time. The food now came quickly, the restaurant was loud and busy enough for no one to mind our noisy, wiggly children who both enjoyed their food, and we were on our way home well after 8:00.

Even better, it turns out they have a location literally right across the street from our hotel. Maybe our foray to that location will have better results.