Mystery Cafe

This show has been playing for 15 years now. It certainly sounded fun, but not
knowing what to expect the high priced tickets set the bar high. The show was
located in a private room inside the Imperial House Restaurant. Big round tables
were draped with white cloths and labeled with school club names, ours was the
science club. It was going to be the "Killer Reunion". Black and white graduation
photos of movie stars were blown up and hung on the walls and a little quiz lie on
the table to see how many you recognized. Our meal, which had to be preordered
before noon the day of our show, left us with three adult choices for entrees;
smothered chicken with mushrooms, three pepper short ribs or pasta primavera
topped with a red or white sauce. For $58 a person I was extremely disappointed
in the meal. This 4-course meal started with a cup of tortilla soup which was
pretty good, but not enough to finish. The smothered chicken with mushrooms
was a bit misleading considering it was smothered with carrots and onions without
many mushrooms. My teenage son took one bite and wouldn't eat anymore. The
ribs were decent, but we all speculated whether it was truly short ribs since it had
a pressed meat texture. The pasta primavera with white sauce tasted the best,
but was hardly better than a box mix. The kids meals, which were only $6 less left
them with a choice of a hamburger, cheeseburger or chicken strips. With so much
wrong with the food I had to laugh watching the kids disassemble their french roll
style burger to eat just the meat, complaining that ,"the bun is stale!" After the
entree they served a meager salad consisting of a handful of lettuce topped with a
slice of tomato, and finally dessert, a piece of chocolate cake. I was further
turned off by a cutsie chant the cast members sang close to the end of the meal
reminding us not to forget their tips. They further pushed the issue with a
statement printed in the program we each received saying, "The former students
are really actors doubling as your servers. Please tip them accordingly with
envelopes provided." I was confused, when I expressed my shock at the ticket
prices with reservations she explained that the gratuity was included. They
mention nothing of that. The show itself was hard to follow, but got lots of laughs,
especially from my teenage son who loved the show. The actors move around
incorporating audience member into their skits. Lots of jabs evoked a laugh such
as, "She's so ugly her father took her to work every day so he wouldn't have to
kiss her good bye.", and to an audience member, "You were so courageous honey
to wear that sweater tonight.". The cross dressing Mrs. Fortescue sets his, or
should I say, her sites on a good looking guy in the audience and flirts with him
often during the show. Joffrey, the gay party planner gets his share of laughs with
his exaggerated accent. I thought the chiropractor skit was a riot. The story line
is hard to follow, enough to solve the mystery of who the dead woman was lying
on the stage when we first walked in to be seated and who did it, all which are to
be answered at the end of the show with our answers written on little slips of
paper. With eight people in our party I was able to get a good collection of
opinions, enabling me to come to a fair assessment of our experience and here's
their unanimous conclusion: The food sucks, great show, overpriced. I think that
was fair.

This summer "I Do, Or Die, The Mother-In-Law Of All Weddings" shows Wednesday
and Thursdays July through August of 2005.

Prices: $58.50 for adults & $52.50 for children

Located at 505 Kalmia Street in San Diego

Telephone (619) 544-1600

Website: www.mysterycafe.net