Book Review: “Restaurant To Another World, Volume 4” by Junpei Inuzuka

I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reading “Restaurant To Another World, Volume 4” by Junpei Inuzuka! I’ve read the past several volumes in this series before and enjoyed every single one of them so far, so I’m excited to read more and

Here’s a quick summary so we know what it’s about:

“Western Cuisine Nekoya seems like an average restaurant, but they’re hiding a secret: on Saturdays, they open portals to another world! These portals allow in fantasy creatures to sit down for a nice meal. Elves, dragons, or anyone else who wants to dine on earth cuisine is welcome. Bon Appétit!”

Worldbuilding Development: 5 out of 5 stars

This book started revealing the origins of the restaurant’s founder, which I found to be fairly interesting. It’s mainly discussed in the opening and closing chapters since the rest take place in the present time.

I also enjoyed reading more about the politics of the fantasy world, especially with how they dealt with half-elves and the repercussions of how they are treated in society in general and its effects on the half-elf characters. There was also some discussion of how they dealt with half-orc children, though it was not nearly touched upon as much since there were more half-elves compared to half-orcs featured in this volume. The fantasy world that all of the customers come from is slowly building itself well, and quite consistently so, which I appreciate as a reader.

Character Development: 5 out of 5 stars

As I mentioned earlier in the worldbuilding development section, this book started revealing the origins of the restaurant’s founder and how he started with creating the restaurant. His interactions with another character (I won’t spoil who because it’s a fairly major spoiler) show off his kind-heartedness, and it’s clear that the restaurant’s current owner took a lot after him personality-wise, which was nice to read.

It’s also revealed that Sarah Gold, who was featured in a previous volume of the series has a cousin named after her descendant William Gold. He is also nicknamed Junior to further identify him. It’s fun to see a bit of continuity by revealing new family members, and it also led to some heartwarming moments in this book when the two of them met again in the Western Restaurant Nekoya.

The vegan elf Fardania also made a return in this volume, bringing along new friends, and the same went for a couple of other characters that I won’t spoil in this review. It’s nice to see each of these characters interact with each other and also bring in new characters that they know. It gave me as a reader the opportunity to learn more about their close bonds with their friends, allies and loved ones.

Plot Development: 5 out of 5 stars

This volume has some new storylines starting to appear with Shota (who comes from our regular world compared to the fantasy world) developing a crush on Aletta. Shota isn’t aware of Aletta coming from another world, as he mistook her to be a foreigner, but it’s still fairly cute to watch him and Aletta interact with each other in the one chapter they have together. I have a feeling that Shota might appear in later volumes on and off if this storyline continues past just one chapter.

This volume also contains some flashback chapters revealing the Western Restaurant Nekoya’s origins—or more specifically, the people involved in its founding. It’s very sweet, and I won’t write too much about it in this review to avoid spoilers, but it’s hinted at/discussed in the opening and closing chapters.

Overall, I’m rating this book 5 out of 5 stars! 

This series has not failed to impress me yet with its consistent writing despite its well-known slice-of-life format, and I look forward to reading the next entry in this series!

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