The Worst Meal Yet...

Wawa part II, The Worst Meal yet: Kinniwabi Pines
(Or how the most recommended place really sucked)
When we finally located our restaurant, we were excited. We had read good reviews and had several verbal confirmations that this was the best place in town (this is really frightening). It looked good and it sounded good. Run by a family, the father and mother cooked and the daughter served. The daughter told us to take any table and then we proceeded to wait, and wait and wait. I don’t really mind waiting because it takes me a long time to decide what I want anyway and I like to savor the menu. However, this menu of Chinese, Trinidadian, German and American/Italian food did not appeal to me. It was difficult to find even one thing I would chose to eat. Generally, I don’t like restaurants that do this many different types of food because it suggests nothing will be done well (which proved to be the case).
Asha and I debated what to get and she finally returned to the table to ask us if we wanted a drink (I had to ask for a wine list which meant more waiting). I got another glass of this Syrah from Pele Island which I need to find out where this place is. Then we asked what the Trinidad food was like. She said she really had no idea, her parents cooked it. Hmm. This was not very informative. We asked her if the veal in the weiner schnitzel was good. Well, she replied, the speatzel with it was very yummy. Finally, we asked which fish was local. None of those choices looked good. So, we settled on the Trinidadian catfish and the Wiener Schnitzel. Bad, bad choices.
But before we get to that we were brought a bowl of ‘tomato soup” which seemed to be campbell’s canned veg soup (with the requisite square carrots which I abhore) with slices of carrot and cabbage in it. Then, after much waiting, MUCH, our food arrived. It was barely edible. Now, I have to say, maybe we ordered the wrong things. Maybe it was us, because people did rave about this place. It’s all homecooked, the reviews said. The veggies are fresh (the veggies on our plate did seem fresh and they were cooked al dente which is great but they tasted like crap. They had this sickly sweet Chinese sauce on them, yuck, yuck, yuck). My veal tasted of nothing but man you had to chew that nothing forever and spit out all the pieces of gristle on the side of the plate. The breading was dried out and salty and flavorless (do people really like this dish?). The spaetzel was like dried up pieces of bread dough that were lightly fried and also tasteless. I actually ate some of this stuff because we were both so hungry (peanut butter and pickles were lunch).
Asha’s meal was also gross. She managed to eat the very fishy, fish but the “Trinidadian” topping were tomatoes with those horrible hard peels that are coming off and you can’t chew, huge onions and I don’t know what else, something sickly sweet in that too (maybe the Chinese sauce does double or triple duty). After we had enough so we wouldn’t starve, we waited for the bill. And then we fled. Outside both of us started complaining that we were nauseous (this may be all the talk of kayaking and not the food though). In any case, we won't be back.