Ristorante Paradiso is centered around the 21 year-old Nicoletta who heads to Rome to expose how her mother has a daughter from a previous marriage. Things do not quite go according to plan, and Nicoletta ends up working at the restaurant casetta dell’orso owned by her mother’s husband. The odd thing about the restaurant is that all the employees are older gentlemen who wear glasses …
Ristorante Paradiso is a slice-of-life anime with no earth-shattering events nor overly melodramatic moments. And for a show focused on a restaurant, there is no great drama on cooking the ultimate food for the taste buds. Despite this, or rather because of this, Ristorante Paradiso ends up being an excellent anime. We get a look at most of the characters with their various backgrounds and emotions, and it all feels like it’s real without being boring. It’s also very nice that most of the characters behave maturely most of the time, despite plenty of messy relationships and drama implied in the background.
Those who must have action, melodrama, or mystery in their anime might rate this high on the boring scale. But if you’re the sort who very much enjoyed watching ARIA as I have, then I believe you’ll also love Ristorante Paradiso. Those who happen to have a fetish for mature gentlemen with glasses will also just love the show.
Vocabulary
Being a show set in Italy, all the characters are actually supposed to be speaking Italian. In fact, plenty of Italian phrases are used throughout the show. If you happen to be watching Ristorante Paradiso without subtitles, or if you watch it with subtitles that don’t explain what each Italian word means, then this small and far from exhaustive list might help you look up what some of the Italian phrases mean. It would definitely help you avoid wondering why a restaurant seems to have no food other than “antipasto” or “dolce” …
- ristorante
- restaurant, obviously; in particular, a high-end restaurant
- osteria
- a small restaurant in the country
- cameriere
- waiter
- sommelier
- sommelier, a wine steward
- antipasto
- appetizer
- dolce
- dessert
- grazie
- thank you
- buona sera
- good evening
- nonno
- grandfather
