Is there anything more disappointing than a bad, expensive meal? Sure, not getting that promotion at work you were promised, seeing your child become a meth head, those are obviously more life changing disappointments. But I’m talking about everyday disappointments. A movie isn’t as good as the reviews. The hot girl turned out to be really annoying. You get the picture.

I was craving some House of Prime Rib, a San Francisco institution. But Friday nights that place is a bit hectic and I didn’t feel like waiting an hour or more for a seat at the bar. So I decided to walk couple of blocks over to Harris’, The San Francisco Steakhouse. I’ve dined here before and recall the steak was good. But I had my intentions of a traditional prime rib, which Harris’ does offer. They even have it English style, which is typically how I order at HOPR. Regular cut, medium rare, English style with cream spinach and baked potato. Unless HOPR salad is separate so went with the Iceberg wedge with blue cheese dressing.

The atmosphere was relaxing. Was a nice change of pace from HOPR, which tends to be more on the loud side. There was even live music in the lounge area, a nice touch. But the prime rib, oh the prime rib. In hindsight, I made the classic mistake of ordering fish at a steakhouse. You go to a steakhouse to get a steak, not fish, not prime rib. It was tough and chewy. It was not flavorful. It was just extremely disappointing. I want to be fair to Harris’, I think folks really enjoy their steaks. But for me, the prime rib is so bad.

Eating out has become very expensive. My “complete” dinning experience includes,

• 1 or 2 cocktails
• appetizer or salad
• main entree
• dessert

With sales tax (almost 9%), those random San Francisco health mandate employee fees (3-7%) and gratuity (I typically do 20%) a very basic meal can easily be $100. At a steakhouse, where the entree is easily $80 and up, you’re looking at like $200, easily. So for most of us non one percenters, dining out has become a bit of a luxury reward. So when the food so utterly disappoints, it’s so frustrating.

Unlike a disappointing movie, you can’t just cut your loses and walk out. Unlike a bad date, you can’t just go do something else afterward. You’ve already ate and can’t eat another meal to make up for it. I really do think a bad, expensive meal must rank up there as one of the most disappointing first world problems.