Sorcerous Plates (Hidden Dishes #4)
written by Tao Wong
narrated by Emily Woo Zeller
My Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Cozy Fantasy
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f
Blurb:
Even magical chefs have to eat…For once, Mo Meng isn’t the one behind the counter. After years of serving dishes at the Nameless Restaurant, he’s taking a rare day off. His destination? The soft launch of a new restaurant, where he’s been invited to sample their debut menu.
At least, that was the plan. But while he might have left his restaurant behind, its patrons and their problems are a little harder to lose.
Sorcerous Plates is the fourth standalone novella in the cozy cooking fantasy series Hidden Dishes.
Listen to this if you love:
– Cozy, lighthearted fantasy
– A hidden restaurant in the heart of the city
– A reclusive chef with a secret touch
– Magical realism & gentle enchantments
– Heartwarming stories of friendship and hope
– Malaysian flavours, rich atmosphere, unforgettable meals
– Perfect for fans of warm, slice-of-life fantasyFrom the bestselling author of The System Apocalypse and A Thousand Li comes Sorcerous Plates, a cozy cooking fantasy novella perfect for fans of Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes and Junpei Inuzuka’s Restaurant to Another World.
My Review
I like this series and was eager to continue it. I picked up this fourth book in audio again as I enjoy listening to this series. Sorcerous Plates changes things up a bit, this time it’s not set at the Nameless Restaurant with Mo Meng as the chef, but Mo Meng is attending the soft launch of a new restaurant run by a former apprentice of his.
While I liked the idea of seeing Mo Meng eat somewhere instead of cooking in his own restaurant, the set-up just didn’t work out as well for me. I missed the familiarity of the Nameless Restaurant setting and the various dishes and patrons. Instead we get a group of 4 characters including Mo Meng trying out the multiple courses at this new fancy restaurant. I missed getting the insight in how or why these dishes were created. And this restaurant just leaned more into the fancy fine dining experience and I like the cozy vibes of the Nameless Restaurant more.
Kelly, the waitress, joins Mo Meng at this restaurant as well as a vampire who is a frequent patron of the Nameless Restaurant. And then later they get joined by henry, another patron, who also has his own series. This way there was a variety of characters and dishes they ordered and we get to see their thoughts on it. The food was probably my favorite part of this as it’s fun reading about these dishes, although again the fancy fine dining restaurant type dishes aren’t my preference.
A lot of the book also deals with the conversations they’re having. I somehow struggled to keep up with all the threads and the more subtle hinting, something I noticed in previous books too, but felt more prominent here. I just felt a bit lost and there was so much about their histories and the world changing instead of focus on what’s going on now. Although there also was some talk about border patrols and helping supernaturals through that. And then there are the dishes they eat as well.
There are multiple hints about Henry his story, which is told in the Hidden Wishes series, and it just felt a bit too much. I haven’t read that series yet and it felt like this book constantly reminded me of that, which both felt a bit heavy handed instead of subtle and it just made me feel like I was missing background info, which is not a feeling I like.
I also had expected there to be a bit more about the fact that this new restaurant was run by a former apprentice of Mo Meng and it just felt like that didn’t really go anywhere except that Mo Meng disappears at the end to talk to him, but I would’ve liked to actually see that scene.
The narrator was great as always and feels like a good fit for this series. The characters all have their own voice and sound different.
To summarize: I really like this series, but this book was less enjoyable to me than the first 3. The change in scenery with this book taking place as Mo Meng visits another restaurant seemed like a fun change of place, but instead it left me missing the usual Nameless Restaurant setting and the cooking focus. It was fun to see the characters try the dishes at this restaurant, but the fine dining fancy restaurant setting and food wasn’t as fun to read about as the cozy Nameless Restaurant. I also struggled to keep up with the plot lines and talks of the characters. And the multiple mentions to Henry’s past and his series felt a bit overdone and made me feel like I was missing something as I haven’t read that series. The narration was great as always and I like how the narrator does the different voices. I hope the next book is better again when they’re back at the Nameless Restaurant.
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