Twist of Fate at Chez Omar

Last night, while Chris was in London, my friend Joel and I met one of two Doug Smiths from Chicago along with his friend Kevin. And because the Windy City boys were looking for something hip and trendy, I selected Chez Omar in Paris for dinner. Known for its clientele ranging from Naomi Cambpell (in between fits with telephones) to Herb Ritts, the North African restaurant that accepts no reservations has quite a following. But because of assumptions made by our server, our evening quickly morphed into unexpected territory.

We anticipated spending at least two hours feasting on Chez Omar's famous couscous. We hoped eye candy would entertain us with their fashionista ensembles and prima donna behaviors. Instead, the only attitude we received was from a waiter who acted as though my French was complete gibberish. As a result, he set our menu without any input from the table. Ten minutes later, our four top next to the front door was quickly covered with pots of chickpeas, semolina and a meat platter the size of Texas.

We would have ordered the tender lamb and beef skewers. Both were delicious. But the Flinstone ribs and monkey sausages were a bit much - and not tasty. And where was the chicken? You'd think Omar would include the white meat on what they call a "Royale Plate."

Finally, when the somewhat inexpensive bill (for Parisian standards) arrived at our table and we replied with three credit cards, the waiter shut us down (with a smile) by saying they don't accept plastic. "Excuse me?" we said. He responded by showing us on a handwritten note in the menu that states they don't take Visa, American Express, MasterCard, etc. We chuckled and answered back, "How could we know when we didn't even see the menu?" By then it was too late.

But even though the waiter shifted our evening's course of events, it turned out to be quiet nice. We shared stories - maybe too much. We gawked at an attractive blonde who resembled Olivia Newton-John from Xanadu. And in the end, we laughed. Would chicken have made the night any better? I doubt it.