>>5581043Giving them business after all the crap they've pulled leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but you need to properly understand where their food stands compared to yours. Especially the Ducklett that they're trying to snatch. You open the styrofoam containers and unwrap the foil packets. It'll be lunch for you and your employees today, so you make sure to cut out portions with a clean knife and separate them out for Macy, Liam, and Scyther. You settle down for the taste test, looking over their menu items.
Their signature dish is the 'Sizzlipede Skewers'. It's not made of Sizzlipede, contrary to the name. They're various types of grilled meat that have berries and vegetables impaled on a stick, with spicy dipping sauce provided. You take a bite and taste Tauros, Mareep, and Lechonk. It's not bad. The meat is juicy and well-cooked, much to your dissatisfaction. They've also picked berries that complement the flavour of the meat flavours. Better than you'd hoped.
Next up is the Slow-Cooked Bouffalant ribs. Bouffalant are quite hard to come across, due to how dangerous they can be, so they must have some kind of high-spec supplier in order to secure such an ingredient. The ribs fall off the bone, and you can pretty much slurp it right off. Your hands are coated in tangy barbecue sauce, and you stop eating before you get addicted to them. Damn it.
The things that they specialize in are good. You had hoped they would be some sham restaurant that you could easily outcompete, but they've been here for quite a while after all. They wouldn't still exist in a small town like this if they served terrible food. However, you've also asked Macy to order their Basculin and Ducklett, which were attempts to compete with yours.
The moment you taste the Basculin, you feel a sense of satisfaction. It's not as good. It's a much thinner filet than what you serve. It's mostly batter too, and the style of breading is a lot rougher and crisper. Yours is light and airy, putting focus on the quality of the fish instead of trying to cover it up. When you get Liam to come taste it, he gives the same feedback.
Then there's the Ducklett. It's clear from eating it that it's not as special. That Cinna guy has no idea how to properly treat Ducklett. As a Water-type, it can't just be blasted with high temperatures, due to its natural resistance to Fire. He ought to have learnt the same lesson from cooking Fire-types, but seemingly hasn't. All he's done is marinated and grilled the duck. There's a strange, almost gooey texture, where the skin hasn't crisped up enough despite the meat being dried out from the heat. It's not something that could become a favourite, they're probably going to be losing money soon from a lack of sales.
