Twenty two dollar spaghetti

The best muffins in Lagos? Have to be the banana muffins at The Ice Cream Factory in VI. It was like a bad joke. Like one of those situations that you are in where you look around for some sign that you are on Nigeria's version of Candid Camera. Looking at the bill and blinking didn't make the figures any clearer. Sure I could see them, but could not understand what they meant. Three thousand five hundred Naira for a kids size portion of spaghetti. The waiter, who had been pleasant all along up to that moment and was working his way up to a nice tip, stood there and repeated my bill in words I am sure were as foreign to him as they were to him. Three k five for a portion of spaghetti? Seriously? I counted out the cash in a daze, handing it over meekly to him, still expecting him to suddenly realize his mistake and hand back a significant portion of change, apologizing profusely all the time. What did happen was him confidently collecting the money, snapping the wallet the offending bill game in closed and dissappearing behind a door. As I walked out, I saw a manager type by the bar and tried to engage him in conversation. Alas there was a language barrier, so a senior waiter attempted to translate for us. In the end it was I who did the translating, and then realised the fact that I had just paid $22 for a small portion of plain, al dente spaghetti which accompanied a dish that tasted more of salt than anything else. To be fair to the establishment, they quickly realized that three thousand five hundred wasn't a reasonable fare for the fare offered, and admitted a mistake had been made. This further disturbed this customer, as this was an admition of them overcharging me for my meal, so point made, I beat a retreat to the safety of my car where there was no danger of being charged for the air I would breathe. The waiter did rush out to hand me back one thousand and five hundred Naira, but by then the damage had been done. So no more Italian for a while me thinks. $13 spaghetti is still a bit to rich for my blood. Inside view: Il Soriso - (out of three stars)quality =1, service =1.5, value =0.5 Pet peeve of the day - establishments who do not respect their own queue management systems and allow people to cut the line. First Bank Marina please take note. So how was your weekend?