Original Air Date: October 18, 2017
Sōma Yukihira and Shiomi Seminar struggle on the first day of the Moon Banquet Festival, with the rankings revealing that both are the only booths incurring a lost in sales. This causes an enraged Erina Nakiri to scold them for demeaning the Tōtsuki Autumn Election's reputation, as all of them were among the main tournament participants. However, by the end of the second day, it seems that both are close to grasping the necessary keys to turn things around. Meanwhile, something horrific is spotted inside Restaurant Yukihira...
This episode provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion:
- Isshiki's booth is shown throughout the Festival, while in the manga version they weren't shown until the last day. Turns out that in Day 2 he turned his restaurant into a Host Club, with all his female clients wanting to be attended by the Polaris boys, to Yuuki and Ryoko's surprise.
- While in the manga Soma is shown to share his buns with everybody (except for Erina), the anime adds Ryou and Akira commenting with Soma about the flavors.
- Takumi gets jealous that Ikumi got to help Soma and he didn't, while Isami says he should just volunteer directly.
- Adaptation Distillation: Isami attends the aftermath reunion with Takumi, while in the manga he stayed at the booth.
- Brutal Honesty: Akira flat out tells Alice to stop thinking about herself and put the customers in first place. And despite Ryou trying to persuade him to humor her, Alice understands what Akira is saying.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Alice wanted to showcase all her cutting edge techniques, like making "Naan lollipops", or suggesting a 2-hour Sous-Vide cook for beef that would elevate the cost to 2 pine tickets (approximately US$200), without considering they are located in the Main Area, where dishes are generally priced around $5–10.
- Boring, but Practical: Despite Yukihira's Mapo Tofu set lacking Má and Là according to Erina, Soma explained that while his Mapo Tofu isn't that spicy, people enjoy it regardless. After all, the recipe came from his father.
- Call-Back: Nao mentions that she was thinking about cursing Soma for being assigned to Hisako's same restaurant during Stagiaire.
- Chick Magnet: It's stated that Isshiki's tent has a large female clientele, including the ladies from the DEF kitchen. By Day 2 of the festival, Isshiki exploits this by showcasing his male dormmates as hosts as well.
- Epic Fail: Unlike Soma and Megumi's case, where they got eclipsed by Kuga's booth, the Shiomi Seminar booth got red numbers because Alice messed up the orders and kept changing her mind about the menu. To reiterate this, the team is composed of three of the Autumn Election's top-8, including two of the three finalists, one of whom was the actual winner.
- Impossibly Delicious Food: Soma came up with the idea of making his "Fake Danzai Noodles" by using the dough as noodle base and the minced pork filling as garnish on the spot. The satisfied customers found it light and warm after the heavy dishes of the day.
- Never My Fault: Alice appointed herself as the leader of the booth, and when Akira confronts her about all the hasty decisions she made, she either refuses to listen or pins it on Akira for not checking after her.
- Odd Friendship: Nao and Soma bond over their disgusting-food fixation, swapping dishes.Megumi: I feel like these two never should have met.
- Oh, Crap!: After their Epic Fail in sales and Alice refusing to accept responsibility for the mistakes, Ryou tells Akira that this is going to repeat in the following days, "tomorrow and forever", to Akira's horror.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Erina is not happy that students who're supposed to be the best of their year are doing so very badly. (Soma offers her a pork bun; it fails to assuage her.)
- Stalker with a Crush: Nao says that she is pleasantly surprised with Soma, to the point she decides to spare him from her curses for spending time with Hisako during Stagiaire. She is still obsessed with Hisako at large.
- Tsundere: Despite not saying it directly, Erina also wants Soma to defeat Kuga in sales.
