The Saddle Room is the restaurant at The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin.
Last night I went to The Saddle Room for a quick dinner.
The waitress was a tad haughty. She brought me the wrong dessert – apple pie, I had ordered panna cotta – and then she disappeared.
After waiting for twenty minutes I went to the cloakroom and asked for my coat and the check.
A gentleman who appeared to be responsible for the coat check asked me: “Excuse me, but why do you want your check?”

“Because I would like to pay.”

The gentleman, who was wearing a nice suit, walked away. He never came back.

Three minutes later an elderly, slightly servile waiter approached me with a check. He asked me: “Is this your check?”

“I’m not sure if this is my check,” I answered, “but I will pay this check, because I really would like to go now.”

It was a fabulous experience, but I won’t go back to The Saddle Room in the near future.