Restaurant to Another World Vol. 1

Restaurant to Another World (Manga) #1

by Junpei Inuzuka, Takaaki Kugatsu

"Nekoya Restoran Barat". Selain pintu dengan gambar kucing dan fakta bahwa mereka memiliki berbagai macam hidangan non-Barat, ini hanyalah restoran biasa...tetapi ada satu rahasia. Setiap hari Sabtu, saat toko tutup, "Nekoya" dipenuhi dengan "pelanggan khusus". Bahkan hidangan yang biasa dimakan orang di dunia ini adalah hidangan istimewa yang belum pernah mereka lihat sebelumnya. Oleh karena itu, para tamu istimewa tersebut menyebut "Nekoya" sebagai "Restoran ke dunia lain".

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Food, Young Adult, Fiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 2017

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must have read a different manga than the other reviewer.

This is a manga that introduces characters from a different world to popular "westernized" Japanese dishes. It may make you hungry as you read (I know I looked up several recipes to try), but the underlying theme of the series tends to be that food brings people happiness, and it can be considered the greatest "treasure."

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a great first volume! I love the characters and I'm really excited to see where the story goes. This concept is a fun one. The door opening in new places is a new twist that I've never seen before. Can't wait to read the next volume!

[Sylwia · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNFing after the first chapter. This is not for me. The female character shown in this first chapter is framed in a sexualized way in at least 5 panels, the text did not develop much of the setting or plot, and I don't feel like much happened in this chapter at all. Onto the next one!

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute, but didn't wow me. Also, the fan service was a little jarring and not for me. I'm still deciding if I'll continue the series.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute enough, and more like a complete narrative than the novel, which is sort of interrelated short stories.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[em! · Rating 4 out of 5]

such an interesting concept!

[Fia | Sivujensalat · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 ⭐ Tuli lukiessa koko ajan kauhea nälkä😅

[Dubzor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I honestly forgot I even read this until my "currently reading" status reminded me. I think that says more about this title than a fully thought-out review from me ever could.

[Leeni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arvio koko sarjalle: Suosikkejani viime vuosina suomennetusta mangasta. Tätä lukiessa tulee nälkä. Miellyttävä piirrostyyli ja sarja on pituudeltaan juuri sopiva. Suosittelen!

[kuristina- tabreez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Food Wars! with a unique spin..?
There are so many similarities to Food Wars! The way in which there is so much artistic relevance and detail for specifically the food, the reactions the characters have, the occasional nudity or undeniably orgasmic reactions to that *perfect bite…* It’s all very Food Wars!, except less over the top, and more a restaurant with an interdimensional door open only on Saturdays, opposed to a school which encourages heavy competition like it’s some bake off. Don’t get me wrong— I absolutely love Food Wars!, but it’s fun to poke fun at. It’s so very anime and over the top. That being said, I now very much love Restaurant to Another World as well. We have a heartwarming tale to start us off and set the tone for the whole series. It’s about this young lady trying to find this infamous “hero’s” last hidden treasure. She’s determined to find it, at all costs. Instead of gold or jewels, she finds a mysterious door. She opens it and steps into a strange world. Skeptical, she’s a bit curt at first, but she warms up quickly with the food. There is quite a lot of orgasmic reactions to the dish but they could be explained away as something else. Later on, however, with the dragon girl and the elf girl, they’re undeniably enjoying their meals more than any sex they’ve ever had. However, back to the first chapter’s story.
We find out that the “hero” is actually this young lady’s grandfather, and this place and her new regular patronage brings a warmth both to the chef and to her. In each other and this establishment, while they’re nothing more than customer and chef, they’ve managed to fill a bit of what her grandfather had left behind. It’s actually very, very endearing and it filled my chest with a warm, soft feeling. As a matter of fact, most of this volume managed to do just that. I had a lot of fun with it too.
Next, we have a story about this ostracized orphan demon girl who happens upon a strange door in the woods. When she steps through it, she finds an odd, foreign room, and the sweet aroma of some sort of “soup.” Following the scent and the sound of her starving stomach, she eats the entire pan full of corn pottage. The next morning, the chef finds her in his restaurant and offers her not only a meal but a job as his waitress. This is truly a golden opportunity for her, with multiple benefits including free meals and free soap. This chance, this recognition, the great pay and the food and cleanliness seemed to be exactly what she needed as she becomes full of determination and motivation to better herself in her world too. She sets out to find good work in her own world on the days she doesn’t work for the restaurant. Chef truly turned her life around for the better.

We also have an extremely prideful elf girl— a very fun addition to the cast. While her story was short, it felt quite longer. It had a lot of substance to it, she was really rich in history and deep rooted emotion. I still wonder how she retains some memories she has though— such as the memory of the taste of her mother from when she was an infant— a memory which is triggered over a hundred years later. But most of all, I love how she’s inspired by this amazing cuisine to go off on her own independent adventures, to learn and to better herself. She wants to expand as an elf and become bigger and better. It’s really awesome. And she’ll continue to visit this place for some time, I just know it. Even though it’s really sobering to go from thinking you’re the best to realizing you’re the best in your little bubble but not in the whole world, she still loves the food. Despite being a tsundere, she’ll keep coming back.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, to finish this volume off with a BANG, we have a dragon queen, Rindou Kobayashi’s knock-off— the Red Queen!
She looks and acts almost entirely identical to Rindou from Food Wars!— so much so that I’m not unconvinced that Red Queen is not a direct reference to Food Wars!. Perhaps the authors knew each other? Who can say— but it’s extremely fun and she’s extremely horny for food— and maybe also just in general. It seems to be hard for her to contain all her draconic instinct in a small, human shape. She seems as though learning anything more than necessary is beneath her when it comes to human customs, but in the moment at least, she tries her best to confirm out of respect and favor for her delicious, favorite treat.

All in all, this manga quickly made it on to my favorites list. I love it lots and I’m hungry for more. I could reread it so many times too.

[S.Q. Eries · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

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.

For more manga and book reviews, drop by my blog Keeping It In Canon!

[7jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.
(Spoilers are for all volumes of this series – in Finland this series' fourth part was split into two books, but it still worked well.)
This is a good choice if you want a comfort manga with a food theme, where beings not from our world come in every seventh day and enjoy the western-style food that the restaurant, Nekyoa, coming in through a special door that appears on that day, and lets them through. The current chef took over from his grandfather about 10 years ago, and is really skilled at making each meal an experience. At the end of each volume – at least in my Finnish-translated books – are some explanations for things and certain food words, plus some recipes to try.

Each time someone orders something, or the crew of the restaurant eats before or after work, we get treated to intense enjoyment and surprise they get as they eat/drink it. Some of the foods are desserts or snack-level. In some cases, the food helps the being to do better in their own world, get food tips, even in one case, save their empire from starvation during particularly rough times. Some of the ingredients have common but non-human world names (but are still easy to guess what their human names are).

We also get stories about the servers (where they came from, how they started to work there), and also about the chef, his grandfather, and his nonhuman-world grandmother – I don't know what happened to the chef's parents, I didn't catch anything about them; they just don't appear in any way in the story. But the chef is certainly the heart of the restaurant, with great attitude, great skills, and great flexibility and inventiveness. You really want to eat what he makes, or at least appreciate what the foods look like and what the reaction to them is.

(In Japan, people are generally very fond of food, and seek out good eating experience, without still eating big-portion meals. It is easy to see from this why this manga series (and other ones about food) exists.)

I think the series was just the right length – we got to see no doubt a great part of the menu, the variety of beings, experiences, reactions, and meals... I have no doubt that each reader will have their favorite customers among the ones we meet. Mine was the red dragon lady. This is a visually beautiful, inspiring, and hunger-making kind of a read, and will absolutely work as a reread too. If you like food, and comfort reading, this is a good choice.

[Becky B · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every Saturday Nekoya restaurant has a door that appears in other worlds, and people from near and far enter to enjoy a meal. There's the treasure hunter looking for the legendary treasure of a famous adventurer, the orphan girl looking for a job, an elf chef who is sure humans can't provide a tasteful vegan dish, and a very hungry dragon.

So I'm reading away at this thinking it is a pretty cute concept and that I was going to put this on the library shelf (though maybe draw in some leggings for the elf who has a serious slit in her dress), but then the dragon shows up in human lady form and forgets to wear any clothes. It is sudden and there's no warning even on the back cover rating (which should really be an M, not a T, and add an s) and there proceeds to be several more naked drawings. Yeah, this is not going on our library shelves and I'm not recommending it to anyone. Pretty gross in the way it objectifies women and completely unnecessary as this could've have been done without all of that and been a very fun manga.

Notes on content: Maybe 1-2 minor swears (I'm not sure why the L is on the back rating). As for sexual content, see what I mentioned above. Though very technically the very most important parts are covered each time, that hardly amounts to much. I also didn't like how several scenes had the perspective from the floor and you saw pretty far up even the young girl's dress, or were from above focusing on a lady's bust.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Takaaki Kugatsun "Ravintola maailmojen välillä 1" (Punainen jättiläinen, 2021) aloittaa Junpei Inuzukan light noveliin perustuvan mangasarjan, josta on olemassa myös animaatioversio. Fantasiasarjakuvassa tutustutaan ravintola Nekoyaan, jonne erilaiset fantasiahahmot poikkeavat syömään. Suurta draamaa ei ole tarjolla, vaan sarjakuva keskittyy enemmän hekumoimaan hyvällä ruoalla. Mitäpä demonikansaan kuuluva tarjoilija Aletta ja ravintolan taitava kokkiomistaja saavat aikaiseksi, kun pöytään istahtaa vegaanihaltija?

Sympaattinen tapaus, josta pidin odotettua enemmän, vaikka ensimmäisen osan perusteella on vaikea sanoa mahtaako idea kantaa kovin pitkälle ja tuleeko tarinaan jossakin vaiheessa enemmän tasoja. Ja nälkähän tätä lukiessa tuli itsellekin!

Kuvitus ei sekään ollut hassumpi, tosin ilman fanservicea olisi pärjätty ihan mainiosti.

Jos pidit tästä, niin tutustu myös Natsumi Andōn viehättävään Kitchen Princess, Vol. 01 -mangaan.

[Gateway_to_Wonderland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Periaatteessa tykkäsin kirjasta. Sinänsä ehkä tarina alkaa toistaan itseään luvusta toiseen, mutta samalla taustalla on viitteitä pidemmästä juonesta. No! Seuraavassa jaksossa näkee sitten jatkuuko sama vai alkaako tarina todellakin olla vain itsensä toistoa 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oli myös yllättävän mielenkiintoista tutustua eri ruokiin ja lopussa olikin muutamia reseptejä sekä samalla avattiin tiettyjä ruokiin liittyviä käsitteitä. Se oli mielenkiintoista! Ja hiukan yllätävääkin, koska en ole mikään reseptientutkija tai edes sen erikoisempi ruuanlaittaja 😅 Toisaalta japanilainen kulttuuri on aina kiehtonut ja siksi jaksoikin lukea tarinaa eteenpäin, koska samalla toivoi löytävänsä lisää uusia asioita 😁

Piirrosjälki oli siistiä ja selkeää, mutta ajoittain, varsinkin sivulausahdusten, teksti oli niin pientä, että sitä oli melkein vaikea lukea 🔍 Hieman myös häiritsi varsinkin loppuakohden naishahmojen keikistely tai ajoittain jopa vaatteiden vähyys, joka oli täysin turhaa tarinan kannalta 🙄

Mutta! Mielenkiinnolla jään odottamaan seuraavaa jaksoa 😊

[Katja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically this was nice but personally I just don't care that much about food that I would get very excited about it as a major story element (unless it's Drops of God and wine, there are always exceptions, you see.). I mean, of course I like good food if such is provided to me but I don't go my way for it and I don't like cooking.
So, given that, I liked this more than I expected. Yeah, the fantasy elements help but so far there wasn't much about those, so it was quite superficial.

Nekoya is a restaurant that has some sort of dimension hopping door that lets another world's residents (elves, lizard people, that kind of sort) to visit the restaurant once a week and enjoy our world's food. And of course it tastes godly, haha.

Aletta was sympathetic character, she's the most interesting piece for me. The restaurant owner was a chill dude, he's okay too.

Art looks good, very clear and cute.

[R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather than a singular character going to another realm, the restaurant is the main location and the diners come from multiple other realms one day each week. The rest of the week, the restaurant is as normal as any other serving in the original human realm. So far the main characters seem to be the chef and his new waitress, though there are a handful of unique diners that have been single out to represent various worlds and species. The chef, despite only being human, is somehow able to make the perfect meal for all of his customers, even those who are visiting for the first time and seem to think it should be impossible. Honestly not the most captivating first volume, but it is unique. Will have to read more to see if it becomes more engaging or remains on the same entertainment level as it starts out with.

[Cindy Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked that this was an original take on a manga series. This restaurant serves humans/creatures from other worlds on Saturday nights - dragons, treasure hunters, and elves to name a few. Each of them falls in love with a specific dish served by the chef, and then they rave about it in a big way (if you love food, you will appreciate their appreciation of the food). Each of the sections is a food vignette for a different character, and I enjoyed this part of the manga. I wish the book had focused more on the two main leads - the chef and the waitress he hires to help him. We get some back story on the two of them, and it would have been more compelling if we learned more about them. I am not sure if I will continue with the manga series, but I would be interested in checking out the anime series for the food and seeing each of the characters visually enjoy it so much.

[Michiko · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art for this series is clean, simple, and cute, and the characters are very endearing. I definitely had a craving for food after reading each chapter.

However, I do have a minor criticism that keeps me from giving it a 5/5. I am not super far in (12 chapters into the series), but so far, there hasn't really been any indication of a *plot* for the story. While not every series necessarily needs an overarching plot, the fact that every problem has been presented and resolved within the same chapter for a dozen chapters now feels... light? It can be nice to have a some low-stakes stories, but to me, it's like subsisting on snacks instead of meals, if the analogy makes sense.

So long as you aren't looking for a strong narrative, and you like cute stories, I highly recommend this

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but have to say I'd rather read the light novels. Personal preference I guess. This seems to be based off the anime more than the LN, but ultimately it is just a story about a restaurant in Japan than once a week on Saturday connects to a different world (a fantasy realm) and gets visitors of all types who then eat these amazing earth dishes.

There is no real plot in the series, just a lot of little vignettes that are interconnected and the manga seems to follow that as well. And yet it is just a lot of fun and you get to read about some amazing food.

Verdict: Do not read when hungry. Don't expect a strong narrative, this is not that. And yet I find myself compelled to read.

[Turnipboys · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very cute concept that I like a lot! The illustrations are beautiful and the story has a good humor to it. It does sexualize the characters a lot...some of them almost too much, in a way that feels awkward because they're implied to be so naive and immature. So I'm not really sure about that. But the food itself looks incredible and I really love culinary stories.

The sexuality is reminiscent of "Food Wars," although I feel like Food Wars benefits from more comedy in its bizarre and over-exaggerated reactions to the food. This manga is more toned down, which ironically makes the sexual nature of it more awkward. I'm still looking forward to finishing it since it's overall very wholesome and just feel-good. I might even try some recipes from the pages (the tofu steak looked so good).

[Victoria M · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a blatant and severely sexualized rip off of The Otherwordly Izakaya Nobu. They didn’t event try very hard to change the title of it. Read that book instead of this.

This books illustrations are incredibly sexualized and pander to a male audience. What does naked women and up-skirt shots have anything to do with people eating in a restaurant? Nothing. I know it’s pretty hard to find a manga without women with triple d breasts but this manga is just ridiculous is the sexualization of women.

[Dimas Toro · Rating 3 out of 5]

komik yang model ceritanya habis di setiap chapter. dapat dikatakan setiap chapter akan selalu memuat cerita baru.

Ditujukan untuk pembaca cowok (boys comic) pembaca cewek pun tak masalah karena didalamnya memuat visualisasi makanan dengan narasi dan ekspresi tokoh yang membuat kita menelan ludah karena kepingin juga. Sisi inilah letak fan servicenya dari komik, yaitu ekspresi dan penggambaran setiap tokoh ketika menyantap makanannya.

bagi yang kepingin membaca komik ringan, tentang masakan, tokoh cerita dongeng, bisa mencoba judul yang satu ini. Apalagi hanya 4 volume saja.

[Arska-täti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Salaperäinen ravintola, jonka ovi avautuu aina lauantaisin toisiin maailmoihin ja kutsuu asiakkaikseen mitä erilaisimpia olentoja, ja jonka ruokalistalta löytyy herkullisimmat ruuat, mitä kukaan heistä on koskaan maistanut. Hyvän ruuan äärellä unohtuvat niin pienet kuin suuremmatkin murheet, joita kaikilla vierailla tuntuu olevan harteillaan.

Itse tarina ei ehkä ole kovinkaan kummoinen, mutta ihanista ruokalajeista nauttivien kannattaa ahmia tämä sarja alusta loppuun asti!

[Chetana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25⭐️

Gimme an anime or manga about food and I will eat it up. I had watched this particular anime a while back and when I sound out it had a corresponding manga I had to read it. It is a great way to cleanse the palate between heavy read or even a cure for a reading slump (which I think I am currently experiencing). It is a fun way to pass the time and I love reading about food that I could maybe possible eat sometime.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Restaurant to Another World reminds me of one of my FAVORITE graphic novel series: House of Mystery. Restaurant to Another World is about a legendary, human restaurant that opens for other-worldy customers every Saturday. Despite their differences, all races and classes of fantasy dine here - including a shape shifting dragon who really loves beef stew.

[Shanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sort of cute manga exploring different characters each chapter that are from "another world" that dine at a restaurant from the human world. I'm not sure if I will continue with the series but I will admit that my mouth did start to water at some of the featured dishes.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once a week a door opens between Chef's restaurant and another world.

This was so-so but the part about the Red Dragon visiting 'after hours' for beef stew is enough to give the second volume a try.

[Cate (The Professional Fangirl) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say, I prefer the anime adaptation more than this. They developed it so much more.