The Restaurant of Many Orders (注文の多い料理店 Chūmon no Ōi Ryōriten) is a children's short story by Kenji Miyazawa, published in 1924 in a short story anthology of the same name. This page only covers the single story.
In this story, two men on a hunting trip in England are in a tight situation: they can't find their guide, their two dogs are dead, and they're lost in the mountains. They come across a restaurant called "Wildcat House" in the middle of nowhere, decide to stop by and discover that it's a lot weirder than it seems…
Due to this story's infamous plot twist, spoilers are left unmarked.
Please keep in mind that our restaurant is one of many tropes:
- Back from the Dead: The men's dogs, which die at the beginning, suddenly show up at the end to fight off the restaurant's owners.
- Big Damn Heroes: The men's dogs come back to life to save their owners from a cruel fate.
- Bittersweet Ending: More bitter than sweet: the restaurant disappears and the protagonists go home safely, but they're scarred for life by the incident.
- Cats Are Mean: The villains of this story are very cat-themed.
- Cat/Dog Dichotomy: The heroes express callous disregard for their dead dogs, and end up terrorized by cat-themed villains.
- Disguised Horror Story: The restaurant's orders get increasingly weirder and weirder, culminating in a shocking reveal that they actually eat their patrons.
- Double Meaning: "Orders" here doesn't mean "the patron ordering food" like the protagonists think; it means "the restaurant ordering the patrons around". This double meaning is present in the word 注文 in the original Japanese as well.
- Gainax Ending: The dogs suddenly come back to life to save the heroes, the restaurant disappears, and the heroes' clothes stay off. It's never explained why or what exactly happens.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The restaurant is a front for man-eating creatures, and the instructions it gives out to patrons are meant to partially prepare them as food.
- Invited as Dinner: The characters eventually realize they aren't getting served food, they're getting served as food.
- Oh, Crap!: How else will the protagonists react to realizing they're trapped in a maneater's hideout? Luckily, they're saved afterwards.
- Oh Look, More Rooms!: The restaurant is a series of rooms, each with an instruction. The first few are sensible enough, telling you to take off belongings and accessories. The next tell you to take off your clothes. Then the next tell you to rub seasoning on yourself. Then the final… cue massive Oh, Crap!.
- Spooky Kids Media: A children's story about nearly being tricked into being eaten.
