Chapter 61: The Western Restaurant
When guests arrive, the waiter pours each guest an emerald and gemstone-colored cocktail, purportedly made with rum, sugar, lemon and mint, which has a "shocking" sensation on the palate, which is mint rather than alcohol.
After a glass of wine, you will feel much more sober, and then you can enjoy the food of the restaurant one after another. There are usually more than 20 dishes and the meal time can be up to 4 hours.
It's a cliché to say "dining", and dining here is more like being baptized by the food culture. The waiters are very attentive to each dish, and they will explain in detail the ingredients and how to eat each dish. Many of the things that people eat regularly are made by the chefs here, and the taste is different. For example, popcorn will melt on its own when you put it on your tongue, making it have an endless aftertaste.
In order to guarantee service and quality, the Louis XV Western Restaurant only welcomes 50 guests per night. For this reason, many people who want to taste their Western restaurant meals have to book a place in advance. When business was booming, even reservations were scheduled for three months later.
At the beginning, Zhu Jianjun spent a lot of money to acquire this western restaurant according to the meaning of Leng Binghan, in addition to continuing to retain the main store, he also promoted it and moved it into the Feiyuan Hotel, which became an indispensable supporting western restaurant in the Feiyuan International Hotel.
Of course, it is impossible for the chefs, foremen, waiters and some original meals that are urgently trained to meet the highest standards of the main restaurant, but compared with ordinary Western restaurants, it still has its own charm. For this reason, it is very popular with some foreigners, especially in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, and many foreigners who come to China are staying at the Feiyuan International Hotel for this Louis XV Western restaurant.
In the east podium of Chengdu Feiyuan International Hotel, there is the catering area of the hotel, from the Chinese food on the first floor, the hot pot on the second floor, the Western food on the third floor, and various special snacks and dishes on the fourth floor. The west podium is a variety of fitness, leisure and entertainment venues.
As soon as Leng Binghan and Xiao Lu stepped out of the elevator, a waiter in his early twenties, golden and blue-eyed, wearing a beautiful uniform, extremely charming, greeted them, welcomed them in relatively stiff Chinese, and led them to their seats.
In fact, the western restaurants in Feiyuan International Hotel in other places do not necessarily use foreigners as waiters, as long as the image and temperament are good, the English ability is good, and the foreign guests can communicate simply, and carry out systematic western restaurant etiquette and service training, they can take up their posts. However, this Louis XV Western restaurant in Chengdu is cold and cold to be given to Wang Yingying, and compared with other places, it must be more special and special, and the requirements are different from other places. Not only are the chefs from the Louis XV main office, but the managers and waiters of this western restaurant are all carefully selected from foreign countries.
These requirements may be difficult for the average person, and the cost and cost are too high to be cost-effective at all. But Leng Binghan engaged in this Western restaurant, and he never thought about making money. And Zhu Jianjun's requirements for cold and cold, he spared no effort to do it, backed by Feiyuan's absolute strength, high salary and benefits, and foreigners are also eager to do it. Therefore, in this Louis XV Western restaurant in Chengdu, the male and female waiters are also handsome men and women with golden eyes
For Chengdu, which is located in 6 and where it is relatively rare for people to see foreigners, it is indeed more eye-catching. In the words of later generations, it was completely a highlight of news and advertising hype.
The Western restaurant is decorated with bright plum red and different shades of blue, bringing playfulness and warmth to the otherwise cold glass building. Timber floors and red parterres extend from the elevator entrance to the interior, like a link of brown and red throughout.
The booths are decorated with unique features, with tables and chairs in red and wood tones, soft red sand chairs for napping, and a small bar with high chairs on one side of the wall.
In the fountain in the center is a small high platform on which a white piano is placed, and a beautiful woman in a long fluttering white dress is playing soft tunes, and the music is the kind of meditation that can be appreciated, and the conversation completely ignores the most comfortable level of the guests.
There are about five floors of guests sitting at the dining table in the hall, as well as a small number of foreigners, most of whom are dressed in formal clothes, enjoying the food while talking in a low voice, and the atmosphere is very good.
Seeing such a situation, Leng Binghan was still quite satisfied. Located in a five-star hotel, the Louis XV Western restaurant is naturally expensive, and it has only been open for less than ten days, and it has such a customer rate, which is not easy, and it is much better than I estimated.
Leng Binghan and Xiao Lu, led by the waiter, came to a couple dining table by the window. Leng Binghan pulled out the chair very gentlemanly, motioned for Xiao Lu to go in, and then moved the chair back, and only sat down on the other side after sitting down.
The table was covered with snow-white tablecloths, and the snow-shiny cutlery and cutlery were neatly arranged.
"What do you two need?" After the two sat down, the waiter handed the recipe to Xiao Lu. In her opinion, these two should be two sisters and brothers, and the matter of ordering food is naturally handed over to the adult sister.
"Well, this ......" looked at the beautifully prepared recipes, with pictures of the dishes and annotations in Chinese and English, Xiao Lu didn't know what to say. Since entering this palatial hotel, she has been feeling very frightened and uneasy, and she is a little at a loss, for fear that she will not do something good and make a fool of herself, this invisible pressure is too great, and she is a little breathless.
Suddenly, she remembered that she had a meal ticket, and this meal ticket seemed to stipulate the dishes. She hurried to look for the two meal tickets, but she couldn't find them. At this moment, she was even more like nine thunderbolts, and her brain was blank with a buzzing sound, and the six gods had no master, and she was at a loss, not knowing what to do.
"Why don't you try our set menu, it's pretty good too!" The waitress saw that Xiao Lu didn't seem very familiar, so she suggested. In order to adapt to Chinese culture, many local and Western restaurants in China have launched set meals, so as not to make jokes for customers who are not familiar with Western food and do not know how to match the dishes to be more delicious.
Of course, people who are familiar with Western food will not choose this method, because it always gives people a feeling of inauthenticity. Western food itself is a kind of culture and an atmosphere, and it is this style that is emphasized.
It's not that Xiao Lu is so anxious that she is about to cry, and the clear water in her eyes is ready to wait. It doesn't matter if she is embarrassed today, but even Xiaohan is ashamed, she is really sad and self-blaming in her heart.
At this moment, Leng Binghan said to the waitress: "Give this lady grilled garlic lamb chops with grilled vegetables, grilled sea bass in Grieg, and seafood soup with Camellia Lady." Bring me a lamb chop, a three-striped fish, and a steak beef, served with creamy mushroom soup. ”
"Okay, right away!" The waitress looked at the child with some surprise as she repeated it and made sure it was correct and recorded it in her notebook.
I ordered these dishes coldly, not that they were very expensive, but they were quite well matched from the perspective of nutrition, appearance, and the order of Western food. And looking at him very skillful and sophisticated, it doesn't feel like the first time to eat Western food. Could it be that this child came back from abroad? How else could it be so familiar?
With doubts in her stomach, she was just about to turn around and leave, when Leng Bing stopped her again and asked, "Is there an 82-year-old Lafite?" ”
The waitress was even more shocked and couldn't stand still, Lafite red wine is not cheap in the first place, and the 82-year-old Lafite is even more expensive, it can be said that a bottle is hard to find, and there is no such good wine here without thousands of dollars.
She turned around and said apologetically: "I'm sorry, Raffi doesn't have 82 years, only 88 years, do you think you need it?" ”
"I don't want it in '88, is there any ice cream from Häagen-Dazs?" Leng Binghan thought for a moment and asked. In fact, he doesn't drink much at all, but when he thinks about eating Western food with Xiao Lu, he always feels a little lacking without wine. The 82-year-old Lafite had only heard of it in his previous life, and he had never had the opportunity to taste such a good wine, so he suddenly thought that he wanted to try it, but if he didn't have it, forget it.
"Yes! Häagen-Dazs has a wide range of ice creams. The waitress replied politely. She felt that she was not communicating with a child, but with an aristocratic gentleman. That kind of indifferent and somewhat arrogant demeanor, that kind of taste style that would rather be lacking than excessive, is definitely not something that can be pretended to be taken with a shelf.
"Well, then give us two copies of the Flaming Mountain!" Häagen-Dazs Flaming Hill is a well-known Häagen-Dazs ice cream brand. The taste and color are not much different from other ice creams, but the peculiarity lies in its heat resistance. The raging fire below is still burning, but the ice cream on it still hasn't melted at all, which can be said to be a "miracle", Leng Binghan has eaten this kind of ice cream in his previous life, and left a deep impression, so at this time I can't help but think of this kind of ice cream.
"Okay, two portions of Häagen-Dazs Flaming Mountain. As you can really, this ice cream is very popular! The waitress couldn't help but give her a high hat. Honorifics such as "you" are also used in the speech.
Seeing that they had no other needs, the waitress smiled in what she thought was the most charming, and then retreated.
"Xiao Han, you said that such a high-end Western restaurant, why don't you even have the kind of lafite you want?" Xiao Lu wrinkled her nose and muttered quietly.