It was still 6 o'clock in the evening. When a large number of people gathered in front of the restaurant, Feng Yifan opened the door from the inside and led the chefs from the kitchen out.
Everyone stood on both sides of the door, and Feng Yifan stood in front of the store door in the middle.
Facing the crowd on the ancient street, and even the various mobile phones, cameras and video camera lenses, Feng Yifan remained very calm.
"Good dinner time, everyone. Today is the official opening of our Ruo Restaurant. I and all the staff of Ruo Restaurant sincerely invite all diners to give us more suggestions so that we can make adjustments in the dishes, services and other aspects.
Of course, it may be difficult to reserve a seat now as the restaurant has limited tables.
Please don’t worry, because now that the restaurant is open, it is impossible to close in a short time. You can wait until this wave of popularity has passed before making a reservation. We are the restaurant that welcomes everyone to enjoy dinner at any time.”
As Feng Yifan finished speaking, everyone on both sides immediately said in unison: "Welcome everyone to enjoy dinner."
Then, amid applause, the others went back to the restaurant.
Only Feng Yifan and Su Liancheng were left standing at the door to welcome the guests who had made reservations.
Of course, every guest who has made a reservation must show an icon given to them by the restaurant today when entering the door. This was also an intentional arrangement by Feng Yifan.
The purpose is to prevent someone from making a reservation and then reselling the reserved seat at a high price.
These icons were sent to the other party only after Feng Yifan asked his wife to call and confirm them one by one in the morning.
Therefore, all possible scalper behaviors have been basically eliminated.
One by one, the guests showed their icons and entered the restaurant.
More and more people gathered on the ancient street to watch, and everyone was very envious of those who could enter the restaurant.
Tonight is the first day of business, and the restaurant is only serving this group of people.
This is to ensure the quality of service and food.
Secondly, Feng Yifan had limited ingredients on hand, and this was the only way to sustain three days of business.
From six o'clock to half past six, a full half hour, the first batch of guests who had made reservations finally arrived and sat down in the restaurant.
Feng Yifan and other guests arrived and let Su Liancheng enter the restaurant first.
He continued to chat with the crowd at the door.
"Everyone, I understand how you feel. I'm sure you all want to come to my Ruo restaurant for a meal, but I still have to explain something in advance.
Although our restaurant is not a high-end one, we still pursue the freshness of ingredients, and every dish embodies the hard work of all the chefs in our restaurant, so the price is still higher than that of ordinary small restaurants.
Secondly, because the restaurant has limited space, there are only 22 tables now, and I will not expand it specifically in the future, so I will probably still maintain the reservation model.
Here, I want to say that I hope everyone can come to our Ruo Restaurant to taste the food on a special day, either with their children, their wife, or their family, instead of treating Ruo Restaurant as a place to check in and show off.
We sincerely welcome all friends who love delicious food to visit us.
Feng Yifan would like to thank everyone who has supported me and every chef in my restaurant. Thank you all.”
After Feng Yifan finished speaking, applause broke out on the ancient street.
His words were recorded by many people.
People on the street applauded and cheered.
"Great, Chef Feng, this is the attitude a chef should have."
"Yes, that's right. The purpose of opening a restaurant is to make it delicious, not just for the sake of creating a gimmick and becoming a so-called internet celebrity check-in spot, but in fact the food is not delicious at all."
"Yes, Chef Feng is great. He insists on creating delicious food instead of marketing it."
"Support, support, Chef Feng, we will definitely support you."
"Chef Feng, when can we start taking reservations for the rest of the week?"
When someone asked about reservations, Feng Yifan formally informed them: "The day after tomorrow we will open reservations before National Day based on the arrival of ingredients. As for the National Day, our restaurant will open two rounds of seat reservations from noon to evening.
Of course, I personally do not recommend that you make reservations during the National Day. If you are a local of Huaicheng, you can wait until after the National Day and make a reservation at our restaurant on some important day.
If you are visiting Huaicheng from other places, you can book a seat at the restaurant during the National Day holiday. ”
At this point, Feng Yifan simply said: "In addition, Su Ji will resume business during the National Day, and everyone can go to Su Ji then.
Seats in the Su Ji lobby do not need to be reserved, but of course the restaurant on the second floor of Su Ji does require reservations. "
After telling the whole story, Feng Yifan gave an explanation to everyone on the street.
Afterwards, he said goodbye to his supporters on the street and went into the restaurant.
Although the restaurant door was closed, the crowd on the street outside was still enthusiastic, and everyone was discussing with excitement on their faces.
"Su Ji is about to open."
"Yeah, I've been waiting for a long time."
“It’s great that Su Ji doesn’t require reservations.”
"Hahaha, it's really great. We can go to Su Ji and have a good meal then."
"But if Su Ji doesn't require reservations, then Su Ji will definitely have a lot of people."
"I don't have to sit down to eat at Su Ji. I can take it away."
"Yes, yes, I just want to eat Su Ji's fried rice, noodles and wontons, but I don't have to eat them at Su Ji. I can take them away when I'm done."
"I can take away the same dishes from Su Ji."
"Hey, if you guys all pack up, I'll go to Su Ji and have a good meal."
People on the street are even more looking forward to the opening of Su Ji. After all, most of the people who come to Gu Street know Feng Yifan through Su Ji, so everyone is still full of expectations for Su Ji.
At this time, in the restaurant, after most of the guests had sat down, Feng Yifan and Su Liancheng handed out the menu to everyone to choose from.
There are two set meals on the menu. In addition to the two set meals, you can of course add some dishes.
This all depends on the diners' personal wishes.
Of course, as for the main course, Feng Yifan still couldn't allow his guests to order two dishes like Rodney did.
After all, the total amount of ingredients is there. If customers are allowed to order so many main dishes, the business in the next two days may be affected.
Therefore, among the guests who came today, when someone had watched yesterday's live broadcast and asked to order two main dishes, Feng Yifan would be very polite and give an explanation.
"I'm sorry, but we can't order two servings of the main course right now because we have limited ingredients, so please bear with us.
Moreover, each main course is paired with other dishes in the corresponding set to form a complete set meal, so from the perspective of food taste, I do not recommend that you order two main courses like the professional chef guest did yesterday. "
After listening to Feng Yifan's explanation, everyone expressed their understanding.
Su Liancheng transformed himself into a polite receptionist and recommended some dishes for everyone today.
“The restaurant recommends two sets of meals today. One is a set of wild delicacies with various mushrooms and meats, and the other is a set of river and sea delicacies with fish and shrimps.
You can order one of the two sets. Both sets have their own characteristics. I hope you can choose according to your own preferences. "
After the introduction, Su Liancheng would get close to some guests and ask them in a very low voice.
At this moment, some soft music sounded in the restaurant, making the atmosphere in the entire restaurant suddenly become extremely elegant.
Soon, some guests ordered their dishes, each choosing their favorite set meal.
After Feng Yifan saw someone ordering food, he took the menu and went into the kitchen, saying to everyone, "Okay, we can start."
Following Feng Yifan's order, everyone in the kitchen became busy.
Because it is a semi-open kitchen, the guests present can see the busy figures in the kitchen.
Many people quickly took out their mobile phones and took pictures of the busy process in the kitchen.
Soon, the appetizers were served one by one.
Some of them were delivered by Feng Yifan himself, and some were delivered by other chefs.
When each dish is served to the guests, the person in charge will quietly tell the guests the name of the dish, as well as some of the ingredients used in the dish, and some general cooking techniques.
The appetizers in the two sets alone were enough to amaze the guests.
When you see others tasting food on live broadcast, it doesn’t have a very direct visual impact.
But now that we have actually seen it, we still feel very amazed.
Because this appetizer is so small and exquisite.
It's like a work of art on a plate.
Many people even looked at it carefully for a long time and took photos from multiple angles with their mobile phones, but they couldn't bear to eat such a small bite.
Of course, in the end, the diners still picked up the dishes, pinched them with their hands and put them into their mouths.
Because appetizers are eaten with the hands, the restaurant is equipped with disinfectant wipes so that everyone can clean their palms before eating.
As the exquisite appetizers enter the mouth, the complex flavors surprise diners.
The taste buds on the tongue feel as if they are suddenly opened.
It really makes your mouth water and your appetite is quickly aroused.
After the first appetizer is finished, Su Liancheng will take away the appetizer plate for the guests after letting them savor the meal for a while, and inform the kitchen to serve the next dish after the set meal.
"Table 8, Table 9, Table 10, serve your second course of fresh seafood.
Table 11, Table 6, Table 17, Table 20, the second course of Shang Shan Zhen. "
After receiving the feedback, Feng Yifan led the chefs to serve the second dish to the guests immediately.
The dishes are presented one by one.
Every guest who came today felt that it was worth it, because just watching the dishes in the live broadcast and video is not as visually impactful as seeing them in person.
Besides the visual impact, you can also taste every dish.
Of course, there are also some professional food reviewers among those who came today.
The purpose of their coming today was, of course, to find out what was wrong with Feng Yifan's dishes, and then take the opportunity to publicize it so that they could gain some reputation and benefits from it.
But after seeing and tasting these dishes in person, food critics were somewhat speechless.
Because every dish here is so close to perfection.
Whether it is the presentation of the dishes or the taste of each dish, it is truly amazing.
What's more, the various ingredients behind these dishes are mostly domestic local ingredients.
This alone actually left many food reviewers who came here today speechless.
Being able to produce top-notch flavors without using the finest ingredients really makes it difficult for food reviewers to write. While eating, they try to figure out how to evaluate a restaurant after returning home.
Feng Yifan naturally took those people into consideration.
Feng Yifan knew several of the well-known food critics.
He also often sees them in restaurants abroad.
Unlike in China, any restaurant abroad may become deserted in an instant because of an article or even a sentence from these people.
So this group of people regard many foreign restaurants as enemies.
There are even many restaurants that refuse to allow them to dine in.
Feng Yifan didn't care. Even when he was abroad, one or two people wrote bad things about his chef's restaurant, which caused him to receive many negative reviews.
But even if he was criticized and given bad reviews, Feng Yifan was still able to attract enough diners.
The same is true today.
Feng Yifan felt that there was no need for him to please them.
If the restaurant doesn't need their reviews.
So after Ma Xiaolong, Catherine, Hans and Tom quietly reminded him, Feng Yifan still looked confident.
"Don't worry, just do your own thing. They can write whatever they want. We are not going to participate in star ratings. We want to create our own standards, so we don't need these reviewers to judge us. We only need to be responsible to the diners."
Feng Yifan's words instantly cheered up the others.
Then, several people went back to their work and no longer paid attention to the commenters' comments.
Even though Feng Yifan and his team had made a lot of preparations in advance, it still took a lot of time when they really started cooking.
So overall, after everyone had been eating for about thirty minutes, the main courses finally started to be served.
In fact, this may be considered relatively fast in a Western restaurant.
When the main courses of the two sets were served, the diners were amazed again.
I originally thought that the various appetizers we had before were all unique in their own way.
But when the main course was served, diners, including food critics, finally realized that they had underestimated Feng Yifan after all.
One serving of pan-fried grouper with hazelnut sauce and one serving of naturally roasted beef tenderloin.
In the opinion of tonight's diners, especially food critics, it can be regarded as the top main course.