This audio novella is set in the Nameless Restaurant, and they are dealing with becoming a known destination for good food among both the social media savvy foodies and the supernatural world. Kelly is now constantly busy trying to keep up with the front of house and keep people from poking their nose in the back rooms of the restaurant. Mo Ming is busier than ever cooking for new patrons and reawakened gods. If you liked the first one you will like this one as well.

I'll never not read these lovely little slice of life books from Tao Wong. I love that these focus around food and how it impacts the soul and community. The little plots of each of the novellas are nothing pressing or complex, just different people interacting with each other. As always there are larger implications happening in the background of the story but I love that once you enter the Nameless Restaurant the world no longer has access to affect you, all your cares and the cares of others are lost to aroma and taste.

Chaotic Apéritifs by Tao Wong, a fun read. Wong has quickly become one of my favorite authors and these small palate cleansers that he writes (pun intended) really highlight his skills.

If you enjoyed the first instalment of this enchanted restaurant story slash cookbook then I'm fairly sure you'll enjoy part two! New recipes that had me craving pineapple upside cake, and new characters (including wizards from Arthurian legend..?) Kelly the mundane waitress is still around and she's expanded the reach of the restaurant so instead of a quiet meal service it's now queuing round the block and turning people away. I think we could do with a bit more expansion on the characters in the next book/s as I still don't really know anything about them except that Mo likes cooking and Kelly is a skint waitress who studies! Nice easy novella to read through.

Chaotic Aperitifs is the second in the Hidden Dishes series. It can be read as a standalone, but I personally think it would be a good idea to read the first book, The Nameless Restaurant. After all, they’re short and easy to read, though each book does overly focus on the cooking part of this cozy cooking fantasy series. Where I found the first book a little lacking and a little too focused on following Mo Meng as he cooked each dish, I rather liked this one. Chaotic Aperitifs still focuses on Mo Meng cooking, this time with a new and different menu, but it also puts more of a spotlight on Kelly, the restaurant’s very mortal and completely non-magical waitress, and Mo Meng’s sole employee. This was a fun installment in the series, offering a bit more world building, some real world restaurant problems, and a bit more story.

Following the events of The Nameless Restaurant, the restaurant has been experiencing an increase in traffic, to the point where Kelly has to keep a wait list and even has to close down the restaurant with people waiting because they’ve sold out. But there are greater things happening out in the magical world, and they walk into Mo Meng’s restaurant. With a table full of two agents, and a creature who is newly wakened after a very long sleep wandering in for a meal, Mo Meng finds things are changing, and not just in his restaurant.

Chaotic Aperitifs might have a bit more story to it than the first book, but it’s still relatively light. Here, it focuses on a shift occurring in the magical world. Between these discussions and the world building, this one felt like it held more meat on its bones, which was nice. I loved getting more glimpses into the magical world and how it worked, and was delighted with the delicate dance they and Kelly had to do in a restaurant full of both magical creatures and mundanes. I really enjoyed getting to know how the magic worked a little more, and what it was capable of. But the fun was in getting a glimpse of the world beyond, of events happening outside of the restaurant that are affecting it.

But it also remains true to the roots the first book planted. The story opens small, on Mo Meng as he prepares pineapples. As I found myself more familiar with more of the dishes he made in this one, I found myself more invested in his cooking process. I also thought that, compared to the first book, these passages were truncated, and a bit more world building was worked into it. In particular, I enjoyed the backstory to the pineapples Mo Meng acquired. It was fantastic to see the cooking and world building working together, so I found myself more invested and interested in this story.

My main interest, though, lay in Kelly. Chaotic Aperitifs really put more of a spotlight on her. As the sole employee, she’s essentially doing the job of everyone except the chef. As a mundane, she’s aware of the magical world, has learned to deal with magical creatures, but has no magic of her own, though the possibility of her learning to use magic seemed to be hinted at. But I adored her in this one. She has so much more personality, and I liked the bit of history given to her. She’s kind of a lost soul, but she’s an amazing friend and employee to Mo Meng, and I really loved the way she dealt with the mundanes and magical creatures. She really had a deft hand with them, and I admired her all the more.

Chaotic Aperitifs is a quick, fun read. I thought this one was better balanced between story, world building, and cooking. While I would have enjoyed getting to know Mo Meng more outside of his cooking process, I enjoyed being out in the dining room with Kelly and the other characters. There are a lot of conversations in this book, and I loved gleaning more information about the world and the coming storm through them. In the first book, I was not thrilled at not being able to get into what was going on outside of the restaurant, so I think this one did an admirable job of staying true to its roots while also providing more glimpses of greater stirrings.

But I also find myself loving this restaurant. The magic is subtle, and, indeed, Mo Meng refuses to use it unless he really needs to. It felt like a fairly basic restaurant, but I was charmed by the people and creatures that flooded in. It even felt a little overwhelming to me with the sudden influx of customers considering the customer pool was relatively small in the first book. It certainly put the pressure on everyone, even the diners as they had to be careful about what they said and did with mundanes sitting at the next table. Though it was also fun reading about them enjoying their meal.

I really enjoyed Chaotic Aperitifs. It wasn’t perfect, and I would still love more of a look outside of the restaurant. But it did do a great job of whetting and satisfying my appetite for more. Besides, I found myself really invested in Kelly. She kind of felt like the heart and soul of both the restaurant and the book, keeping things moving in an organized, efficient way. She certainly deserved to have a spotlight on her, and she really rose to the challenge. So I found myself enjoying this one, and I look forward to the rest of the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

More customers than ever are coming to the Nameless Restaurant. Many of the new diners are magic wielders, which indicates to Mo Meng, proprietor, that the camouflage and wards he's placed on the restaurant are fading. This is all the direct result of two things: Lily, the insistent, magical customer of book one and her awakening others in the magical community to the Nameless Restaurant's existence, and Kelly, Meng's manager/waiter, and her use of social media to spread word of each night's menu.

On the one hand, it means more customers appreciating the tasty dishes Mo Meng prepares each night. On the other, it's beginning to be more like work instead of the soothing activity it was.

While still full of scrumptious food, this book has a slightly more serious feel than book one did. There are two agents from the Department of Supernatural Entities present. They're there to investigate the failing wards. They're stuffy and bureaucratic, but Mika, the more experienced, has a more nuanced approach to what he sees. Whereas Ophelia takes offence at everything.

And there is also an ancient entity at a table, awoken by Lily's activities. He's not up-to-date with the present, and is trying to bluff his way through his conversations, and is also stressing out the other diners with his anger.

Nothing terrible happens, as Meng deals with the situation, but I get the sense that more, possibly troublesome diners are on their way to Meng's place in the next entry in this series. And Mo will have to figure out how to deal with this influx, or perhaps onslaught, and also to prevent running out of food. I am eager to read what happens next!

Thank you to Netgalley and to Starlit Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Chaotic Apéritifs is the second Hidden Dishes novella length fantasy cooking story by Tao Wong. Released 1st May 2024, it's 124 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is an entirely setting driven novella which is background and world building for a continuing novella arc/series based in and around a hidden fantasy restaurant in modern day Toronto. The restaurant is the work of one cook (who is more or less immortal) and his waitress, a quirky sarcastic young woman who is currently his only employee. They cook for and serve a plethora of supernatural and mortal customers in the tiny venue.

For foodies who like fantasy, this might fill the bill. There are extensive, admittedly interesting, descriptions of food and cooking. The author *clearly* has done his research and describes the cooking processes minutely and (oddly) fascinatingly.

Reading/listening to the book will probably make readers hungry. Not recommended for late night reading unless one is in a large metropolitan area with 24 hour takeaway eateries conveniently accessible.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 3 hours and 28 minutes and is capably narrated by series narrator Emily Woo Zeller. She has a nuanced, neutral accent, and a young voice. She does a good job with the disparate accents (a dwarf, a giant, humans and others) and long, very involved descriptions of cooking and the resultant dishes produced.

There are a fair number of restaurant based fantasy settings, from Spider Robinson's Callahan series to Travis Baldree's Legends and Lattes, to 2021's buzz book Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. This one is a *lot* more food intensive and a lot less plot driven than any of those, but it might whet the appetite. It's an indie published story, and according to the author's note in this novella, the eventual arc will contain 3-5 more stories and are intended to be able to be able to be read as standalones in any order..

Four stars. Short and engaging read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Chaotic Aperitifs is the second novella in the Hidden Dishes series. I have not read the first one yet but these books can be read as a standalone but I definitely read the first one too. The novella was quite enjoyable, and one thing is for sure it made me hungry. As for the story, The story is easy to follow, and the narrative is whimsical. The author also includes a bit of world-building outside of the restaurant, which I found interesting and I hope we get to learn more. If you enjoy whimsical stories, I'd definitely recommend giving this series a try. I can't wait to read more of this no name restaurant with a magical chef. Also, I got the audiobook arc too. Emily Woo Zeller did an excellent job narrating the story. She definitely gives these characters an amazing voice. I'd highly recommend checking out the audiobook version too. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an early copy.

This was a strong sequel in the Hidden Dishes series, it had that fantasy feel that I was hoping for and enjoyed the overall feel of the story. The characters had that feel that I was looking for. I enjoyed the restaurant element and thought it worked together with the first book. Tao Wong has a great writing style and I enjoyed these two books and can't wait for more.

Welcome to another day in the life of Mo Meng’s nameless restaurant, following the first delicious book in the Hidden Dishes series, titled, of course, The Nameless Restaurant!

The dishes served here truly are magically delicious, because the chef, Mo Meng, is a mage. Not that he actually uses magic in his cooking, because that would be cheating. Instead, he’s been using magical wards and sigils to make his hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Toronto look unappealing to the average restaurant goer, tourist and especially mundane government bureaucrat.

Because he absolutely IS using magic to keep pests at bay – no matter how many legs they have.

The problem that Mo Meng faces in this story is a direct result of the events in the first book featuring his nameless restaurant. Because in that story, Mo Meng’s out-of-the-way establishment hosted a newly awakened utter nuisance of a jinn, and she’s been waking up all kinds of magic and all sorts of other magic users as she navigates the 21st century.

That influx of her chaotic magic is wearing down Mo Meng’s wards. The sheer, overwhelming ubiquity of the internet isn’t helping either. It’s everywhere, no spell of forgetting or obfuscation affects it, and too many people are discovering, remembering, and talking about his restaurant on it.

He and his front-of-house manager Kelly are so swamped with customers that something is going to have to change – because it already has. The question is whether Mo Meng will embrace that change – or leave it and the community he’s built behind while he retreats. Again.

As he observes one very singular customer get confronted with all the changes that have occurred over the centuries while he slept and does his damndest to bluff his way into the future without setting the restaurant on fire with his magic, Mo Meng figures out his own answers.

Escape Rating A-: I’m doing this review a week early so that you have a chance to read the tasty first book in the Hidden Dishes series, The Nameless Restaurant, before you gobble this second book up in one delicious bite.

Because they are both absolutely magically delicious, to the point where I need to put a kind of a trigger warning on both books. Do NOT read while hungry. It’s very dangerous. Trust me on this. Mo Meng’s entire cooking process and every single dish is described in mouth-watering detail as he cooks and it’s impossible to resist – even if the dish itself isn’t one you actually think you’ll like.

The tone of this second book is not quite as lighthearted as the first book, in spite of it being underpinned by the advent of two agents from the Department of Supernatural Entities. Mika and Ophelia are there to investigate the weakening of Mo Meng’s wards and just generally behave like government bureaucrats – up to and including the tension between the two of them, as senior agent Mika knows just where the lines are drawn, while his junior wants to leap over all the rules, regulations, and common sense to right what she defines as wrong in spite of all of the above.

The atmosphere in the restaurant is tense all the way around. Kelly begins her day being berated by her mother over the phone, Mo Meng is behind because there is way more business than one chef – even a magical one – can handle, and the patrons and would-be patrons start out agitated because a) Mo Meng IS running behind schedule and b) the restaurant is tiny, the wait is long, and the line out the door and around the block is enough to outrage anyone.

That a new predator who absolutely radiates power sits in the midst of all, offending many while trying to obfuscate his way through his lack of recent knowledge just adds to everyone’s stress – including his own as he’s trying to figure out why the jinn woke him up and sent him to this place. (I’m truly chagrined at how long it took me to figure out who he was. All the clues were there, I just wasn’t seeing them. (Consider a picture of me facepalming inserted here)

All the same, I loved every mouth-watering page of this story – at least once I sat down with my own dinner to accompany it. (There’s a regular at this restaurant who also reads through his meal, so I’d fit right in!)

Even though the situation is a bit tense, the story and the setting still fit delightfully into the new cozy fantasy vibe, on the shelf between Legends & Lattes and The Kamogawa Food Detectives. At the same time, it’s doing what urban fantasy has always done, it’s getting just a bit deeper and darker as it goes – and it’s fascinating and makes me want more.

It’s clear from the way that this entry in the series ends that even though Mo Meng and Kelly have found a way through their immediate problems, trouble is brewing on the horizon right alongside Mo Meng’s pineapple vinegar. So I’m going to get that more I wanted in the next book in the series, titled Sorcerous Plates. My mouth and my brain are already craving the next bite!

Superbly peaceful fantasy that doesn’t fit normal fantasy tropes. Some say food is the way to the heart. Here food and fantasy come together to bring peace in the kitchen and the universe. That takes skill, knowledge and wisdom to prepare simple perfection, and customer satisfaction. And for me, I’ll be first in line to dig into the sure to be scrumptious next instalment. Thank you to Starlit Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

There is something about these books that is so soothing. Slipping into the Nameless Restaurant is calming and like a warm hug but with a playfulness that makes me want to keep coming back and see what they all get up to. The descriptions - of the food and the characters - is all encompassing and I feel like I should be checking alleys in Toronto to see if I can find the Restaurant and Mo Meng's food myself.

While part of a series (and I think a spin-off of another series) it is easy enough for this book to standalone, and makes me pluck at what could be other easter eggs or forthcoming stories, eager for more of this world. A quick read, but nothing is lacking because of that - the food descriptions alone linger, but the added depth of the narrative and wide cast of different characters is perfect for the novella. A restorative book that I hope is just the beginning of many many more to come.