Heartwarming / Restaurant to Another World

In General

The whole series is this. It's a low stakes anime about travelers and adventurers from around the Other World finding their way to Nekoya, where they are allowed to leave their troubles behind and dine on delicious food, all the while surrounded by decent company to banter and interact with. The fact that this humble little restaurant would also end up helping some of the less fortunate denizens of the Other World resolve their troubles, or at least start the path to healing and recovery is the cherry on top.

Season 1

Episode 1

• Tenshu finds Aletta sleeping in his kitchen after eating food he had prepped the day before. So what does he do? He hears out her situation, makes her another meal, and offers her a job at the Nekoya. In mere moments, he's probably shown her more kindness than every human in Aletta's own world since she got outed as a demon.
• The Red Queen bestowing her blessings to Aletta, declaring her as part of her treasure and under the Declaration of Protection, now that she had been hired at Nekoya.

Episode 2

• Sarah Gold decides to search for the lost treasure of her late grandfather, William Gold. After tasting Nekoya's cuisine, her comment on leaving the place:
  Sarah Gold: The legendary treasure hunter’s last treasure... a treasure befitting William Gold.
• Heinrich Zeeleman, on the verge of collapsing from hunger while on the way to seek reinforcements against an army of mothmen, stumbles upon Nekoya. After replenishing his strength there, he decides to use his personal sword as a collateral for payment since he has no money on him. Despite Tenshu telling him he could put on a tab, he left without knowing the restaurant only appears on Saturdays. His meal gives him the strength to complete his mission, but he is unable to find the door to pay off his debt 10 days later. Three years later, one of Nekoya's regulars, Tatsugorou, returns Heinrich's sword and tells him of Nekoya's quirks, allowing Heinrich to become a regular at Nekoya and enjoy its cuisine, which reminds him fondly of his hometown.

Episode 3

• Princess Adelheid rediscovering Nekoya and her favorite food, which was central to one of her fondest childhood memories with her now deceased grandfather.

Episode 5

• The story behind how Lionel first entered the restaurant: decades ago, after being captured and sold into slavery in a gladiator arena, a starving Lionel found one of the magic doorways to the Nekoya, where Tenshu's grandfather encouraged him to keep fighting for his freedom, and fed him his to-be favorite food, pork cutlet rice bowl, which he explained was sometimes called a "victory bowl" in his culture. He fed Lionel without asking for any money, just encouraged him to repay the tab when he could, and Lionel was inspired to win his fights so he could repay the kind chef when he won his freedom. Years later, he's still coming to the restaurant.
  • The manga states that Lionel thought that he could simply steal all the food he wanted, while in the light novel he thinks he could simply threaten the chef into giving him a lot of food without pay, but in both versions, he immediately follows this by stating that the chef treated him as he would any other customer, not fearing him or shunning him due to Lionel being a beastman demon, and thus Lionel thinks to himself that he could not do such a horrible thing to such a kind man. After returning to his cell and ready for his first fight, Lionel's thoughts aren't about his survival, or earning the money he needs for his freedom, or wanting to return to the restaurant to eat more katsudon; instead Lionel's main goal is wanting to win because he wishes to properly pay the chef for the food he kindly allowed Lionel to have.

Episode 7

• The entire episode has many but it starts with Admiral Alphonse Flugel. Many mistook him for a barbarian warrior but in fact turns out to be a sailor undergoing a Robinsonade on a deserted island. He's been on that island for 7000 days or so... or nearly twenty years. His weekly trips to Nekoya are probably the only reason that he's still sane after such a long time. The episode explicitly said waiting seven days for the door to Nekoya to appear one thousand times was a lot easier mentally than waiting for a single 7000 day stretch. Unspoken is the fact that being able to see and interact with other people once a week probably did a lot for his stability as well (the manga and light novel do state that getting to interact with people that one day of the week was another highlight of the restaurant besides the food).
  • It was later revealed, after the island was discovered by two sirens, Arius and Iris, Alphonse left a message and his money back in the same cave, telling any would be individual, who is unfortunately marooned there as well, about the Door and the Restaurant, and to not lose hope.
• The other half of the episode has Kuro, the Black Dragon. Like the Red Dragon Queen from episode 1, she's an immensely powerful ancient dragon but her domain is death and she can cause lesser beings to die just by her mere presence. Not being the malicious type, she effectively exiled herself to the moon until a door to Nekoya appears. Much like Alphonse, her getting a chance to break her exile by spending time at Nekoya is quite sweet.
  • On top of that, the Red Queen makes her weekly visit while Kuro is there. She arranges for Kuro to be employed at Nekoya, and it's clear that for all of her territorial posturing (including claiming the beef stew for herself), she wants her old friend and comrade (sister?) to come out of her shell and spend time around people. Given just how isolated Kuro was, this ultimately was for the best.
• Unbeknownst to both Kuro and Alphonse, they both share a very deep and serious isolation backstory but ultimately shared a meal with him, with him going out of his way to treat her for her first meal, and in subsequent episodes is willing to include her whenever the topic of curry comes up. Despite the subject of their shared isolation never being broached, it's clear that he's quite fond of his fellow curry lover.

Episode 8

• After being sent to Sarah Gold's house by the other world's equivalent of the temp agency, Aletta is hired on the spot by Sarah as her housekeeper. Sarah even offers her a room.
  • In the manga, Aletta notices that Sarah often stays up very late working on her adventuring journals and maps and the like, with nothing but beef jerky to snack on. After enjoying steamed potatoes with butter at the restaurant, Aletta asks Tenshu to teach her how to make them, which he does, and gives her pointers, like adding bacon. Once back home, Aletta cooks some for Sarah, adding bacon as she was taught, and even improves on it on her own accord by adding cheese and a touch of black pepper. Upon eating Aletta's offering, Sarah is absolutely delighted by, giving Aletta a firm, affectionate hug while stating that she enjoyed that meal even more than she would have at Nekoya.

Season 2

Episode 3

• The relationship between Alphonse and Kuro is quite sweet, given it's clear that as fellow curry connoisseurs (and unbeknownst to them, their similarities in regards to their backstory of isolation and loneliness) that the two have built a rapport of sorts. Kuro is really managing to get more genuine friendship and kindness that she wasn't able to get back at home.

Episode 4

• The manga's chapter with Victoria and her favorite, pudding a la mode, plays out differently, as it focuses a lot on her nephew and niece Alfred and Margaret (seen briefly in one scene of the anime), who are curious about her, as everyone in the castle refers to her as a witch and she tends to be shunned (a fate suffered by most half-elves), but the children don't fear or shun her, instead being curious about her and wishing to get to know her better. In gratitude, she takes them to the restaurant and they all have pudding a la mode. The children love the experience and the food, and give Victoria a big hug while promising to keep the secret of the door to the restaurant, making it even clearer that they love her regardless of her half-elf status. From her part, the normally stoic Victoria smiles genuinely, stating that that day's pudding a la mode was even better than ever because she got to enjoy it with the children. From that point on, the children become regulars alongside their beloved aunt.

Episode 6

• The episode starts with Fardania taking Alice into Nekoya for the first time. From how Alice defers to Fardania it seems like they have been traveling together for a long time. Its when they sit down that we learn Fardania met Alice yesterday and that Alice was left to die by the Jerkasses she was traveling with for being too elven after her parents died. Fardania takes Alice in and so absorbed being with Alice that she doesn't even have time to be Tsundere to Tenshu over his cooking and by the end of their segment Alice joins Fardania on her journey.

Episode 7

• While Souemon and Doushun's initial behavior implies a strong hostility that's emblematic of their respective countries, once their egos cool off, they show themselves to have a strong mutual respect for each other, using Nekoya to bring each other up to date on their respective countries' political situations, and even trying out each others' preferred okonomiyaki dish with gracious friendliness. They ultimately end up forging a potential trade agreement between their countries on the basis on recreating their favorite okonomiyaki dishes, with each of them praising each others' brilliant ideas on the matter.