Forum - View topic

EP. REVIEW: Restaurant to Another World

It's a relaxing show with an interesting premise, though at times it feels lacking in ambition. I feel like the stories could have more of an emotional payoff, especially after watching episode 3 with the princess who lost her grandfather, and she had memories of him taking her to Restaurant Nekoya as a kid. After she finds her way back to the restaurant, the whole time I'm thinking she's going to start tearing up or asking the chef about him, but she just sits there, eats a parfait while describing the flavors, and has a few flashbacks. Then she leaves in virtually the same demeanor as she entered and falls asleep.

I felt there was a lot of wasted potential. Like she would close the restaurant door behind her then lean on it and start crying, like she was able to reclaim a lost, happy memory of her grandfather. I hate to be a back-seat watcher, but that's how I would've had the scene play out.

Restaurant to Another World isn't really making the most of its potential, and it needs to get on that soon.

(And is anyone else a little weirded out that they eat lizards and other reptiles?)

But what kind of plot would would there be?

I agree. And since everything anyone eats is always awesomely super delicious they're all pretty much rehashes of the last rapturous declaration. Sweetness and Lightning got away with the squeals of "Delicious!" every episode since we at least saw the work that went into it. You don't get the impression that the chef here ever makes a mistake.

Soo many questions- so nobody but the one businessman has gotten recipies/instructions from our Chef? You would think most of the guests would want to learn his secrets...

and how does the place stay in business? I mean, I can kind of understand the "First visit is free" idea- most of them had no idea what they were going into- but that Lizardman had two giant omlettes for himself, and three more 'party sized' ones to take back to the whole tribe, shoves a bag full of coins at the owner, but he only takes like 2- plus last episode we saw him giving a chest full of 'profits' to the trader...?

And is anyone else a little weirded out that they eat lizards and other reptiles?

That's the thing though, about him never making a mistake - he isn't Soma, and this isn't a shokugeki, he's a professional chef and these aren't actually complex or easy to mess up dishes - they're simply *new* to these visitors, thus, they're amazing and special and an almost impossibly complicated blend of tastes that's only really possible because of the interconnected world and refrigeration.

Each and every one of the dishes we've seen so far can be made at home with access to a decent Japanese market at the most complicated, and he's been doing it for what looks like at *least* a decade, maybe closer to two.

The long descriptions of the taste as well - its part of this newness. A world that has relatively simple foodstuffs and recipes from the necessity of long travel times and no refrigeration, it's tastes that we take for granted. Something as simple as a cheeseburger might be amazing to somebody who's never had ketchup or mustard or beef, let alone together at the same time.

Kendra Kirai wrote:

That's the thing though, about him never making a mistake - he isn't Soma, and this isn't a shokugeki, he's a professional chef and these aren't actually complex or easy to mess up dishes - they're simply *new* to these visitors, thus, they're amazing and special and an almost impossibly complicated blend of tastes that's only really possible because of the interconnected world and refrigeration. Each and every one of the dishes we've seen so far can be made at home with access to a decent Japanese market at the most complicated, and he's been doing it for what looks like at *least* a decade, maybe closer to two. The long descriptions of the taste as well - its part of this newness. A world that has relatively simple foodstuffs and recipes from the necessity of long travel times and no refrigeration, it's tastes that we take for granted. Something as simple as a cheeseburger might be amazing to somebody who's never had ketchup or mustard or beef, let alone together at the same time.

I don't really buy that a world where people can live in castles and mansions is also one that has such a backwards cuisine that the restaurant's food is instantly the most amazing thing anyone has ever eaten. It makes a certain degree of sense if the visitors are coming from a less well connected society, like the lizardmen, or from a lower social class, but for the high lady living in a mansion?

Your mileage may well vary on that, but even so, it doesn't do any favours for the storytelling. You could easily skip past the monologue because it never adds anything to the story. We already know the characters of the week will consider the food perfect, we know they'll devour it, and will probably order seconds. It's really hard to care when the chef doesn't have to work for that pay off. And that's a shame, because it would be interesting to see him having to adapt to a very foreign palate

I'm also hoping we've seen the last of Derpy Deer and her Angry Fawn, because those were some real artistic low points in the second half of this episode.