5 stars to the cover, because that is so dang cute I can't stand it. However... 2 stars to the rest of it.

I understand that these are translations, and probably are written and published at separate times, so this book is just a compilation of all the different Kamogawa Food Detective stories that Hisashi Kashiwai has published... but just like "Before the Coffee Gets Cold", I need the editors to take out all of the most repetitive bits. I'm sick of reading the same part of the newspaper article over and over again!! (This book was much less annoying than BTCGC though).

The stories themselves are cute but nothing life-changing. In fact, I didn't really find myself being moved by any of them. While nice and easy reads, there is nothing in there that you can't find in other long-form novels that are less repetitive.

Not bad, but not my first pick!

The Kamogawa Food Detectives wasn’t quite what I expected. The book reads like interconnected short stories, with each chapter focusing on a new client. The Japanese setting is charming, the food descriptions are vivid, and the overall tone is nostalgic and comforting. While I’m not a fan of short stories, the book was still comforting and cozy. It’s reminiscent of Before the Coffee gets Cold.

This was a nice way to spend an afternoon. The Kamogawa Food Detectives felt similar to the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series or What You Are Looking For Is in the Library. The main characters aren't really the stars of the show, but rather a vessel for telling a series of short stories. In this book, characters feeling nostalgia for a particular recipe visit The Kamogawa Diner to see if it can be recreated. It was a fun, short read and has me thinking a lot about my favorite dishes from my childhood.

I thoroughly enjoyed this gentle novel about a very special diner/detective agency where clients go to locate recipes lost to them. After all, we've all been there, distracted by memories of a dish from a certain time and place, a food that evokes memories and haunts us once the last bites are gone. The Kamogawa Food Detectives, a father/daughter team, take on the challenge of recreating the dish from the past that haunts their clients.

Koishi, the daughter, patiently extracts information from clients who must just taste a certain food one more time. Using her notes, her father sets out to identify the ingredients for each dish. Udon noodles, a mackerel sushi, a beef stew, a pasta dish. While the foods are often prosaic, each has left an indelible memory for the clients or their loved ones, The specificity of the ingredients, the broth used in a particular town, a local seasoning, these are what make the dishes unique and specific to a certain locale.

Fans of "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" will enjoy "The Kamogawa Food Detectives" for its quiet, comforting tone. These are a sort of Japanese cozy mystery. The stakes may be low but they are important to the seekers, and the Kamogawa Food Detectives do their best to solve each case. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to be able to read and review this book!

This has such a pretty cover.
I loved this book. 4.5/5

A delightful cozy mystery with a twist. This isn't a mystery of death and murder, but of one small chef trying to bring joy back to people with food. Nagare Kamogawa owns a special type of restaurant. If you're looking for a warm delicious meal he will provide, but if you need to find a long lost recipe he is the best food detective around. Helped by his daughter, the two of them reconnect people with distant memories that provide them peace. This book was like a warm blanket to wrap up with, and also make you wish you could visit this shop to find that one food you can't seem to remember. A wonderful start to a new series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Team for this Advanced Digital Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

I am in love with the atmosphere of this book. It is peaceful and totally engaging. I am going to order my personal copy right away and highly recommend this book for libraries serving adults.

I absolutely recommend this book! It was cozy, thought-provoking, and enjoyable to the end. I adored the characters and plot. I immediately reread it as soon as I finished my first read through. Thank you for the ARC opportunity!

The Kamogawa Food Detectives tells the story of father-daughter duo Koishi and Nagare, who run a small backstreet restaurant in Kyoto. This interesting duo can recreate foods based on hints and basic descriptions. Koishi interviews the requester, and Nagare hunts down the recipe to recreate it successfully. This was a great, short, sweet read that was creative, moving, and entertaining.

This book was not at all what I was expecting. When I first read the title, I thought it was going to be a cozy mystery similar to Arsenic and Adobo. Then when I read the blurb, I realized that wasn't at all what this was about, but it still piqued my interest. Now that I've finished listening to it, I can tell I should have gotten a lot out of it. I know the stories that surround each dish and the reason behind each person wanting to find that certain dish and have it made again are to have us reflect on our time with people while they're still with us and many more serious lessons similar to this, but I just felt like I wanted more.

I wanted more about Nagare's relationship with his wife when she was alive and his daughter. I wanted more about his adventures to find the story behind each dish, and how he went about experimenting until he perfected each dish. I don't know if this was something lost in translation, or me just wanting something more out of this book that the author doesn't plan to share in this book (it's a series) or maybe not at at all.

I still really enjoyed these stories though. It's also relatively short - less than 300 pages. A quick read that will leave you wanting more (that we hopefully get in the second book)!

Rating: 2* of five

I ignored the warning signs...the c-a-t on the cover, the call-out to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3913443018" target="_blank"><i>Before the Coffee Gets Cold</i></a> which is a dreadful, condescending farrago...and paid the price: I just do not like "international bestsellers" because if they appeal to that many people they'll make me queasy with insulin poisoning.

I hated it. But I read it. I wanted the lingering possibility of evoking my 1964 birthday cake, a caramel doberge cake
<img src="https://www.louisianacookin.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/PralineDoberge248SW.jpg">
my mother bought to make up for forgetting to make one herself.

Fail. I was annoyed and irked by turns...but y'all'll eat it up (!), I bet, hence the two stars.

If I'd spent Putnam's $25 for a hardcover I'd be frothing bloodily at the mouth and nose.

Beautiful, delicious first book in a series. I've already reserved book 2 in the series and eagerly anticipate it's arrival. The blurb for the book says it all:

What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?
Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by . . .
The father-daughter duo are 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.
A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.

Highly recommended for lovers of clean uplifting reads and delicious food.

I felt like I walked into my Japanese grandma's kitchen and heard her stories. Truly. It's like walking through her life and my childhood on this journey. I didn't know what to expect from this read but it was wonderful. Sometimes it was hard to follow and i had to go back and reread but then it tied back together. A lot of it was cultural so that was on me to understand. Long live Japanese culture.

This was a heart-warming read that make you feel cozy and snug. The descriptions of food made my mouth water. It is definitely a comfort read with a dash of mystery.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a delightful read! It is all the warm and fuzzy you could want in a cozy culinary book.

At first I found it a little disjointed since it is really a compilation of "cases," but as I read, I found myself completely charmed by the little stories and the connections.

I have spent time in Kyoto and found myself reading with google maps open and as I learned about the various recipes, I looked them up and even tried to cook a few. for myself. If you are at all interested in Kyoto, Japanese food or a sweet slice of life story, you will enjoy this book.

I am looking forward to a follow up!

I enjoyed this innovative and cozy story about the Kamogawa food detectives. The narrative was strung together as a series of shorter vignettes that made up the novel. Each vignette featured a mystery of sorts, in which someone relayed a food memory and the detectives attempt to recreate it two weeks later. Each customer is seeking not only a meal, but something more intangible-a memory, a release of grief, comfort.

This book was repetitive jn a way that created a sense of familiarity. I enjoyed reading the stories and learning about how the detectives found not only the perfect ingredients to recreate a meal, but the right stories as well.

I rate this novel 4 stars. Thanks to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I liked this cozy book with wonderful stories about food memories and how they can bring pieces of people back together. It’s cute

A couple things about me: I love Japanese food and I absolutely LOVE Japanese food animes. So when I got the ARC for a Japanese food cozy read, I was all in. ALL IN!! I absolutely loved this! A quick read that warms your soul 100%. I loved the concept of food and nostalgia and human relationships. How your memories can be easily manipulated due to bias, but your heart always knows the truth. Each chapter is such a beautiful story and journey and when I finished the book, I preordered the next one. This book is absolutely enchanting!

This was a fun quick read. Almost more a collection of short stories via the sectioning of each food investigation, though they were all part of the same overall story. While I appreciated getting to know each client through their stories and thought the underlying messages were nice, I was never fully pulled in and felt like I could set this down at any time. It never “hooked” me. It would be a great beach read or vacation book, but if you’re looking for something with more “meat” and substance this might not be the book for you. Overall it was a cute and fun read with some real emotions sewn in here and there too.