Everyone is nice here…oddly and overly nice. From the tall lanky host with the oversized grin, to the wide-eyed waitress who carried a dominating presence in her five foot 4 inches body.

As I sit alone at my table, I take a panoramic view of this restaurant…and everyone, including the patrons, all seem to be so…extra in their behavior and laughing as if they’re pretending to laugh at a bad joke. A part of me feels that this restaurant has got to be some sort of an immersive theatre experience…it’s not. At least as far as I know. I kinda feel I’m on the Truman Show or something.

I take a look at the food and everything seems normal. It fact, the food I see on everyone’s plate looks succulent and delicious. So I order the mango-flavored roast duck meal, thinking that maybe the food is so amazing, that it’s prompting this overly extroverted atmosphere in a fine dining restaurant. Seeing patrons smile ear to ear and laughing loudly at their tables at God knows what makes me think it was either a huge celebratory event, or…something was apparently in the food.

At the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of a young waitress standing up against the wall near the entrance to the kitchen with tears in her eyes as she watches the bedlam with her hands behind her back; doing the best to maintain a professional and hospitable image. I then see the tall lanky host speed walking over to her with a look that had the combination of his huge creepy smile and rage in his eyes!

He and two cooks from the kitchen approach her. The host is extremely close to her as he whispers something unpleasant in her ear. For her face changes from tearful sadness to outright terror! The three gentlemen forcefully escort her to the kitchen. I then turn my attention to a loud bang on my table as my food had arrived and the face of the dominating wide-eyed waitress is uncomfortably close to my face as she says with a huge creepy grin, “mango-roast duck!”

Those humongous blue eyes of hers are piercing into my soul and I can smell her breath which smelt like she had drank some sort of cough syrup. That’s how close she was to my face.

I take a gander at my dinner, I take a gander at the patrons, and I look over at the tall lanky host standing outside the kitchen smiling that damn smile…and I knew…I really wasn’t welcomed here…I had to get out!