As I find myself once again helplessly pulled again into the gravity well of Type-Moon media properties, all I can say for myself is, "here I go again!"
If you haven't consumed any Fate media, DO NOT start here. This is a spinoff with zero introductions for anyone or anything. It also has major spoilers in the bonus chapter.
Fate has a lot of great characters, and much of its success rides on watching said characters do cool overpowered magic as they fight each other. Who wouldn't want to see Gilgamesh fight King Arthur? Amidst the chaos there are also plenty of slice-of-life scenes throughout and a truly absurd amount of cooking. I still enjoyed those moments in the original, so I was eager to pick up this spinoff despite not having loved most of the other slice-of-life offshoots of Fate I've tried.
A big reason I haven't enjoyed these other spinoffs is because I often find myself asking, "what are we doing here"? Unfortunately, I do still feel that with this spinoff too.
With the narrative stakes of the Holy Grail War demolished, the Fate characters feel like hollow imitations of themselves. In Today's Menu, that feeling is in full force. It's nice to see these characters happy, but not to the detriment of their character arcs.
Rin and Sakura getting to cook side-by-side without any awkwardness, Illya getting to celebrate Hinamatsuri despite being a teenager, and Sakura happy to make cooking that Shinji enjoys are all examples of moments that feel unearned. Even in a happy, slice-of-life version of this world, I want some acknowledgement of who these characters are and what they've been through, even if only briefly. There are unquestionably far more egregious Fate spinoffs.... yet I still struggled with this.
The way this media hydra of a franchise flat out ignores things like narrative and emotional stakes aside, the real question is... well, what's on today's menu anyway?
The cooking is detailed and well-drawn, with care being given to the actual steps of preparation. An actual recipe is given at the end of each chapter and I found them well-written and easy to follow. My biggest complaint is for the wild variety of cooking levels represented. As a mostly competent home chef, some were frankly intimidating with the amount of preparation or skill required, while others felt painfully generic. The worst of this is without a doubt the pancakes chapter which proceeds without any interesting character moments or quirks about the recipe or preparation style.
If you are the type of person who is thrilled to read a chapter of moe King Arthur cooking box mix pancakes... this one's for you.
I will keep reading the series because unfortunately it sometimes still does something for me!