I read and loved The Kamogawa Food Detectives last year and I've been eagerly awaiting the sequel. We are back with the father-daughter pair: Nagare, the chef, and Koishi, the food detective. The style of the book follows six vignettes, different characters on their quest to rediscover a treasured meal. I thought we met a really interesting set of people and their backstories were well described.
It is wonderfully translated by Jesse Kirkwood, who has become one of my favourite translators. I love the humour between father and daugher too. Poor Drowsy the cat, I do wish Nagare would slowly warm to him!
I recommend this translated fiction series to those who enjoy slice-of-life, cosy and heartwarming short books, and I will definitely continue on with this series if more are translated into English in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Hisashi Kashiwai for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Review posted to Goodreads and The StoryGraph. Review to be published on Instagram, Amazon and Waterstones on release day.

The follow on title to the Kamogawa Detectives, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes carries on from the last book in following the father-daughter duo offering a food detective service for their customers to relive forgotten memories, of people long past or those that they have lost touch with for some reason.

Like other Japanese novels in the same vein it's the kind which has short interconnected stories which makes it ideal for a commuter read or one you dip in and out of when you have a free moment in a busy schedule for a bit of cosy heart-warming vibes. I greatly recommend.

The second in the Kamogawa Food Detectives series and follows the same format as the previous book. Former detective Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter Koishi run the Kamogawa Diner in Kyoto. Its aim is for Nagare for recreate dishes for customer that remind them of important times in their lives. It is essentially a book of short stories, beautifully written and well translated making a heartwarming read.

Briefly, there are 6 separate stories, from the model who is planning to get married to a wealthy man and wants to recreate her mother ‘pink’ fried rice to help her explain her early roots. To a one hit wonder singer who wants to taste the tendon, a tempura rice bowl, that she was treated to when she had her big hit. Each story is told in two chapters, the first when they describe their food desire and their memories around it and the second two weeks later when the recreated dish is shared with the customer.

I love that Drowsy the cat appears in each story but I do wish that Nagare would allow the poor cat to come inside. I love all the food descriptions, it genuinely made me salivate! Each story is full of emotion and each meal an homage to relationships and happy memories. Another enjoyable and entertaining read.
4.5⭐️

I absolutely loved 'The Kamogawa Food Detectives' so could not wait to read this second installment.

This book like the first is like a warm hug from your grandmother, its cosy, heartwarming & full of individual stories with the most beautiful descriptions of food, you will almost imagine tasting the dishes.

This is such a unique, clever and creative story that you can't help but get lost in.

More great-sounding food and work for the food detectives.

Just like in the last book, the Kamogawa restaurant father and daughter help 6 people find a recipe for a dish from their past. All have stories to reveal their reasons and the book is about their lives as well as interesting sounding dishes, most of the ingredients of which are a mystery to me. It’s a light read, quite entertaining and ultimately a feel good novel. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

There’s something so gentle about these stories. Soulful infusions of life. I keep wanting more, more background story on these lead characters. Their movements and lines can feel a bit repetitive, but I find them endearing. I do feel like this time we started uncovering a bit more about these two - well four, if we include the mother and the cat - characters. I have a soft spot for them. Perhaps because of their relationship with food. Again, I found myself reading this while having a meal from a recently found Portuguese restaurant near me. The soup tasted just like the one from my grandma. It made me cry. It’s time to get the recipes from my mother!

I really enjoyed the second instalment of the Kamogawa Food Detectives. The descriptions of the food seem almost magical and the stories behind the meals are wonderful (although heart-breaking at times too). It's quite a short book which I flew through in a about 4 days.

So mouth-watering with heart-warming vibes!

I always have soft spot with Japanese literature especially when it's set in Kyoto.

I've read Kamogawa Food Detective before, and I get addicted immediately since it has unique premises: detective agency that looking for particular food that customer had read in the past. That's why, when there's 2nd book, I really enthusiast to read it!!!

Kashiwai has good writing style when he describe every food that Kamogawa cook. It made me imagine how delicious the food is. So, don't read it when you're hungry or your mouth will watering!!

As non Japanese, it gave me a lotttt references about Japanese Cuisine. Because Kashiwai also give some recipe about how the food was made.

Since it set in Kyoto, I can feel the calming and traditional of the city. It gave me heart-warming feeling.

This book is collected stories, so there's no plot, just vibes. For you who love light-Japanese vibes books or you who want to add your knowledge about Japanese Cuisine, give this book a try!

As reference, this book really remind me with Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa.

Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan, Mantle, for the ARC!

4.5*

Knowing what to expect having loved The Kamogawa Food Detectives, I treated this book like a short story collection. I enjoyed reading one story a day, indulging in the wonderful food descriptions and very human stories. The end result being it left me feeling as satisfied as the customers of the Kamogawa Diner after trying one of Nagare Kamogawa's meals.

Cosy, comforting, nostalgic and with mouth-watering food descriptions, this book, and the first one in the series, The Kamogawa Food Detectives, sits wonderfully amongst other translated Japanese works like Before The Coffee Gets Cold, The Lantern of Lost Memories and What You Are Looking For Is In The Library.

If you take each story as it comes rather than treating it as a novel and overall just savour it by dipping in and out then I'm hopeful that you'll love this just as much as I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan | Mantle for a digital review copy of "The Restaurant of Lost Recipes" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

This is basically a book of short stories. It tells stories of people seeking out the Food Detectives as they want them to recreate dishes from their past. This is turn reveals each person's story and how it affected their lives, however I did sometimes wish there was a little more detail. I did not realize that this is a sequel, but because of the formulaic format of the book this did not matter. An easy read although the translation seems a bit 'clunky' at times.
Thank you to NetGalley and PanMacmillan for the advance copy of this book.

There's something deeply nostalgic about the taste of a beloved dish from childhood. A single bite can transport us back in time, evoking memories long forgotten and stirring emotions we thought had faded. It's this powerful connection between food and memory that Hisashi Kashiwai explores with warmth and whimsy in "The Restaurant of Lost Recipes," the second installment in his delightful Kamogawa Food Detectives series.

A Culinary Detective Agency Like No Other

Tucked away on a quiet Kyoto street, the Kamogawa Diner seems unremarkable at first glance. But behind its unassuming facade lies a unique culinary detective agency run by the father-daughter duo of Nagare and Koishi Kamogawa. Their mission? To recreate cherished dishes from their clients' pasts - meals that hold the key to unlocking forgotten memories and finding a path forward.

A Feast of Interwoven Stories

Kashiwai serves up a rich smorgasbord of interconnected tales, each centered around a client seeking to recapture a lost recipe:

A champion swimmer yearning for his father's homemade nori-ben (seaweed rice ball)
A food critic searching for the perfect hamburger steak from her childhood
A couple hoping to taste a Christmas cake that reminds them of their late son
A model craving her mother's simple fried rice
A former student actor longing for late-night ramen from a riverside food stall
A aging singer desperate to recreate a bowl of ten-don (tempura rice bowl) from her youth

As Nagare and Koishi embark on each culinary investigation, we're treated to mouthwatering descriptions of Japanese cuisine and glimpses into the rich tapestry of Kyoto's food culture. But more than that, we witness how food can serve as a bridge between past and present, healing wounds and offering new perspectives on life's challenges.

The Secret Ingredients: Heart and Memory

What sets the Kamogawa Diner apart isn't just Nagare's culinary prowess (though that's certainly impressive). It's the way he and Koishi approach each case with empathy and insight, recognizing that recreating a dish is about more than just following a recipe. They understand that the most important ingredients are often intangible—the love of a parent, the excitement of a first date, the bittersweet nostalgia of youth.

Kashiwai has a knack for revealing how seemingly simple comfort foods can carry profound emotional weight. A hamburger steak becomes a symbol of paternal love, while a bowl of ramen represents youthful dreams and the bittersweet passage of time. Through these culinary mysteries, the author explores themes of family, loss, ambition, and the search for identity.

A Perfectly Balanced Flavor Profile
Heartwarming yet Bittersweet

Like a well-crafted dish, "The Restaurant of Lost Recipes" strikes a delicate balance between various "flavors." The overall tone is warm and uplifting, but Kashiwai isn't afraid to add notes of melancholy and regret. The result is a reading experience that feels satisfying without being saccharine.

Mystery with a Dash of Magic

While not a traditional mystery novel, each chapter presents its own culinary puzzle for the Kamogawas to solve. Nagare's investigative process, which often involves traveling to the dish's place of origin, adds an element of detective work that keeps the reader engaged. There's also a touch of magic realism in the way certain tastes can transport characters through time, giving the book a gentle, dreamlike quality.

Rich Cultural Context

Kashiwai peppers the narrative with fascinating details about Japanese cuisine, traditions, and daily life. From the intricacies of tempura preparation to the significance of certain seasonal ingredients, readers will come away with a deeper appreciation for Japan's food culture. The author also touches on social issues like the challenges facing small businesses and the pressure to conform to societal expectations.

Character: The Heart of the Dish
A Lovable Ensemble

At the center of it all are Nagare and Koishi, a father-daughter team whose dynamic forms the emotional core of the book. Nagare is a complex figure—a former detective turned chef with a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of food and an almost supernatural ability to recreate lost flavors. Koishi serves as both his assistant and a grounding presence, often providing a more practical perspective to balance her father's flights of culinary fancy.

The rotating cast of clients is equally well-drawn. From the washed-up singer to the conflicted businessman, each character feels fully realized, their struggles and motivations ring true. Kashiwai has a talent for revealing a character's essence through their relationship with food, making even minor players memorable.

A Kyoto That Feels Alive

The city of Kyoto itself emerges as a character in its own right. Kashiwai brings the ancient capital to life with vivid descriptions of its narrow streets, hidden restaurants, and the changing seasons. The Kamogawa Diner, with its mysterious lack of signage and cozy interior, becomes a sanctuary where past and present, tradition and innovation, seamlessly blend.

Writing Style: A Comfort Food for the Soul

Kashiwai's prose (beautifully translated by Jesse Kirkwood) has a gentle, meandering quality that suits the book's themes. He takes his time with descriptions, especially when it comes to food, allowing readers to almost taste and smell the dishes being prepared. The dialogue feels natural, peppered with humor and warmth that makes the characters endearing.

The structure of interconnected short stories works well, allowing for satisfying resolutions to each "case" while building a larger narrative about the power of food to connect us to our past and to each other. Kashiwai occasionally indulges in sentimentality, but it feels earned rather than manipulative.

A Worthy Second Course

As the second book in the Kamogawa Food Detectives series, "The Restaurant of Lost Recipes" builds on the world established in "The Kamogawa Food Detectives" without requiring readers to have read the first installment. That said, fans of the first book will appreciate the deepening of Nagare and Koishi's relationship and the further exploration of the diner's unique role in the community.

Who Should Pull Up a Chair?

This novel will appeal to a wide range of readers:

Foodies will savor the mouthwatering descriptions and culinary details
Mystery fans will enjoy the gentle puzzle-solving elements
Japanophiles will appreciate the cultural insights
Anyone who enjoys character-driven, feel-good stories with a touch of whimsy

It's also a perfect read for those going through periods of nostalgia or reflection in their own lives. The book's message about the healing power of food and memory is likely to resonate with many.

A Few Minor Quibbles

While generally a delightful read, there are a few small areas where the book could have been strengthened:

Some readers might find the pace a bit slow at times, especially during detailed food descriptions
The magical realism elements, while charming, aren't always consistently applied
A few of the resolutions feel slightly too neat, though this aligns with the book's overall optimistic tone
The Verdict: A Satisfying Literary Meal

"The Restaurant of Lost Recipes" is a heartwarming, gently introspective novel that uses food as a lens to examine the human experience. Kashiwai has crafted a book that's both a love letter to Japanese cuisine and a meditation on memory, family, and finding one's place in the world.

Like the comfort foods it so lovingly describes, this novel offers a sense of solace and satisfaction. It reminds us that sometimes the path to moving forward lies in revisiting the past—and that a well-prepared meal can be a powerful vehicle for both remembrance and healing.

For readers hungry for a thoughtful, uplifting story with a culinary twist, "The Restaurant of Lost Recipes" is sure to hit the spot. It's a literary comfort food that nourishes the soul as much as it tantalizes the taste buds.

A delicious blend of mystery, magical realism, and mouthwatering food writing. Kashiwai has served up a second helping that's just as satisfying as the first.

This was such a refreshing read. I love the way it is beautifully penned by the author and how nicely the different elements are out together in this book.
Right from the cover I was attracted to this book, then the blurb and I am glad that I requested for it. It is a total gem 🤌💎

I consumed 'The Restaurant of Lost Recipes' rather like the characters eat the food in the novel - fast. It's a simple and unvarying format - six short stories essentially, each with a different customer visiting a father-daughter team of 'food detectives' in Kyoto. The book is a sequel but I hadn't read the original and I don't think that mattered. Every story is split into two parts. In the first, the customer arrives and explains the dish that they want recreated - usually something they hope will enable them to overcome some current life challenge. In the second, the customer returns and is served the recreated recipe and is told about any secret ingredients that made the dish unique.

A lot of the page space is taken up with mouthwatering descriptions of food. If you like to hear the details of what characters in a book eat - and lots of people do - then this is the perfect read. If you can have some Japanese snacks on hand whilst you're reading - a bit of sushi perhaps - then even better. I could almost taste the flavours I knew of, although a lot of it was beyond my own culinary experience. It's a book that takes food seriously and unashamedly puts it centre stage - but saying that, it is a work of fiction, not some type of cookbook, so don't imagine you'll be able to pick up practical tips from it.

The short length means it gets away with a very repetitive formula - I thought Kashiwai might have mixed it up a bit, but on the other hand I admire the courage of the author in keeping it simple. I would have liked to know more about how things turned out for each of the characters though - having learned their stories and invested in them, I felt a bit cheated that we never hear what happened next in their lives. I'd hoped that maybe there'd be an end section that brought together the characters and closed off their storylines, but no.

Ultimately it's an enjoyable short read and a must-read for foodies. It's also good for those who like 'feel good' fiction, particularly as it isn't as emotionally draining as some books in that genre - in fact I didn't feel really emotional at any point when reading. It inevitably reminded me of 'When the Coffee Gets Cold', with it's Japanese cafe setting, and it's theme of people looking for solutions to difficult life situations. But this is a simpler, less heart-rending book and doesn't have anything supernatural going on. It's an easier read, but not necessarily a better one.

Published 3 October 2024. This is the follow on book to The Kamogawa Food Detectives that I read last year and once again we meet Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter Kioshi who will track down and cook for you that one meal that means so much. As with a lot of Japanese literature that is a lovely meditative, calming quality to it. We have six stories, six people visit the restaurant asking for a special meal, a couple wanting a Christmas cake for the son they lost, a famous singer wanting tempura to name but two. In each case we follow the same path, the seekers visit the restaurant, they are given a set menu, they meet with Kioshi to tell her what dish they want and then two weeks later they return and eat their meal and are swept away by emotions and memories. This is a book for those who love Before The Coffee Gets Cold and those who love food. There are so many descriptions of food that you will spend your time googling the dishes and wishing that you could have a taste. This is a book that also deals with the way that food can take you back, to make you remember the love and care put into the meal by the person making it for you. A super cosy read.

5 stars - More Japanese food coziness, yay

I was so happy to see that the next installment in Kashiwai Hisashi's novel series has been translated and will be published soon. Having read and absolutely loved the first book in the series "The Kamogawa Food Detectives" I was overjoyed to receive an e-ARC of the book.

The second book in the series is basically more of what we already know. Father Nagare and daughter Koishi Kamogawa run a restaurant/"detective agency" together, but they only offer one type of investigation: they search and find long lost recipes to dishes that are in some way meaningful to their client.

Each chapter is dedicated to one dish and can be read separately - there ís no overarching plot that is being advanced. The plot, if you can call it like that, uses always the same formula: a potential new client enters the restaurant, they get served a set meal that is described in mouth-watering detail and usually sounds absolutely amazing, they then talk to Koishi and describe the dish they are looking for, they get asked to return in two weeks' time, after two weeks they do return and get served "their" dish, with explanations by Nagare of what he could find out in his research - and of course it will be spot on and trigger all sorts of memories and musings. It is these memories and musings that make the books special as they focus on what food can mean to us. Oftentimes it is not only nourishment for the body but also for the soul, it connects us to loved ones and can build bridges to the past.

One could think that the formulaic structure might end up boring but actually it really contributes to the overall cozy feeling of predictable loveliness. These books will probably not be for everyone, especially if one does not have much of a relationship with Japan and/or Japanese food, but I absolutely love this series and will read any additional book that will be published!

I have received an advance review copy from Pan Macmillan via NetGalley and voluntarily provide my honest opinion. Thank you very much!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC

The second book in the series lived up to it's predecessor. A short read and a good time. I really like how the author blend food into the stoires while the main focus still lies with the familiar relationships. It explores human relations so well and is both aching and heartwarming. A cozy and enjoyable book.

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is a follow to The Kamogawa Food Detectives, a book I read and found ok but quite repetitive, which makes it quite predictable. This one felt more repetitive than the previous one and didn't feel as magical as I thought it would be. However, I enjoyed the talk about food and how people brought back memories based on a specific dish, that is the beautiful bit.

I loved the first book so I was happy to see that the second one it's on its way to get translated. Loved all the stories presented in the book and with all the explanations about the requested food and the ingredients used in those recipes almost makes me wanting to buy plane tickets to Japan.

Once again, the Kamogawa Food Detectives are hard at work recreating recipes for their clients at their culinary detective agency. The second book is just as good as the first. Mirroring the same pattern as the first book, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is made up of short stories. Each story is about a customer who wishes for them to make a dish that they once ate in their past. The food acts as a sensory trigger for the customers - encompassing them in nostalgia and food is always described in an exceptional way and mouthwatering detail.

Each story follows the same trend. A customer walks into the unmarked restaurant and is given delicious food to eat. They then go to the back room where the agency is situated. The daughter, Koishi makes them fill out a form and then the client talks to her about food that they once had and wish the Kamogawas to recreate. The client then comes back after a fortnight, and after having the food, they are asked to pay whatever they wish through a bank transfer. At the end of each story, the father-daughter duo always take Nagare's late wife into consideration, by talking to her, offering food at her altar and lighting incense.

It is Nagare Kamogawa who travels to places to find out about the dishes that their clients want them to recreate. The ingredients seem to be unique to their region of Japan which is quite interesting to read.

Just like the previous book, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is another lovely comfort read.

Another gorgeous novel in the series where food meets memories and love. This is a comfort read for anyone who has enjoyed other Japanese translated works such as BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD. Emotional and easy to get swept up in and I loved the added humour that the dynamics between the father and daughter food detectives brought to the story, I highly recommend THE RESTAURANT OF LOST RECIPES to anyone looking for escapism that can be read in just a few short hours.