While this is a manga focused around food, like a lot of mangas that are technically focused around some specific subject such as food or a sport, the core of the manga instead lies beyond that. It does describe food to a decent degree and as someone with no knowledge about Italian food or restaurants whatsoever, it was pretty new and interesting. Still, what holds up this manga is the stories surrounding the food. What most impressed me about these stories was that there was a lot of variety to the stories, as in it never felt like a story was pretty much repeating another, as is often the case with such manga. It isn't a food battle show, though there were competitions at times, but rather encompasses a lot more than that. I think that helped keep things fresh and it never felt like it was dragging on. Furthermore, it allowed the manga to show tremendous growth in Ban, who was incredibly different by the end of the manga as compared to the beginning. Another thing that worked well were relationships such as friendships, rivalries, etc. These were told really well and the characters involved came through really well, and many of the various side characters got some solid development through that. However, one thing to note though, is that one aspect of relationships that the manga completely screwed up was romance, where pretty much any time the manga even lightly touched upon it, it felt awkward and pretty terrible. This is an issue because it is the focus of the last two arcs. Now, I understand that there is a sequel to this, but if a manga is going to do such a transition there should be some sort of transition into it with an arc end that's at least somewhat satisfying, even if it leaves plot threads dangling or ends on a cliffhanger. Here the manga just ends abruptly in the middle of an arc. Furthermore, it ends at what is pretty much the lowest point in the manga, because the second to last arc is pretty weak, though not too much to fuss over, and the last arc is awful and noticeably a lot worse than the rest of the manga. While there is a lot going on around it, romance seems to be the key focus, and how that is handled is terrible, with a twist that is shockingly terrible, being more shocking because nothing even close to that ridiculous occurs at all throughout the entire manga, and furthermore, the manga ends right after it, leaving an incredibly bitter taste to end on. In terms of the art, the food came through really well, which for a manga focused on food I guess is the most important thing, and the art in general beyond that was solid enough.
