Review: Restaurant to Another World

(non-spoilery)

Season Aired: Summer 2017 - 12 episodes

MAL Link: Restaurant to Another World

I watched it at: Funimation

Review:

The premise of this show is that natives of a fantasy-type world visit Earth to dine at a unique restaurant in present day Tokyo Japan.

An assortment of characters and creatures visit the restaurant from this fantasy world include dragons, elves, fairies, lizard-men and regular humans as well.  All of them eager to sit down in this fine establishment and enjoy a good meal.

The Plot in a Nutshell:

A Japanese chef runs a fine Western style restaurant in Tokyo.  It is an unassuming, clean and comfortable restaurant, not fancy.  The draw to the restaurant is the food the chef prepares which, by all accounts, is excellent.

This unassuming and comfortable restaurant has an unusual aspect, however, which is the hook for the show.  The restaurant front-door shows up in various places in a parallel world every seven days.  And folks in the parallel world can open that door and step into the restaurant.

The door may appear out in the middle of the desert, or in a wizards chamber, or in a dragon's hoard.  Wherever it appears, one need only open it and walk into the restaurant. And then, presumably, sit down and order a meal.

Now, what I described above does sound pretty cool, I think, but it is not a plot.  It is a concept or a premise.  A plot is how the story unfolds and, honestly, I would be hard pressed to say there was any story to unfold here besides how these fantasy characters want their meal prepared by the chef each week.

There is no conflict. There is no villain. There are, occasionally, some challenges getting to the door of the restaurant to have that fine meal but that's about it.  Occasionally, the fantasy world characters will discuss which dish in the restaurant they think is best but conversation rarely strays far from the menu... or getting to the menu.

My Verdict:

The show is like comfort food.  It is relaxing to hang out with comfortable characters, having a comfortable meal.  It's a fairly low-stress, chill kind of show.  There are some fun moments as mythical creatures like fairies, beast-men and dragons find this door and walk into the Japanese restaurant.  Then they are just handed a menu.

The focus is very much on the food and every episode centers around a specific dish.  You will get hungry watching this.  You may find yourself wishing for a plate of what they are having.

I've watched this 12 episode series a couple times. I enjoyed it equally both times.  It's very much a mood piece to chill out and relax to, tune out the world, and watch fantasy creatures blunder through the restaurant door and have a fine meal.

SCORE:  4 out of 5

Review Rating Scale:

5     Brain wildly entertained. Neurons saturated with entertainment.

4.5  Brain extremely entertained. Neurons firing regularly. Outside world forgotten.

4     Brain entertained. Neurons well stimulated. Brain wants to look for the blu-ray.

3.5  Brain in Neutral. Neurons a little stimulated. Brain generally pleased.

3     Brain in neutral. Neurons flat lined. Meh, brain pleased just enough.

2.5  Brain in neutral but occasionally displeased.

2     Brain displeased and not entertained. Brain thinking about doing something else.

1.5 or less - Brain suffered through the show so it could tell you not to.