Menu of Happiness
Penguin Publishing Group · Hardcover · October 14, 2025
A beloved Japanese bestseller, Menu of Happiness is for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and asks the question: What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time? “As warm and nourishing as a good cup of tea…a series I can see myself returning to again and again.”—Mia P. Manansala, award-winning author of Arsenic and Adobo Every memory has a flavor.
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- Who it’s for
- A Kyoto diner turns forgotten recipes into a warm, food-centered path back through memory and regret.
- Themes
- Food and memory, Regret and forgiveness, Solace and reconnection
- Genres
- Japanese Fiction, Culinary Cozies, Literary Fiction
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A beloved Japanese bestseller, Menu of Happiness is for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and asks the question: What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time? “As warm and nourishing as a good cup of tea…a series I can see myself returning to again and again.”—Mia P. Manansala, award-winning author of Arsenic and Adobo Every memory has a flavor. A very special restaurant in Kyoto helps find them . . .
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Welcome to the Kamogawa Diner, where every meal is a mystery ready to be solved. This unique establishment is run by a father-daughter duo who offer more than just mouth-watering meals. They act as “food detectives,” delving into the past to produce nostalgia-infused dishes for their hungry clientele. Among the patrons is a once-renowned pianist whose promising career was marred by a self-inflicted injury. She longs to taste the yakisoba shared with the only man she ever truly loved. The diner also welcomes a man haunted by shadows of regret. His mind is haunted by the memory of gyoza served by the parents of a lover he once jilted, as he seeks understanding and, perhaps, forgiveness. The Kamogawa Diner doesn’t just serve food – it recreates forgotten recipes, helping its patrons to revisit memories lost to time. Each dish is a portal to the past, serving not just sustenance but solace and reconnection through the miracle of delicious food.
Memory on the Menu
A Kyoto diner turns forgotten recipes into a warm, food-centered path back through memory and regret.
Come here for
- Meals with memories attached
- A gentle mystery built around recreating lost recipes
Expect
- Food, nostalgia, and second thoughts at the same table
- A cozy, reflective reading experience
Where it sits
| Japanese Fiction | 71% |
|---|---|
| Culinary Cozies | 63% |
| Literary Fiction | 36% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Literary Fiction
- Cozy Mysteries with Pets
- Family Life
- Authors
- Hisashi Kashiwai
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- October 14, 2025
- Format
- Hardcover
- Theme
- Food and memory · Regret and forgiveness · Solace and reconnection
- Reading lane
- Literary Fiction