A Kamogawa Food Detectives Novel Series

Discover new delicious mysteries in this fourth installment in The Kamogawa Food Detectives series, the beloved Japanese bestseller and celebration of the healing power of food.

“Off-beat and charming, [with] more complexity of flavor than you might expect.” – NPR – Fresh Air with Terry Gross

“Miso soup for the soul.” —Kirkus Reviews

A magical menu of memories awaits…and you’re going to want a second helping.

Travel down the alleyways of Kyoto, passing the Higashi Honganji Temple, and you just might be lucky enough to find the Kamogawa Diner, where a father-daughter “food detective” duo help their clientele discover memories lost to time through recreating delicious food from their pasts.

Take your seat and observe the ginger pork reminiscent of unrequited love, the not-too-sour chilled noodles from grandma’s house, and even the macaroni gratin shared between a father and his young son for the final time. There is no dish or memory too complex for chef Nagare and detective Koishi, committed to providing the culinary closure their diners so desire.  

The Kamogawa Diner won’t just sate your appetite, as the meals on offer can conjur any forgotten memory. A true tonic for the soul, its customers will leave with a warm belly and a full heart.

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 . . .

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.

We all hold lost recipes in our hearts. A very special restaurant in Kyoto helps find them . . .

Tucked away down a Kyoto backstreet lies the extraordinary Kamogawa Diner, run by Chef Nagare and his daughter, Koishi. The father-daughter duo have reinvented themselves as “food detectives,” offering a service that goes beyond cooking mouth-watering meals. Through their culinary sleuthing, they revive lost recipes and rekindle forgotten memories.

From the Olympic swimmer who misses his estranged father’s bento lunchbox to the one-hit-wonder pop star who remembers the tempura she ate to celebrate her only successful record, each customer leaves the diner forever changed—though not always in the ways they expect . . .

The Kamogawa Diner doesn’t just serve meals—it’s a door to the past through the miracle of delicious food. A beloved bestseller in Japan, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is a tender and healing novel for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese series, for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?


Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that’s not the main reason customers stop by . . .


The father-daughter duo are ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.


A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.