This book was a surprise, it was much more in the side of being almost a cookbook than a tale about a lost restaurant, and you know what, it was really good, the only low side to it, was that you cant really taste the food haha but we have really nice descriptions of how the food is made, someone experimented in the kitchen can easily do the dishes told about in the audiobook, the ratio of the ingredients like uncle roger says, just use feeling.

While the owner is said to be a grouch, he can easily read his costumers and give them what they secretly want and many of the characters are mystique, this is a very different and amusing read, I really recommend it to people that like to cook and enjoy stories that bring food to another reality, this was a really different and nice read, and I did really enjoy Emily Woo Zeller reading skills, she was able to bring to life all the different characters, it is a bit short but it was fun, like I said before, my only regret is not tasting the dishes.

Thank you NetGalley and Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama Dreamscape Media, Dreamscape Lore for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

The Nameless Restaurant is the first book in a in the Hidden Dishes series currently focused around a restaurant in Toronto that is so hidden by magic you basically have to stumble into, unless you are magical and just happen to know where it is. This reads half like a food blog and half like a urban fantasy.

A new customer has just shown up to the restaurant she has been searching for for months. There is a magical person running the joint who might just be the best chef of Asian cuisine but almost no one knows because there are so many wards on the restaurant it is probably one of the hardest places in the world to find, unless you know what you are looking for or you are a powerful Djinn just released from imprisonment.

I think for someone to really enjoy this short story you have to like cooking to some extent. There is a lot of time spent on how dishes are prepared and what the food looks like. If you are not into cooking, how to cook or preparation it will get boring. I’m very into food and cooking but think some of that should be reduced in future books if the author wants to capture a larger audience.

Overall this seems like a good prequel or set up story to a series of a larger scope. There is enough about the customers, the magical community and the mystery of the man behind the wok that I’d be interested in knowing more.

Just remember this is set up kind of like Cheers (which dates me but I think people still know about) all the characters go to a location that is the center of the story, so no real action happening but dialogue and good times.

Narration:
Emily Woo Zeller is an accomplished narrator and I always enjoy her performance in a story. She gets it right every time, capturing the characters and setting with words. There is no exception in this book, she brings a stellar performance yet again. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.

This made me so hungry.

The atmosphere was great; who wouldn't want to eat the world's best food in a cozy, hole-in-the-wall restaurant during a rainstorm, talking about magic? The food also sounds amazing and I desperately want to try all of it. Plus, bonus points from me for being set in Toronto - though, hilariously, the audiobook narrator pronounces "Toronto" the way I do, with clear enunciation on all of the "t"s, which as any Torontonian can tell you, is completely incorrect.

The reason this novella only gets 3* from me is that it feels more like a worldbuilding exercise than a book. It's just one protracted scene with no actual story, in either character or plot. I would definitely be interested in seeing where the characters and world go, but unfortunately in this installment, they go nowhere. I imagine this will be better to binge read in a series when more Hidden Dishes novellas are available. However, there just really isn't enough of it to warrant more than 3* in my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ARC audiobook!

I thought this was a fun novella that let you get to know some interesting characters. I wanted to like it more, and would love to see these characters on an adventure or given a mystery to solve. This is slow-paced and more of a writing exercise than a full story. I did enjoy it and look forward to more by this writer. The audio narration was also really well done.

🥢 I backed the ebook on Kickstarter, but didn’t back the audiobook because I find audio difficult. But luckily I got a chance to listen to the audiobook! 🎧

🍜 The food in this book is just glorious. I love SE Asian food, and it was so expertly described. 😋

🥰 Emily Woo Zeller is so great at narrating this audiobook, she expertly infuses each character with life.

🙉 I vaguely followed the plot, but I couldn’t focus enough to really retain much of what was going on… thankfully I have the ebooks to get into the entire Hidden Universe!

Tao Wong's 'The Nameless Restaurant'!" It's a charming little novella set in a mysteriously hidden, magic-filled restaurant in Toronto. Despite the grumpy owner and the oddball regulars, the food here is the stuff of dreams.

Reading this novella is like stepping out of a dreary rainy night into a cozy nook, filled with the warm, inviting aromas of delicious home-cooked meals. Wong's detailed and vivid descriptions of the culinary creations whipped up in the nameless restaurant are utterly mouth-watering, and left me craving for a taste of this fantastic world!

The simplicity of the plot brilliantly amplifies the intricate discussions on the consequences and ethics of magic. Wong has woven in thought-provoking perspectives on the COVID pandemic from a magical viewpoint, which, I must admit, provided a comforting sense of closure to the pandemic's turmoil.

The characters in this novella, even though limited by its length, are wonderfully fleshed out from the onset. The immersive voice acting of the audiobook breathes life into them, adding an extra layer of authenticity and charm.

My only tiny complaint? It was too short! I mean, who wouldn't want more time in this magical, comforting place? If you need a quick, cozy fantasy pick-me-up, "The Nameless Restaurant" is a perfect choice.

Really, really enjoyed this cozy read. The characters jumped off the page at me and the food descriptions made me drool. Can't wait to check out more works by this author. Especially interested in looking at the Hidden Wishes series that this story appears to be a companion to. It reminds me of cozy Japanese food dramas, or books like the Callahan series where most of the "action" just involves people chatting and philosophizing over food and drink.

Okay this is going to sound a bit odd but while I enjoyed Tao Wong’s The Nameless Restaurant I honestly can’t say why. I can say it’s not because of the story because quite honestly there is almost none. Yes there is a low key/understated story about the pandemic but that doesn’t really come into play until the very end. What makes up the bulk of the novella is descriptions of a wondrous/magical chef whipping up meals for his patrons. Sound odd? Well it is, and yet as a fan of cooking shows I also found it enjoyable. The customers are all fascinating and I wish they’d been explored further and that we’d had the chance to see some of their adventures but that just wasn’t the focus of the story. Emily Woo Zeller does a very good job with the narration. While this isn’t the type of story I’d make a regular part of my reading routine it was a fun distraction and I could see myself reading something like this again in the future. I’d like to thank Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the chance to listen to an advanced audio copy of The Nameless Restaurant.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2E5M0VSB9KHON/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I really enjoyed this cooking cozy fantasy. It sure did make me hungry while I was reading. I need to try some of these Malaysian dishes. I loved the magic of this. I will be reading the next one! The narration was great and added to the story. Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book should come with a warning label stating that you will be ravenously hungry after reading! If you want to be able to follow the tips and instructions for making the food as the chef walks you through the dishes then you may want to read this book, however, if you want to feel like you are there and living the experience then you want to listen to this audiobook! I truly felt that I was transported to the restaurant and seeing the food, smelling the food, hearing the conversations in person, feeling the tension and the magic in the air. The only thing that this audiobook did not provide was the actual flavor of the food on my tongue and the satisfaction of having the food in my belly. The entire book takes place inside the Nameless Restaurant and while the food is a focal point, the plot is not to be overlooked! It is a short story of powerful witches, warlocks and more trying to work out a way to battle a pandemic or maybe they are just trying to make sure a powerful witch doesn't use too much of her power. You'll have to decide when you listen which I highly recommend that you do! The experience is worth the listen!

An arch-mage, a djinn and a frost giant walk into a restaurant...

This novella takes place over a single shift in a small restaurant in Toronto. It has no fixed menu, doesn't advertise, it doesn't even have a name. And still it attracts a crowd of regulars and newcomers, magical and mundane. The proprietor is not only a talented chef but also a powerful magic user with a hidden past. On this specific day he's preparing Malaysian cuisine, described in loving detail, for guests who mostly have a secret agenda beyond enjoying the food...

From the description, I was expecting something a bit more on the literary/magical realism side of things, in the vein of Toshikazu Kawaguchi's "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" or Ito Ogawa's "The Restaurant of Love Regained". In fact, "The Nameless Restaurant" reminded me more of one of Spider Robinson's Callahan stories - thankfully without the tortured puns.

I really enjoyed the setting and the food/cooking stuff. The dialogue was a little clunky and the plot, involving a pandemic and big discussions on how magic can and should be used was a little too convoluted for the length of the novella and detracted from the cozy atmosphere. Overall, the good outweighs the bad though, and I enjoyed this glimpse into this world enough to be definitely interested in reading more about this little magical restaurant.

I loved listening to this book! The narrator has such a nice voice that pairs perfectly with the short cozy fantasy vibes of the story. To me listening to this story was like going to your favorite café and eating your preferred foods while listening to the conversations that were being held around you. I think the author did a fantastic job creating a mellow vibe while also building the world outside the restaurant through the conversations the patrons had, the thoughts of the characters, and even giving the reason as to why Mo Meng, the owner and chief, had in choosing the dishes he does. Listening to the conversations they had made me so curious about their pasts and made me want to learn more about them. Which makes me hope the author will continue to write other books set in this world that goes into their past, especially Mo Meng since it was hinted at the end of the audiobook that he used to be a different person. I would love to hear what caused the change in him and how he decided to open a restaurant. Besides this I loved hearing the food descriptions that were given while Mo Meng was making the food. I liked listening to the background and history of the dishes and the care the chief has in preparing them.
This book is really such a change from the usual fast-paced or action / adventure packed books that I usually read and I am glad I got to listen to this cozy fantasy book. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves cozy fantasy books and is a big fan of food.

This novella follows a nameless, hidden restaurant in downtown Toronto, which has no set menu. Instead, the chef and owner serves whatever he feels like.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t land for me. Whilst it can’t be denied that the book elicits cosy vibes, primarily through intricately detailed descriptions of food preparation, the tone of the book felt jarring to me. On the one hand we get long descriptions of the movements of the proprietor during his food preparation, the ingredients, the cooking process, and so on. At times it felt like reading a cooking show. When the story returns to the discussions of the various customers, things take on a significantly more serious tone (there is quite a lot of discussion of a pandemic that affects people in strikingly similar ways as COVID).

The synopsis of this book portrays the chef as a grouch and the service as atrocious. However, this didn’t come across in the book - the server was described as polite and professional, and the proprietor as careful and quietly caring and considerate.

This is a very short book, and much of it is taken up with descriptions of cooking and food. For me there was not enough of an actual plot to keep my interest and there wasn’t enough character work for me to care about the characters. I think this would have worked better as a full-length novel with more of a plot and more time to sit with the characters, as they seemed intriguing on the surface. There are different types of magical creatures that coexist with humans (’mundanes’) and I would have liked to learn more about these different types.

If you find cooking and food descriptions particularly cosy, then give this one a shot.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

#bookstagram #bookreview #thenamelessrestaurant #netgalley #fantasy #yafantasy #dreamscapemedia #dreamscapelore

“Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger,” or so the t-shirt goes. There’s a wizard’s corollary to this that goes, “Wizards should not meddle in the affairs of jinn, for they are not subtle at all and very capable of schooling foolish wizards who overstep while they are spooning up dessert along with the wizards’ deflated egos.”

But that dessert occurs at the end of this tasty meal of a book. There are plenty of delicious courses before you get there.

The story in The Nameless Restaurant is also the story of a day in the life of this nameless restaurant, a tiny, hole in the wall place hidden in downtown Toronto where the magic of delicious meals happens at the hands of the restaurant’s magically adept owner-chef.

That chef-owner’s day usually begins with prep for the evening meals for his usual, but mostly supernatural, customers. On this day, Mo Meng, has to alter his routine due to an interruption by a spoiled brat of a jinn demanding that he serve her and her wizard companion a meal, right that minute with whatever he might have on hand.

Mo Meng grumps about both the interruption to his routine and the overbearing willfulness of his “guest” but still complies with her request-couched-entirely-as-an-order. She doesn’t even bother to pay for her meal when she’s finished the best meal she’s ever had.

But the destruction she might leave in her wake if he calls her on it simply is not worth the trouble.

Not that trouble doesn’t follow her back to the restaurant that evening. And that’s where things get truly fascinating, as we hear not just the details of the mouth-watering dishes that Mo Meng prepares, but we also get a ringside seat for an epic confrontation between a jinn who has, in fact and really truly, seen it all and done it all for millenia, and a gaggle of human magic users who think they’re all that when they really, really aren’t. A fact which Lily is more than happy to school them ALL in while she savors her dessert.

Escape Rating A-: Anyone who loved Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes is going to eat The Nameless Restaurant up with the very same spoon. If you’re looking for something to tide you over until Bookshops & Bonedust comes out, The Nameless Restaurant is definitely it!

The format of this little chef’s kiss of a story is “a day in the life”, but what a day and what a life! At first, the fantasy aspects are pretty minimal. It’s clear from Mo Meng’s musings and grumblings that he is a magic-user of some kind, but the details are covered in the sauce of his meticulous descriptions of food preparation.

It’s only when the pot of the story is fully on the boil, when the irregular regular denizens of the restaurant gather for what sounds like a spectacular meal (as all meals in that restaurant seem to be) that the reader gets some real hints about the nature of both the place and community it serves and why Mo Meng serves it.

Which is where both the fun and the tension come in. While everyone in the place is magical in one way or another except for Kelly the waitress, the Nameless Restaurant is warded to be a place where most of that magic gets left outside – except for Mo Meng’s cooking skills, of course.

So the tension in the story ratchets up slowly as the reader gets hints – and picks sides! – in the upcoming conflict. Which, when it comes, is explosive – but not in the way that the urban fantasy setting might lead one to believe.

This is, after all, a cozy fantasy. So what is brewing in that little place isn’t a battle – but it most definitely is going to be a takedown. With dessert. And leaves the diners eagerly anticipating another night at the Nameless Restaurant, while the reader is left salivating for the next installment in this delicious series!

One final word of caution. You are probably familiar with the warning about not going to the grocery store hungry, out of the very reasonable fear that you will attempt to buy the entire store because in your hunger it ALL looks good? This book takes that one step further, as it should be issued with a caution not to drive to the grocery store while listening, as not only will you be tempted to eat the entire store, but you’ll end up disappointed because nothing you consume will measure up to the temptations described in the story.

The Nameless Restaurant is a tun, delicious story about a hole in the wall restaurant in Toronto, owned and run by a mage of highest caliber. A restaurant that no normal beings can find unless they’re meant to find it. It’s a cozy story about magical beings enjoying an evening with good food and perhaps some questionable company.

Things I loved about The Nameless Restaurant:
cozy fantasy
slice of life/day in the life
FOOD

The Nameless Restaurant needs not plot or high stakes. It only needs the warmth and light of the characters and vibes that you would get from any of the Malaysian food that simmers over this novella. Take a break and maybe a bite of this little romp that feels like any hole in the wall with good food and weird people.

A great way to cleanse your reading palette for the next course.

This book was slow-going at first. I think if I actually knew anything about cooking, I might have enjoyed it better. But, it was clearly made with love, just like any good recipe, and the ending was wonderful.

I had a great time listening to the audiobook/ narrator. Thank you to the publisher for allowing me the audio version of The Nameless Restaurant. I was able to live vicariously through a character with both magical, and cooking talents. I felt like I was getting the thoughts and ideas of a high profile chef in a cooking competition, but in a magical tavern setting. This author is on my radar and I can't wait to read more of the Hidden Dishes.

This was fun, but I wanted to like it more than I did. As a fan of cozy fantasy, The Nameless Restaurant sounded great. It takes place at a secret magical restaurant on a single night, with magical and human patrons. The talented and long-lived chef has decided on a menu of Malaysian cuisine for the night and drama from patrons will arise. I think if I was a bigger cook myself I might have been more into the descriptions of food preparation. I think I was expecting more emphasis on the flavors and experience of eating, though there is some of that. This also includes references to a pandemic that is magical but also impacts humans and I didn't love that as part of a cozy fantasy that I want to be escapist. Still, parts of it were charming and I like the concept. The audiobook narration is good. I received an audio review copy of this via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Sadly, this did not really work for me, I really struggled to connect to any of this story and also had a hard time wanting to finish this. I felt like there was a lack of actual plot and although there was deliciously beautiful descriptions of food nothing else was really happening. If you love cosy fantasies I would recommend this.