Baniita

The cooking is strong, the writing is pretty strong as far as this genre goes. I'm referring to the writing of the cooking bits, at least. Stupendous. The actual plot is quite mid. There are a few things lacking, like... well, to be frank, the chemistry between the main leads isn't that great, but I think that for 99% of things anyway, so... When hetero is good, I don't feel a desire to turn away from the screen. Unfortunately, while the leadup into their romance was good, but after halfway I started turning away again. Likely because I thought the potential was greater than its execution. It's very simple and kind of mid. But the standout is the cooking anyway. The cooking competition was an especial highlight and were fantastic episodes, probably the best I've ever seen in a cooking drama, and this is including Ken with his crepe suzette (Nobunaga no Chef manga, the drama didn't adapt it super well).

The villains are lackluster and 2-dimensional. The male villain in particular is just completely unappealing, and this is speaking as a villain fan. There are plot points that I feel needed to be wrapped up properly for a proper time loop but I hope the novel handled this better. I like the last episode a lot but I do feel like it needed more time at the end.

update: After reading some reviews gushing about the romance, I have sincere concerns about some folks' standards for romance... Guys, it really isn't that great.... (Secret Garden, Word of Honor, Winter Begonia... I love these but even I can't say they were particularly stupendous in this department. To me the take-home award goes to non-asian drama Hannibal "I wondered if our stars were the same" NBC. (Very sad ORV adaption completely ruined the book. The male leads in that also have insane, insane chemistry.))