This review may contain spoilers
Ha Ji Won
I am not a fan of hospital / medical dramas because I get squirmy easily and I don’t want to feel disturbed during and after watching such dramas.However, I chose to watch this show because of Ha Ji Won. I am a fan of this female actress as in my opinion, she doesn’t disappoint.
I enjoyed this drama even though there were heartbreaking moments. There were many lovey moments between the male lead and female lead. The whole cast acted well. The story was pretty good. There were tense moments. There were sweet moments.
I have rewatched the sweet moments because the female lead and the two hot male leads have good chemistry.
I’d say: watch this because it isn’t too heavy on the hospital / medical side. It’s more on the human / humane side if you get what I mean. Also, watch because of the leads.
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A Hidden Game
To start with, I'm actually not a fan of Melodrama. I'm a fan for action, thriller, political, and crime drama which this is far from my cup of tea. It's actually because I'm a fan of Ha Ji Won (we know that she is an action actress and that's why I love her). So I started this drama with zero expectation, just for the sake of okay I want to see Jiwon more, I'm running out of dramas :D. But you know turns out this drama become one in my top list!At the first I also like most of the people. The story is boring and I don't think I'm enjoying much. However in every episode I started crying. Then I manage to finish it. First time I enjoy is solely for the scenery and the OST. Beautiful Greece and Hospice set up.
But then I don't know why I started to miss Moon Cha Young and Lee Kang and I read some reviews and story from people. I decide to rewatch again and yes, this is started when I finally find this gem! The story itself is so thoughtful and have many deep meaning. I started to think about life and death and a lot of meaning of value of life. This drama has that kind of messages that I think I cannot find it in Kdramas I've ever watched. So I suggest that for the watchers to enjoy the meaning that every sub stories told, which this is actually set-up the romance for the Main Leads to start open to each other. This drama is more physiological and I think the most realistic drama. Try to put yourself in their shoes and you know it is actually what you will do more or less.
Acting just superb! From the main leads, supporting actors, and child actors! Definitely the best! Since you can be drawn by every story.
I will definitely rewatch this time to time to find great scenery, hidden values and meaning, and make your heart warm.
Read somewhere that gem cannot be found by many people. Sometimes they find you. That's why Chocolate is a very hidden gem to me., So if this drama is your gem, congratulation! Hope you can be inspired too and your life can be better. And on the other hand some or most people who cannot find this gem inside, don't worry just skip this and enjoy others drama which is your cup of tea :D
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I never knew i would stay till the end of the series
if you are looking for a comfort drama, less romance, and a bit of slice of life, this is for you.started this show with zero expectation, then i found myself get immersed and crying while watching. the first half is quite fast-paced for a melodrama. ive been told it's a slowburn, so i didnt expect any romantic scene at the beginning, they started to flirt in episode 12 something so if you are looking for a swoony romance drama this is definitely not for you.
i tend to get bored easily while watching melodrama but Chocolate is so well written, the plot, the character development are amazing but i just not fond of the ending, it feels so rushed and i wish to see more bromance between lee kang and lee jun.
i appreciate the substories of the patients at the hospice, heartwarming and i cried A LOT, but we barely see the two leads it looks like they are just like the other side characters. maybe that's how the writer wanted it to be. i love the way they relate all the patients with their 'comfort' foods on their deathbed :')) and each food tells a story.
just two souls find comfort in each other, along the journey of healing. this drama is good but not super good that i'll watch it again. i'll cherish the first experience watching this.
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This review may contain spoilers
STORY: It's a melodrama with a tragedy in the mix. There is your typical family competition and hatred, but what stood out to me was how lukewarm the drama was. Lukewarm in the sense, there's no action, love rival, murder, none of those things, yet 'Chocolate' was such a beautiful and must-watch drama. I especially loved the fact that the two main leads met when they were children and how they were, in fact, more connected they thought they were, which added to the emotions when they finally discovered said 'connections.' I loved how the drama started and ended, and I have no complains whatsoever.
CHARACTERS: No complains for any of the casts, too. They played their roles exceptionally. I loved Kye Sang's and Ji Won's characters the most. Kye Sang's who seemed cold at first, but is actually the warmest and kindest person. He's not your normally played cold character in kdramas. Kye Sang's was respectful, soft and full of love to the very end. He was never disrespectful and always treated everyone with kindness. You rarely see that nowadays in dramas, so I appreciated it very much. Ji Won's character was as kind and selfless as Kye Sang's. She lived everyday for the sake of other people's happiness, and did so happily. The love between these two was so beautiful and soft, I didn't want the drama to end. They matched each other so perfectly~
The other side-characters were also as excellent. They each had a story worth listening to, and every time a person died, my heart broke and my eyes filled with tears. They were all incredible people.
MUSIC: I loved all the songs and instrumentals used. They were all winsome.
I really recommend this drama. It would really heal one's heart and soul~
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I hope you enjoy this drama as much as I enjoy it.
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This review may contain spoilers
The first thing you should know about this drama is that it is very emotionally heavy. So, if you don't enjoy sad/somewhat depressing stories, you might want to pass on this one. On the flip side, if you don't mind tragic stuff, then ABSOLUTELY give this show a watch! Story:
The premise isn't something original, but I didn't feel like I was watching something super cliche. I was invested from the very first episode (which is unusual for me). The way the series was put together (writing, cinematography, editing) from the very first scene is just breathtaking to me; I can't say that I've seen a drama story unfold in such a beautiful way. The story never fell flat at any point and it was unpredictable for the most part. The side stories fit naturally into the main narrative, I never had the urge to skip anything. Endings can make or break a drama for me and I gotta say that I was satisfied with this one. I appreciated the realistic feel and subtle ambiguity that was left at the end; not many writers can pull this off in a way that is natural; I was impressed.
Something else I noticed was how the first part of the show is mostly from the POV of Cha Young and slowly transitions into Kang's POV as the story progresses - that's one of my favorite things about this show.
Characters:
Loved them all! As the show progressed, I found myself caring about characters I didn't like at first. The side characters add to the story better than I anticipated - that's a plus. I liked the character development of the main characters the most (particularly Joon's character arc) because it was hard to tell just how they were going to react to the challenges presented - I was surprised at times, actually. I don't want to get into spoilers here, so this is where I'll leave it.
Acting:
10/10 - No complaints! Everyone was great, especially in the emotional scenes (and there are a lot of them).
Music:
I added the OST tracks to several of my Spotify playlists. That should tell you how I feel about the music. :P
Overall, if you like emotional melodrama stories (with medical and cooking aspects, as well) and touching side stories with excellently written characters, then yeah, WATCH IT.
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Side note: this was my first time watching this writer's work - I'm officially a fan now.
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Sound like a mess yet?
The romantic interest in Moon Cha Young, who falls in love with Lee Kang because he made her food once in their childhood.
In essence, it is the typical story of a male lead with a complex background who is otherwise saved by the love of the great character of a normal female lead.
That said, the way the drama executes this mess is actually quite well done, at least for the first few episodes. Enough so that it makes me want to keep watching.
Production quality is also top notch, some beautiful cuts of food being made and some parts being filmed in Greece.
However, at its core, I believe the episode structure, where it opts more for a TV series (to meet Netflix standards?) is flawed for a drama where the main premise is centred around love.
Even more so because I believe the writers made the mistake of being too experimental and the drama can't figure out whether it is supposed to be about food, hospital drama, or love, and it just becomes painfully slow to the point where the story or characters just do not progress.
To reiterate, the main story in itself is interesting enough to watch, but I simply do not care enough to hear the story of a random grandpa, boy, or long lost love that finishes in the span of one episode. One drama that executed this well is "Suits" where it actually feels like each story is utilised to develop the character of the main leads. Here.... they're just filler episodes.
I'll leave it at that for now and come back to update when, and if, I finish the drama...
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Justifies - Don't Judge a Book by it's cover
Chocolate isn't any extraordinary drama.The writer of this drama is sly and cheeky.
I'm dropping this due to inconsistent plot development.
There really isn't anything much to it.
The starting first 2 episodes are great which might make you think! Ohh wow!
And then after that, the writer simply drags it like nothing, nearly zero plot progression, and starts playing with deaths one after another.
For sure it has phenomenal cinematography but you can't solely depend on that.
The plot is scattered here and there.
This drama has a straight target for the female audience, it just somehow forces you to like it since it's brimming of sadness.
Everybody is sad in this drama, like seriously.
I liked it initially but halfway stage it's enough,
Or maybe people have become too much of an emotional fool to like this.
Only watch it if you've nothing to do and just want to pass the time.
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This review may contain spoilers
For the most part this series was pretty good! The cinematography was quite good with beautiful backdrops and scene locations. All of the characters were believable and some were very colorful. My only disappointment was the last few episodes as the story arc came to an end. I thought it left too many unfinished subplots and I really wanted to see a more deserving ending for Cha Young and Kang. The ending felt incomplete and left me with vague but well founded notions that perhaps things did not work out ideally for the two main characters. I can't say I'll watch it again but who knows? There was a lot of sadness in some of the subplots but understandable and not overdone. Some of the carefully choreographed cooking scenes could have been replaced with more emphasis on the relationship between the principle characters. I started out not liking Jun but toward the end the character seemed to find himself and became more and more likable and added to the one of the more pleasant endings. This series was well worth watching and I recommend it highly. I wish it had been afforded more episodes for more completeness. Was this review helpful to you?
A drama that healed me quietly, relentlessly, and without ever raising its voice.
I went into Chocolate with the simplest of intentions: “Hey, Yoon Kye-sang was great in The Winning Try, let’s see what else he’s done.” I did not expect this show to grab me by the heart in episode one and escort me, gently but firmly, through sixteen hours of emotional excavation. Three days after finishing it; two sleeps, stable nervous system, hormones at factory settings, I was still emotionally hollowed out in that peaceful way only truly healing stories can do. That was when I knew Chocolate had earned its spot beside My Mister in my personal Hall of Fame.Chocolate doesn’t dazzle you loudly. It doesn’t lure you with melodramatic bait or whip-lash plot twists. Instead, it flows like a river that has known its course long before you stepped into it. Lee Kyung-hee writes with a kind of narrative patience I rarely see anymore: scenes breathe, silences speak, characters evolve without fanfare, and emotions bloom in those little pockets of unspoken understanding. The show trusts you to feel. It trusts its actors to carry subtleties. And it trusts its own heartbeat enough to never rush.
At its core, Chocolate is a story about two people who have spent their whole lives being kind to everyone except themselves. Lee Kang (Yoon Kye-sang) and Moon Cha-young (Ha Ji-won) are tethered to their goodness in ways that feel both admirable and suffocating , the kind of people who pour so much of themselves outward that they forget they’re allowed to keep some warmth for themselves. The drama follows their slow journey toward self-acceptance and emotional clarity, where choosing happiness stops being framed as selfishness and starts being recognized as survival.
And then there’s grief, the ever-present companion in this story. But unlike many dramas that weaponize death for shock value, Chocolate treats it with reverence. Grief becomes a teacher. Memory becomes a compass. Every patient at the hospice, every brief story thread, every seemingly minor character adds another tile to the mosaic. This is where one of my favourite arcs resides: Moon Tae-hyeon, whose unexpected depth hit me hardest by the end. His line, spoken after losing Hui-na, “Cherish your day, as today is the tomorrow that people who don't have it dreamt of yesterday”, cracked me open. It’s simple, earnest, and devastatingly fitting for a show where tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to everyone.
The writing is astonishingly meticulous. I counted at least 32 narrative webs woven through the drama: supporting characters, patients, families, flashbacks, cross-generational echoes, and every single one concludes satisfyingly. Nothing is wasted. No one is thrown in just to fill space. It’s narrative craftsmanship at its most deliberate, the kind where you can feel the care poured into every character, no matter how briefly they stay.
Visually, Chocolate isn’t a spectacle-driven drama, it lets its actors carry most of the emotional weight. But the cinematography knows exactly when to step forward and when to lean back. The color palette is especially thoughtful: the early episodes are a muted blend of cool and warm tones, reflecting the emotional dissonance of Lee Kang’s life in Seoul contrasted with his childhood memories. As the characters slowly choose healing, the palette shifts, warmer, softer, almost like that moment in late spring when you realize summer is about to unfold. By the end, the visuals subtly echo acceptance, especially through the Wando arc, which becomes a visual metaphor for cleansing and return.
But where the show truly shines is food. If you think this drama is going to give you pretty cooking scenes just because it can — absolutely not. Food here is memory, apology, longing, history, forgiveness. Every dish has a story, often devastating, and the cinematography treats each cooking sequence like an emotional ritual. Close-ups, soft filters, gentle ambient sound, it’s never aesthetic fluff. It’s storytelling.
The soundtrack? Flawless. Truly flawless. Chocolate has one of the most carefully curated OSTs I’ve heard in years. The upbeat “Sweetest Thing” by SEVENTEEN keeps brighter scenes buoyant, while the melo tracks: “Alone” by Hui, “Greeting” by Kassy, “I’ll Be Going” by Jiwoong Ha, wrap the heavier moments in something tender rather than manipulative. Romance gets its own sonic heartbeat with “Just Look for You” by Ailee, “Always Be Here” by Hajin, and “Special” by Yubin. The OST never overpowers a scene; it sits beneath it like quiet breath. Episode 13’s ending, where silence gives way to a perfectly timed musical swell, is seared into my memory.
And yes, even with all this praise, I still approach reviews with balance. Chocolate has a glacial pace, intentionally so, but not universally appealing. Some secondary arcs feel slightly stretched. And the romance may confuse viewers who prefer overt expression over subtle emotional evolution. But none of these break the drama. At most, they ask you to meet the story halfway, to pay attention to both what’s said and what isn’t. This drama rewards the patient.
Ha Ji-won and Yoon Kye-sang deserve their own applause. She is luminous here, effortlessly warm, expressive, and heartbreakingly human. Her smile alone could power a small town. He, on the other hand, turns Lee Kang into one of the most quietly compelling male leads I’ve seen in a while: brittle yet kind, restrained yet vulnerable, someone who feels real in a way that makes you soften your voice around him.
By the time the finale arrived, I realized Lee Kyung-hee had composed this story like an orchestra, every memory, every meal, every character arc a note. And together, they form not a perfect symphony, but a deeply human one. That’s why Chocolate stands beside My Mister for me. Not because they’re similar, but because both dramas achieve greatness not by being flawless, but by being honest.
This is my second Perfect 10 of 2025, right after Doubt, and it earns that crown with quiet, unwavering certainty.
If you’d like the full, in-depth byrei.ink review, you can read it over on my site.
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Beautiful, sentimental but overall underwhelming
If you require a quick emotional fix, this show has what you need. However, If you want a show with flushed-out plotlines, no cliches, and lots of romance and you might want to skip this one.There are several storylines with many characters experiencing their own unique issues. The characters and their vulnerabilities really grasped my attention for the first 6 episodes. However, it eventually led to its own downfall. There was too much, which inevitably left us feeling like there was too little. There were too many plot lines which made the viewer felt like they needed a flow chart to keep up. Additionally, there was not enough time to fully flush out each plot device, so the result felt choppy and fast. However, it also felt agonizingly slow as the main plots dragged on and on.
Perhaps this is simply due to my own taste, but I found it redundant the number of times the main female lead would consistently getting into unnecessary danger. This danger only happens before the main couple becomes a couple, so it came off as a cheap plot device to push the male to "notice" his feeling. It's a cliche drama device, so I can't be too mad at it. She eventually experiences something that impacts a major part of her character and gets over it relatively quickly, and it's rarely addressed afterwords. Additionally, the main couple hardly gets any screen time, and although they have great chemistry, it really didn't showcase the joyous feelings of being in love.
The food and cooking aspects were great. The stories of the patients were beautiful and sentimental. I cried quite a bit, honestly. The acting was amazing, and the character's backstories and personalities were given as much depth as possible, given the vastness of the cast. Additionally, the visuals were beautiful and emulated the peaceful nature of a hospice.
Overall, this is a good drama, but I won't rewatch it. There was too much going on, and I wished they would've cut down on the subplots and invested more time on the major characters and the major plot lines. I got bored often and honestly fast-forwarded some of the more boring subplots :////
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This review may contain spoilers
interesting start but later part it just okay
I was fully invested in first 5 episodes. how first love theme played and somehow lost each other only to find each other back but fate came in between us.back then I tried this show because of the writer (she wrote my fav I’m sorry I love you, nice guy and uncontrollably fond), but I found it slow and boring.
however this time I watched 5 episodes at 1 sitting and I was hooked. it wasn’t until the hospice arc started I felt everything started to get diluted.
I don’t really feel much attracted to characters in the hospice. perhaps except for the director’s ex wife. the rest just seems plain? the only one that teared me up was Jiyong.
also the hospital and the family scenes honestly was unnecessary. really.
I felt many things weren’t satisfying. for example towards the end, ML got to know the woman in the rubbles was his mother. I felt that arc was put in too late. Cha young’s mother reappeared and then Cha young decided to disappear for a while, like why?
when Cha young said she’s going to tell a story. it gave me an impression that what if ML self blame himself because all this while she didn’t love Min Seong but him? and he was the reason Min Seong and her broke up? doesn’t she think of this? and ML said let’s pretend there’s no Min Seong and just two of them. hey what?????
now, the characters.
Lee Kang, I feel his character has been consistent. from a cheerful, kind boy, the family transformed him into unhappy, serious, no smile, but he still kind inside. I can feel he’s surviving not living his life. it was until at the hospice he gradually begun to change. soft, subtle but obvious. I’m new to yoon kye sang and I felt he has this natural delivery. I like his depiction of Lee Kang. not too much.
Cha Young.
she’s gullible, easily tricked. kind. high empathy. one thing I don’t like about her was she’s just too kind that her own brother and mother took advantage of her. what I wish is for her to get out of this and live her own life. honestly her brother was annoying but (show not good at painting he’s also suffering). and in the show she got hurt so many times for weird and nonsense reason. go up to up the hill to pick up raspberries, come on. just buy! this is plot convenience. she paid for her mum’s meals at that homestay, I just cannot brain Cha Young. does she hates or yearn her mother?
Lee Jun.
I swear this guy has always feel conflicted since he’s a kid. pitting against Kang. his parents and grandma put him through these. I like his development and when he got to know about his father’s birth origin and how he himself was treated as a tool to agitate Kang, the change in him was not sudden but understandable. Seung Jo has electrifying eyes. whenever something happened, looking at his eyes doesn’t tell only single emotion but many.
overall not a bad show but can be much better, improving on the healing aspect.
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