This had the same whimsical aesthetic as those Studio Ghibli food GIFs that are always floating about twitter. Unfortunately enough though, the book form fell a lot more flat.

Each chapter follows a different customer visiting the Kamogawa restaurant to inquire about a lost dish that they want to rediscover for the sake of nostalgia. I loved this idea at first, as the first three felt engaging and wholesome, but after that it quickly became repetitive and choresome to read the same format and similar food descriptions for a further 60-70 pages.

Bonus points for the *cozy vibes*, but that alone wasn’t enough to keep it afloat for me personally. Ultimately, if you’re a minimalist Japanese literature fanatic, and have worlds more patience, then you’d probably appreciate this one more than I did.

Definitely one of a kind, I had not read anything like this before! But great, if you like your books quirky, unusual, and somewhat gentle. I did enjoy reading each chapter at a time, putting the book down between each, so they became like a fascinating series of short stories.
I did enjoy the detective aspect to this, even though it is not a detective story, and also the food aspect, which was very interesting.
If you like food, Japan, or captivating books, this one if for you!

I was drawn to this book by the cute cover and thought it would be something different to my usual reads. It’s translated from Japanese and published on the 5th October.

This is quite a short book, with each chapter covering a different ‘case’. Nagare and his daughter Koishi run the mysterious Kamogawa restaurant and detective agency. Clients turn up and ask for a particular dish to be recreated for them, it could be something from their childhood or a dish with sentimental value that brings back memories. This initially simplistic concept leads to more complex emotions and gives depth to the characters, it’s well done and almost sneaks up on you.

I liked this book a lot, I liked the characters and I thought the concept was something really different. It shows the importance and value people attach to food. The setting is well described and I could picture the nondescript restaurant with Drowsy the cat snoozing outside. The food sounds delicious and the book made me hungry! 😋

I would recommend this book, it’s certainly something different and it’s a charming story. Thanks to Pan MacMillan for my copy in exchange for a review.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

This book is short with the same plot is repeated six times over twelve chapters, each time with a different central figure.


Basic premise is that the Kamogawa Diner in Kyoto, Japan is run by widowed Nagare and his daughter Koishi. Alongside the restaurant is the Detective Agency which is advertised by one line in Gourmet Monthly magazine without contact details.


The plot of each pairs of chapters is

• Client with a heartwarming backstory finds the restaurant after some detective work of their own to locate it. They are heartily complimented on finding the diner.

• They are offered the dish of the day as there is no menu,

• They tell Koishi of some food dish they want to recreate from their past but have very little details of. They are told to return in two weeks unless it is urgent and it may be a week.

• Nagare takes a trip and miraculously returns with the exact recipe and recreates the dish for the clients return.

• The dish is exactly as the client remembers and there is more outpouring of the importance of this dish in the client’s past and a quick rundown of how Nagare found the recipe.

• Drowsy, the local cat, tries to be friendly but is rebuked by Nagare who does not like the cat

• Repeat…

I’m bamboozled as to why this book is so popular but I think anything these days with a poignant tale pulling at the heartstrings is often classed as a masterpiece. Not a great choice of galley for me.


With thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives
What's the one dish you'd do anything to taste just one more time?
Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant called the Kamogawa Diner. Customers who find the family-run hidden establishment are treated to an extravagant meal, but it's not the main reason for visiting The father-daughter duo who own the restaurant are known as 'food detectives', capable of recreating a dish from their customers' pasts that may well unlock forgotten memories and inspire ongoing happiness.
A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a heart-warming and moving novel that celebrates the power of a delicious meal.
loved this cosy, heartwarming read and recommend it to anyone who love's Japanese fiction, especially fans of Before the Coffee gets Cold.

Is there a meal you can remember from your past that you’d love to eat again? How far would you go to taste it? Step forward, the Kamogawa Food Detectives. This book by writer Hisashi Kashiwai was a smash hit in Japan and has been translated into English by Jesse Kirkwood. The story follows restaurateur Koishi Kamogawa and her retired detective father Nagare: together they run an unassuming-but-beloved diner in the back streets of Kyoto, serving up home-cooked comfort food to an assorted crew of regular guests. However, it’s in the diner’s back office where things get interesting. Koishi and her father also work as “food detectives”, who track down tastes and resurrect recipes for clients desperate to reconnect with flavours from their pasts. The agency has no sign outside, and they don’t really shout about their services, save for a brief ‘half-baked’ single line classified advert in the back of Gourmet Monthly magazine – the editor is an old friend of the family.

The agency’s offering is simple: explain what you know of your dish and give the duo two weeks to run their investigations, before you return to the diner ready to eat and unlock edible memories you’d completely forgotten. As you’d hope, the food writing is truly superb: the richly evocative dish descriptions and intricate Japanese cuisine featured in each experience will leave you wishing you could taste the meals whisked up for the agency’s clients, and may cause you to hunt down the featured dishes for yourself.

As the short but sweet chapters pass, the familiar structure to each tale slots into place: the repetition becomes comforting and you start to feel almost like one of the diner’s regulars, sat at the bar with a steaming cup of tea and a folded newspaper, chuckling at the new client’s inexperience. Pleasingly this is the first book in a promised series, so if you do find yourself charmed by the world created by Kashiwai, there’ll be plenty more on the menu in the future. Reading this heart-warming book almost feels like playing a gentle video game, or watching a quiet box set: it’s the perfect accompaniment to a rainy autumnal Sunday.

Note – this has not yet been published but is due to be in the next issue of Cambridge Edition magazine – accidentally started sending feedback on the book (sorry) and didn't want you to think I hadn't reviewed it!

Can you imagine being able to eat a perfectly recreated version of a beloved dish from your past? That is exactly what the Kamogawa detective agency specialises in.

In Kyoto, there is a restaurant which doesn’t look like a restaurant. It always smells delicious and cheerful banter can be overheard. The Kamogawa diner and detective agency is run by the duo Nagare, a retired police officer and his daughter Koishi. A single ad in a magazine promotes their services: “we find your food”. The two protagonists help reunite clients with a beloved dish from their past, using their deductive skills, their extended culinary knowledge and the clues in the clients’ recounted backstories.

Food is undeniably the beating heart of the book. Ingredients, aromas, colours, textures, seasonings, most importantly the “spice of nostalgia”, the connection food gives us to other people.
There structure of the book is episodic, each of the chapters being an investigation which follow a similar structure.

It is a very cosy and laid back book. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t find it excellent. The drawbacks for me, were that each story feels quite brief, and there isn’t much focus on the characters, and it’s very personal to me, but I prefer character driven plots.
Overall, this is a lovely book if you are a big foodie, particularly a fan of Japanese cuisine and of cozy mysteries! Perfect for reading with a soft blanket and a warm drink on a cold day.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't think that the description conveys how formulaic this story is. Every chapter is the same. A person comes gets served food with amazing descriptions tells Koishi what dish they are looking for and a little bit about them. Koishi and Nagare, the chef, have a quick chat then it immediately jumps to the person coming back and Nagare serving them the food and telling the story of it. And that is it.

I think I expected something different. I thought we would get to see Nagare doing the investigation or more than just these two scenes each chapter. It really isn't for me. Maybe it is for others who like minimalist stories and the food descriptions are mouth watering but not enough to get me excited.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for the review copy via Netgalley!

Perfect for fans of Before the Coffee gets cold as it follows a similar structure and narrative pattern- a core cast and then in each chapter we are introduced to a new set of characters. The foodie twist was perfect for the structure of a book- every new story, a new character and a new dish. It’s a really sweet reminder of how important food is to our memory. Throughout the book I felt like I was transported into the Kamogawa diner, I’m definitely going to try my hand at some of these dishes!

The release has been timed perfectly and is such a cozy autumn read. I loved this book and hope it gets the hype it deserves!!!

Bringing vibes from Cafe Funiculi Funicula in Toshikazu Kawaguchi's 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' series, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is perfect for the foodies amongst us.

Father and daughter run a seemingly rundown and ordinary restaurant, however nothing about their food is ordinary. Owner and former detective, Nagare, creates the most incredible flavours and dishes matched to the local seasons. However, those visiting him with memories of the past, are in need of a detective that can obtain and create flavours from years gone by. With his trusty sidekick, daughter Koishi, they delve into the vaguest memories and travels, retracing steps to find the exact ingredients, flavours and cooking methods.

A comforting and warm book for any book lover. Although there are some repetitive sections in each chapter, a chosen style I presume, it's a light-hearted and lovely read.

My knowledge of Japanese cuisine isn't as strong as I'd like it to be, so a lot of the dishes went over my head. A small drawing of the dishes wouldn't go amiss!

If you are looking for a short uncomplicated read then look no further.
The stories are linked through the mysterious Kamagawa restaurant run by Koishio and her father.
Obviously food is an integral feature of the stories, but customers come to the restaurant to relive old memories or make better use of the future..
The language,, even in translation is lyrical. The book a joy to read.

Such a comfort read💕

Kamogawa diner is not an ordinary restaurant. It has a detective agency for food. People visit the restaurant to ask for recreating a dish from their memories.

Food is not only the taste, but some of them come with a special memory. This book is so heartwarming and beautifully written. I especially love the story of Tonkatsu. It made me tearful but also hopeful.
All the stories feature common Japanese dishes.
I read one chapter per day, so I can cook the dish mentioned in the book for our dinner😊(I'm not good at cooking, so no photos of them😂)
This book made me miss my family and Japanese food a lot.

💖Do you have any special dishes that you wish to recreate?
—Mine is my great grandma's Sukiyaki. It was her new year's family dinner dish. We ate while all of us playing games and catching up, just remembering about it makes me smile💕


If you like Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, you need to give this a go! I also recommend this for foodies😄 The food mentioned in the book sounds super delicious!

If you enjoyed Before The Coffee Gets Cold, this book is for you!

I really loved this book and I want to thank Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really thought this book was special. It is very much a character based book that focuses entirely on emotion and nostalgia, and even better; food. I found it to be a delight and am already thinking about re-reading it! Will be keeping an eye on this author in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the arc!

An interesting premise - in a hidden away restaurant you can request a dish you’ve always wanted to taste one more time and it will be investigated and recreated for you.

My biggest gripe was that though there were some touching moments, we don’t spend nearly enough time with each client to come to care for them and be entirely invested in the dish that they request and the memories attached. I also would have preferred that we actually saw the process of investigating the dish, talking to the relevant people, visiting specific places, as opposed to simply having it recounted to us. Though that, depending on the situation and the dish, might end up being lengthy.

That being said, it was still a comfy read and I thoroughly enjoyed all the descriptions of the food, as well as looking up unfamiliar terms, references and places in Japan.

I would definitely recommend it for fans of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. It has the same sort of structure, but instead of the customers actually reliving their past memories through time-travel, in this case they do so through the food and the memories attached to it.

What an absolute charm of a book! There are some books that you really want to read as quickly as you can but don't want them to end. This is such a book. Father and daughter Nagare and Koishi Kamogawa run a restaurant in Kyoto where they also find and recreate special dishes for customers who seek them out. There are several stories in the book, each with their own sad, sweet tales.

The descriptions of the food are mouthwateringly good, making me break off every so often to find out more about the dishes and ingredients. And get a snack! We are going to Japan next year and this has made me even more excited for that trip.

It's a book that is warm, loving and comforting - much like the food within the covers. I adored it, my favourite book of 2023 so far.

I thought this sounded like a really sweet story and it is. The book is broken up into recipe mysteries that a chef and his daughter try to solve. They have a restaurant in a very unassuming place and have a detective business as a sideline. I thought the father/ daughter dynamic was sweetly represented.

An absolute joy to read. Set in Kyoto, in a restaurant that will track down dishes from your past and recreate them.

This has a heartwarming, simple style on the surface but does have some deeper messaging within.

The translator has done a terrific job as it can't have been easy to explain Japanese dishes and places without it being clunky.
I do think someone that likes Japanese food would enjoy this more as it's very evocative of the tastes.

I'm seeing lots of comparisons to When The Coffee Gets Cold but I much preferred this book and found it very different. They are both Japanese restaurants but there's no magical elements in this one and I preferred the writing style.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 40%

For me The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a short collection of stories based at the same restaurant and following the same scenario: people are after finding a certain recipe that reminds them of a particular moment in time, or a person or all that together. They need it in order to overcome a moment/situation in their current life, so the duo behind Kamogawa Restaurant is there for them in their moment of need!

While somewhat enjoyable, after the second story I was rather bored as the stories around the recipes are not develop enough to make for a more meaningful read. And the character are pretty much just sketches, again without having much impact on the reader!

Maybe as a coffee table book this works, but as a novel...not so much!

Many thanks for the opportunity to read this!

An enjoyable book but not what I expected. It is solely about a restauranteur seeking out recipes from people's past. It goes into great detail about where a food is sourced and how it is cooked - beef from this village, mushrooms from somewhere else and each individual spice. For me, I was more interested in why the client wanted to recreate the past. If you are a foody who likes Japanese food, this is for you.

As i lived in Japan, I was interested in reading this book. I loved the stories and the different types of food described. The characters were also interesting. I’m not sure the translation did the stories justice though and some cultural things don’t come across correctly in English sadly. Still, an enjoyable read.