Most stories about dragons and elves involve epic battles or quests. But how about fantastical characters simply chowing down on modern food? That’s the delightful premise of Restaurant To Another World! Read on for my review of Volume 1.
Back Cover Blurb
By all appearances, Western Restaurant Nekoya is a normal restaurant serving normal people-but unbeknownst to the regulars, it also attracts an alternative clientele. Every Saturday, all manner of fantastical beings come to dine, and what is familiar fare to humans can be downright exotic for visitors from beyond. To these customers, Nekoya is known by a different name: Restaurant to Another World.
The Review
The Japanese love their food, and its importance in their culture is reflected by the fact that food manga is a legitimate genre. Food manga broadly falls into two categories: stories about making food and stories about eating food. Restaurant to Another World is a fun twist on the latter in which ordinary dishes are experienced as otherworldly cuisine. Because they literally are being enjoyed by fantastical beings from another world.
Monday through Friday, Western Restaurant Nekoya serves normal food to a normal clientele in a normal Japanese city. But on Saturdays, the restaurant door distorts space-time, creating several doors that allow the varied inhabitants of an alternate fantasy-style world to come in. It’s a fun and refreshing premise. Most manga with swordsmen and wizards have them engaging in battle or searching for magical treasure. In this series, they’re kicking back at the table, savoring the magic that is modern Japanese cooking.
And from their perspective, refrigerators, ice water, and showers are so mind-blowing as to be magical. But the primary thing that captivates all comers is the food. Whether it is an adventurer dining for the first time, snooty elf laying down a vegan challenge to the chef, or a powerful dragon regular, the creators turn each individual eating experience into something fascinating and unique.
As you might guess, there’s no strong story arc. Rather, the book is a series of vignettes that show why each customer treasures the restaurant and the special place it holds in their hearts. Because they can only access the restaurant every seven days, each visit is a special occasion, and there’s no way for them to tire of the food. Rather, everyone knows their favorite dish and sticks with it.
For those familiar with the anime, the manga is not a storyboard of the TV series. Characters are introduced in a different order, and although their stories cover the same general territory, there are minor variations in details and storytelling. While they have the same basic traits, the anime characters are drawn in a more realistic style while the manga illustrations lean toward the cute spectrum. Obviously, the manga does not have the advantage of color for the food depictions but does an excellent job portraying them in delicious detail nonetheless. Also, the entrées in the manga have cutesy “dialogue,” which is not included in the anime, and the manga’s fan service is a notch higher than the anime’s. However, both possess the same charm, and if you like one, you’ll like the other.
Extras include the first two pages printed in color, bonus deleted scene, bonus illustrations, and illustrated creator’s afterword. Please note, there are no translation or cultural notes so you’ll have to look up any unfamiliar menu items on your own.
In Summary
It’s a food fantasy! But at Western Restaurant Nekoya, it’s the clientele who’s fantastical. While the characters would fit right in with an adventurers’ guild undertaking a magical quest, the focus of this cozy series is their varied expressions of delight as they feast on the otherworldliness that is modern Japanese cooking. Come taste it yourself!
First published at the Fandom Post.
Keeping It In Canon ...mostly 