I really enjoyed the first book in this series but wasn’t sure if a sequel was necessary. However this collection of moving tales was just as charming and heart warming as the first batch and made for a very wholesome read!

There's a lot of these books coming out of Asia to Western audiences and they're really sweet. I thought this one was one of the better ones.

I was a huge fan of the first book in this series so I knew I'd love this. It's poignant, emotional, heart-warming and I absolutely loved it. The characters and their stories are so moving and every story comes together at the end leaving no stone unturned. I love the addition of the recipes and can't wait to make the pork belly karaage. Just beautiful

Yuta Takahashi’s The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen is the kind of novel that feels like a warm meal on a rainy afternoon. At its center is a small, tucked-away kitchen run by people who seem to have as much care for the souls that wander in as they do for the food they prepare. The Calico Cat, both a character in its own right and a silent observer, ties these small, tender stories together.

The premise is deceptively simple. Customers arrive at Chibineko Kitchen carrying the invisible weight of their own troubles. A struggling student unsure about the future, a widower learning to eat alone, a young woman debating a life-changing decision, each finds themselves drawn into the kitchen’s quiet rhythm. Meals are prepared with patience and a kind of attentive magic that is never explained outright, yet it is easy to believe in. The Calico Cat’s presence adds a whimsical layer, watching from a corner or curling up near a chair, somehow knowing more than it should.

Takahashi writes with a calm, almost meditative pacing. The descriptions of food are detailed but never indulgent, grounded in the textures and scents that make the reader hungry in more ways than one. Between the simmer of soup and the gentle clatter of dishes, there is space for reflection. Conversations unfold slowly, allowing silences to hold as much meaning as words.

What gives the book its staying power is the way it treats kindness not as a grand gesture but as something built from consistency. The kitchen is not a place where all problems are solved, but it is a place where people leave feeling lighter. The Calico Cat, with its quiet watchfulness, becomes a symbol of that care, a reminder that comfort often comes from simply being seen.

There is a soft melancholy running through the novel, a recognition that life’s sweetness is fleeting. Yet rather than leaning into despair, Takahashi’s story holds on to hope. It is a hope rooted in everyday rituals: the sharing of a meal, the warmth of a cup between your hands, the familiar sound of a chair sliding back from a table.

The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen is a gentle, nourishing read. It will not rush you. It will not demand more than you can give. Instead, it invites you to sit for a while, to breathe in the scent of something delicious on the stove, and to remember that sometimes the smallest spaces hold the most meaning.

With thanks to Netgalley and Yuta Takahashi

The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen is the second book in the 'chibineko kitchen series' and it just as good if not better than the first one.

The stories that the people have to use the Chibineko are all heart-breaking and will make you cry.

A lovely and bittersweet book.

Once again, the Chibineko Kitchen opens its doors to people trying to navigate life after losing a loved one. Remembrance meals are served and these people get to see their loved ones again, just for a short while.
The individual stories are well crafted and the characters are no longer weighed down with sadness and guilt after their meal. Recipes are provided after each chapter.
The cat is instrumental in each story and just like the previous installment, this book is also a comforting and heartwarming read.

The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen is a lovely sequel to The Chibineko Kitchen. While it doesn't break new ground in terms of story structure, it brings back the same heartwarming charm through its bittersweet chapters and unique characters.
One character, a theatre director who now visits the restaurant, had already made a brief appearance in the first book, and here, we finally get to learn his poignant backstory.
These books gently explore themes of loss and grief, but above all, they’re about the quiet, healing moments that take place during the brief encounters at the Chibineko Kitchen.

Oh! And did I mention there’s a cat? 😉

What a gem of a book. There are several stories in this book . The people all have one thing in common. They desperately want to see their departed loved ones again. All the characters are believable and the stories make compellimg reading . It also teaches us more about the Japanese way of life. I really recommend this book if you want a nice gentle read with an uplifting message of hope.

Had to buy it as I forgot to download it :) But I really enjoyed this return to the Chibineko kitchen! The choices Nagi Hayakawa has to make are heartbreaking. If you liked the 1st one you will definitely enjoy this one!

A second visit to the Chibineko Kitchen and if you haven’t read the first book, don’t worry. The Chibineko Kitchen, run by Kai who is also assisted
when she is able by Kotoko, serves remembrance meals. Chibi, the little kitten is still there and is still trying to escape every chance it gets. Visitors book in and request a special meal and while they are eating it they get a one time only chance to meet with someone who has departed, a one time chance to say those words they never said. As with all books of this genre - a genre that I enjoy - there are four sort of interconnected stories and here you don’t just get what happens when the person visits, you get more depth. You get an unpacking of this person’s life and you understand why they have chosen to visit and request a remembrance meal. When the departed visit they can only stay while the food is hot. Once it has stopped steaming then they must leave. This time we have a young woman with a terminal illness wanting to ask her mother for advice, we have a man who has rarely ventured out of his house for almost 20 years, we have a widow consumed by loneliness and an actor who has lost his young son. Each story explores grief and love and how to get the courage to take another step. I loved all the stories but the final one brought tears to my eyes. The book even includes the recipe for the remembrance meal at the end of each chapter. This is warm and comforting, a hug in a book and yes, I will visit the Chibineko Kitchen again if there is a third book.

This was such a lovely book, I think I enjoyed it even more than the first one! I love that the stories are interconnected. They are so emotional while also being uplifting. I've had a difficult few weeks and this was the perfect read.

It was great seeing some of the characters from the first book, I wish we saw them even more but I know this is quite a long series, so hopefully we will see more of their story in the coming installments.

This is one of the best ‘healing fiction’ series I've read, so I definitely think it is worth a try if you are interested. I can't wait to read the next one.

To return to the chibineko kitchen is such a treat. I loved the first book so much. I laughed, smiled and cried as I did again! Thank you to the author, NetGalley and publisher.

A little while back, when the first book in this series came out, I had rather overdosed on these 'healing books', but back then, I thought that The Chibineko Kitchen'was the best of them, so I was pleased to get an eARC of this one.

The Chibineko Kitchen serves remembrance meals, meals that allow the first to talk to a dead loved one for as long as the good is steaming. There are four loosely connected stories; a girl wanting advice from her mum, a man who wants to thank his mum, and so on. The message of all the stories is to live life to the full.

We meet up with some of the characters from the first book as well, Kotoko is working at the Chibineko Kitchen, so we get to follow her story; and of course, there is Chibi, the restaurants cat, who always helps people along.

*Many thanks to Netgally and the publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

A cute read!

This is the second book on this series and I have to say that I prefer the first one more.

Like my favourite series Before The Coffee Gets Cold or The Food Detectives one, it can get quite repetitive if the way the storytelling doesn't change slightly. However, it is a lovely read and is a very short book.

Yuta Takahashi's "The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen" is book two in a series of books that combine food, recipes, and grief. Customers come to the chibineko (small cat) kitchen to be reunited one more time with a loved one through a remembrance meal. This kind of novel could be schmaltzy, but somehow the combination of food, earnestness and emotion works. I get drawn into the stories each time. There's something comforting about reading a book that highlights the pain of grief and how we have to process that sorrow to continue with our lives. The world is so chaotic and frightening right now so it is such a relief to read a book that reminds me that honest human interactions are so important.

I very much like the idea of a remembrance meal and also the recipes and details about the particular food stuff/region it is from were all really nice detail added to this book, and it was a pleasant, quick read.
I'm not sure that it added a lot new to the cosy Japanese genre and although you don't have to have read the first book there are lots of nods back to this and it does add to the reading experience if you have read book one.
As sequels go this is a good one and I'm glad that I am continuing to read books from this genre even though it is becoming saturated.

“Nothing had changed, all he had done was to turn his gaze forward; yet now the landscape ahead of him looked different from before.”

What if you could meet a loved one, who’s died, just one more time? Could they change the way you view the days ahead of you in this life? That is exactly what happens when you visit the Chibineko Kitchen for a remembrance meal, which can bring back someone you loved and now miss from the world beyond but only once and only for as long as that meal is steaming hot. But that one time may be enough for you to let go of your worries, your guilt and see life in a different light.

In this wonderful book, which you can devour in less than a couple of hours, we have four visits to this special kitchen run by Kai. First we meet a girl who only has five years to live and whilst she is in love, she feels it isn’t right to accept an offer of marriage. Can her mother offer her advice? Then it’s a son, who feels all he had ever managed in life before he lost his mum was to be a burden and he never managed to make her proud or help her himself as she got older. He now has something to tell his mother. The third visitor is an old lady wishing for the old days when she wasn’t alone and lonely. Can she see her life in a different way? Finally the parents of a boy who died in a car crash at just ten years old. Could meeting their son bring them the peace they cannot find?

A beautiful sequel to The Chibineko Kitchen and just as heartwarming. If you love Japanese fiction, you will enjoy this one. I must say the moments where the living meet their loved ones from the world beyond always gets me. Always so moving and it does make you think about whether your feelings and thoughts could change if you could see someone you’ve lost just one more time.

Book 2 of this series equally a lovely read as the first book. Themes of love and forgiveness, heartache and joy. Highly recommend this book.

I loved these books, the premise behind Themis just so beautiful, you book a remembrance meal and hopefully get to meet someone from your past who is no longer with you. It's a lovely idea, one I wish so much we could all experience, but the emotion, the sensitivity involved in the writing andit is so beautifully handled. An emotional pleasure

Let me tell you this: I LOVED the first book. It was one of my top 10 reads for 2024, and I had no idea there would ever be a book two.
I've said it before, and I have to say it again, but Asian writers have a way of writing that just hits different. Everything reads better, the food is described better, and it's like reading poetry with new letters all at once. This book is like this. Its healing, its heartbreaking, Yuta manages to send me into so many emotions that I cannot put the book down. I would go as far to say that this book is a little bit better than the first, and I don't understand how. All I can tell you is that this novel made me feel, think and learn. I have it in my brain and it will not go away. This book needs the attention, and the translator has done wonderful work. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book, and letting me give my honest feedback.