This Christmas for a change we decided to dine out on Christmas Day. The four of us joined the other 120 or so diners at Cobb and Co Restaurant at Paraparaumu. There was a big sign up at the entrance stating, “No casual diners, bookings only for Christmas Day”. Just as well as the waitress found our names on the list.
A nice young waiter showed us to our window table and ran through the options with us. No, he didn’t mind working on Christmas Day, he told us, he would rather be working than spending Christmas Day with rellies he hardly sees and doesn’t really know. And, the higher hourly rate for working on Christmas Day certainly helped make up his mind. We had a choice of pumpkin soup or shrimp cocktails – an easy choice for us all as the weather was much too warm for a bowl of soup. The very generous main course consisted of ham, turkey and roast pork, with roast pumpkin, kumara and potatoes, broccoli and cheese sauce, peas and carrots. Kathryn and I tried our hardest but couldn’t manage to get through it all. Dessert was a plate containing Christmas pudding and custard, a slice of pavlova, a brandy snap with cream, and ice-cream. By this stage we were all struggling to get through it. The price for our meal included a free drink, chocolates and sweets, Christmas mince pies, coffee and a slice of Christmas cake, and Christmas Crackers. We were certainly getting good value for money, we thought.
The steady hum of conversations filled the restaurant as various groups of people were enjoying their Christmas meals. There were several very large family groups with the grandparents right down to babies, many groups of 4 like us, and lots of twosomes. The young waiting staff did an excellent job delivering meals and drinks, and we can only imagine what was happening behind the scenes in the kitchen. There was no way we could do justice to the mince pies and remaining sweets so we wrapped them up to enjoy back at camp. It was so nice to spend Christmas Day with friends and not worry about the preparation, cooking, and cleaning up, for a change.
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