Dîner à Sharn

In Sharn, the saying goes, even the poor eat like kings, and good food is usually readily available. With the exception of purely residential districts, nearly every district in Sharn includes some number of dining establishments, usually at least one in a given tower. Nearly a thousand restaurants in all, not counting street vendors and inns that also serve food, offer an almost endless variety of dining options to natives and visitors alike. Among these many locations, Sharn offers a few unique dining experiences.

Striking views enhance a meal, and for that purpose no restaurant can compete with the dozen or so establishments in Voie du Ciel. Of those, perhaps the best known is the Restaurant de l'Horizon Céleste, a tourist attraction. In_the_know locals celebrate special occasions at the Cloud Dragon or the Azure Gateway, both of which have views as stunning as the Horizon Céleste's, food no less impressive, and generally smaller crowds. All three restaurants in Voie du Ciel serve all of their food purified by Maison Normandin.

A very different, but no less striking, view can be had at the Lava Pit, an up_and_coming restaurant in — of all places — Tavick's Cogs, in the heart of one of the city's industrial districts. True to its name, the Lava Pit Belvédères a gigantic forge powered by molten rock, suffusing the place with lurid red light. The restaurant began as little more than a hole in the wall with an interesting location, serving a variety of barbecued meats in a Frontières de l'Ombre style. Its popularity has grown tremendously, allowing the restaurant to improve its facility and expand its menu (though spicy Marches barbecue remains its specialty), making it by far the most upscale establishment of any kind in the Cogs.

For variety of cuisine, no region of the city can match the Plateau de Menthis, with its diverse population. Culinary purists argue that the only place to sample hobbit cuisine is in Petites Plaines, and likewise for the other racial neighborhoods in Menthis, but most people agree that the Quartier Universitaire in Haute Menthis is the best place to sample the wide variety of cuisines Sharn has to offer. Hobbit specialties, gnome delights, elf cuisine, Karr_nathi fare, and even exotic Riedran food are all available in the Quartier Universitaire. University students and faculty are fond of dining at the Communs, a large open_air plaza near the top of one of the Université Morgrave towers where food vendors bring carts and wagons daily to serve up a smorgasbord of ethnic offerings.

Of course, sometimes the need for quality overshadows spectacular views and culinary variety. A few of the generally acknowledged best restaurants in Sharn include Sannid's in the Sommets de Platine district of Upper Central, known for its extensive wine collection; Galdin's Garden in the Septième Tour district of Haute Menthis, surrounded by a towertop garden featuring roses and orchids; Le Chêne in the Shae Lias district of Bordure Nord Supérieur, serving elf and Brelon cuisine in an elaborate open_air pavilion surrounded by oak trees; and Olladra's Arms in the Sommet de l'Espoir district of Haute Dura, notable for its banquet_style seating and generous portions.

Finally, as in many cities across Khorvaire, Maison Normandin offers heroes' feasts in the city as often as demand allows. Normandin does not have a major presence in the city. Unlike in some eastern cities where such feasts occur weekly, in Sharn they usually occur no more than once a month, in rotating locations — in the House enclave in Tours du Dragon (in Middle Central), in the huge Manoir de Normandin Inn in the Négligé district of Centre Dura, and in the open_air market in Petites Plaines (in Millieu de Menthis).

See also the discussion of dining clubs under Companionship, on page 14.

Dining Prices

Bière Bois-obscur page revision: 1, last edited: 09 Mar 2008 01:53