A short and sweet story about food and nostalgia. I think if you like low-stakes books, this will be a good for for you: this is a very cozy and warm book with very little plot. Perfect for a cold winter evening, ideally.

The descriptions of the food were fantastic and made me want to try so many of them. The daughter and father who work the store weren’t the most interesting, but their relationship with each other was very cute. This is very dialogue heavy to explain what’s going on, and I actually prefer more inner musings than dialogue. I felt like I was being told, for straightforward and simply, what was happening. It also did tend to get repetitive towards the end and some of the translations were a bit odd, but that’s to be expected sometimes.

I think there is definitely a niche group for this type of book, just not sure if I am part of that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the arc. Opinions are my own.

This a collection of short stories, all of which center around The Kamogawa Food Detective Agency. and its affiliated restaurant The Kamogawa Diner. The clients of the agency, drawn in by a cryptic ad in a gourmet magazine, all come to recover the taste of a meal from their past. It is run by a former police detective, now chef, Nagare Kamogawa who is assisted by his daughter Koishi.

Each episode follows a set pattern in which the client must find the agency in an unmarked, unassuming building in Kyoto. Upon arrival they are greeted by a cat named Drowsy, fed an unexpected expertly prepared meal and then are interviewed about their request. Two weeks later, they are fed the meal they requested along with being given new insights about their past. The Western reader is given some peeks into Japanese culture-how a meal is served, mutual bows of respect, Japanese regional differences. Even religious custom is explored as Nagare's wife's ashes are kept at an altar in the restaurant where he spends time praying. Perhaps most important is the attention paid to the subtlety of the flavors of the food and the act of being present and attentive to the act of eating.

I found these episodes to be formulaic to the extent of the dialogue being repeated word for word. It could well be that I am missing some essential cultural meaning that is somehow lost in translation. I can however only speak to my own. experience. Two stars.

A one line advertisement in the Gourmet Monthly says:
𝙺𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚐𝚊𝚠𝚊 𝙳𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚛  –  𝙺𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚐𝚊𝚠𝚊 𝙳𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝙰𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚢  –  𝚆𝚎 𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝙵𝚘𝚘𝚍.

Sometimes there is a dish that we’ll never forget, whether it’s one made by a loved one who is no longer with us, a meal we want to share with someone, an item from a restaurant one visited in childhood, or our comfort food. Whatever the reason, Koishi and her father Nagare investigate and recreate the food sought after by their patrons!

This book is incredibly cozy. It is broken up into 6 chapters, each titled by the food item that a particular patron is seeking to savor once again. The stories are someone repetitive, but sometimes cozy repetition just hits the spot. The handful of clues associated with the nostalgic memories of each patron is a sweet reminder of the power of food over our past experiences and feelings. Food brings comfort and warmth, extends love and hospitality, and lets us relive some of our most sentimental moments.

If you’re a fan of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, then check this book out!

On a personal note, I love food, so much so that I married a chef! I liked the concept of this book in that this little nondescript, family restaurant makes delicious food and is able to hunt down the recipe and ingredients based on the clues provided to recreate a dish. It sounds like a fun, mouthwatering challenge that I may want to present to my husband!

This was marketed as being "for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold" and that's what drew me to pick it up. That and the cat on the cover.

It's a simple read, but I found many passages to be repetitive and the characters rather flat. I am not sure if the dialogue is juvenile and overly simplistic or if something is lost in the translation. It just doesn't really read like this is for adults. The conversations seem boring and that makes it a bit difficult to read. I'm partial to books with a lot of character building and interesting conversations. This did not deliver in that regards.

Also, I thought the cat would play a larger role in the stories, but nope.

Overall I think the concept had a lot of potential. I just wish it had been executed better.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is an excellent atmospheric read. The story follows a father-daughter chef-detective duo who find long lost meals for customers. The meals eaten in this story are so mouthwatering (definitely don’t read on an empty stomach) and the Kyoto setting is so enchanting it made me fall in love with Japan all over again. This is a great book for fellow fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, but Kyoto edition and just your everyday, good ole detective work. I would love to read more food adventures with Nagare and Koishi. Thank you Netgalley and Putnam Books for the ARC!

4.5/5 ⭐️

This book follows the story of a father and daughter who owns a restaurant called The Kamogawa Diner in Kyoto, Japan. Despite its good reputation, this restaurant is crummy and shabby-looking, lacking a sign outside, which always confuses potential customers. But the chef and father, Nagare, always thought that the customers destined to go there would find a way, leaving it all up to fate.

The customers always get perplexed when they see the restaurant in its state, but once they step in, they feel that welcoming warmth from inside. Koishi, the daughter, would then bring them back to their office to be interrogated regarding the dish they wanted with whatever information they could remember about these foods, which were only bits and pieces most of the time. Koishi would take down notes and give them to her dad, who would then set off to solve this. Nagare and Koishi's goal is to find the exact ingredients of the dishes the customers were asking them to make and to ensure they prepare the food the way the customers had them in the past.

This book is about love, friendship, and divine, mouth-watering Japanese food. It's about reminiscing moments in the past and thoughts of "what ifs." The dishes the customer asks for remind them of moments they've had with people they loved, places they've been, or, for some, to have courage in their new endeavors. Every story was heart-warming and poignant.

This book was a fast and comfy read. I ended up craving almost every food described in this book, making me miss Kyoto a lot. I enjoyed reading this book so much and recommend it to everyone!! I will always have a soft spot for Japanese literature.

Thanks again, Netgalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons, for letting me read this Arc in exchange for my honest opinion/review.

I loved this delightful, heart-warming book. Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare run a restaurant/ detective agency that helps people to recreate foods that are of sentimental value. The 6 chapters in the book each cover a different customer with a unique touching story. Koishi and Nagare extensively research each dish to be prepared in the context of the customer's recollection and personal history to re-create the special dishes and associated memories. This is one of the best "feel good" books that I have read in a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an advance copy of this manuscript in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars. I grabbed this to give myself a bingo on the Seattle Public Library Summer Reading Bingo ("translated") and the NetGalley August bingo ("publishing in 2024").

This is a sweet book and an easy read. This would be good for book groups, especially the situations in which nostalgia is the most important ingredient and how the chef sets the scene. There's also a chapter in which food really does represent love from emotionally stoic family members, and how this is sometimes only recognized much later as an adult. These were touched on only lightly in the book.

Not a higher rating from me because the writing was often repetitive, to the point that it interfered with the reading. Sections of each story are repetitive to point of likely being word-for-word reenactments. The chapter's character comes in, has a meal that they enjoy, and askes about the detective service. Lines from the father and daughter are nearly the same in each instance. The character is walked down a hallway hung with photos, which is described every time (the description does vary a little bit, but not significantly, as if to match the mood of the character, or enough to really add to the reader's impression of the hallway). After the detective work is done and the character has eaten their meal, the instructions for payment are almost bang-on word-perfect every time (I didn't scroll back to check, but it sure felt exact).

There's also a lot of repetition in the writing style. Instead of asking a question, or when making an observation, all the characters will make a statement and then end with "do you?", "have you?", etc. While the same exact 2-word appendment is not repeated in a row, the overall vibe is very same-y.

A worthwhile purchase for libraries, especially if looking for translated content and/or Asian writers.

eARC from NetGalley.

4.5 stars! This book gave me so much nostalgia from my childhood. The descriptions of the meals from the restaurant reminded me of growing up eating my mom's meals in Japan. This book hit me on a personal level and I loved every part of it.

This book is about a father and daughter duo who helps people find the food their memories are associated with. I loved the relationship between father and daughter. It reminded me of the charming banter you’d see in Japanese Drama shows.

I read this book in one sitting. I recommend this heartwarming cozy read to everyone.

Thank you NetGalley, author, and Publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for th ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I rate this book a 3.5. This book has a very pleasant nostalgic feel to me. I felt like I was BA k my summer in Japan listening to Cicadas sing there songs. It also reminded me of encyclopedia brown and clue books I read as a child, there are several short food mysteries, and a short cast of recurring characters. It can feel a little Repetitive, however as I mentioned above, the feel of this small hidden shop in Kyoto is not in the English translation. Round up to four stars.

This book is about food, relationships, memory, and how the three intertwine. There are gorgeous descriptions of foods, tastes, and aromas.

Each visitor to the Kamogawa Diner is looking for a taste of their past. If it's their first time in, the chef serves a fixed menu. But after that initial meal, the chef gets to know the person well enough to find the flavor they truly need.

The book follows a succession of the Kamogawa Detective Agency's clients, with a slight bit of story around the detectives themselves throughout. Each section follows a formula, so you know what to expect on that front, and it's great for brief or slightly scatterbrained reading opportunities, as you don't have to carry a lot of details from one section to the next.

I felt that this was written a bit too dependent on dialogue. Besides eating, the only action in the book is being told. All the parts of a mystery that make that genre compelling--clues, red herrings, intrigue, etc.--that's not what this book is about. You get tidy little stories made up of the initial ask and the final outcome.

While I enjoyed reading this and found it nicely cozy, this isn't my thing. And that's ok. I won't avoid books like this in the future because it's always good to have something on hand when you want something short and satisfying. But I also am not going out of my way to find comparable reads.

2.5 ⭐

(Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam for providing me with an eARC to review.)

The story was a quick, lighthearted read. I enjoyed reading about the variety of Japanese food that the restaurant made. My favorite parts of the story were where the restaurant owner told the customers how he prepared their meals. It highlighted the effort and care he puts into his cooking.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much substance to the characters. Even with Nagare (the restaurant owner) and Koishi (Nagare's daughter who runs the restaurant with him), we barely know them as characters. It was all surface level. Each chapter focused on a new customer as they sought out the restaurant; it was very repetitive how they found the restaurant through the food magazine ad, remarked that it was hard to find, noticed a photo on the wall in the corridor while heading to the detective office, and reacted to the food that they requested). The way Nagare and Koishi responded to them also felt repetitive. Also, the translation had oddly phrased sentences.

(CW: reminiscing of a dead parent, grief, dementia, mentions of death, terminal illness)

4.5/5 stars! (Beautiful cover!!!)
I've been reading thrillers and fantasy lately so this was a nice palate cleanser that was a quick whimsical light read.

I probably should have read the description of the book a bit more as I was expecting it to be an actual mystery where someone dies and the father-daughter duo solve the mystery. Food is involved, perhaps the person died from their food being poisoned, or in their restaurant. That is not the case, but I did still absolutely love this book. What this book is really about is a father-daughter duo who are able to recreate a dish from a person's memory. Warning, don't read this book when you are hungry, or you will be even more hungry. The food descriptions truly were mouth-watering and the book itself was fun and whimsical. I really enjoyed the father-daughter duo. This book is broken up into multiple mini stories each featuring a different person wanting to create a different dish. Some stories are more engaging than others, but overall this definitely gave me the "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" vibes with the format and cozy feeling you get when reading each story.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for my copy of The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai in exchange for an honest review. It publishes February 13, 2024.
What a charming little slice of life with a side of mystery! Wow, this book was a delight to read and I loved the rhythm and cadence of it. I would totally read more from this series. I loved all the traveling I got to do through Japan by reading this, and now I am so hungry!

a short and sweet book about food. what would you give to taste a particular dish a loved one who passed on used to make?

the descriptions of food are mouthwatering and definitely made me hungry. it was fascinating to read about every complex dish.

however, i couldn't bring myself to care about the characters. the plot is slow. this is a short cozy book, but perhaps not the book for me.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

This is an excellent little book. It was so cozy and the food descriptions had my mouth watering. I would definitely read more about the food detectives, and would recommend it for people who like cozy, low stakes stories about food

What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?

In Kyoto exists a special restaurant that serves up deliciously extravagant meals, but it is sought out for another kind of specialty: a father daughter duo of food detectives who pride themselves on being able to sleuth and recreate the cherished dishes from a person’s memory. From a widower’s treasured nabeyaki udon created by his late wife to a Napolitan that was shared between a granddaughter and grandfather, who now suffers from dementia, Nagare and Koishi Kamogawa specialize in making seemingly vanished moments come back to life.

This book had my mouth watering for food I’ve never tasted and filled my heart with a warm, fuzzy feeling as the Kamogawa’s reunited each customer with their cherished meal. Kashiwai weaves a magic that even left me filled with a sense of nostalgia, making me reminisce and crave the meals of my childhood. Warning: There is a very high probability this will make you hungry as well. The food descriptions are heavenly.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a charming read that celebrates the magic in simple moments such as sharing a good meal in good company and the often overlooked joy in these moments that manages to linger in our memory. There are no surprises in this book. Each chapter takes on the same format: customer manages to find the Kamogawa Diner, shares what little they can remember about their dish, and leaves Nagare to fill in the blanks and recreate the dish they’ve been longing for. However, each customer’s story is unique and left me craving to see what mystery was in store for the next chapter.

Overall, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a comforting read, perfect for taking a step back and escaping the hustle and bustle of everyday to savor the simplicity of a good meal and the memories it has the potential to create. I highly recommend you keep this book on your radar for 2024 as the English translation will be published this upcoming February.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy.

Ahhhh man, I really wanted to like The Kamogawa Food Detectives much better than I did. I’ve been craving cozy books and I thought that this story of a chef who investigates the history of a recipe to recreate it for a customer would be perfect.

The food descriptions are my favorite thing about this book. I love how detailed they are and I do think there’s something fascinating about the ways in which our memories and times with certain people are connected to food. There’s even the idea of how water that we use to cook our noodles or rice affects the taste and I love that kind of thing! Anything that really gets into the intricacies of food and how important it is to us as individuals and humans as a whole earns a point in my book.

Sadly, that’s where my enjoyment of the book ends. I found a lot of the characters tedious and there wasn’t anything for me to connect to. The writing was also very stilted and not immersive so it was hard to get invested in this world that Kashiwai and Kirkwood have created. I wanted to like the investigator/chef but sadly, that connection was not there for me.

Overall, The Kamogawa Food Detectives has delicious food descriptions and sparks here and there, but it sadly wasn’t the delicious and heart-warming meal that I expected.

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This review has been scheduled to be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, and my blog on January 25, 2024.

A former detective turned restaurant owner who uses his detective and cooking skills in tandem to find and recreate dishes from customers’ memories.

This story was so cute and wholesome. Very similar structure-wise to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, with a bit more focus on the restaurant owners. I generally enjoy Japenese literature, especially books with cats on the cover, and The Kamogawa Food Detective was no exception. And I’m really happy it actually featured a kitty. :)

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a cozy book featuring a father and daughter who run a restaurant and food detective agency. People find their way to them via a one-line ad in a magazine that promises that they will find the recipe their client seeks.

The book is set up as a series of vignettes, with each section detailing a different meal for a different client. I'm not a foodie, but I enjoyed the descriptions of the meals and the way the food inspired the memories of the clients.

This book was sweet, easy to read, and an enjoyable experience.