With July a little over half done, it’s about time that I decide on what anime I want to blog about episodically (something that’s new for me). Restaurant to Another World is looking like it’ll makes the cut. It’s not the densest show (in fact, it’s downright pleasant and painless) but I’m having a lot of fun writing about it.
Good grief, Nekoya has all sorts of customers. Granted, we’ve already been introduced to a dragon and a noble but now the roster of customers includes an internationally successful culinary entrepreneur and the princess of an entire empire. I’m really liking how all these customers are from different walks of life and yet here they all are, eating a meal at Nekoya. Stumbling into that restaurant seems borderline escapism and I wonder if that is a theme that will be explored in the near future. If nothing else, I hope these people being in the restaurant together will be further explored at some point (apart from that argument back in Ep. 1) since there could be some interesting chemistry between them.
Of the two vignettes we’ve seen this episode, I think the first one featuring culinary entrepreneur, Thomas Alfade, was the more engaging one. Thomas’s attitude towards Nekoya isn’t just customer satisfaction but also respect and interest to the more advanced cooking techniques and equipment the restaurant has from our world. At the end of the vignette, Thomas’s grandson, Sirius, ask him why he hasn’t replicated Nekoya’s spaghetti recipe only to find out that Thomas has attempted to do so until he retired from the business. It’s an extremely interesting exchange with Thomas pleased that his understanding of Nekoya’s recipe helped him pushed the culinary arts of his world but also accepting that it’ll be centuries before his world can catch up to our world. I also like how this revelation makes Thomas a rather modest person; he’s considered an innovator where he’s from but he’s well aware that he can’t fully take credit for it since it was Nekoka that helped him in the first place.
I would consider Princess Adelheid’s vignette weaker than Thomas’s but I only mean that by a very slight margin. It’s a very pleasant and sweet vignette and I particularly like the detail that Adelheid was introduced to Nekoya by her grandfather when she was little. Generally, most of the supportive characters we’ve seen so far discover Nekoya for the first time. For Adelheid’s case, it’s stepping back into memory lane and the chocolate parfait she eats this episode (which her grandfather ordered for her in the past) is effectively nostalgic for her. I really like how this vignette establishes a sentimental angle to Nekoya rather than consistently treating it like a remarkable discovery. It’s also just funny how Adelheid originally isn’t fond of sweets and by the end of the episode, she keeps ordering chocolate parfait. I guess modern cooking will do that to you.
There was also a brief scene where Aletta tries a meal Tenshu makes out of leftover ingredients and tries to convince Tenshu to put it on the menu. I really do love how the characters in this show are also fascinated with something that we treat as ordinary. I’m kind of with Aletta, that meal probably would appeal to a lot of customers from the other world. I’m just glad that there was some time dedicated to Aletta, even if it is just a few minutes. I love how her energetic personality contrasts with Tenshu’s nonchalant attitude. I’m still hoping there’ll be an episode where Aletta takes the spotlight.
While I’m at it, when does that black-haired waitress show up?
Thanks for reading!
Restaurant to Another World is officially available on Crunchyroll & Funimation.
For more Restaurant to Another World posts, check out the show’s archive page!
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