Who doesn’t like food and anime? But when these two ingredients are combined, it makes for the most delicious media for consumption! Gourmet anime revolving around food and cooking is a widely beloved genre many a fan can relate to and enjoy. After all, we all eat, so why not spice things up by making anime that makes the experience even sweeter? And with these choice picks, you’re going to love not just the food, but the wonderful, gluttonous characters, adventures, and foodie challenges!
But just how much can anime really do with food? Well, in typical anime fashion of turning even the mundane and fundamental into something exciting, so too do these series turn food into whole adventures. Whether its a sweet slice-of-life, caper-garnished caper, flavorful fantasy, or crispy comedy, you’re sure to get your fill with these appetizing anime. Ding ding! The dinner bell says its time for a well-balanced anime binge, so get comfy with some comfort food and savor these scrumptious selections!
Delicious in Dungeon
When the adventuring party of knight Laios Touden is transported out of danger by his mage sister Falin, she unfortunately isn’t so lucky herself, having been swallowed by the dragon they’d been fighting. With little time to waste and cash on hand, Laios proposes to his party members, elven mage Marcille Donato and halfling locksmith Chilchuck Tims, that they eat the monsters they come across on their way through the dungeon to save Falin. Upon meeting the culinarily adept dwarven warrior Senshi, the group ventures to safely digest some good monster cuisine before the dragon digests Falin.
More of an unorthodox food anime, these characters’ cookbooks feature ingredients a bit… gamier, shall we say. But if you’re looking for a side of adventure to complement your main course of monstrously delicious meals, Delicious in Dungeon has you covered.
Delicious in Dungeon can be streamed on Netflix.
Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World
At the Japanese izakaya Nobu, head chef Nobuyuki Yazawa and waitress Shinobu Senke work hard to serve only the best traditional food and drink. Although Nobu looks like a typical restaurant, it has a magical side: opening its doors to a parallel universe. Inviting guests in from the otherworldly city of Aitheria, word spreads and soon the local foreign restaurant becomes the talk of the town with its exciting new cuisines. Nobuyuki and Shinobu quickly find themselves serving many Aitherian citizens with empty stomachs and full stories.
Isekai Izakaya, as the name implies, is a fantastical isekai take on the gourmet genre. Although this series takes the idea of trying out-of-this-world foreign foods a bit too literally, the relatability of experiencing delicious delicacies from distant lands isn’t too far fetched.
Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Food Wars
Souma Yukihira, working at his father Jouichirou’s restaurant, hones his skills as an ambitious chef developing his culinary expertise and wowing customers with new inventive dishes in the hopes to one day exceed even his renowned father’s culinary skills and, someday, head the restaurant himself. But when Jouichirou reveals that he’ll be closing up shop to move to New York on a new venture, Souma decides to enroll at the prestigious Tootsuki Culinary Academy, famous for its curriculum that’s just as competitive as its students. But if Souma wishes to surpass his father in the culinary arts, he’ll have to survive the bitter culinary battles and graduate.
Please be advised that the characters often find the cuisine to be a bit too to their liking, shall we say, and isn’t exactly a family friendly cooking show. Even so, as famous as anime is for displaying food as art itself, Food Wars in particular has a transcendental 4K focus on its dishes.
Food Wars can be streamed on Hulu, HIDIVE, and Crunchyroll where available.
Food for the Soul
As five girls settle into university life, they find a way to make their new routines more interesting. They decide to create the Food Culture Research Club! Shy but culinarily apt Mako Kawai, strong-willed but reliable Kurea Furutachi who helps run her family’s restaurant, the cheerful but impulsive club president and Mako’s childhood friend Shinon Ogawa, cool and composed Tsutsuji Higa, and former puzzle club member Nana Hoshi come together to bond over food. Along with popular food content creator Mokotaro, these new university students are in search of some delicious meals to taste.
Although this show has only just begun its debut for the Spring 2025 anime season, its premise shows much promise as a simple cute-girls-doing-cute-things slice-of-life. And what’s not to love about cute girls eating food?
Food for the Soul can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Campfire Cooking in Another World
with My Absurd Skill
Tsuyoshi Mukouda, a run-of-the-mill salaryman, is transported to another world upon being summoned as a hero to the Kingdom of Reijseger. But when its revealed that his only skill is “Online Grocery”, he’s able to weasel out of the situation since his only skill, a non-combative one, is considered essentially useless. Fortunately for him, striving to live a quiet, simple life in the new land, the skill actually proves incredibly useful, allowing him to cheaply purchase items and food from Japan considered luxuries in this world. When his delicious cooking piques the interest of the legendary wolf Fel, the two create a contract for Fel to become Mukouda’s familiar. Traveling the world together, Mukouda and Fel spend their time adventuring, trading, and, of course, cooking.
With this series focusing on traditional ingredients from Japan, new from the video game-like fantasy world, and some economics while traveling with a wolf companion, Campfire Cooking is like Delicious in Dungeon, Isekai Izakaya, and Spice and Wolf sushi-rolled into one.
Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
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Fighting Foodons
In this world, battles are determined by fighting Foodons, strange monsters with unique abilities that are created by chefs using magical cards called Meal Tickets on food recipes. With everyone being terrorized by King Gorge, his evil empire of Glutton Gormandizers, and evil Glutton Clawdia, 11-year-old Chase seeks to fight back and become a master Foodon chef. Along with his younger sister Karen and fellow chef Pie Tin, the friends team up to prevent the Gluttons from kidnapping chefs and forcing them to create powerful, evil Foodons.
Fighting Foodons is as underrated a gourmet anime as adding chives to instant noodles. If you’re craving a tasty comedy adventure that’s like a combination of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo and Pokémon, this is the flavorful fighting anime for you.
Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits
Aoi Tsubaki fends for herself against the Ayakashi, spirits from the Hidden Realm only she can see, by whipping up tasty meals in hopes that the spirits will not turn her into a meal herself. When she happens upon one such hungry spirit she offers her lunch to, she’s suddenly transported to the Hidden Realm. The spirit reveals himself to be the ogre-god known as Master Innkeeper Oodanna and that Aoi’s grandfather had used her as collateral for his debt to the spirit. With the debt falling upon Aoi to pay back, Aoi, refusing to become the bride of the ogre god, instead opens a restaurant at Oodanna’s inn to pay off the debt herself.
Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits is a sweet choice for those wanting a spicy fantasy kick alongside waiting for the slow-burn romance to marinate. And in this otherworldly eatery, Aoi finds something a bit more to be toothsome than just how the spirits find her cooking.
Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Toriko
In the Gourmet Age, the world overflows with delicacies like colossal corn, hamburgers sprouting out of the land like weeds, and surf n’ turf all in one monstrously delicious beast. Although there’s chefs and foodies like any other time and place, only those brave enough to seek delicious rare ingredients venture out as Gourmet Hunters. But Toriko isn’t just one such Gourmet Hunter, but the most renowned who has discovered 2% of all known ingredients. With his unique set of culinary combatting skills, Toriko, along with his five-star hotel chef friend Komatsu, fights against deliciously deadly monsters, evil organizations, and food itself in order to complete his Full Course Menu of Life.
With an appetite just as big as the foes he faces, Toriko’s strength and stomach rival even those of Goku from Dragon Ball and Luffy from One Piece. In fact, they even get together in a crossover episode at one point to share one big monster-sized meal together.
Toriko can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Sweetness and Lightning
Kouhei Inuzaka is a widowed father who works hard as a teacher to provide for his daughter Tsumugi but relies heavily on ready-made meals from convenience stores as he lacks many culinary skills. When Kouhei discovers that his student Kotori Iida often eats alone due to her mother being away for work, Kotori offers for him and his daughter to come cook and eat dinner with her at her family’s often-closed restaurant. Thus begins a story not just about these characters learning to cook but about blossoming culinary camaraderie.
This series warms the heart just as much as the warm homemade meals the trio cooks together, highlighting simple pleasures we often take for granted like taking time to not just appreciate comfort food, but the comfort of family.
Yumeiro Patissiere
Although clumsy and unsuccessful, Ichigo Amano discovers she has substantial tasting abilities when she meets famous patissier Henri Lucas, who, seeing potential in her, offers her the chance to attend St. Marie Academy. Although Ichigo is a total novice in making desserts, upon getting recommendation from Henri himself, she’s placed alongside the topmost students at the prestigious patissier culinary school known as the Sweets Princes. Accompanied by fairies who make patissiers’ dreams come true, Sweets Spirits, Ichigo hones her sweets skills and is determined to do her best in the dessert competitions.
Shows about savory dishes are great, but it’s nice to finish this ten-course list with an anime about dessert. If you’re interested in going all in on this magical girl-adjacent gourmet series, we recommend checking out Doreimani’s video attempting to recreate these challenging yet stylish sweets.
What’s your go-to show to snack on? Let us know in the comments your top delectable picks for a gourmet anime binge!
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