'Restaurant to Another World' Is Like Anime Dessert

Just like Kakegurui, Restaurant to Another World (also known as Isekai Shokudō) was one of the new anime series of summer 2017 that I began following last July, and that I had no idea that its debut season was only set for 12 episodes.  Hence, I was caught unawares when episode twelve turned out being its last showing in a while.  Though it’s not the kind of anime that leaves an impact, I was nonetheless delighted with it, and I’m definitely going to miss it.

The series doesn’t really follow a major, overarching storyline.  It centers on Western Restaurant Nekoya, a restaurant inconspicuously located in a Tokyo shopping district, and tells the stories of its peculiar customers during Saturdays.  For though it’s officially closed on weekends, it is secretly open during the “Day of Satur” to accommodate the natives – humans, elves, dragons, animal men, and other fantastic creatures – of a fantasy world, which connects to the restaurant through various magical doors that appear on that particular day each week.

The main characters are the “Master”, the chef and proprietor of the restaurant, and the two waitresses he hired: Aletta, a down-on-her-luck, outcast demon girl; and Kuro, an ancient dragon who takes the form of a telepathic elf girl.  However, the focus of each episode is usually on a particular customer, telling the story of how he or she discovered one of the magical doors to Western Restaurant Nekoya, how he or she leaned towards a particular item in the menu, and how the experience blew him or her away, changing his or her life – or, at least, making him or her a regular patron.  Meanwhile, recurring characters – the other patrons – play a cameo or minor role in that episode.

This makes Restaurant to Another World an undemanding, easy-to-watch anime.  It has no real action, drama, substance, and traditional arcs.  It’s pretty “light.”  And it’s charming that way.

Amid the several “meaty” anime series out there, it serves as a sweet, pleasant dessert of sorts.