ALL NOVEL It's One Of Those Really Fancy Places
I intentionally screened through the list of food establishments located within the station to find the best one for us.
And by best, I really just meant the one that I felt had the least chance of me having problems with their food.
It turned out that I literally only had one choice because there was only one place that actually served organic foods instead of synthfood.
Despite that, I picked it anyway and we headed over to where the restaurant was located to have our lunch, hoping that they wouldn't disappoint.
The place itself was located near where our apartment was and it was clearly meant to be the location of choice for the people that were 'granted' the right to stay there.
I had high hopes for this place as the exterior was decorated to look like those fancy restaurants like those back in my old universe except with a more high tech twist to it.
The building had sleek black and white walls giving it a minimalistic look and the entrance was a glass double door with a Maitre D' standing in front of it.
When he saw us approach, he immediately clapped his feet together before giving us a bow.
"Miss Tera and company, welcome to our establishment today."
I raised an eyebrow at him, "How did you know who we are?"
"To his date, there have been less than ten groups that were granted Mister Linc's favour. Our establishment prides itself in knowing each of them by heart and has tables reserved specifically for you and your company."
Oh wow, only ten groups have won the battle royale and then went on to win their bet with Linc? That's a pretty small number considering the battle royale takes place like every week?
And no, we will not be participating in that again. At least for now.
He straightened himself, "Shall I show you to your table, Miss Tera?"
I nodded and he stepped back to start leading us into the building.
When the doors shut behind us, the sounds outside immediately disappeared to be replaced with soothing classical music that was playing in the background.
The only sounds aside from the music were the soft whispers of voices from the other patrons and the clacking of our footsteps on the marble looking floor.
The other patrons also looked exceptionally well dressed with the men in suits and the ladies in dresses. There were a few outliers who had modded themselves with either gene or cybernetic mods but they were also still well dressed.
I felt a little concerned since all four of us were dressed in pretty much casual clothes instead of all the formal clothes the others were wearing.
"Is there a dress code here?" I asked.
He smiled at me, "Normally yes. But for distinguished guests like Tera and her company, you are free to dress however you wish."
"Even if we were to walk in naked?" Amber suggested cheekily.
To his credit, his face did not change when he heard her, "If that is what Miss Amber wishes to do, we will not stop you either."
Somehow, I had a feeling that he was not joking… And most likely it has happened before with one of the other groups as well.
Well, I doubt any of us planned to streak across the restaurant anytime soon so I don't think we would need to worry about that.
He eventually led us to a door that actually had a plaque with our name engraved on it stuck to the side of the door.
Looking down the corridor, I could see similar doors with the same type of plaques beside them, a few of them also had names engraved while most of them were left empty.
They weren't kidding when they said they specifically reserved a table specifically for us.
He then stepped aside and gestured to the door, "Because it is your first time here, we will need Miss Tera and company to register yourselves. Once you do, you will be the only ones who can access this door aside from the staff."
"What if we never come back? Do we need to come back a set amount of times within a specific time frame?" Lea asked.
"It does not matter, Miss Lea. We will always hold this room for you so that you may make use of it whenever you return."
"Isn't that kind of like a waste of space?" I pointed out.
"It is our honour to be able to host a space of an honoured guest of Mister Linc."
In other words, these rooms were specifically prepared by him for this exact purpose so it didn't matter if we used it or not.
"Alright… How do we register ourselves?" I asked.
"Simply step up to the door, Miss Tera."
I did as he asked and a beam of light shone down on me for a moment before a voice came from a hidden speaker, "User registered. Welcome, Miss Tera."
The door then slid open for me, revealing a plush dining interior that even had an aquarium inside.
The other girls followed my lead and we were soon seated around the dining table where a screen then popped up in front of us, displaying their menu.
I noticed that Ries was staring at the aquarium behind us, clearly interested in the fish swimming around inside.
No Ries… Those fish aren't meant for eating…
"Please call on me if you require any assistance," Our guide bowed before closing the door.
I scrolled through the menu, doing a quick inspection of the food they served.
I already had a rough idea of what they might have from the ingredients list they had sent me yesterday and I was pretty accurate in my prediction.
They also had fried rice as well so I intended to try their version of it. But seeing That they mentioned they would normally throw the rice away, I wasn't expecting much from it.
The screen also had the function of displaying the orders from the other three so I could clearly see what they were ordering without them telling me.
Unsurprisingly, Ries immediately ordered fish while Lea ordered salad.
Amber did not order yet but she started scooting over to me to sit beside me.
"They all look crappy compared to what you make, Tera…"
I raised an eyebrow at her, "Really?"
She gestured at the screen in front of her, "They all look more like some kind of weird sculpture with weird sounding names…"
Ok, sure, the names all sound needlessly fanciful that had no relation to the actual food in question… But they all had pictures to accompany the names so you could see what dish it was.
And this place was the kind of place where the food's aesthetics was the most important factor.
Under normal circumstances, I would definitely be disappointed because I belong to the faction of preferring quantity over needless aesthetics for food.
But since this one seemed to be prepared with much more care than normal, I'm hoping that it would also taste better and more 'authentic'.
And by authentic, I meant the chef actually cooks the food and not just throws it in the machine to make them…
"How about just ordering something to taste it first? Maybe they also taste as good as they look?"
Ries pouted, "What's the point of making them look so needlessly pretty if we're all going to eat it anyway? It's not like it would taste different if it was made to look nicer, right? That is just a waste of fish…"
I looked at her order and I realised that the fish she ordered was basically a dish where it looked like a fish was taken apart just to be rearranged back to form some kind of sculpture.
I will have to agree with Ries though, this one was pretty pointless and I'm starting to think that people come here not to fill their stomachs but just to feel fancy…
This might be a problem…
Fuck it… Let's just try something safe like… Ehhh… I'll just have this… What the fuck is this?
I had tapped on the soup section intending to try out some of their stews and what I saw was something especially incomprehensible.
"What the heck is 'Pure mineral soup from the Talateen Rivere'? This is literally just water, isn't it?" I blurted out.
I mean, seriously, the picture was just literally a glass of water.
And may I just say that everything here was expensive? Like we're talking about several thousands of Credits per dish expensive?
That literal glass of water was three thousand Credits… A literal glass of water…
I have a feeling Lea and Ries were also holding back on me because they literally chose the cheapest options for their category of food and both of them cost more than five thousand Credits each…
Damn… Fuck it, I guess I'll just order something that just looks the most normal to try it out first before I decide if I really want to eat here…