This book is very reminiscent of Before the Coffee Gets Cold Charming, heartwarming, simple. I enjoyed it. I loved the cat Drowsy.

The Kamogawa Diner doesn’t really advertise much, there’s not even a sign outside it’s doors, but the customers who need to find them always do. You see, the Kamogawa Diner isn’t just a diner, it’s a “food detective” service run by the father-daughter duo of Koishi and Nagare. Filled with six different customers' memories and dishes, follow the Kamogawa Diner uses their customer’s treasured memories, the pair are able to recreate lost recipes that provide links to vanished moments.

There’s two things that will most likely get me to read a book. One: be recently translated from a popular Japanese seller. Two: put a cat on the cover. The cat doesn’t even need to be the main focus of the book, a general cat will do just fine.

This is such a cute book - and a warm hug for those foodie book lovers out there as well. I can’t cook to save my life, but this novel went into detail about each of the dishes so it may be something someone could actually follow and make their own versions of the recipes.

Some of the stories I felt were a little drawn out, but they were people sharing a fond memory (or what they could remember of their memory). I’ve said this so many times, but Japanese literature has such an amazing way of capturing the human experience and I always enjoy reading translated work.

Overall, a wonderfully fun, hungry story about a food detective, a father and daughter duo who use their skill of deduction to help customers recreate that special dish from their memories. I can see a lot of contemporary fiction lovers enjoying this book, as well as those who’d like a shorter comfort read.

*Thank you G.P. Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai was cozy read filled with yummy food descriptions and clever storylines. This book was a short and quick read that I thoroughly enjoyed!

I love the concept of food detectives, helping people recreate a dish that holds memories for them.

The food and setting descriptions are so extensive and pervasive that this book is best suited to people who are deeply familiar with Japanese culture. Also, either the writing is stilted or the translation is poor.

A sweet idea, but just not for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I did enjoy this lighthearted cozy crime solving food detectives set in Japan. Koishi and Nagare are "food detectives" who help their customers with lost memories. I absolutely love the Japanese way of life and culture and of course their food. This is a very light easy read. This wasn't the typical book I look for but it was a cozy read nonetheless. It gives you the feels still.

A father and daughter (the Kamogawas) run a restaurant where they recreate dishes from their patrons’ most cherished memories. It’s almost mystical: they believe these dishes are inextricably linked to their essential happiness. This Japanese bestseller is so popular there that it’s now an 8-book series; happy to see book 1 now being published in English for the first time.

This was such a unique and cozy read for me!
I initially thought it was going to be a cozy mystery but it’s not really a mystery in the traditional sense. It’s a lovely, lighthearted read. Essentially, people seek out the food detectives when they’re looking to have a meal recreated for them such as one from their childhood, or a meal that a loved one who has passed used to make, or a meal from a restaurant that’s not longer in business, etc.
It reads more like a collection of short stories as each chapter is focused on an individual and the meal they’re seeking from the food detectives.
This is the perfect book for foodies and those that love Japanese culture/cuisine. I personally loved reading about the different kinds of foods that were prepared and I really liked how the book focused on how the food made them feel, as if our feelings and memories are sometimes the most important “ingredient” in a meal.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of this eARC!

3/5

This was a very cozy and quick comforting read - each chapter follows a different person who is looking to re-create a meaningful dish from their past. To do this, they go to The Kamogawa Diner, which is run by a father / daughter duo who are food detectives. The descriptions and detail of the food are very rich. It took me a while to get used to the writing and storytelling style, but by the last few chapters I was enjoying it.

This book follows a set pattern for each chapter. A new person shows up at the restaurant run by a father and daughter called The Kamogawa Diner in Kyoto, Japan. Every time the person comments on the lack of sign and the outside being in disrepair but finds it cozy. The same verbal pattern is gone through about a dish that they want remade for some personal reason. Bit and pieces of stories are taken down and the person leaves. The book then jumps to when the person returns to eat the food made perfectly to their memories. It is the definition of “cozy” if that also means that all of the action happens off screen. The author does not describe the action needed to find these dishes and it is just told to the returning customer, It takes some suspension of disbelief to believe that they have the money and time while running t a restaurant with two people only to track these down across the entirety of Japan. Also, it seems serendipity and neighbors remembering brands of flour twenty years later plans a large role in figuring this out, especially for the earlier recipes. I also expected a magic realism aspect and while not sure what suggested that to me, it would have made things a little more interesting. The cat on the cover made me thing a cat would play a larger role, but it lives outside the restaurant and regularly shows up for new customers and gets yelled at for getting hair or trying to get inside. There is no character development around the cat, and I think it is there because these kinds of books always have a cat. I adore cats and I don’t think he added anything.

It has lists of Japanese food in what is served in the “set-meal” when the customer first appears. There are many people who seem to really like this part. About the dishes asked by the customer focuses on moments they've had with people they loved, and often regrets of people lost. The book is fast, and I read chapters before bed which was peaceful, and I had no issue putting it down and going to bed, which is not always the case with reading before bed.

I recommend this to anyone who likes quiet and cozy stories about people and enjoys descriptions of food but for me it was only 3 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion/review.

This is a lovely! A comp to When the Coffee Gets Cold is accurate, but this is sweeter than that and a little more episodic. I love the relationship between the daughter and the father. I like when he explains the investigation he does. The different people that come through and the food they want makes me feel like I have experienced a large swath of society in just 100 pages.
Sometimes I want to read a book that takes me to a different life and have a lovely experience with that life. This book is just exactly that.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early review copy.

I honestly requested this simply for the adorable cat on the cover, and the title made me think a cozy mystery.

And I have never been more delighted to be wrong.

Trying to recreate that perfect nostalgic meal from your childhood? Contact the Kamogawa Detective Agency, where a father and daughter pair will research and recreate that perfect dish.

This was an absolute pleasure to read. It's a short novella made up of several short stories of various clients each coming to the agency looking for help in recreating an important dish from their memory.

The relationship between Koishi and her father Nagare was such fun to read. It's easy to see how much they respect and like each other as they tease and work together to cook the meal their clients are looking for.

What I loved the most about these stories is how deeply entwined food and memory and family are all together. Each person coming to the agency is trying to recapture joy or comfort or connection. And the father and daughter pair act as therapists, detectives, and chefs all wrapped up in one.

This was a genuine joy, and I will be immediately purchasing a copy for my own library as well as keeping an eye out for translations of more of this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this arc.

"The Kamogawa Food Detectives" by Hisashi Kashiwai is the one of the latest translated cozy novels from Japan that does not disappoint. In this genre, new to me but clearly very popular in Japan, a number of short stories relating to a a single person or place make up a whole novel. In this case, the customers to the Kamogawa Food Detectives come in asking a father-daughter duo to re-create a food of choice for their paying customers, often leading to a meaningful and touching meal relating to something or someone they care about.

This is a light read that goes really quick. It lacks some of the depth that I've seen other books in the genre achieve, but it still has excellent character development of the clients to the detective agency. It also gets a bit repetitive with each character. If you're looking for a book that has a lot of deep commentary on life and love, this isn't the book for you. If you are looking for a book that had incredible descriptions of food and cute, cozy stories about how food affects people and their relationships, this is the one for you!

Thanks to Netgalley and Putnam books for the e-arc!

When customers try to find the Kamogawa Diner, they are taken aback by the small restaurant that doesn’t even have a sign outside. It’s just a dingy storefront with a cat hanging around the doorway. Most people don’t even believe it’s a restaurant at first, much less a detective agency. But when then come inside and take a seat, and let Koishi and her father Nagare pour some tea and offer a meal, they are convinced they are in the right place.

The first meal in the diner is a set menu, with Nagare bringing out an assortment of dishes so delicious that customers get lost in the flavor for several minutes. Once their hunger is sated, Nagare will lead the customer down the hall, where Koishi will take notes on their case. Usually, it’s someone trying to chase down a memory, or a feeling, one that can be unlocked through a tasty dish that has stuck in their mind for years, maybe decades.

Koishi takes down notes on everything they can remember, asking leading questions and trying to dig out as many facts from the memories as she can. And then her father gets to work, putting all his skill from his former police detective days to good use. He tracks down restaurants, recipes, ingredients, and secrets and recreates the dish. The customer comes back in two weeks to try it, to see if Nagare’s dish matches the one in their memories.

Nagare’s skill as a detective and as a cook helps a woman track down her first love, figure out why a man took his career in an entirely different direction, help a woman connect with her grandfather who is suffering from dementia. The food from their memories helps mend their broken hearts and bandage their wounded souls. All from a humble restaurant in Kyoto that doesn’t even have a sign out front.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a small but powerful book about the power of food to infiltrate our memories and our souls. The dishes and flavors that we share with those we love become part of the memories, and as we lose touch with the people, we find we can still feel that connection through the right dish. With a deep understanding of all the things that make us human—our mistakes, our guilt, our shame, our failures, our selfishness—author Hisashi Kashiwai takes it all, mixes it with the foods of our best memories, and heals our weary souls.

I loved this tiny book, but it is bittersweet. It needs to be savored, like the meals it serves up. While it seems like a simple book about a detective making good food, it’s really about reaching into a person’s soul and finding the key to opening them up to a better future. The noodles are a bridge from past memories to future success. The rice paves the way for healing. The sushi heals the soul. There is so much comfort in food, but there can be heartbreak and regret too. The Kamogawa Food Detectives finds that heartbreak and heals it with the food that the mind craves, and in doing that, it heals readers who have a hidden craving for something more too. You do not want to let this book get by you! Devour it as soon as possible.

Egalleys for The Kamogawa Food Detectives were provided by G.P, Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Such an interesting idea. We probably all have a food we remember eating with a loved one or something special your mom or grandmother made for you as a child. Nagare Kamagowa will find the history of it and try to recreate it for you. He can even set the stage to help the recreation.

This is not a character driven book. While Nagare and Koishi are pleasant enough there is no indication of how they got into this or how the restaurant even survives. It was an easy read although at times could be repetitious. I had just read an amazing book so this one had a lot to live up to and since I have no experience at all with Japanese food I never read the descriptions of the meals thinking oh yes, I have to try that. If it was set in a place or with food I'm familiar with I would have enjoyed it a lot more but in the right hands this book will shine.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing me with a digital copy.

I love food and trying new things which leaves me open to finding something that I will eventually crave but not be able to recreate. The Food Detectives, a father-and-daughter team of detectives/restauranteurs, help others find the ever-elusive dish that combines great food with important memories of a time and/or person they want to find. It’s a beautiful tribute to their loved one to be able to find this one thing that truly stands out to them and the detectives are able to do it. The stories are touching and poignant and I found their techniques to recreate the dishes interesting but I wanted more of this, rather than the final reveal which told them how it was done. I wanted to follow along and see where they were going to get the ingredients but this might have ruined the vibe of the story. Fascinating stories but I was hoping for more of a focus on the food.

I love this question - "What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?" And how this novel goes about solving this intriguing topic. The premise of a special restaurant was so appealing to me - like a special place that few are invited to enjoy!

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 warm and friendly story about how food and experiences go together and how a special chef and his daughter help find a particular food for their client that they have a fond memory of. However there's a catch the client can't seem to remember where they had it or who created the dish and that is where the Kamogawa Food Detective comes into play.

The book has a number of clients that need help in finding that particular food and it seems that the connection has to do with someone they love and they want to reexperience that connection even if they can't have the connection with that person. Nagare (the chief) and Koishi (daughter) gather the information from the client to find that exact food and the father and daughter team find it every time.
The twosome are fun to read about as they banter among themselves while solving the case and they do it in a loving and kind way for those who need there help.

It's a funny place because it's almost an invisible place to everyone except those who are seeking their help. It reminded me a lot of the story "The way of the Peaceful Warrior," by Dan Millman whose character appeared when someone need their help.

I want to thank PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for an advance copy of this special story about healing.

3 solid stars. This book is no plot, but also not very many vibes. There are six short stories of people who come to the restaurant and are looking for the Kamogawa Food Detectives, who recreate meals that people remember but can't recreate themselves. They share details and memories, and then the detectives do their detective work and figure out how to recreate the meal. The stories are sweet (and also bittersweet), and the descriptions of food are delicious. But again, there really isn't any plot, and not all of the stories made sense. And because these are short stories, I didn't necessarily feel like I knew the people looking to solve their food mysteries (nor did I really care).

And this is so not important, but there isn't a cat in the book, even though this is one of the cutest covers I've seen in a while.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for providing me with an eARC of The Kamogawa Food Detectives in exchange for my honest review.

You might not want to read this food mystery on an empty stomach because your mouth will be watering you’ll want to rush out to your favorite Japanese restaurant to try some of the dishes created in this culinary mystery.

Is there a food or meal that conjures up a specific memory for you? Is there a dish your grandma made that you wish you could taste again? I grew up eating my great-grandma’s oatmeal raisin cookies at many family gatherings. Even though I had the recipe, the cookies never turned out quite right until just last year I tried making them again and this time, when I bit into the cookie, I was transported to my childhood. Tears welled in my eyes as I savored the moist cookie as if I were a child again at my great-grandma’s table.

"Get to my age and you’ll realize that nostalgia can be just as vital an ingredient."

That is what this Japanese novel is about. Being transported to a meal that held a lot of meaning for the character in the story. Koishi and her father, Nagare, run the Kamogawa Food Detectives Agency in Kyoto, Japan. After being featured in Gourmet Monthly, people are coming to them to help them recreate a much-loved meal that they are no longer able to find, create, or have made by a loved one. Kioshi takes the information about the meal or dish and presents it to her father who researches, travels, and then creates the meal over the next two weeks.

When the customer returns, Kioshi presents them with the meal they hope is the one they have been missing. Oftentimes, when the story is told about this meal and why it is special, Nagare can also learn about other parts of the customer’s life and offer bits of advice.

Sometimes a book in translation is a bit disjointed to read because the translation doesn’t fit right with the story. Even though there was a lot of repetition in this story and attention to detail I felt like the translation was smooth and readable. I enjoy books in translation because they usually offer a unique insight into the traditions, the food, the culture, and the people of the country where the book is set. This story definitely immerses you in the culture of Japan, especially the food culture, the landscape, and the communities they live in. The idea of someone taking you back in time to recreate a lost family recipe or favorite dish at a now-closed restaurant is a book full of the best kind of comfort.

This is the first book in an expected series.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives was a collection of short episodes following the lives of Food Detectives living in Kyoto as they help people looking for specific flavors. The writing was easy to follow and lighthearted. This book had a really intricate way of depicting life, love, feelings of loss and moving forward. It had me really rooting for the characters involved and overall, was such a heartwarming story. I really enjoyed this book and am very grateful to have received this ARC from NetGalley.