One day my friend and I decided that we and our children would dress up nice and go to a really nice restaurant for dinner “just because”. We found a great place we had never been inside a fancy-schmancy hotel. We all sat down and ordered right up to our budget including the large tip. As we sat and waited for our food a man approached with a cart with lots of delicious offerings. He asked if we wanted anything. We were elated! This fancy restaurant is so cool! They give out free appetizers while you wait on the main course!?! The dinner was EXCELLENT!! We looked good, ate good, and had a great time. Then the bill came and we were floored! It was almost $1000!!!!!! We frantically called for the server to find out what all these extra charges were. Apparently, the items on the cart are not free. You simply pay for each item individually which is where the term “a la carte” originates. So we were charged $7 for each prawn, there were 5 of us and we each had 2. The prawns were the cheapest item that we took from the cart and we took at least 4 items each. Anyway, we explained our situation to the server and then the manager to see what could be done. They kindly accepted the money that we expected to pay for our meals and they allowed us to tip our server and comped the other charges. Whew!! Thank GOD!!