Oh, this is SO charming. It's just little vignettes about a time-travelling izakaya which is currently located in a small medieval german town, and shows the locals discovering new food and, sometimes, themselves. Make sure that you're reading when you can go out to an izakaya after, though! You WILL get hungry!

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review

This was an adorable manga mostly about Japanese food. This pub is somehow connected to Germany so the the Germans aren't well known with the Japanese dishes. Each chapter follows different characters (only the staff from the restaurant is in every chapter) and they discover sashimi and noodles and more. The food helps them find joy and happiness and warmth in their lives which was cute.

However, while it was enjoyable it's also forgettable. I wish we had some more backstory about how this pub appeared randomly and more. I think this might be explained in the other volumes but for now I don't feel the need to continue with the series.

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu (Volume 1) is a manga style graphic novel written by Natsuya Semikawa, with art by Virginia Nitouhei. A Japanese style pub called “Nobu” exists in a back alley of the fictional medieval European city of Eiteriach. Its customers? A pair of slacker soldiers, a spoiled heiress, an uptight tax collector, and more. When the citizens of this strange world sit down to enjoy some unfamiliar Japanese cuisine, their troubles simply melt away. The curtain rises on this otherworldly eatery and the gourmet fantasy about to unfold within!

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu is a well drawn and fun read. It is light hearted and quick to read. There was a good variety of characters, and I liked the undercurrent of mystery. Just where did this shop come from, and how do they get their ingredients? There is good character description and development for the each member of the rotating cast. We get deep insights into a cast of very different characters, more than you might expect in such short chapters. I look forward to more from this series, because I want to know more about the pub, its two person staff, and its regular patrons.

The food descriptions made me hungry. This book would benefit from color pages to give the food more substance. I felt it was too lite on the story. There isn’t much of it. It’s sort of like Ratatouille without the rats and the plot. Just customers coming in for food. Cute little vignettes, but nothing cumulative.

IRASSHAIMASE!

I really like manga theme like this! Cooking and delicious food! All character really enjoy the food! The karagae and chicken nanba make me droll too, i hope there is next volume here.

Thank you to NetGalley for provide this book, it is pleasure to review this book.

#IzakayaNobuOtherworlly #IzakayaNobu #NatsuyaSemikawa #VirginiaNitouhei #UdonEntertainment #Manga #NetGalley #ARC

3 stars

A quick read with great art. The manga is very episodic without any real overarching plot that isn’t showing off good looking food. Wish we could of gotten to know the chief and Shinobu at all as they feel like background characters in their own restaurant.

A wonderful, quick, and easy read! Loved it! The art style is beautiful and the characters are so great! Highly recommend this to any manga lovers!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

This manga was largely episodic, with each chapter being an "episode". The sole focus of this manga is to show off Japanese dishes and to have the characters visiting the Izakaya be stand-ins for the readers. It is interesting to have these Japanese dishes shown and explained, and also learn a little bit about German food by extension. But it really doesn't have any over-arching plot line to keep my interest. Yes, reading about these unfamiliar (Well, some were, I knew most of them) Japanese dishes is interesting, but by the final chapter, it gets a bit boring. I don't know how they will make a series out of this. I am curious about how a Japanese Izakya restaurant appeared in medieval Germany/random fake European city. But it's just brushed off like it's a very unimportant part of the story, even though it's something that seems to be interesting. The art style is interesting, but it's not really to my taste. I just didn't vibe with this series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm sorry but I'm not a big fan of mangas about cooking. I've read and tried a bunch of books in this genre but it is not my thing. I always ended up bored. I would prefer a recipes book.
Here we have a Japanese pub in a fictional medieval European city of Eiteriach; it is actually a German city for the characters speak German. A nice cosy fantasy story about introducing Japanese food and drinks to medieval German people.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu Volume 1 by Natsuya Semikawa (Author), Virginia Nitouhei (Artist) was just as I remembered from watching the anime. It's a simple foodie manga that follows a modern Japanese pub transported halfway into a fictional medieval European city, and the customers that find the delights that await them there. There's something comforting about consuming content that's just about good food and happy people, and this manga delivers! Food never looks so good as when it's drawn. This slice of life manga will make you happy and hungry and long to find a good Japanese Izakaya of your own. Recommended to food lovers and manga lovers alike.

I didn't really like it at first, but this mange grew on me with each chapter. The reactions are quite over the top, but that's part of the humor. The food all looks delicious. If only some of it were in color.

Beautiful. Stunning. Delicious? Never had a book made me so hungry while reading, or so excited to try new foods!

A lovely manga I was lucky enough to get an ARC for through NetGalley, it highlights how much impact a comforting meal can have. It can brighten our day, draw us closer to our companions. Bring back memories of simpler times, bring out our adventurous side. Or even comfort and broaden our horizons. Beautiful artwork, and a heart warming message!

This series is for those who like appealing food stories! Yes, there are recipes in the back of the book as well, always a solid edition to these sorts of series. The best surprise was the language barrier between our Euro-flavored fantasy setting townsfolk and the Izakaya worker speaking Japanese. It was a small, but nice touch that made it stand out a little more! It's calmer than say, Crazy Food Truck, but if this is your jam, it's off to a strong start!

The story centers on a Japanese style pub called Nobu found in the middle of a fantasy, medieval German type city. Nobu has a menu no one can read and makes food so great, everyone comes back for more. The story is really episodic, each chapter focuses on a different customer and their reactions to Nobu. I don't really know if there's any more setup or story beyond this, the characters were not very prominent and there was not a lot of worldbuilding, beyond a few panels suggesting something otherworldly. The focus is on the patrons who are largely confused by Nobu's offerings, but try it out anyway and end up loving it. The food takes center stage, so if you're not into that, this is not the story for you.

This was such a cute manga! I really enjoyed the different stories that were told across the various chapters, and how they came together in different ways. Plus I love food.

I have hard time reading Japanese cooking or food manga, but somehow I still try. Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu is just what it is (an izakaya), but somehow exists in a fictional medieval European city that's very German in many ways. There's no real plot as it's mostly these male soldiers complaining about food and then getting inside this weird izakaya and finding everything Japanese delicious. This is the problem, your basic Japanese cooking isn't gourmet and they hardly use any spices either. There aren't so many variations when it comes to foods and praising salted soybeans feels slightly dumb. A country that thinks a hamburger steak is actually a food on its own and with rice? Yeah. The clean flavors are one thing, but Japanese beer is basically water.

Somehow all of the food mangas follow the same pattern and in every one Japanese cuisine is rejoiced, which bugs me for many reasons and I've lived in Japan. The art is OK, but nothing spectacular, mostly it's just talking heads. The rhythm is slow and lazy, very much slice of life. Not my cup of matcha tea this one.

This was such a good manga! I'm a sucker for anything to do with food so this one was right up my alley. I loved that all of the characters each had their own woes and that the food at Nobu was able to help each of them in a different way. I will definitely be reading the next volume!

*This manga is fun to read if you can suspend the idea that a Japanese izakaya would land in medieval Europe (eastern side including Germany/Poland, it’s not clear). Every section seems to have someone who has never eaten Japanese food and gets excited about what they’ve eaten. The food descriptions were good. The romanticizing of the food is fun. It’s not clear why the characters get angry when they taste something good but it does make for more interesting drawings.
*I really liked that they added a food vocabulary. Some of the German terms are not known to me.

This was a nice, relaxing manga that made me SO HUNGRY! Being more on the episodic side of things, I didn’t necessarily feel a super strong pull to keep reading, but I enjoyed the talk of food so much that I’ll probably continue the series and most likely give the anime a try, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Udon Entertainment for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions presented here are my own.

My Thoughts:

What do I love about manga? I love the kawaii factor, but I also love the humor in good manga. I like that bitter or angry characters are softened within the manga genre. This manga series takes place in a fictional European town that seems like somewhere in Victorian times by their dress. But in the a forgotten alley is a Japanese pub, or izakaya. Once patrons find this little pub, they love the food. The "Chief" and the waitress, Shinobu, are pleasant and magical. Somehow they get the best ingredients. The beer "what'sontapp" is always ice cold. They serve fresh fish even though they are not near an ocean. What is funny is that the different characters come in with different kind of troubles, and the Chief and waitress know exactly what they need to make them feel better. The food is simple, almost homey, but everyone leaves happy. For Chief, seeing his patrons come in after a long day and leave with a smile on their face is a good day. Kawaii.

From the Publisher:
A Japanese style pub called “Nobu” exists in a back alley of the fictional medieval European city of Eiteriach. Its customers? A pair of slacker soldiers, a spoiled heiress, an uptight tax collector, and more... When the citizens of this strange world sit down to enjoy some unfamiliar Japanese cuisine, their troubles simply melt away… The curtain rises on this otherworldly eatery and the gourmet fantasy about to unfold within!

Publication Information
Author: Natsuya Semikawa
Artist: Virginia Nitouhei
Publisher: Udon Entertainment (Sept 17, 2018)