Restaurant to Another World Volume 2: 12/21/20

Restaurant to Another World Volume 2 by Junpei Inuzuka and Katsumi Enami (Illustrations) focuses more on how the Western Cuisine Nekoya restaurant actually works.

The light novel opens with the arrival of a demon girl in the restaurant. Aletta fell asleep in the basement and is discovered by the master. Had she fallen asleep in the dining area, she would have remained in her own land. But she made her way to a part of the building still anchored in Japan.

We also learn more about the other people in master's life. There's the previous owner and the barkeep upstairs. The previous owner of course knew about weekly trips to another world. The barkeep doesn't know as much but he knows he does a good side business with special customers.

For the Satur customers, my favorite chapter involves halflings. These are the antithesis of the Tolkien hobbits. Tolkien's characters are snooty cottage gore gourmands. These guys are more like Appalachian farmers. I'm going to assume in the original Japanese they're given rural accents. In the translation those rural accents are rendered as if they're from the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Another interesting chapter involves a person trying to get into the restaurant. They have to recruit someone else to go with them to open the door. Do a runner on paying once, and the door will never open for you again.

As with the previous book, each chapter reads like a self contained but related short story. They make an enjoyable weekend read.

I have volume 3 on hand and will be reading it soon.

Five stars

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