For me, the cultural ins and outs of a dish featured in a chapter is just as interesting as the plot (which is thin, but endearing). So, this is a good watch if you're interested in an introduction to cooking (or want to make yourself hungry).
The animation is reserved but subtly blends 3D and 2D to where it's not jarring, and serves to strengthen the visual consistency of each character. Thanks to this consistency and painterly backgrounds, for me more than a few times a shot was reminiscent of high grade animation (shouldn't really mention Ghibli here, but that's what I mean).
Though, it's possible a character created in 3D is what holds them back from having more expressive animation in this anime.
Good luck getting the opening theme out of your head... and the ending theme makes me want to cry for some reason.
(manga not read yet...)
