The Kamogawa Food Detectives

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.

This completely charming book is about a father-daughter duo who run an unmarked restaurant in Kyoto. The secret behind the tiny place is that it also is a detective agency where people come to have a dish from their past recreated. With clues that are often both vague and sketchy, the dishes are recreated and the clients can unlock the clues to their past. I loved this short boo!=k!

"The Kamogawa Food Detectives" by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood from Japanese, is a whole new take on cozy mystery. I would create new genre for it if it doesn't already exist. Cozy Foody Mystery or Cozy Food Investigative. The mystery isn't a dead person but rather the investigation to find the right recipe to match a particular memory of a food someone had.

I do wish there was more to the actual investigation Narare, widower and single father, does. Each dish he makes he throughly explains why he made it how he did. However, I wish the reader could tag a long as he discovers and experiences these interactions. It makes the book feel like a collection of short stories where each one could be a book of it's own. This would bring them truly into the mystery genre.

A cozy atmospheric read. The "cases" that the father-daughter duo solve are all low stakes, and more about the human experience and empathy than the mystery itself. The food descriptions alone are beautiful and immersive, even for the dishes I was unfamiliar with and I was pulled into the connection these dishes have for the people involved.

Since this is a book where each chapter is its own self contained story (with the same cast - think low stakes tv show episodes) and I think that if you read it straight through it can be a bit repetitive, and I recommend instead reading and pausing and coming back. I do wish that we could have learned more about Nagare and Koishi as the book progressed.

This book is a sweet respite of a book that showcases the importance of food, culture, and empathy in being human.

Hisashi Kashiwai's 'The Kamogawa Food Detectives' is the perfect cozy, non-stressful, and heartwarming book. Focusing on a father and daughter's detective work to connect people to their past with food, Kashiwai writes a simple yet effective novel about nostalgia and how remembering our past can allow us to move on to greater things. With the restaurant being so hidden, there is an idea of fate and how people are brought together towards new experiences by our past and our future, simultaneously. I do not often like low-stakes novels, but something about Kashiwai's writing was so charming while still being entertaining as a 'detective' book that I couldn't get enough!

This book was charming and heartwarming and it made me so, so hungry. Food is so much a part of our lives, and tied intricately to our celebrations and relationships. Thinking of a beloved dish that you can no longer eat is a particular type of nostalgia—one that this book exploits in the best way. I could have read about Koishi, Nagare, and their diner patrons for far longer than this book lasted. While its rhythms and references are particularly (wonderfully) Japanese, it appeals to the human in everyone.

Quite possibly my favorite read since encountering the Thursday Murder Club series. This is the coziest of cozy mysteries, highlighting the restorative powers of food, community, and understanding the past to move forward in the present.

A father and daughter run a small diner tucked away in a quiet part of Kyoto. And if a certain type of diner is fortunate enough to find themselves there, the restaurateurs also are food detectives, helping track down and recreate the diners' favorite meals. Each chapter stands alone but, together, the vignettes draw a picture of the proprietors and their patrons. Even more than the mouthwatering descriptions of the food, the gentleness and care for these characters and their interior lives makes this the most delightful and gentle of reads that is the perfect respite from the chaotic world.

Gentle, sweet, atmospheric, and oh so charming. This book will transport you into your own cherished memories and leave you feeling all of your feelings. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this one early.