[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Kaidan_6581.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[Music/MichaelJackson Not quite. ]]]]

->''"Welcome to Thriller Restaurant. I am the Ghastly Garçon, the manager of this establishment... We specialize in dishes that send shivers down your spine. Here is tonight's menu..."''
-->-- ''The Garçon''

Also known as ''Kaidan Restaurant'', this anime is about a series of horror stories told by ghosts in a restaurant, which tend to focus on the same group of kids: Anko, Reiko, and Shou.

The norm is three stories per episode, all organized like the many courses of a meal: the appetizer usually deals with a story of the supernatural (ghosts, possessed [=TVs=], whatever); the main course is similar, but longer and almost always with a twist; and the dessert is a short and sweet urban legend, almost always containing a vague moral (Whether this works [[LostAesop or not]] is up to you).

The manager of the restaurant, The Ghostly Garçon, presents the episode, while a whole host of spooks from Japanese mythology is responsible for the menu.

Essentially a sort of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' for kids.

----
!!This show provides examples of:

* [[AbductionIsLove Abduction is Friendship]]: Anko's mother was kidnapped by a lonely water spirit as a girl. She immediately reciprocates his desire for friendship despite having literally been plucked off a riverbank.
* AgentScully: Reiko sticks to her logical, realistic guns - even after experiencing countless supernatural phenomena herself. It gets annoying, really.
** Though [[FreudianExcuse the reason]] is absolutely [[TearJerker heartbreaking.]]
* TheAlcoholic: The garçon is implied to be one, given the closing theme.
* AllThereInTheManual: There are about fifty children's books off of which the anime was based, and you can find out more about cameo characters within them.
* ArtShift: The movie, the first half is done in the usual anime style. The latter half then switches to live-action.
* AxeCrazy: The GrimReaper gets a liiiiittle too excited with that scythe...
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Anko's evil wart when she takes over the real Anko in Episode 14. What appears to be a bright, attractive girl is really an arrogant, manipulative and sadistic madwoman.
* BigOlEyebrows: Anko
* BlackComedy: If you're not busy being [[NightmareFuel TERRIFIED]] in Episode 16's main course, the college students' promise to never leave their friend followed swiftly by [[spoiler: their fleeing from the car, leaving him to die with the ghostly hands]] is an example sure to get a chuckle out of you.
* BlindWithoutEm: Anko nearly has a conniption fit when she loses her glasses, but actually TakesALevelInBadass when she retrieves them.
* BodyHorror: The episode where Ako finds a wart with her face on it growing slowly on her shoulder.
* BondVillainStupidity: Saves a near-fatal case of DroppedGlasses in Episode 6. When the Oni reveal themselves, Anko tries to escape but loses her glasses, forcing her to start crawling around and looking for them feet away from the Oni in an attempt to find them. Instead of eating the kid while she's incapacitated, even when Anko is near-hysterics, the Oni gawk at her until she manages to get away; her being [[BlindWithoutEm being unable to see them]] means she's no longer afraid as a result and lets her escape more effectively.
* ButNotTooForeign: Shou was living in London before the series began, [[PhenotypeStereotype hence the blue eyes and blonde hair]]. He still speaks very fluent Japanese, and is implied to originally be from Japan...
* ButtMonkey: The garçon just can't seem to catch a break from his mischievous employees.
* CatchPhrase: The garçon's ''"Minna-sama... (My dear honored guests...)"'' and Reiko's ''"Bakabakashi! (Ridiculous!)"''
* CityOfAdventure
* CreditsGag: In episode 6, the soot from Kinjiirobot's rockets is still on the garçon's face as he flies into the title card.
* CreepyChild: A whole school-full, no less!
* CuteGhostGirl
* CynicismCatalyst: [[spoiler: Reiko's FreudianExcuse for refusing to believe in the supernatural is her inability to contact her brother, who had drowned when she was younger.]]
* DefangedHorrors: Your ghost host sometimes promises that the stories within your meal are safe for children to consume. ''Sometimes'' he's lying.
* DefrostingIceKing: Shou is rather standoffish when he's introduced. Over the course of their adventures, he forms a bond with Reiko and Anko, becoming much friendlier.
* DevilInPlainSight: When Anko's wart takes over her body, face, and mind, no one besides [[EvilDetectingDog Kicchomu]] and Shou seems to notice that there is something very, ''very'' wrong with Anko.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Midori turns Kanaya into a flounder because Kanaya had a habit of cheating off Midori's schoolwork and looked a little weird.
* EasterEgg: You can find the garçon's likeness in every episode, often on Anko's bag.
* EightiesHair: Anko's mom triumphantly sports a poofy side ponytail to go with the rest of her eightilicious outfit.
* EvilCounterpart: Anko's wart in Episode 14 becomes this when she takes control of Anko's face and body.
* EvilDetectingDog: Kicchomu, the family pet, can sense spirits and demons on occasion.
* EvilOldFolks: The evil grandma in episode 21.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The kid with the ability to [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor rewind time]], [[spoiler: he then ended in a fatal situation by falling off a building- each time he 'jumps' back, he only rewinds time ''back'' to the event where he's ''still'' falling to his own doom...]] ''Replay! Replay!''
* TheFilmOfTheBook: The anime was originally a series of Japanese children's books.
* FramingDevice: Each "dessert" story is a tale told by one of the main characters during a hyakumonogatari kaidankai game.
* GarrulousGrowth: One episode involves Anko suddenly noticing a wart with her face growing on her shoulder. Eventually it gains sentience and starts talking, it seems friendly enough... until the next day where the wart's mind switches places with Anko making her the wart and reveals it's essentially all her darker impulses trying to take over her body.
* GlamourFailure: Many of the ghosts in the series can be revealed using Shou's video camera.
* AGodAmI: The doctor in "Grim Reaper Killer".
* GrandTheftMe: Ako's shoulder ''almost'' gets away with this. ItMakesSenseInContext.
* HauntedTechnology: A cellphone ''and'' a copy machine!
* HeelFaceTurn: The vampire in the ShowWithinAShow in episode 10.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Reiko.
* ILetGwenStacyDie: [[spoiler: The final episode explains that a few years ago, Reiko's brother went out for a swim. She fell asleep and when she woke up, her parents asked where he was. The mother even cries out why she didn't keep an eye on him.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: A horrifying example exists in Episode 2's dessert course. Midori uses a curse doll to turn Kanaya into a flounder. [[spoiler: Kanaya returns the favor by turning Midori into a flounder. And then Midori's father ''cuts his own fish-daughter up [[ParanoiaFuel into sashimi for dinner.]]'']]
* LimitedWardrobe: Absolutely everyone.
* LittleMissSnarker: Anko slips into this when she's ticked off.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: Kinjiiro-bot fires off one of these when he's angry.
* MalevolentArchitecture: The children's school is rumored to be alive (and hungry for children), complete with scary face.
* TheMovie: The series got a live-action/anime hybrid film in August, 2010.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Who wants to get a checkup... ''at Grim Reaper General?''
* NightmareFetishist: Shou has a whole library of horror stories from around the world. He's also the one who drives many of the adventures with his morbid curiosity.
* NoNameGiven: The garçon refers to himself as just that: the Ghastly Garçon. Whether he has a real name or not is unknown. Some employees of the restaurant follow this pattern as well: Kappa, The Grim Reaper, Bakeneko, The Ghastly Widow, etc.
* PalsWithJesus: The garçon is apparently on friendly terms with King Yama, the terrible but benevolent ruler of the Underworld.
* RedOniBlueOni: Literal versions appear at the festival sideshow in episode 19.
* SchmuckBait: The boy in episode 8, in a subversion, doesn't take it. [[spoiler: Which saves him from the giant, hooved chicken.]]
* ShipTease: Between Shou and Anko. The fun begins in episode 3, when she's cast as a possessed princess and he is the knight that rescues her from the curse. The two are often cast as husband and wife or lovers in the main courses. In Episode 18, they are even shown to ''have a baby together.''
* ShoutOut: In the fourth episode's main dish, when Yuuma and his friend are playing a game on the shrine's steps, the sound from the game is definitely from ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''.
* SlasherSmile: Anko's wart does [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ThrillerRestSlash_8578.png this]] when she takes control of Anko's face and body [[spoiler: and again when she is about to smack the real Anko out of existence.]]
* TimeSkip: Somewhere in the middle of the season, all of the kids suddenly jump from grade three to grade six. Bizarrely, they have the exact same teacher, classroom, and classmates.
** That's nothing compared to the skip in episode 15, which is ten whole years. [[spoiler: This should be your first clue that it's AllJustADream and a FlashForward.]]
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: The dancers in episode 15.]]
* UrbanLegends: The desserts often consist of these, and one pops up in a few appetizers.