This is a really short book, easily done in a day.

As with a lot of Japanese books, it’s beautifully written (and translated) , full of love and heartfelt emotion. It’s like a big cuddle.

The story revolves around a restaurant and detective agency, and only those who are meant to find it do so, finding the food that brings them back special memories.

A lovely story.

My thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a quick cosy read that reminded me of before the coffee gets cold, however I didn’t warm to the characters or feel any emotion towards the individual stories told throughout this book. I found it lacking in depth, the characters seem not fully formed and it got repetitive and therefore didn’t capture my attention. It’s a good concept and I did enjoy the read but found it underwhelming overall

A lovely book full of delicious sounding foods! I really liked the father and daughter main characters. Recommended.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is definitely a comforting, cosy read, perfect for autumn or winter, also great if you love detailed descriptions of food. Drowsy the cat is the best character and he needs to feature more! Unfortunately, I found the story far too repetitive and each chapter of the book felt too samey to enjoy. The overall concept is a fun one but didn't capture my attention as much as it should have done.

It was a very easy and mouthwatering read. However, it felt unfinished. Characters and their relationships- not enough depth. Stories and storytellers, they felt incomplete and lacking some essential details.
It made me want to visit that place and try their set menu, but the book itself wasn't tasty enough.

A lovely story about a father and daughter running a detective agency that reunites people with tastes from their past. Each chapter tells the tale of a person who enters the agency hoping to recreate a meal from years ago. Their reasons vary, some are poignant, some are selfish, but each person learns a lesson along the way. It's a really charming book and I'd recommend it to people who want to read something a bit different. Thanks to Hisashi Kashiwai, Mantle and Netgalley for the ARC.

A really wonderful read. I was drawn in by the concept (I love food!) and the execution was charming and a joy to read. I could quite happily have read twice as many stories of foods from times gone by…

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC. This was such a sweet and heartwarming read. If you’re looking for hard-hitting or literary fiction this isn’t the book for you, but if you fancy something cosy and quick, along the lines of Before The Coffee Gets Cold, then this book will do the trick.

This was a lovely and cosy book to read. The stories are really good and some of them are funny, some sad. The writing style of the book reminded me of Before the coffee gets cold. So, if anyone read that book and liked it they'll definitely love this book as well.

A lovely, quick, heartwarming and cozy read that has the potential to make eyes glisten. It has substance, but by its very nature lacks depth and that does take something away from the book.

Very reminiscent of Before the Coffee Gets Cold…just less fleshed out.

I absolutely loved Jesse Kirkwood’s translation style!

So heartwarmingly cozy. I absolutely loved this book. Perfect for curling up and losing yourself in.

A charming little book - a real comfort read - very much in the same style as Before The Coffee Gets Cold. In a ver unassuming restaurant, Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter, Kioshi, are food detectives. As well as serving wonderful food they will track down that one meal that is special, personal. In six stories with some connections, 6 people come to restaurant to find the dish that their mother cooked, the meal that they ate with their grandad etc. It sounds very simplistic but there is depth here. It's not just the meal that is important, it is the emotion, the history behind the meal. To taste a specific dish is to remember an experience, a feeling, a love. What I enjoy about Japanese novels like this is the easy, calming repetition. We know that every customer will have a meal, thay will walk down the corridor to the office where Kioshi will be waiting to find out about the dish that they are searching, the way that on the way to the office they will all pause to look at the photos on the wall. There is a comfort in knowing where the book is taking you. And as for the food - such lush descriptions that had me googling to find more details - it is such a pity that I am a vegetarian as they sounded delicious. A charming cosy comfort read

A cozy read about FOOD and memories.
A detective duo (father and daughter) specialize in customized dishes. They try to replicate the exact taste of the dishes that a person might've enjoyed at some point in their life. For this, they go hunting for clues in the person's past, clues in the life of the person/restaurant/grocery store that helped put together the dish. For example : a wife's udon dish, a first love's beef stew, an ex-husband's pork chop. Lots of food descriptions. So this would be a nice read with cozy homebound vlogs on Youtube.

A feast for the tastebuds without eating a spoonful!!!!
The food detectives solve dining mysteries in emotional settings with heart and soul.
A refreshing and uplifting read.

Beautifully written and translated story of a father and daughter who run a restaurant and detective agency in Kyoto, Japan. The detective agency tracks down a special dish, deeply connected with a personal memory, for six very select customers. It reads like six connected short stories each involving a special food dish. Both the writing and translation are wonderful, as are the descriptions of the changing seasons in Japan and the food of course. Easy, enjoyable, comfort reading. Special thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a no obligation advance review copy.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a heartwarming, low stress read about food, family and almost forgotten memories. Father and daughter, Nagare and Koishi, cater for a small number of loyal customers in an unassuming hard to find restaurant in Kyoto. As well as incredible food they offer a detective service to help reunite people with treasured meals from their past.

The story is relatively slow paced from the start but once I became accustomed to the style and structure, with each new chapter introducing a new case, its steady rhythm quickly became part of the joy of the book. As Nagare and Koishi investigate each new case we are introduced to several beautifully told memories and family stories each connected with a memory of food.

When I started reading The Kamogawa Food Detectives, I wasn't sure whether it's gentle style and low stakes approach would be for me, but I was wrong. Despite not being packed with action, this is an incredibly compelling story that I throughly enjoyed and wholeheartedly recommend.

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The Kamogowa Food Detectives are a Father/Daughter combo who run a little restaurant in Kyoto, Japan. The duo recieve guests who are trying to recreate dishes that evoke cherished memories. They are interviewed by the daughter and then Dad goes on a trip to place from the persons past before attempting to cook the dish for the visitor.

The book is essentially a love letter to food. So many times I found myself looking up dishes and sauces they referenced before salivating and bookmarking recipes- I do not recommend you read it when hungry 😄

As is often the case with Japanese literature, not an awful lot happens, but as I've said before, this hardly matters. Each chapter features a different visitor to the restaurant. You learn their story first then they return two weeks later, to try the dish, often given more information about the events than they knew previously.

It's a warm hug in a book, charming yet steeped in culture and an absolute dream for foodies.

Thank you to Mantle Publishing for sending both a physical copy and a Netgalley ARC as well. The book is out in October.

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A usual but gentle and intriguing read. Mr Kamogawa has a restaurant which doesn’t seek out customers, but serves amazing food along with helping clients by investigating and recreating a favourite dish they can (in many cases) barely remember.

The novel is almost more like a collection of stories, each centred on a new character - and I wanted to know more about all of them!

Such a delicious book! Every single meal described sounded fantastic and my mouth was watering by the end of it. A beautiful depiction of Japanese culture. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

The Kamogawa Diner is based in Kyoto and is run by Father, Daughter Nagare and Koishi.
Koishi a former detective helps different customer's, friends find a specific dish that they have eaten and would love to eat again with certain ingredients. They find the diner from a one line advert in Gourmet Weekly,
Each chapter is a different dish for the pair to investigate.
This book was so charming and I love the great detail given into each dish Japanese cuisine and made me starving hungry by the time I'd finished the book, a great read thoroughly enjoyed it

Thank you to Hisashi Kashiwai, Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review