Dinner at Houlihan's

M and I had dinner with TY and BT (or maybe it's BY now) last night. M took the train out, so I left work at 7:00pm to pick him up from Princeton Junction. I didn't even need to use an umbrella on my brief walk to the parking lot, but in my 10-minute drive to the train station, the rain started to trickle down. By the time I got to Princeton Junction, it had turned into a full-blown thunderstorm, with no end in sight. M's train got to the station about 15 minutes late. Good thing I had my trusty Palm Pilot (which I fortunately charged right before I left work) to keep me entertained while I waited for him, only I kept losing my concentration in the midst of my Solitaire game, disrupted by the loud and constant plick-plock sound of the raindrops hitting the car. In the 100 yards or so from the opening of the train doors to where I was parked, M got completely soaked from the waist down. Times like this, no umbrella would have done any good. Note to self: consider investing in a big yellow banana (a.k.a. poncho) for M.

We were about 15 minutes late getting to the restaurant, which wasn't bad, considering the horrific weather conditions we were in. The bigger problem came when we had to look for parking. The entire lot was full. We circled around the complex several times and couldn't find any open spots - and at this point, we weren't even close to the restaurant anymore. We finally got lucky (as I drove down the wrong way of a one-way aisle) and saw a car pull out, so I immediately turned on my signal to take the spot. Unfortunately, it was a pretty long trek to Houlihan's, and the rain was still coming down like there was no tomorrow, so we decided to stay in the car until it slowed down a little. Ten minutes later, we were still sitting there, listening to the Yankee game, waiting for that glimmer of blue sky that was not to appear. I felt bad having TY and BT wait in the restaurant, so we decided to brave the rain and make a run for it. We made it with no casualties, but were both soaking wet.

I ordered a chicken fajita for dinner that night. The plate of chicken came out sizzling hot, but maybe a bit too much b/c a lot of it was burnt. M ordered a burger, but it didn't come in with the rest of our food, so our waiter told us he'd look into it. After a minute or so, one of the managers came by, and apparently, M's burger was given to someone else (M guessed it right - he kept insisting that someone ate his burger). The manager said they put in an order for another one, and that it would be taken off the check. We didn't even complain about it or anything, so it was nice of them to do that. It took a while for the food to arrive (I think they were just really busy yesterday, which is surprising for a Wednesday evening), but the service was good. That was my first time going to a Houlihan's, but I think I'd go back... the menu is similar to a TGI Friday's, where they offer a little of everything.