To be upset husband has booked a ‘novelty’ restaurant?

[trapperjohna]

It’s my 50th next Saturday. DH told me he’d book a nice restaurant and I was really looking forward to it as we rarely ever eat out. I was expecting to go somewhere nice in central Liverpool, he knows I love the waterfront so I was thinking he’d book somewhere around there.

Today he’s revealed he’s booked a place in Sheffield (which is annoying enough in itself, 90 minute drive for a meal and it won’t be relaxing at all) which is a novelty restaurant where the staff are intentionally rude to you and it’s all part of it. He’s booked it for the teens as well. I asked why on Earth he’d booked that and he said because he was curious about it and thought it’d be fun.

But it’s not me at all. I’m very self-conscious and even though it’ll all be a joke the thought of the staff verbally abusing me makes me anxious. I’ll end up taking something to heart and getting upset.

DH is annoyed I’ve asked him to cancel it and says I’m a spoil sport, but it’s my birthday dinner.

Yanbu.

What an idiot he is! I’m not surprised he’s upset, all he’s thinking is what he wants to do.

Suggest you book the waterfront restaurant you actually want to go to and tell him you’re assuming he’s coming but if not to let you know and you’ll take a friend.

Yanbu. I’d hate this. I want to have a nice time on my birthday, not be insulted, I wouldn’t find that remotely amusing.

Aside from the dismal novelty of staff being rude, the food looks absolutely ghastly and the kind of rubbish served from a clapped out burger van in a desolate part of Blackpool.

There was one like this in Boston called Locke-Ober. The servers were more cheeky than rude. I ate there once and the waitress brought over a carafe of the house wine we had ordered and said with a grin "Who ordered the cheap wine?".

The food was excellent and the restaurant was historic. Unfortunately, they went out of business in 2012.

Don't be a Karen, give it a go

It's nice of him to have organised something and be willing to drive you 90 mins each way, with your children too

Absolutely no way should you agree to go to a shit novelty restaurant you will hate to celebrate your own bloody birthday.

For me, the insults would be water off a duck’s back, but I cannot stand novelty dining places of any kind. I just find it all really naff and cringey. I’d rather poke a stick in my eye than drive 90 minutes each way to eat average food you could get anywhere and be served by in-character drama students. Fucking dreadful.

I was invited to the Fawlty Towers thing once and I made an excuse not to go.

It's nice of him to have organised something and be willing to drive you 90 mins each way, with your children too

I think we've found the proprietor of the establishment.

Except he could have easily booked something closer in Liverpool which is what the OP wanted, and then no one would have to drive 90 minutes.

Gosh, the bar for men is so low it's subterranean.

The menu just looks like one of those restaurants you get in the carpark of a multiplex cinema on the edge of town. Called something like "Rexy's" that closes after a year or two and reopens as Wolfie's or Foxy Jack's or Slick Willie's , same menu different decor.
Except "Wagyu" burgers. Why on earth would you mince Wagyu beef into a burger? That's like pouring cheap white lemonade into an expensive craft beer to make shandy.
(Whether Wagyu is any better than a bit of nicely marbled dry aged Hereford or anything else is another matter)

Book somewhere you actually want to go to yourself, then tell them that's now where you're going. Your birthday, your choice. They're being selfish.

He CV used your birthday as an excuse to try something he's been wanting to do. This isn't about your birthday celebration it's about him. Choose a restaurant you want to go to op and tell him to book that instead. Don't go the Karen's.

It's nice of him to have organised something

It’s not, though, is it? He doesn’t give a shit about what the OP wants to do on her birthday. He just wants to go to a shit restaurant with his teenage son. If he wants to go to a novelty restaurant in Sheffield he can do that for his son’s birthday, or his own. It’s not ‘nice’ to make someone do something they hate on their own birthday.

"Don't be a Karen, give it a go"

Nope.

Ignore the CV

I think you need to book somewhere you wabt to go and go with a friend or your dd.
Your husband sounds like such a selfish arse I wouldn't want to go anywhere with him now even if he cancelled and booked somewhere nice!

Why?I mean why in any realm would anyone think that’s a great night out?
I hope your DH enjoys his night out ( alone) once he has booked a Liverpool restaurant for you, paid upfront with champagne included.

For a 50th? A big birthday? What a dick.

Hi Karen.

"It's nice of him to have organised something"

Yeah- as nice as buying OP a fishing reel or a DH-fitting motorbike helmet if she hates fishing and has shown no desire to get on a bike in the 20 years she has been married to a man with those hobbies. For example.

Ugh! No.

Some people set the bar so bloody low for men. You don't need to be grateful for him booking you a restaurant that is your idea of hell. Mine too for that matter. I'd ring to cancel yourself and rebook somewhere else. I'd also leave it up to him to organise his own birthday meal next time his birthday crops up. You have a milestone birthday and should be made to feel special and this isn't it. Honesty is he such a thoughtless idiot normally?

It's not nice that he's done something. He's basically taken a minute or two to go online or phone and book a place HE wants to go to, knowing it's not likely to be something his wife would particularly want.

And the 'don't be a Karen' phrase is horrible - just another way to criticise normal every day women.

I am utterly depressed at replies that suggest the OP should jolly herself along, be grateful that her husband has organised anything or that she should bow out and arrange what she wants to do on another day.

It’s supposed to be for her birthday. Her 50th birthday.

I’m hoping that some of the replies are taking the piss. Otherwise it’s too depressing.

“Be willing to drive you 90 minutes”

Wow, sounds like great craic.

You clearly know how to have a good time, LampLighter - sit in a car for 3 hours to celebrate your 50th. Good times.

They can’t even have a couple of glasses of bubbly, because they’ve got to schlepp 90 minutes home.

🥳

I would absolutely hate this and what an awful position to be put in. Now that I'm older and don't give a shit so much I think I would book myself into a spa or something nice on the day and tell them to book the Liverpool restaurant in a couple weeks.