Fancy Dinner

Either at an expensive restaurant, at an expensive club or a dinner at the Richies'. Very common in "princess training" or "rags to riches" stories.

Played for comedy or drama. For instance, if someone is dispensing Sacred Hospitality, it will likely include a Fancy Dinner.

A common variation is the "heroic feast" in which a given chieftain gives a feast to a large number of Badass people. The food is usually Badass style food such as mead and roast oxen. This might be a subtrope. Can sometimes be the hook for a Nasty Party.

Expect one or more of the following:

A preceding cocktail hour ended by a servant announcing "Dinner is served!"
Tables longer than 50 feet or circular tables.
Sometimes only two eating at opposite ends, amplifying distant relationships or played for comedy.
If the tables are round, you're at a club, so expect a speech.
Protagonist gets confused which knife to take, how to raise a glass, etc.
Protagonist gets served escargots, lobster and does not know how to eat it.
Protagonist is in France and orders sheep brains.
Protagonist gets served a wet plate.. no wait, that's the soup!
A snooty waiter
Protagonist getting mad at said waiter.
Children or protagonists hiding under the table
A butler with a big silver plate.
Butler serving a pig with an apple in its mouth.
Trouble in the kitchen, in G-rated movies.
A cook who searched for months for that special ingredient, being told that it was the last of an endangered species
Food poisoning
Dramatic pause.

Examples of Fancy Dinner include:

Anime and Manga

Candy Candy^[context?]
Occasionally seen in Ranma ½ -- the best example would be the martial arts dining arc.
In Slayers there was an episode about eating a very fancy dinner of dragon.
Gun X Sword has a fancy dinner played for comedy in episode 15. Wendy doesn't know which silverware to use, and Van . . . displays his terrible table manners to the fullest.
In the anime of Kaze no Stigma, Ayano and Kazuma go to fancy restaurants multiple times. The most memorable one results in a serious battle . . . but a least the wine is saved.

Comic Books

Lucky Luke^[context?]
Batman^[context?]

Film

King Ralph^[context?]
Titanic^[context?]
Mocked with the dinner in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Literature

Bilbo's birthday party in The Lord of the Rings.
In Dune, just before the attack by the Harkonnens, the Atreides give this at their palace.
Northanger Abbey: both the adaptations and the book. In the 2007 adaptation, the "protagonist gets confused with knifes" variety is used. (Well, spoons.)
The first time that Horatio Hornblower attended a formal Russian dinner as a flag officer (in chapter XII of The Commodore), he makes the mistake through inexperience of eating far too many of the canapes and drinking far too much of the alcohol that his hosts served before the meal. He manages to soldier through the entire dinner.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

Having a fancy dinner is a regular part of any king's activities in early medieval tales. You get the impression that they were as much innkeepers as warlords -- which was in fact true.

Western Animation

The Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special has this as the primary plot with Po struggling to host such a dinner, and agonizing that his father won't be a part of it.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: This Trope is one of the banes of Applejack's existence. Despite her time with Aunt and Uncle Orange, she never figured out which fork to use, and the fancy meals don't hit the spot like down-home farm chow.
One episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2000 version) had Adam learning etiquette, complaining that all the knives at the table he was seated at looked exactly alike, but using the wrong one at a dinner like this as an ambassador could start a war.