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Western Restaurant Nekoya

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nekoyadoorinspace2.jpg

The Nekoya Door and one of the many places it can show up. Yes, the door is in space. How else would Kuro get to go eat chicken curry?

The titular restaurant to another world. An eatery that mainly focuses on "Western dishes" (as in anything west of Japan), it has the unusual trait of being able to create doors to a fantasy medieval world, where people and creatures from all walks of life are allowed to dine on the delicious cuisine if they happen to stumble upon the door.

The restaurant is implied to be sentient to some degree, and has unusual quirks, with the doors it creates often appearing in bizarre places (in an abandoned mine, deep in the forest, literally on the moon, etc.), and only appearing once every seven days on the "Day of Satur" in the Other World. It is also under the protection of two of that world's dragon gods, the Red Queen "Red" and the Black Queen "Kuro", so woe betide anyone foolish enough to go after the Master and his staff.

Traits Related To The Restaurant Itself

Adaptational Wimp: A minor case with the door's Translator Microbes aspect, where in the anime it has difficulties translating some languages like that of the Lizard Folk, limiting them to You No Take Candle for interactions with those speaking human-like languages. In the original light novel the translation function is good enough that even lizardmen can understand and hold conversations with everybody else, and the representative Gaganpo is simply a Terse Talker when it comes to small talk.
Berserk Button: By its nature as part of a restaurant, the Door treats dine-and-dashing as a severe criminal offense. A halfing who tried not paying can't enter the restaurant by himself anymore. He could only enter the establishment afterwards by accompanying someone else so they can open the door for him. That said, there is a much more severe punishment reserved for those who try to kidnap the Master, with permanent banishment from the restaurant, as the Child of White finds out the hard way.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Being a restaurant door, the Door has no real sense or care for the morality of the people who enter its frame.You can be a man-eating ogre couple, literal deities, vampires, or demons, but as long as you are able to pay (unless the Master allows a freebie), you are courteous and do not start fights, you don't smash the Door's Berserk Button on dine and dashing, and especially that you don't try forcing the Master to feed only you, it will allow you through to eat.
End of an Age: This can be invoked by the current Master of the restaurant if they have the Master Key. After Yomi gives her grandson the Master Key, she makes it clear that if he ever uses the key on the Nekoya door, it will permanently sever the connection between worlds, and the Nekoya door will never appear in the Other World again, much to the distress of everyone in the restaurant at the time. While Tenshu has no desire to use it as long as he can continue, this detail does confirm that the restaurant CAN have an end, and that the Other World may never be able to enjoy the cuisine of Nekoya again if Tenshu (or whomever has the Master Key) decides to close the restaurant permanently.
Genius Loci: It's rather downplayed, since it never speaks or directly interacts with anybody, but the restaurant itself, especially its door, seems to have a mind of its own. Every place the door can be found is located where somebody who'll appreciate the food can enter, with it outright launching an entrance onto the moon's surface so that Kuro could come in and experience interaction with other people, and anybody who has wronged either the restaurant or its master will find themselves unable to open the door again, though it does leave a loophole where entering with somebody else will let them come in. To further showcase this, the door has a knack for appearing to people that actively need something good to happen in their lives, be it because they need it for their emotional well-being, or for their living situation, or even because their lives are in danger. Inevitably, finding Nekoya ends up bettering the lives of those that needed it, with examples including Aletta, Kuro, Alphonse, Heinrich, Lionel, Alice, and Romero and Julietta.
Holy Burns Evil: The light novels shows that Nekoya door is capable of defending its customers against beings of ill-intent. In Novel 3, a merchant is fleeing the wraith of a long dead princess, and the wraith is burned by the door after trying to go after the merchant.
Inn Between the Worlds: Downplayed — Although Nekoya's doors only open to one fantasy world, it has multiple entries, all scattered about in distinct regions of that world, leading to a diverse range of regular customers.
The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: To the inhabitants of the other world, the restaurant is this. Each doorway can magically appear without warning, disappears once the customer who entered through that doorway leaves again, and only shows up every seventh day, making it hard to find again without knowing the secret.
Strange Secret Entrance: Played with. On the Earth side, the door into Nekoya is simply a normal, ordinary door leading into the restaurant from a cobblestoned sunken courtyard; however, thanks to the magic of the portal, the door in Other World is quite strange indeed, seeing as it stands all alone, fully unsupported, and can appear in all sorts of very unusual locations. Whether it is difficult to find depends on the specific location, but seeing as it always appears to those who have need of it, its "secrecy" relates more to others who later learn about it and try to research what it is/where and when it appears. Other unique properties it holds are that the version in Other World disappears after someone goes through it, only to reappear for them to return; that it always takes customers back to where they individually came from, even if they return through it together; and that its magical properties can be destroyed if the owner of Nekoya breaks the Master Key.
Translator Microbes: There's magic built into the door that lets everyone in the restaurant understand each other perfectly. The sole exception is Gaganpo, as even with the translating magic, he can only speak a few words and can't form coherent sentences, as well as barely or simply not understanding what others speak to him, likely due to the lizardmen's language being too far removed from the regular languages of the Other World (though this only applies to the anime adaptation, as the light novel's translation is notably stronger; Gaganpo is just not much of a talker.)
Truce Zone: The restaurant itself is this. It's frequented by all manner of races, some of whom wouldn't get along or would outright hate and even try to kill one another, but the promise of delicious food to be eaten with the simple rule of no violence, combined with Tenshu's welcoming kindness, makes everyone lay down arms, and the worst things may get are simple arguments (often about which food is better) that are appeased easily enough. Rivals from different nations, humans, dwarves, elves, half elves, beastmen, fairies, priests, demons, vampires, among others, not only eating at the same restaurant, but at times even seated together, enjoying food, drink and pleasant conversation. It does help that the restaurant is under the protection of both the Red Queen and Kuro, and anybody who tried causing real harm would be severely punished as a result, but even so, they rarely need to intervene. Additionally, pretty much anyone who tries would be taken down in an instant by Kuro, as when Rorona started to even contemplate aggression to Aletta, Kuro’s firm mental “NO.” was enough to knock Rorona to her knees. This also turns out to be for the benefit of many of the denizens of the other world, as having a neutral gathering place with excellent food as a central element allows for many of them to find common ground and improve their own lives and relationships with those they might not have otherwise interacted with. For example:
- Alphonse Flugel was able to retain his sanity from being stranded on a remote island for twenty years as a result of the restaurant providing good food and company, eventually developing a friendship with the equally lonely Kuro over their love of curry.
- Shareef and Adelheid end up being able to meet and develop a strong friendship eventually culminating in them falling in love and marrying, thus cementing both the Land of Sand and the Great Empire as allies.
- Jack, Kento, and Terry, while already planning on going on an adventure, end up also getting more of an interest and appreciation of other races' cultures from their interactions with Gaganpo and the dwarves Guilhelm and Garde.
- Souemon and Doushun are from rival countries, but their shared loved of Nekoya's okonomiyaki and their mutual respect for each other pushes them to develop a trade agreement in order to improve their countries' culinary situation.
- Heinrich, Ranija, Demon Lord Lastina, and Edmon end up developing a rapport from their shared love of quiche, pushing them to open up trade relations to gain the ingredients needed to develop their own countries' food. It also proves invaluable to Edmon as his nation's Head of Intelligence, as he can gather useful information without the worry of unintentionally provoking a conflict. Such as finding out that Shareef's odd behavior regarding an alliance with the Great Empire was not a secret mobilization for war, but in reality an attempt to win Princess Adelheid's heart, much to his amusement and relief.

Staff Members

Mako / "The Master"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/master_71.jpg

Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Christopher Sabat (English)

The current owner of the restaurant, inheriting it from his late grandfather Daiki Yamagata, the previous Master. A kind, generous man with a culinary skill unparalleled in the Other World, he continues to serve the customers that come in every Day of Satur, with the help of his two otherworldly waitresses, Aletta and Kuro.

Accidental Hero: Through a trade he made with Emperor Wilhelm when he was a young boy, in which he traded him potatoes that are the main ingredient to make croquettes, the famine the Empire was experiencing at the time was ended. As an adult he doesn't remember this at all and has always wondered why potatoes are the one food that look and taste the same between the two worlds. However, this event never gets brought up in the anime.
Always Someone Better: He is firmly this compared to just about every chef in the Other World. Those who have attempted to replicate his recipes and cooking have made substantial advances in the culinary arts in their world, but they're still miles behind the Master. To wit:
- Thomas Alfade has been trying to replicate the pasta dishes for years, but even with his results advancing pasta as a dish in his world, he still feels like he's nowhere near as good. He did, however, build a symbiotic relationship with Master in order to improve each others' cooking. His grandson Sirius is attempted to do better, with the help of his childhood friend Johnathan.
- Fardania feels inferior as a chef after Master presents her delicious vegan dishes, and is on a long journey to become a superior chef to him (although the fact that she never tells him this means that as far as he knows, she's just another customer).
- To a lesser extent, he is this to his grandfather (the previous Master) when it comes to creating sweets, like Adelheid's parfaits. Both are more skilled in savory cooking, but his grandfather admits that his grandson is better at making sweets than him.
- Funnily enough, this also ends up occurring even when the Master isn't the one who cooked it, especially when it comes to most of Nekoya's sweets and pastries. Camilla was inspired by Nekoya's fruit jelly and has attempted to create her own to reasonable success in her world, though in her opinion it's not anywhere near as good. Except Master didn't create the sweets; that was his friend in the Flying Puppy Bakery's doing. When Thomas the Searcher discovered the source of the Mont Blanc that the head maid Giselle was bringing to her lady, he also mistakenly praised the Master for it, something the Master would relay to his amused friend.
Badass Pacifist: How does he break up a fight between patrons before it starts? Threaten to never cook for them again, which is enough to get everyone back on their best behavior.
Benevolent Boss: Treats all of his employees fairly, whether it be those of the human world or the other world. He's actually considered immensely generous by the standards of the Other World, given that he gives Aletta (whom he believes he's paying akin to a part-timer from his neck of the woods) about the equivalent of a month's worth of wages on her side for a single day of work in Nekoya. The Master in the light novels is also not entirely happy with the idea of paying Kuro only in food, but mainly because he's willing to pay with actual money for her hard work like he does with Aletta. Given her circumstances of living in the middle of nowhere where money has no value however, his hands are tied on the matter.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: His actions as a Supreme Chef have caused major societal ramifications for the other world. The Master himself is completely oblivious to the major effects he's caused to their world, he's just doing his best to make his customers happy every time the restaurant opens on Saturday.
- Feeding fried shrimp to a starving Heinrich three years ago, which allowed the young Knight to regain his energy to deliver a message that wound up saving his kingdom from Mothmen.
- Sold some Spaghetti to Thomas Alfade, inspiring the merchant to start up the Alfade Trading Company which served to uplift pasta cuisine in their world to new heights as food for both Commoners and Nobles.
- Sold a bag of potatoes to a younger Emperor Wilhelm so he could make Croquettes whenever he wanted to, afterwards, the Potato crop that had never before been seen in that world would help break Wilhelms' Empire out of a famine and eventually became one of the greatest nations in their world.
- Attract a young Elven woman into his Restaurant that became one of his Waitresses, as it turned out, the elf was actually Black Queen: a Dragon Goddesses that had been estranged for the last several millennia due to her powers, her stepping into the Restaurant allowed her to reunite with her "Sister" and fellow Nekoya regular, Red Queen.
- Serving a fair number of Nobles from many different nations across the world, By Season 2, Princess Adelheid of The Great Empire and Prince Shareef of The Land of Sand becomes an Official Couple along with establishing trade relations between their nations.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Because the Master never really inquires much about the other world unless absolutely necessary, some of his habits that are very typical for Earth's side of the door can come off as odd in the eyes of the Other World's denizens.
- For example (mixed with his Benevolent Boss status), he offers to pay Aletta 10 silver for a day's work, which he mentally assumes is roughly around 10,000 yen (67 dollars in USD) for a part-timer in his line of work. To Aletta however, given that the average peasant can get anywhere between 3 - 10 copper coins for a day's work depending on their profession ^note, 10 silver is enough for her to be able to pay for her expenses for a month if she's smart with her money.
- Many of his customers, including Sarah Gold, are shocked to find that he provides an unlimited amount of pure ice water, soup and bread refills for free. Characters in the light novels, like the poor woodcutter's family consider this to be an absolute blessing, even as the Master himself thinks its business as usual.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": While the light novel mentions his name is Mako, none of the denizens of the other world know it, referring to him simply as Tenshu/Master, to the point that the manga and anime never even mention it, not even when his grandmother Yomi visits him.
Famous Ancestor: His grandmother was the leader of the four heroes in the other world, Yomi, who became trapped when the Demon Lord opened a rift with his dying breath that simply transported her to the earth. The Master himself is entirely unaware of this.
Feeling Their Age: A recurring element in the light novels is that the Master notes that he's getting progressively older. While he is more wise and experienced than in his youth (referring back to embarassingly bad mistakes he made in the past), he doesn't have the stamina and strength of youth that he used to, making even relatively mundane work he used to do in the restaurant more exhausting. As such, Aletta and Kuro's help are immensely needed, as they take some of the strain and workload off of him.
Giving Radio to the Romans: He (and his grandfather before him) have started something of a culinary arms race between regular patrons trying to recreate their favourite dishes from Nekoya. On a more personal level his selling a bag of potatoes to Emperor Wilhelm had major ramifications for the other world's geopolitical situation.
Legacy Character: He inherited Nekoya from his grandparents, who were both the previous owners and the people who started it up (with help from his grandmother on the Portal Door aspect).
Nice Guy: He hires Aletta without a second thought when he's told of her situation, he constantly researches ways to make his food as palatable as he can to the people of the Other World (plus during the rest of the week he develops dishes like pork-and-beef-free curry for immigrant customers), and he prioritizes his customer's happiness over any profits he makes. He also keeps prices fair and overall affordable and never overcharges for his food even if the customer offers to pay extra, and he will run a tab on first-time customers who don't have money on them, as well as give a meal on the house to customers who return after a long time of not visiting the restaurant no matter the reason. How can he not be this?
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: A very downplayed version. While he is a genuinely skilled chef who can create mouth-watering foods with a level of skill and speed surprising for a one-man enterprise to his otherworldly customers, his restaurant is otherwise relatively normal and commonplace in the bustling streets of Japan. However, because his foods are made from a quality of supplies that can only be attained in the modern day, along with various modern cooking methods that simply don't exist in the Other World, even his most mundane foods are seen as extraordinarily delicious by the medieval era fantasy denizens, causing many of them to deem his restaurant as sacred and "food from the gods". If he's ever aware of this, he seems to take this in stride.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Being a Benevolent Boss, he's also tolerant almost to a fault of his customers' often Large Ham tendencies and occasional bickering. Almost, because if anyone decides they wanna get physical, they can either leave hungry, or drop their butts back on their seats.
Supreme Chef: Tenshu can make almost anything with impressive spontaneity that even big name chains have trouble with. To say nothing of how every dish he makes uses ingredients and cooking techniques that are leagues above anything the Medieval European Fantasy that makes up the other world could ever hope to achieve, with even the highest-class and most expensive chefs there paling in comparison to the cheapest stuff he can make. Countless chefs across the Other World have spent anywhere between months, years, and even decades trying to replicate the food him and his grandfather could make, but while they've made leaps and bounds in culinary development using the impressive flavors as inspiration, they still can't match what the Master can cook up.
Wowing Cthulhu: The master is merely human. Almost all of his customers are beings with far greater power than him, whether they be experienced warriors or adventurers, those with command over magic, physically stronger humanoid beings, or even a pair of Dragon Goddesses. However, his culinary skill is enough to earn their respect for his authority. Additionally, his access to modern technology makes it possible for him to serve things that would be impossible in the fantasy world, such as ice cream. The simple fact that he provides clean ice-cold water with lemon slices, hot fresh fluffy bread, and delicious soup for free (refills included) is mind-blowing to denizens of the other world.

Aletta

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka (Japanese), Jill Harris (English)

A homeless demon girl who stumbles upon Nekoya and gets hired as a waitress. Eventually she manages to land a job as a housekeeper for Sarah Gold in her own home world.

Adaptational Early Appearance: While "Breakfast" was introduced at the start of the anime, in the light novel there were no servers at the start, and instead Aletta appeared from Chapter 20 onwards. Thus, there are a few early episodes that she's adapted into.
Adaptational Relationship Change: A minor one, but in the anime due to her early appearance above, her first customer she served on-screen was Sarah Gold. In the Light Novels, her first customer she explicitly served was the dwarves Guilhelm and Garde. She's also stated as becoming friends with Hilda in the Light Novels, but their relationship in the anime is just customer and waitress.
Awesome by Analysis: By episode 11 of the second season, Aletta has become so used to her job that she can perfectly predict when certain people will order a refill of their drink or another plate of their favorite dish simply from knowing their habits, along with having everyone's favorite dish memorized so well that she can always tell who is talking about who when they use the food-based Code Name system. Her predictive skills are so good that the mind reading Physical God Kuro is shocked that Aletta anticipated a refill request seconds before it happened without any mind-reading abilities.
Big Eater: Aletta tends to eat quite a lot, and isn't particularly picky about what she eats from her staff meals.
Blessed with Suck: Unlike everyone else of demonic descent, whom gain traits ranging from powerful bodies to magical properties, all she has is a pair of goat horns, which cause her nothing but trouble.
Comical Overreacting: Aletta tends to do this quite a number of times, especially if she believes she did something wrong (or if she thinks something threatens her jobs at Nekoya or with Sarah).
Cute Monster Girl: An adorable demon girl with prominent goat horns, with the sweet personality to match. Several customers end up thinking that she's quite cute (with the Demon Lord Lastina thinking her horns are actually quite impressive compared to her own), much to the flattered Aletta's happiness.
Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being of demon descent, Aletta has a good hearted nature.
Does Not Like Spam: She disliked potatoes, since raw potatoes were all she had during her time of homelessness. Tenshu teaches her how to cook them properly even without a stove, and she comes to like them again.
Dude Magnet: Not shown in the anime, but in the Light Novels, after she stops hiding her horns and cleans up, she's considered pretty enough to be the center of attention of human and demon men alike. A demon customer flushes whenever he's around her, and Shota on the human side is very noticeably attracted to her (and mistaking her horns for hairpieces). She's notedly a bit oblivious to these.
Fantastic Racism: She got fired from her previous job as a tavern waitress after her hat fell off, revealing her horns. She got hired in the restaurant when Tenshu hears about this. While she still does get subjected to this from some of the customers, it's much more subdued due to the rules enforced by the restaurant, Aletta's kind personality contrasting the cultural expectations of demons, and usually seems to be more the result of her being a follower of the demon deity rather than anything against her specifically. The stigma against her in the Other World also greatly reduces after she decides to stop hiding her horns, due to a rather bigoted belief that demons trying to hide their demonic nature are untrustworthy.
God of Evil: While Aletta and many other demons are about as far from evil as can be, Aletta's patron deity is the Million Colors of Chaos, aka the very Eldritch Abomination that her fellow waitress Kuro fought against for 1,000 years with the other dragons. Due to ignorance of this fact (and no one, even Kuro telling her about this), Aletta prays to the god of demons in thanks for her daily bread with no awareness of this dark truth.
Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in two pigtails, reflecting her girly and cheerful personality.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Aletta has blonde hair and is very well-suited as a restaurant waitress due to her kind demeanor.
Hidden in Plain Sight: An odd case, in that humans from the Earth side tend to mistake her for a human with horn-like hairpieces, rather than the demon girl she actually is. As such, she can basically move around to some extent without really being recognized as out of the ordinary.
Hide Your Otherness: Aletta hid her horns to try to avoid discrimination due to her heritage. In the Light Novels, after she decides to not hide her demon horns anymore and cleans up, she finds that the bigotry has reduced significantly (or at least it's easier for her to determine who she wants to work with), and that both human and demon men have started hitting on her.
Horned Humanoid: Aside from her goat horns, she's basically an ordinary human. However, it marks her as a descendant of demons.
Nice Girl: She's cordial and friendly, even outside of work.
Oblivious to Love: Despite men of all kinds being interested in her, she's exceptionally oblivious to this, usually only being interested in either her work, or the food she's eating. Shota, one of the people on the Earth side, visibly is interested in her and gives her free food, but she is thoroughly confused by his behavior due to having no context for gift-giving.
Obsessed with Food: It's not to the point of it being detrimental, as she is a very capable waitress and can hold conversations unrelated to it, but Aletta loves food, especially from Nekoya. In her first appearance, it was partly driven by her being on the verge of starvation and having only eaten nothing but raw potatoes, but ever since then, she's loved all of the Nekoya foods she's eaten in some form or another.
Older Than They Look: She seems like she's in her late teens or early twenties, but she's actually revealed to be 50 years old.
Oh, My Gods!: She tends to call out "oh my devil!" when she's sufficiently mortified (such as with Kuro's first appearance in the restaurant).
Rags to Riches: Aletta did not have the best starting point, having lost both of her parents and been rendered homeless due to her demonic traits. After starting work with the Master however, she starts being paid enough money in a single day to last her a month easily, before finding a good job as Sarah Gold's housekeeper (and eventual friend), and ends up also befriending Sarah's sister Shia. She also notably buys a few luxury items in the light novels that she otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford only months before. The change is so dramatic that in the light novels, Demon Lord Lastina assumes Aletta is from a rich family just from how clean and well-kept she is.
Shipping Torpedo: She's normally all for people around her becoming couples, but one specific couple she very adamantly refuses to let happen is Heinrich wanting to marry Sarah, not because she outright hates the idea but because Sarah marrying somebody might cause Aletta to lose her only available other-world job.
Trademark Favorite Food: Aletta enjoys everything Tenshu makes, but comes to greatly enjoy steamed potatoes with butter as well as corn potage, the latter being what she first ate upon discovering Nekoya.

Black Queen / Kuro

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kuro_0.jpg

Voiced by: Saori Onishi (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

One of the powerful dragon gods of the other world, who resides by her lonesome on the moon. When a door to Nekoya appears there, her curiosity over the restaurant and its dish of chicken curry drives her to go there, where she becomes the restaurant's second waitress.

Almighty Janitor: Kuro is a Physical God whose power is over death... who works at Nekoya as a waitress for plates of her favorite chicken curry.
Ascended Extra: While she does get the same job as she did in the anime, Kuro in the light novels tended to be something of a background fixture, being exceptionally stoic and mostly noted for her dark aura of power by those with magical competence. In the anime, due to many characters and plot points being shuffled around and more focus given to them as a result, Kuro has much more moments of characterization, such as inquisitiveness of certain foods and of complex human interactions (like the Friendly Rivalry of Souemon and Doshun), or when the Master deviates from his usual schedule. She also has a sort of friendship with Aletta and Alphonse that she didn't have in the light novels.
Badass Adorable: She is a dragon goddess of death that faced an Eldritch Abomination. She is also cute and soft-spoken in her elven form, and her backstory and the isolation involved due to her powers just makes you want to hug her. Then serve her an ungodly amount of chicken curry just to see her smile contentedly.
Bad Powers, Good People: Her domain of power is "Death", which causes her to passively disintegrate all living beings and creatures just with her mere presence. Not wanting to cause further harm to the very beings she fought to protect, she exiled herself to the moon.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's very much a Nice Girl who is a clear example of Dark Is Not Evil, but she takes her job as guardian of Nekoya very seriously, and if anybody expresses actual hostility in her presence, she makes it clear that she'll only warn them once, and any further hostility will incur her wrath. Hilda and her friends come to understand that very quickly following an argument getting heated.
Big Eater: She devours several dozen bowls of Chicken Curry within an hour or so!
Compelling Voice: When Rorona threatens Aletta out of mistaken defensiveness, a firm NO. was enough to drop Rorona to her knees in a near-faint from the psychic pressure.
Dark Is Not Evil: Despite sporting a predominantly black color scheme and essentially being the Grim Reaper as a dragon, she's a very passive and unhostile being. She exiled herself to the moon because she didn't want to hurt others just by being around them.
Declaration of Protection: The Red Queen comes to Kuro shortly after Kuro's first visit and subsequent hiring at Nekoya, and asks the dragoness of death to protect the restaurant and all inside it from any threat should the Red Queen not be readily available to protect her treasure herself. Kuro promises to do so, and she takes her duty as guardian very seriously.
Dramatic Irony: There are various characters who worship the Dragon Gods that come into the restaurant, some of them even giving a prayer of life to said gods before eating... all while oblivious to the fact one of those gods is right there in front of them, serving them their food. This is especially the case for the three vampiric characters, who worship and pray to the Black Queen for giving them the chance of being served great food, all while completely unaware that the Black Queen herself is literally the one serving it to them.
The Dreaded: Everybody who is capable of mildly comprehending her true identity will find themself filled with a sense of paralyzing fear, considering her more terrifying than The Red Queen, as her mere presence if one tries to face her would mean guaranteed death, whereas with Red you could at least hope to run away and hide if you enrage her. So far, the only one who really knows Kuros' identity as The Black Queen is Yomi.
Ethnic Goddess: As the dragon representing darkness, creatures of darkness and the night like vampires pray to and gain blessings from her.
Flash Step: During Hilda and her friends' argument, Kuro moves fast enough that she's able to confiscate their weapons before anyone notices.
Godiva Hair: When she first takes human form without thinking to add any clothes, the only thing keeping her modesty was her long hair covering her breasts while her crotch was given a Scenery Censor.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: When she first showed up at Nekoya, she was naked and only conjured clothes when advised to by Tenshu, since being a dragon that lives far away from regular society, she had no personal concept of shame or modesty.
Irony: She's shown to be probably the most passive and polite of the Dragon Gods (at least compared to the fiery Jerk with a Heart of Gold Red and her other allies) who loves to interact with others and holds life as sacred, but her power means that she's the only dragon who cannot actually interact with most people without the risk of killing them from her mere presence alone. The light novels also reveal that she's considered the weakest of the dragon gods, but her powers make her the only one who poses a consistent threat to mortals in ways that her fellow dragons don't.
The Masquerade: There are several groups who venerate the Black Queen as their patron deity, with an entire organization devoted to her worship in the Vampire regions. Its likely not intentional, as the only things Kuro cares about are being around people and eating her curry, but if the mask were ever to slip, or knowledge of her got out, there is no chance of the people of the other world taking it lightly.
Naked First Impression: Her first appearance has her walking into the restaurant naked, much to the embarassment of Alphonse, Tenshu, and Aletta (the latter running over to cover her with her tray).
Nice Girl: She's the friendliest, most approachable, and most accomodating among her dragon god sisters, the rest of whom otherwise range from Jerks with Hearts of Gold to just being anti-social. It makes the fact she's a Walking Wasteland worse, since she cherishes life but can never interact with others outside her temporary elf form without risking killing them.
Physical God: One of six ancient dragons, and much to her chagrin, the one representing death.
Pointy Ears: Takes on the appearance of an elf in her humanoid form.
Really 700 Years Old: She is a contemporary of the Red Queen, who herself states that she's 100,000 years old. Kuro is at bare minimum about 38,000 years old.
Self-Imposed Exile: She intentionally secludes herself on the barren, lifeless moon with nobody else as company due to being a Walking Wasteland.
The Stoic: She doesn't emote very well and speaks with a monotone voice in her telepathy, but it's easy to tell how she feels through her actions.
Telepathy: Her main form of communication, something that frequently shocks newcomers to the restaurant and even makes Master and Aletta uneasy at times. She started speaking verbally around Master and Aletta after Season 1 Episode 11, and only when around just the two of them, but Season 2 ignored that and acted like telepathic communication is the only way she ever spoke to anyone. Her telepathy also has the added bonus of allowing her to communicate perfectly with Gaganpo, the only customer at Nekoya who has difficulty with verbal communication.
Trademark Favorite Food: She shares Alphonse's fondness for curry, with her particularly enjoying the spicier types, but the first she ever tried, Spicy Chicken Curry, is the one she loves the most, even using it as payment substitute since she has no use for money.
Tranquil Fury: When the bounty hunter demon trio of Hilda, Alicia and Ranija arm themselves and try to fight one another over an argument regarding which type of cheesecake is best, Kuro disarms them before they can even blink, and though she still retains her calm, composed manner, the way she tells them that she'll hold on to their weapons till they're ready to leave and that there will not be a next time this happens has an undeniably threatening undertone to it that instantly whips the three demons into behaving properly and apologizing for the ruckus.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Much like her fellow dragon Red, she can transform into a smaller form to interact with mortals. In her case she turns into a petite elven woman, and is noticeable more proficient at it, having no telltale signs of being a dragon and being able to create clothing for herself.
Walking Wasteland: Radiates an aura of death so powerful that it disintegrates any living being that happens to be beneath her flight path. It's for this reason that she sequestered herself on the moon for millennia. Though she's thankfully safe to be around in her elfin form, the aura she radiates in that form is still strong enough to terrify people like Artorius and Alexander, who are legendary heroes in their own right.
When She Smiles: Gives a very genuine smile at the end of episode 11 of the first season, and she has more genuine smiles throughout season 2 as she gets to interact with and better understand the denizens of the Other World.
Willfully Weak: She is fully capable of suppressing her powers enough that her Walking Wasteland powers diminish into a heart-straining Battle Aura, and even then one that is only perceptible to those with strong Aura Vision. Given how she remains on the moon when not in Nekoya despite this ability, there's implications that either it only lasts temporarily before she reverts and starts killing all nearby life again or it takes a heavy amount of focus and concentration to maintain, so she only uses it when she has good reason to interact with weaker beings.
You Are What You Hate: Her deepest fear is that she has become this in the wake of the death of The Million Colors of Chaos/Chaos Of The Many Tentacles, as because of the eldritch creature's death, all subsequent living beings that developed were substantially weaker, making them extremely vulnerable to her passive death magic, similar to how the creature would devour and consume everything when it awakened. She tries to avoid this by choosing the moon as her domain, since no one except her exists there.

Customers of the Eastern Continent

The Great Empire

A human nation whose nobles control much of the Eastern Continent, founded in the wake of the Demon-Human War. Emperor Wilhelm saved his land from a horrible famine by using the potatoes he obtained from a younger Tenshu, which would facilitate his rise to power and popularize the vegetable "Cobbler's Tubers" as a staple food.

Princess Adelheid

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adelheid.jpg

Voiced by: Reina Ueda (Japanese), Jeannie Tirado (Season 1), Alexis Tipton (Season 2) (English)

Princess of the Great Empire, granddaughter of its founder, Emperor Wilhelm. She suffers from a "pauper killer disease," a chronic illness that renders her quite weak and confined to her mansion.

Birds of a Feather: Bonds with Victoria, Renner and Lastina over their mutual love of sweets, and also bonds with the latter thanks to both being in positions of royalty despite their physical weaknesses.
Dead Guy Junior: Shares the same name as her great-grandmother, of whom she's a spitting image.
Hidden Depths: While mostly portrayed as a kind Princess Classic type, she's shown to be quite perceptive of Demon Lord Lastina's insecurities, pointing out to her that being physically weaker or lacking in certain qualities isn't always a sign of weakness, citing her own poor health and her father's modest skill at swordsmanship. She also notes that Lastina's physical weakness doesn't keep her from being a politically intelligent and skilled Demon Lord, who does a fantastic job at maintaining her lands. She ultimately encourages Lastina to focus on her own strengths instead of trying to emulate her mother, much to Lastina's gratitude. It's mildly downplayed in that the (somewhat different) advice she gives in the light novels she internally admits she doesn't entirely understand what her father's words meant, but it still helps Lastina overcome her identity crisis.
Identical Grandson: Adelheid looks exactly the same as her great-grandmother did back when her own grandfather, Wilhelm, was just a baby.
Ill Girl: She had the immense misfortune of contracting the "pauper killer's disease", causing her to have a weak constitution, as well as keeping her from any sort of consistent companionship outside of a few servants for several years until she recovers. While she's much luckier than most due to being royalty, and thus able to isolate without being forced to work to survive (thus accelerating the disease until it becomes fatal), it's also an incredibly lonely, boring and isolating existence, since most of her servants are worried about her being contagious and sometimes inadvertently treating her like she's an invalid.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Adelheid's eyes are noticeably very blue. Seeing as she's basically a princess, it fits.
Nice Girl: She's unfailingly kind and polite towards everyone she meets, from the Nekoya staff, to the other customers, to those at her home, especially her personal maid, Hannah.
Official Couple: She becomes engaged to Prince Shareef, who after spending most of the two anime seasons dancing around his feelings for her, finally proposes, which she accepts.
Princess Classic: She's beautiful, innocent, refined, and incredibly sweet.
She's All Grown Up: Compared to her as a child, she's grown up to be quite beautiful, which catches the attention of Shareef.
Sweet Tooth: Loves her desserts.
Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate parfait.

Emperor Wilhelm

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wilhelm_5.jpg

Voiced by: Hiroshi Naka (Japanese), Bruce Carrey (English)

The deceased founder of the Great Empire. He made his name by introducing Cobbler's Tubers, a resilient and fast-growing crop that saved the people from starvation during a famine. What most people don't know is that he obtained these tubers from the Earth side of Nekoya, buying a bag of them off the second Master when he was still a child as related in the fourth light novel, Chapter 75: Potato Chips.

Achievements in Ignorance: Despite his many accomplishments yet to come, the thing he would be most known for is the introduction of potatoes (or cobbler's tubers in the Other World). But he didn't actually intend to do so, and it was more the end result of his own desire to eat croquettes on his side of the door, and leaving the growing and management to his professionals before sharing the crop if anyone wanted it. Because of this, he would primarily be known for ending a famine and resulted in the cobbler's tubers becoming a staple crop for all of the Empire.
The Chessmaster: His means of recruiting Altina and her demons into the Empire leans more towards this after his initial Refuge in Audacity moment, noting that they would be much more powerful as allies rather than enemies. Specifically, while he does back up his demand with the implication that if he dies there, then his armies will end up knocking on her doorstep with likely massive casualties for all involved, he doesn't particularly want this to be the case, claiming respect for Altina's strength and knowledge. He notes that the complaints he hears about her kingdom are the same as others run by competent leaders, and he'd rather have competent leaders on his side than to rule over what would effectively be a wasteland if they end up having to win via war. As a retainer, she'd be able to rule over her current nation while also providing him with demon men and women who would help him deal with the problems of his own nation, something much easier to do than drafting his own people since demons had a stronger inclination towards battle. It also would be mutually beneficial given that many of Altina's subjects enjoy fighting and find it difficult to settle in non-battle situations. After hearing this, Altina agrees.
Disappeared Dad: Wilhelm's father was none other than Alexander, one of the four heroes of the other world. However, Alexander was completely absent in his life, a source of resentment that Wilhelm apparently carried with him to the grave.
"I have no father. To me, my mother Adelheid is my sole parent." -Wilhelm's Epitaph
Doting Grandparent: In the short time we see him, he's very fond of his granddaughter Adelheid, even choosing to take her to the Nekoya door so she could get some sweets, introducing her to her favorite parfait. It's one of her most treasured memories with her grandfather once she finds the door later on as an adult.
The Emperor: Back when he was alive.
Expy: His younger self has the exact same character design and first name as Wilhelm van Astrea. It's unlikely that he's literally the same person, but the intent is obvious.
Posthumous Character: Already passed away by the time of the story.
Refuge in Audacity: When given an audience with the powerful Demon Lord Altina, he promptly demanded her fealty.
Trademark Favorite Food: Potato croquettes. He loved croquettes so much he bought potatoes (which didn't exist in his world) from a child Tenshu to be able to make them in his world.

Jack, Kento and Terry

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jackkentoterry.png

Left to Right: Kento, Terry, and Jack

^{Kento, Terry and Jack after they become adventurers. (SPOILERS)}

Jack voiced by: Takuto Yoshinaga (Japanese), AJ Beckles (English)

Kento voiced by: Ryuji Yamamoto (Japanese), Jessie James Grelle (English)

Terry voiced by: Reio Tsuchida (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English)

A trio of young teenagers from a small Empire town. They are, respectively, the son of a poor family, the son of a local sorcerer and the son of the town's mayor. They visit Nekoya via a door at the bottom of a dry well that the trio keep secret.

Adaptational Nice Guy: While they are ultimately just as polite as they were in the anime, in the light novels, they are explicitly stated to be much more mischievous and their hometown's troublemakers.
Call to Adventure: Getting to see people of different lands and even different species at Nekoya awakens in them the urge to travel and have adventures. When we next see them, they've started out as adventurers, with Jack and Terry as swordsmen and Kento choosing to be a sorcerer.
Nice Guy: All three boys are quite nice and polite. Jack stands out, as when he gets gifted a bunch of oranie (onions) by a farmer he works for, he proceeds to then gift them forward to the Master at Nekoya.
The Smart Guy: Terry proves himself to be quite perceptive, as he's able to figure out Tatsugoro's identity based on a combination of his garb, his skills, and a small slip-up on Aletta's part, despite the unspoken code of Nekoya to not say the person's real name.
Trademark Favorite Food: Hamburgers, fries and cola. It expands in their second appearance to also include Teriyaki burgers.
Walking the Earth: Their Call to Adventure results in them wandering the world taking up quests and following rumors as a way to experience new things, which means they become nomads who don't have ready access to Nekoya. Their second appearance happens several in-story months later when they run into Tatsugoro on his own journey.

Myra and Johan

Myra

Johan

Myra Voiced by: Ai Kakuma (Japanese), Kristen McGuire (English)

Johan Voiced by: Kentaro Kumagai (Japanese), Adam McArthur (English)

Childhood friends from a small Empire town, Myra is the daughter of a bakery owner who the halfling couple Pikke and Pakke helped by selling soup with knight's sauce alongide the baker's bread, then sold him the knight's sauce recipe, proving a very successful business venture for the bakery. Johan saw Pikke and Pakke running off into the forest, and after some exploring, found the door to Nekoya they had used and eventually inviting Myra to join him.

Composite Character: A mild case in terms of background. Myra in the light novels was the daughter of an innkeeper, while Johan was the son of the baker next door. In the anime, this is fused together so that Myra is the daughter of a baker, while Johan is shifted to something else entirely.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: A mild one, but Myra can't help but notice how short the skirt of the waitress uniform that Aletta and Kuro wears are compared to her own.
Girlish Pigtails: Myra sports a pair of braided tails, although her sharp tongue and assertive nature provides sharp contrast.
Only Sane Woman: How Myra sometimes feels with the men in her life, with her father's purchasing of the Knight's Stew for what she thought was an exorbitant price and Johan's apparent penchant for pranking. Though in both cases, she ends up being wrong when the stew is a profitable venture, and Johan isn't pranking her this time.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Myra is the Red and Johan is the blue, with Myra having a pretty strong and assertive personality, unafraid to chew out people who she feels did something wrong, including her own father, while Johan is more chill and easy-going.
Trademark Favorite Food: They both instantly get hooked on macaroni gratin, and Myra also greatly enjoys Nekoya's bread.^note
You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Pretty much Myra's reaction to her father buying the Knight's Stew recipe for 100 silver, which was half a month of their earnings. He is vindicated when the Knight's Stew ends up being so popular that it made back the money in five days, and becomes such a profitable venture that their little bakery is packed full of customers each day.

Samanark Duchy

Family members, officials, soldiers and civilians who belong to the Samanark Duchy in the Eastern Continent.

Alfred and Margarette Samanark

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alfred_8.jpg

Alfred Samanark

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/margarette.jpg

Margarette Samanark

Alfred Voiced by: Akane Kaida (Japanese), Ciarán Strange (English)

Margarette Voiced by: Mio Hoshitani (Japanese), Kristi Rothrock (English)

Victoria's twin nephew and niece and the children of the Duke of Samanark who learn about Nekoya and join their aunt for lunch.

Adaptational Late Appearance: In the light novel, they are introduced somewhere around where Season 1 Episode 8 takes place, but the anime skipped over that segment to focus more on Victoria. While they do get a short appearance during the dinner scene, they wouldn't be properly introduced until Season 2 Episode 4.
Curious as a Monkey: They go to the supposed witch's tower and room despite being a little scared, open up a cold box and eat what is inside, which is a pudding, though they mistake for a potion. Victoria catches them in the act and, upon learning she's the witch they were told about, they are then curious about her ability to cast magic and what she can do. Victoria rewards their curiosity by taking them to Nekoya with her.
Nice Guy: Both Alfred and Margarette are very sweet children, and they clearly state that they find it mean and unfair that their aunt Victoria gets discriminated against just for being a half elf.
One-Steve Limit: There is another person called Alfred in the light novels, but he's noted as an elderly gentleman and butler as opposed to royalty like Alfred Samanark.
Sweet Tooth: While they both enjoy the entire children's lunch dish, they have a special fondness for the pudding served as dessert, much like their aunt.
Trademark Favorite Food: Nekoya's children's lunch, which includes omelette rice, a hamburg steak, fried shrimp and potato salad, with pudding as dessert, the latter being their personal favorite part of the meal.

Alphonse Flugel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alphonse2.jpg

^{Alphonse prior to his rescue. (SPOILERS)}

Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki (Japanese), Jeremy Schwartz (English)

The greatest and most skilled admiral of the Samanark Duchy. Some 20 years ago, the fleet he was escorting ran into the infamous Kraken, Ruler of the Sea. He managed to ensure the safety of his wards at cost of his crew, his ship, and 20 years of his life stranded on a deserted island. Managing to find a door to the Nekoya and having a giant bag of gold on hand helped maintain his sanity. Following his rescue from the island, Alphonse begins to use the door Heinrich first used to enter Nekoya.

Adaptational Explanation Extrication: While it doesn't fully justify the "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot below, the light novel does at least add an additional reason as to why no one was able to find him; namely, that the island he landed on was far away from any ship routes, and thus most people wouldn't have even been able to pin him down even if he had told anyone he was still alive. This is not explained in the anime, which only furthered the oddity of the original plot point.
Adaptational Relationship Change: In the light novels, he has little to no interaction with Aletta or Kuro outside of being waitresses and customer, and is noted as having a friendship with Lionel (that also isn't really elaborated on). In the anime, his friendship with Lionel is never mentioned, while he becomes close friends with Kuro, Aletta, and the Master.
Ascended Extra: Alongside Kuro, he is this. In the light novels, while he does have two stories where he has relevance (basically his first true spotlight episode split into two separate stories), he's otherwise consigned to the background like Kuro. In the anime however, due to the more compact cast and changing of episodes, Alphonse has a much more prominent role as a supporting character. His character is built up in the background, with more pathos to his having to leave the island (more specifically, the Nekoya door on there) and his joy at finding another door months later. He also ends up having a far more involved role with the Nekoya staff, acting as the Master's curry taster and having a friendly relationship with Kuro and Aletta. He's also had more indirect interaction with people who his actions have affected, such as the two sirens Arius and Iris seeing him in Nekoya (with the former realizing he's the Chimera Killer they've heard about). Additionally, his second centric episode in the anime isn't based on anything in the current five light novels at all, with the three tested curries (Green curry, soup curry, and beef tendon curry) all being original to the anime.
Commonality Connection: With Kuro, due to their shared love of curry dishes (Spicy Chicken Curry for Kuro, Pork Curry for Alphonse). Unbeknownst to either, they also share a common background of isolation from humanity for many years, and finding companionship and their favorite meals at Nekoya.
"Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: In the two decades Alphonse spent stranded on the deserted island, he never once considered talking to another patron where he actually was all that time. Even more egregious when fellow Samanarkians Artorius and Victoria were also frequenting Nekoya (the former was one of the four heroes that has been a regular since Nekoyas' first opened, and the latter being one of the Nobility who helped to translate the Dessert menu.)
Fling a Light into the Future: Before he left the island, Alphonse left behind a chest filled with his money and a note telling future sailors that wind up washing ashore to his island about the door to Restaurant Nekoya that appears every Saturday and how it helped to maintain his sanity after twenty long years. Several weeks later, Arius and Iris arrive on the island and finding the chest soon become new patrons of Nekoya.
Foil: To Kuro. Both found the door to Nekoya while in isolation for many years after fighting and dealing the final blow to a great beast for the sake of others (A kraken for Alphonse, and the Million Colors of Chaos for Kuro). They manage to find companionship in the restaurant and share a common favorite food in curry (Chicken curry for Kuro, Pork curry for Alphonse), while also forming a friendship with the Master and Aletta. However, Alphonse is a regular human in his 50s who has stepped down from his position as admiral due to retirement, and was isolated due to being shipwrecked against his will. Kuro is one of the six dragon deities of her world, worshipped by many and isolated by choice due to her powers being too great for any living being besides her fellow dragons to survive around.
Four-Star Badass: He was an admiral of some notoriety before being shipwrecked on his island. He is seen taking down a horned-wolf as soon as he washes up on shore and is later shown killing a chimera with a rapier.
Intergenerational Friendship: A rather hilariously exaggerated case. He's physically the oldest looking out of his friends with the Master, Aletta, and Kuro, with only the Master actually being younger than him, being in his mid 30s. In reality, despite her youthful personality, Aletta is actually nearly as old as he is (being 50 while appearing in her 20s). Kuro meanwhile is actually the oldest by far, with her elven appearance giving the impression she's around an adult human age, but her actual nature as a dragon goddess making her at the bare minimum 35,000.
Large Ham: On occasion, he can be much more exhuberant and boisterous than many of the other regulars.
Manly Facial Hair: While already plenty masculine when clean-shaven, the bushy beard-mustache combo he grew due to a lack of ways to shave provided a good Beard of Barbarism survivalist image, and after being rescued he only shaves it to a more respectably shorter but still thick level, acting as a Seadog Beard in representing how his survival days hardened him into a fiercer but still respectable admiral.
Officer and a Gentleman: Thanks to Nekoya for keeping him from being too heavily isolated from human contact, he manages to retain his sanity, sense of courtesy and politeness, particularly when offering to pay for Kuro's first meals.
Red Baron: The demi-humans populating the outer isles near the Eastern Continent refer to him as the "Chimera Killer" due to the fact he's such a badass that even the terrifying chimeras are little more than food for his survival.
Robinsonade: Spent 20 years stranded on an uninhabited island, but thanks to Nekoya he kept his sanity by going each week, enjoying curry rice and having the other restaurant patrons to banter with.
Tally Marks on the Prison Wall: The cave he lived in has a series of tally marks on the wall, which are later discovered by Arius and Iris. Instead of the usual sets of five, he counted days in sevens to help remember when the door would reappear.
Trademark Favorite Food: He greatly enjoys all forms of curry with rice that the Master introduces him to, to the point that he's basically the first person the Master goes to when he needs taste-testing for new curry dishes. Regardless of what he eats though, pork curry rice has remained his favorite.

Artorius

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/altorius.jpg

Voiced by: Motomu Kiyokawa (Japanese), Charlie Campbell (English)

One of the Four Legendary Heroes who defeated the Demon Lord. He is known as the greatest mage known in the land and aside from his regular orders of tonkatsu and beer, he helped write the menu specifically for otherworld customers.

The Archmage: He was Victoria's teacher and mentor until she finally reached where she is now. His experience also seems to allow him to sense when someone is more than they seem, as is the case with Kuro.
Cool Old Guy: A former legendary hero and greatest mage in the land, admired by many, and he's also quite friendly and personable.
I Was Quite a Looker: A portrait of him 70 years ago show he was quite good looking. Alexander can only comment on how much older his old friend has become since the last time they met.
Living Legend: As one of the four Legendary Heroes who saved the world from the Demon Lord, as well as being the greatest mage across the land, he most definitely counts as this. Several customers on their first time at Nekoya find themselves in awe of Artorius's presence upon realizing it's him.
The Nicknamer: He's the one who began the custom of nicknaming customers based on their favorite dishes.
Oh, Crap!: When he sees the Black Queen enter at the restaurant, quickly figuring out what she actually was.
Retired Badass: He was one of the four heroes who defeated the Demon Lord 70 years ago. Now he's happily living out his retirement as an archmage and a Nekoya regular.
Secret-Keeper: He knows that Yomi is still alive on Earth, as he was one of the very first regulars of Nekoya, and chose to keep quiet for her sake.
Trademark Favorite Food: Tonkatsu, or fried pork cutlet, and beer.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Tatsugoro, mostly. The two frequently get into barbs and arguments but whenever they're in the restaurant together, you can always see them at the bar enjoying their respective meals. It comes with the territory of being some of the longest and oldest regulars.
Wizard Beard: His neck-length super-bushy white beard combines well with his robes to give a prominent sage-type Wizard Classic look.

Camilla

Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (Japanese), Brianna Roberts (English)

A mermaid priestess who lives in a small merchant town by the sea. She found the door to Nekoya in a cave that leads to the sea, and after visiting and becoming enamored by the fruit jelly dessert, she works on recreating it, even providing large portions of it to a merchant lady to sell in the market.

Birds of a Feather: She bonds with Fardania in that both are customers at Nekoya who have wanted to make something themselves inspired by their experiences at the restaurant, and Camilla readily agrees to work together with Fardania to create a better fruit jelly than Nekoya's.
Curtains Match the Window: Her hair and eyes are both blue.
Older Than They Look: Her appearance makes her appear to be around her 20s to 30s, but her years spent alive confirms she's at least 55 years old.
Our Mermaids Are Different: Much like Arte, Camilla can offer a prayer to the Lord of Blue so her tail can transform into a pair of dragon-like legs. She's also a proficient magic user and actually lives on land, though with easy access to the sea.
Sweet Tooth: She quite enjoys sweets.
Trademark Favorite Food: She falls in love with the fruit jelly at Nekoya and has since worked hard to recreate it, which is still a work in progress.

Heinrich Seeleman

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), J. Michael Tatum (English)

A knight of the Duchy. Though he hailed from a seaside town, he currently lords over a vast mountain fortress in his own castle.

Blue Blood: He's a nobleman by birth, having been a normal knight beforehand and now currently the Lord of a border-territory castle.
Bring Help Back: Heinrich stumbled across Nekoya while trying to reach the royal capital to inform about the mothmen attack. After his horse died and he forgot to pack food with him; Nekoyas' front door appeared in a nearby cabin. After having Fried Shrimp, he leaves his sword as payment before continuing on to the Capital.
Determinator: He managed to escape a mothmen attack after his fellow soldiers bought him an opportunity, but his horse died of poisoning in the middle of the escape. Just as he was about to die of exhaustion and hunger after a whole day of hiking a desolate wasteland without food, he managed to stumble upon a Nekoya door, get his fill of fried shrimp, and then hoof it the rest of the way to the royal capital and call for reinforcements. It’s safe to say he earned that castle.
Milking the Giant Cow: He has a habit of making grandiose gestures and raising his voice in conversations.
Poor Communication Kills: Spent 3 years believing Nekoya was only a dream, since in his hurry to deliver an important message, he failed to hear that he could return next week and that he didn't have to leave his sword as payment either.
Ship Tease: His side of the Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic with Sarah holds a tinge of Belligerent Sexual Tension due to how he goes out of his way to aggressively snipe at her and on occasion gives her subtle compliments through a veil of snark. Turns out he's genuinely been falling for her, as shown by how the romantic mood of the Adelheid-Shareef marriage party pushes him to exclaim an Anguished Declaration of Love to her, and after calming down the wording of his apology for the outburst makes it especially clear that he truly wants to be with her.
Trademark Favorite Food: Fried shrimp as shripe was a speciality in his hometown.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Becomes this with Sarah. They argue, they fight, but their tables are always right next to each other, and sometimes they sit together at the same table.

Victoria Samanark

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Jad Saxton (English)

A half-elf noble, who is content with letting her brother lead while she keeps to herself. She is a highly skilled sorceress and also wrote the desserts menu for Nekoya.

The Archmage: Nearly as good as her teacher Artorius. To wit, she actually manages to summon a door to Nekoya in her own bedroom.
Birds of a Feather: Bonds with Adelheid over their mutual love of sweets.
Cool Aunt: Her nephew and niece, Alfred and Margarette, completely adore her and are in awe of her magical skills, and she, in turn, dotes on them and eventually takes them with her to Nekoya to join her as regulars.
Fanservice: Bizarrely in the anime, during Artorius' speech on Victoria's magical prowess, she's inexplicably naked with her body moving around surrounded by magical energy.
Half-Breed Discrimination: Although her brother, nephew, and niece love her dearly, she knows she's an outcast in both elf and human society (and even isn't well-liked by her sister-in-law), so she tends to keep to herself.
Hikkikomori: Outside of family dinners or going to Nekoya, Victoria never leaves her tower. Interestingly, she's neither antisocial nor agoraphobic, but rather enjoys the quiet as it allows her to study and advance her magic at her leisure while keeping the Samanark's family prestige by never being seen by anyone who isn't family.
Hybrid Power: An unusual example, as she possesses immense magical prowess from her elven ancestry, but being part human allows her to consume animal products without concern, which to an egg and milk lover like Victoria makes the Half-Breed Discrimination much more tolerable.
Maiden Aunt: Never married and intends to stay that way, in part due to her elven ancestry. Although, after taking her niece and nephew to Nekoya, she can't help but wonder if the small joy she felt is something she would've experienced if she had her own children.
Mundane Utility: One of the magical uses she's researching is... making a portable mini-fridge. Presumably, in a medieval fantasy world, this would be an extremely useful invention for traders.
Older Than They Look: She's 36, but thanks to her elven ancestry, she looks much younger.
Race Lift: Dark-skinned in the manga, but fair-skinned in the anime. To be fair, the Light Novel never really described her skin color.
Sweet Tooth: She has a major fondness for sweets, to the point that she acted as the dessert menu developer for the Master.
Trademark Favorite Food: She greatly enjoys anything involving eggs and milk, something that makes her not mind being a half-elf too much since she gets the magical prowess without the vegan dietary restriction, which combined with her Sweet Tooth results in her especially loving Custard Pudding in Pudding A la Mode.
Uneven Hybrid: In reality, her elven ancestry is actually rather diluted, however, elven blood has a tendency to undergo atavism; thus, she is a half-elf despite being born of two humans.

Alfade Trading Company

A family-owned company from the Eastern Continent famous across the land for revolutionizing the uses of pasta and tomato sauce in various high-class meals, which unbeknownst to the masses is only possible through their connections with Nekoya inspiring the idea.

Johnathan Winsberg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnathan.jpg

Voiced by: Yuya Hozumi (Japanese), Alex Mai (English)

The childhood friend and personal chef of Sirius. Following taking up his role as leader of the Alfade Company from his grandfather, Sirius found himself rather lacking in culinary analysis skills, so he brought Johnathan with him to see if he could help taste and replicate the food. Following their first visit, Johnathan becomes a regular both to enjoy the food and potentially re-create it in their world.

Childhood Friends: He and Sirius have stuck together since childhood, and he's the only person Sirius trusts enough to know the truth behind the Alfade Company's success without giving away the secret.
Secret-Keeper: He's the only non-Alfade who knows the real reason behind the company's success is through copying Nekoya recipes, and as Sirius' best friend (and as he notes, no one would ever believe him) he has no intention of ever revealing it to the public.
Supreme Chef: While not near the Master's level, he's got very high culinary skills, to the point he's capable of coming very close to the quality served at Nekoya.
Trademark Favorite Food: He takes a major liking to Neapolitan-style pizza after first visiting Nekoya.

Sirius Alfade

Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (Japanese), Stephen Fu (English)

The grandson of Thomas Alfade, he becomes the head of the Alfade Trading Company when his grandfather retires.

Broken Pedestal: At first in regards to his grandfather, but after learning the truth, he comes to understand his grandfather's idea of trying to recreate the dishes as best as he could.
Legacy Character: Thomas chose him as the perfect person to continue the legacy of the Alfade Trading Company, due to sharing both his business savvy and eye for the composition of good food. All later appearances show him as very dedicated to living up to the legacy, and exhibits great potential for being a Superior Successor in regards to better replicating Nekoya cuisine.
Trademark Favorite Food: Develops the same fondness for spaghetti with meat sauce as his grandfather does, though he starts branching out into other tomato sauce-based foods in his efforts to perfect their replica recipes, such as napolitan and pizza, all of which he equally enjoys.

Thomas Alfade

Voiced by: Yusaku Yara (Japanese), Barry Yandell (English)

The recently retired head of the Alfade Trading Company. Though hailed as a culinary genius and the one who revived the then failing business by inventing groundbreaking sauces to use with their pasta and wheat products, much of his success was incidental to trying (and failing) to recreate the Nekoya's sauces so he can enjoy them any time he likes.

Cool Old Guy: Despite basically mimicking Tenshu's pasta recipes for his own success, Alfade is still a fair man and keeps a symbiotic relationship with Tenshu by also providing supplies, which in turn allows Tenshu to further improve his cooking.
Fake Ultimate Hero: A culinary version. Thomas Alfade is famous in his native land for making pasta into a dish enjoyed by nobles with plenty of innovations in both the noodles and sauce to the point where he is hailed as a genius chef. All Thomas was really doing was trying to recreate the taste of Nekoya's pasta so that he could have it anytime he likes.
Plagiarism in Fiction: A culinary version. All of his food is based on replicating the recipes of Nekoya, but he's ultimately portrayed much more sympathetically than usual, given that his actions uplifted pasta as a meal with the numerous innovations to noodles and sauces in his world, while also saving his company. It also helps that he goes out of his way to develop a proper symbiotic relationship with Tenshu, and encourages his grandson to try to do better than himself at developing their cuisine when he eventually transfers control of the company over to him.
Trademark Favorite Food: Spaghetti with meat sauce.

The Demon Kingdom

The Eastern Continent territories ceded to demonkind after the Human-Demon War. These days, they maintain a relatively pacifistic existence.

Alicia, Hilda, and Ranija

A trio of demon treasure huntresses and mercenaries. Initially only acquaintances with each other through their work, Hilda's discovery of the Nekoya door (and Alicia and Ranija subsequently noticing Hilda's odd behavior and following her) leads to them all becoming regulars of the restaurant through its delicious cheesecake, and ultimately pushing them to form a bounty hunter trio.

Traits Shared Between All Three:

Action Girl: Hilda, Alicia, and Ranija all excel in a fight, each using their own weapons and specializations. They end up being even more formidable after they choose to work together as a bounty hunting trio.
Little Bit Beastly: As with all demons, they each have a unique trait that is expressed in their appearance.
Serious Business: Over which cheesecake is better, to the point of nearly getting into a brawl with each other. Only Kuro making it crystal clear that they will be in serious trouble if they continue stops them.
Sweet Tooth: All of them favor desserts, with cheesecake being their favorite.
Trademark Favorite Food: Cheesecake, although each of them favors a different type.
Weapon-Based Characterization: All of them favor different weapons that end up being quite reflective of their personalities.

Traits unique to Alicia:

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alicia2.jpg

Alicia Voiced by: Sachi Kokuryu (Japanese), Corinne Sudberg (English)

Little Bit Beastly: Her demon lineage shows in her hands, which are just like a bear's paws.
Tomboyish Voice: She's a bit rougher and more masculine in attitude compared to both Hilda and Ranija, which is represented in the anime by having a much deeper sounding voice.
Trademark Favorite Food: Thanks to Hilda introducing her and Ranija to it, she develops a passion for cheesecake, but favors baked cheesecake above others.
Weapon-Based Characterization: Alicia's preferred weapon is an axe, fitting for a headstrong close ranged fighter who wades into her enemies.

Traits unique to Hilda:

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hilda2.jpg

Hilda Voiced by: Nao Tōyama (Japanese), Trina Nishimura (English)

Adaptational Explanation Extrication: It's not really elaborated on why Hilda prefers to work alone in the anime, but in the light novels, it's established that it's driven in part because most other mercenaries couldn't keep up with her when she went to work, especially in her night time missions due to her unique demon heritage.
Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Hilda and Aletta are actually noted as becoming friends in the light novels after their first meeting, while they are ultimately just one of many customers and waitress in the anime.
Automatic Crossbows: Her favored weapon, allowing her to strike enemies from a greater distance compared to her fellow mercenaries. She does need to fight smartly to keep her opponents from getting too close to her, something that is nullified when she teams up with the melee focused Alicia and Ranija.
Exotic Eye Designs: Compared to every other humanoid creature, her irises and pupils are oblong ovals instead of circles. The light novels establish that these eyes allow her to see in the dark, making her well suited to night time missions.
Little Bit Beastly: Hilda possesses the ears of either a cat or a fox on her head, alongside slit pupils, as a mark of demon lineage. It is as of yet unknown if she possesses other animal characteristics.
Red Baron: She is known to others as Hilda "the Night Strider".
Sweet Tooth: After first stumbling upon Nekoya, she's more attracted to the desserts section of the menu, with souffle cheesecake becoming her choice to try and her instant favorite.
Trademark Favorite Food: Soufflé Cheesecake. She later comes to find all cheesecake good after trying them with her friends, but soufflé is the one she loves the most. She also really likes cheese.
Technicolor Eyes: Hilda's eyes are an abnormally saturated shade of turquoise.
Weapon-Based Characterization: Her crossbow is fitting for someone who prefers to deal with her enemies from a safe distance and outsmarting her enemies rather than taking unnecesary risks.

Traits unique to Ranija:

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ranija2.jpg

Ranija Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English)

"Arabian Nights" Days: She admits that she's originally from the Land of Sand after recognizing Princess Renner and Prince Shareef.
Cute Little Fangs: Amongst the trio she's the only one with prominent fangs as part of her demon blessing, and when enjoying her food they amplify how cute she looks.
Dual Wielding: Her preferred weapons are a pair of knives.
Exotic Eye Designs: Like Hilda, her eyes are distinct in that they have a slit pupil more akin to a cat or lizard.
Little Bit Beastly: Her demon lineage shows in her hands, which have finger-pads like a gecko, and she also has a set of sharp fangs. Her eyes are also distinct with a slit pupil.
Trademark Favorite Food: Thanks to Hilda introducing her and Alicia to it, she develops a passion for cheesecake, but favors rare (or chilled/no-bake) cheesecake above others. She also really likes cheese.
Weapon-Based Characterization: Ranija uses knives, and is shown to be the most soft-spoken and feminine in appearance.

Edmon

Voiced by: Susumu Chiba (Japanese)

The Demon Kingdom's Chief of Intelligence.

Properly Paranoid: Despite the Kingdom and Empire being at peace with each other, he was concerned after hearing from his agents that their neighbour allied with the Land of Sand, since in a world like theirs alliances between major powers often are because of plans for war against a different nation. He's quite relieved to learn it was for a more peaceful reason by way of Shareef currying favor with the Empire so he could marry Adelheid.
The Smart Guy: He uses Nekoya as a valuable source of intel, was quick to propose a trade deal to his neighbours after they tasted quiche together and realized how each nation had a different food to provide for culinary expansion, and immediately realized the true reasoning for the Empire/Land of Sand alliance after seeing Shareef's confession.
The Spymaster: He enjoys dining in Nekoya but also uses it to get the necessary intel for his work.
Trademark Favorite Food: Spaghetti carbonara is his go-to dish, but he appreciates anything with eggs and cheese in it, like the delicious quiche he and several other Nekoya regulars are served.

Lastina

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Leah Clark (English)

The current Demon Lord of the Demon Kingdom, who has been experiencing a sense of inadequacy about her status due to how weak she is for a demon, especially compared to her immensely powerful and impressive-looking mother who ruled before her. However, after stumbling upon Nekoya's door and meeting with Princess Adelheid, who helped her both realize her worthiness and find a food she enjoys, she regains her confidence while also becoming a regular to keep in contact with the princess.

Appearance Angst: In addition to her weak magical power, her Inadequate Inheritor feelings also extend to body issues in comparison to her mother. This includes a single horn so tiny her bangs normally hide it, bat wings that are too small and weak to even glide let alone fly with, and a tail so small it doesn't even reach her knees, which contrasts her mother having seven long horns arranged to give her a regal Crown-Shaped Head, large and strong dragon wings that grant limitless flight, and a tail so long and sturdy that a Tail Slap could break iron.
Birds of a Feather: Lastina finds a kindred spirit in Adelheid, not just due to a mutual love of sweets, but also in being part of royalty who are physically weak but good hearted and capable beyond what they physically lack.
Cute Monster Girl: She's notably quite cute and adorable for the current lord of demons. This ends up being a sore point for her, as her mother was infinitely more intimidating and impressively regal in appearance, while Lastina's smaller "demon-like" traits makes her feel lacking in power and presence by comparison.
The Dreaded: To Edmon surprisingly enough. He recognizes her as being a fairly smart woman, and thus has to be very careful about his spy work in Nekoya to make sure she doesn't catch on.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: She views herself as an Inadequate Inheritor as the current Demon Lord, because her overall power and appearance are negligible in the face of her mother, the previous Demon Lord. It takes a good chat with Adelheid for her to realize that while her appearance is unimpressive and her power weak, both her subjects and allies consider her a great Demon Lord because of her skill at governing the masses while also keeping everybody happy.
Muggle Born of Mages: A slight variant, as she's still decently magical, but while her mother was effectively The Archmage, having magical prowess greater than even the most powerful elves, Lastina is only about on par with the average human sorcerer, which feeds the heaviest into her feelings of inadequacy.
She Is the King: She and her mother Altina are the Demon Lord, suggesting the title is gender neutral.
Sweet Tooth: She enjoys sweets, so long as they're not fruit based.
Trademark Favorite Food: Her instant favorite at Nekoya becomes the mocha chocolate parfait, and she also greatly enjoys cobbler's tubers.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She gets a good helping of this from Princess Adelheid in regards to her Demon Lord role, as despite being rather weak for one, she more than makes up for it with her political acumen and capacity for inspiring her kingdom.

Lionel

Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese), Jeremy Inman (English)

A former criminal who led a band of marauding Beast Men, he was subdued by Alexander and sold into slavery in the Demon Lord's gladiator arena. Though originally slated for a cruel death, a chance encounter with the Nekoya leads to him getting the energy and the motivation to keep on winning—that is, earning enough money to pay off his tab and keep buying more of his favorite dish, pork cutlet bowls. Though he's long bought his freedom, he's stayed at the arena as its champion for the last 20 years, known as the "Lion King."

Beast Man: A lion man, to be exact.
Big Eater: Lionel can eat quite a number of bowls of katsudon in one sitting, and does so every time he visits Nekoya. Justified, given just how big and muscular he is, and the sheer amount of energy it takes to be a gladiator.
King of Beasts: He's a lion man with a gladiator title as "The Lion King".
Large Ham: Even more than the other customers. Probably comes with being a lion man and a gladiator.
No Indoor Voice: To go with his Large Ham personality, Lionel is often quite loud while at Nekoya, especially when expressing his delight at the taste of his favorite dish.
Red Baron: After paying off his freedom to the Demon Lord, his gladiatorial prowess has earned him the moniker "The Lion King".
Reformed Criminal: Lionel was previously a dangerous criminal within the demon empire before being defeated. Since earning his freedom as a gladiator, he opted to simply continue his career while becoming a regular customer at Nekoya.
Took a Level in Kindness: He was a criminal who refused to go along with the truce between humans and demons, until he was captured and sent to a gladiator's arena to fight for his freedom. The previous Master's welcoming kindness and giving several katsudon to Lionel, even offering to put them on his tab, is what sets Lionel on the path to redemption, especially in the manga and light novel, as he was tempted to simply ransack the place or force the Master to cook for him without paying, but he found that he could not do something like that to someone who treated him with such kindness. Ever since, Lionel has been a decent person despite still being as rowdy as ever.
Trademark Favorite Food: Katsudon, a fried pork cutlet bowl with rice. He's especially enthralled by how the "weak" flavored rice complements the much more strongly flavored pork cutlet.
Win Your Freedom: Forced into becoming a gladiator and buying his freedom. Thanks to Nekoya's food, he succeeded within a year.

Thomas the Searcher

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thomassearcher.jpg

Voiced by: Ryōhei Kimura (Japanese), Brandon Potter (English)

A retired adventurer from the Demon Kingdom. Following the passing of the maid Jazelle, an old regular of Nekoya, and with it the knowledge of how to acquire Mont Blanc, his sister-in-law sends him to find it in exchange for a hefty sum of silver. Once he does, he happily starts visiting to enjoy the dessert himself.

Big Eater: By counting the two stacks of empty plates next to him after he's finished eating, one can tell that he ate a dozen or more Mont Blanc desserts in one sitting.
Birds of a Feather: Sarah instantly recognizes him as a treasure hunter (though he lets her know he's retired) and the two find themselves bonding and getting along, with Thomas learning more about the restaurant from her.
Constantly Curious: He could give Iris a run for her money in regards to how inquisitive he is, with him questioning everything new to him that he experiences in the restaurant.
Retired Badass: He used to be a treasure hunter like Hilda and Sarah, but his eyes dulling with age eventually forced him to retire and go into the investigative business to continue using his talents.
One-Steve Limit: He is the second Thomas introduced in the story after Mr. Alfade. As his own surname is not mentioned at any point, he is given the title "The Searcher" to differentiate him.
Trademark Favorite Food: After deciding to try it himself just to see what food could possibly be worth 3,000 silver, he came to utterly love Mont Blanc, and while he honors his word and reward by providing a steady weekly supply to his sister-in-law, he also indulges himself by eating a lot of it when he's there.

The Elven Territories

The isolated forests and wilds where the elves make their homes, away from the humans and other races.

Alice

Voiced by: Megumi Toda (Japanese), Emi Lo (English)

An orphaned elf girl who was abandoned by her village, she's quite unusual in that she was born to half-elf parents. Fardania encounters her during her travels, and after a visit to Nekoya, she invites Alice to join her journey.

Abandon the Disabled: Because elves mentally mature at a slower rate, the half-elf family and neighbors who left her behind in the woods thought she was an intellectually disabled adult and didn't want to make the effort to care for her indefinitely.
Adaptational Dumbass: In the anime, she's stated to have no idea that her village has abandoned her, whereas in the light novel, she's entirely aware that she's been abandoned despite her otherwise childlike personality. The narrative at the end even note that she knew deep down that even if she managed to find her way home, her siblings would always see her as an other, and her kind parents were gone forever.
Adaptational Wimp: In the light novel, she ends up beginning training as a mage in order to protect herself, something her anime counterpart has yet to reach.
Changeling Tale: While she was born to half-elf parents, Alice turns out to be a full-elf changeling.
Children Are Innocent: Alice is abandoned by the people in her village, but she never suspects they did such a thing and figures that they simply got separated while wandering the forest.
Curious as a Monkey: Alice is very curious to everything new she sees, and doesn't hesitate for a second to go through the door to Nekoya when she first spots it. During their travels, Alice is so curious about the new places she gets to see that she runs off to explore without telling Fardania, much to the latter's concern and annoyance.
Cute Clumsy Girl: The first thing Alice does when she and Fardania meet is trip and fall flat on her face.
Foil: To Aletta. Both are young adorable women who are Older Than They Look, and are eager to please the people who gave them a better chance in life. Both are the young friends to an older figure who is a skilled chef and/or traveler (Alice to Fardania, Aletta to master chef Tenshu and wandering treasure hunter Sarah Gold), who have taken them in after their personal tragedy due to Fantastic Racism. However, Aletta is noted to be old enough to be a jobseeker, is shown to be quite perceptive when she gains enough experience in something she values (in this case, being a progressively skilled waitress), and she chose to leave her home in the Demon Kingdom to seek her fortune, although things don't work out at first due to her demonic heritage. Alice is noted as being the elven equivalent of a child, but with the physical age of an adult (by half-elf standards), and is very inexperienced with the world, on top of acting impulsively and indulging in her curiosity even when it means being stuck in a bad situation. She was abandoned by her village because of her nearly pure elven heritage, with her none the wiser in the anime.
Good Parents: Her half-elf birth parents were this to her, even despite her seeming "deficiencies" and ineptitude due to her mentally being much younger than she appeared. Unfortunately, their deaths gave the villagers an excuse to get rid of her, due to them seeing her as a burden.
Happily Adopted: She's very happy to join Fardania in her travels, as Fardania becomes her caretaker.
Lovable Coward: Fardania notes that Alice is as cowardly as she is curious. Alice does spook easily, but is very friendly, polite and excitable.
Older Than They Look: She's 30 years old but looks like she's in her early-to-mid teens. Granted, for an elf, she really is a child in the eyes of Fardania, and she has the childish mentality to go with it. This is inverted in the light novels, where she's physically taller than Fardania and appears to be roughly the same age as her, but in reality is much younger than her.
Parental Abandonment: In a way. After Alice's parents died, the people in her village (her siblings, in the light novel) decided to abandon her rather than care for her, by leading her into the forest and placing a spell that would basically ensure she'd remain lost in there. Fardania is outraged when she discovers this, while Alice remains oblivious.
Proportional Aging: As a changeling elf, though she physically aged at about the same rate of the half-elves around her up to adulthood, her mental development was much slower. This proves to be a big problem however, as elaborated on in the Light Novels: because elves mentally age much more slowly, Alice is the mental age of a child by elven standards, but her half-elf neighbors view her as physically an adult, and thus can't adjust for her inability to do what should be fairly obvious by their age. As such, she's seen as childish and a massive hassle to deal with, and after her parents died, they decide to abandon her rather than deal with her.
Trademark Favorite Food: She develops an instantaneous love for rice burgers with tempura veggies.
Your Size May Vary: In the anime, she's made to be smaller than Fardania to emphasize her being a child. In the light novels, she's actually slightly taller than Fardania, to highlight how people could mistake her for an adult despite her mental age being a child.

Christian

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese), Patrick McAlister (English)

A (relatively) older elf who's lived hundreds of years more than his contemporaries. He's particularly infamous in their society for his attempts to recreate the Otherworld's cuisine, namely his favorite ingredient, natto, Japanese style fermented beans.

Always Someone Better: He's devoted himself to developing elven cuisine after his experience with Nekoya, but privately feels that Fardania is on the way to vastly exceed him in the culinary arts, especially when she figures out that his beloved Natto works well with rice, something he had not even considered.
Cool Old Guy: Well, for an elf he is this, despite not looking much older than Fardania.
Cordon Bleugh Chef: How the other elves see him, since his pursuits in imitating the human world's bean preparation has also resulting in his house gaining a rank stench.
Supreme Chef: Aims to be one anyway. However, he did find a way to ferment elven beans and effectively invent elven miso paste.
Really 700 Years Old: He's at least around 300 years old, but he looks no older than in the 30s by human standards.
Trademark Favorite Food: Natto, either in spaghetti or with rice.

Fardania

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (Japanese), Dawn M. Bennett (English)

An elf who is considered the greatest cook in her region. After finding Nekoya and savoring a fantastic vegan dish there, she sets out to explore the world and learn more about food to further improve her culinary skills and to prove she can surpass the dishes of Nekoya and its Master.

Adaptational Nice Guy: Fardania is much more internally snippy and judgmental in the Light Novel.
Always Someone Better: She is on the receiving end of this compared to Tenshu. She prides herself as an elven cook, but finds herself struggling to prove herself against the likes of Tenshu, whose food vastly surpasses anything she's ever tasted. This ends up being quite frustrating to her, as whenever she thinks she's found something to prove otherwise, it ends up being influenced or surpassed by Nekoya (such as Camilla's Fruit Jelly). However, she ends up being perceived as this by her father's old friend Christian, as her boldness and willingess to try something different allows her to consider food combinations that he didn't, such as Natto on rice.
Cultural Posturing: She isn't vocal about it, but she thinks of humans and many other races as being savage and barbaric for their consumption of animal products. However, Tenshu's skill at cooking vegan dishes quickly changes her perspective, and pushes her to try to prove herself a better cook.
Everyone Has Standards: She is absolutely appalled at the fact that Alice's village abandoned this sweet child simply because she might be an inconvenience to them after her parents died, ultimately choosing to become her caretaker.
Humans Through Alien Eyes: Played for Laughs in the anime, where she sees everyone, even sweet Adelheid, as chuckling evilly while they're eating their animal product-based meals.
Irony: Fardania is fixated on surpassing the Nekoya restaurant as a chef, and goes on a globe-spanning journey in the Other World to do so. However, as we've seen with Thomas Alfade, the Master is perfectly happy with answering people's questions about his cooking and building a symbiotic relationship with them to improve their culinary abilities, which means that if Fardania wanted to, she could have just asked him on improving her cooking. However, given how prideful Fardania is, she probably intentionally did not do this out of a need to prove herself without her "rival's" help. There's also the simple fact that because she never tells him about her intentions, he has no idea that she's anything other than another customer.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she internally holds a lot of Cultural Posturing about elven cuisine compared to outsider cooking, even if she never vocalizes anything worse then requesting a meal fit for her Picky Eater tastes, she gives compliments to well-made food tailored for her specifications, and outside the cuisine area she's a decently sweet and caring person, like when she took on the role of Parental Substitute for Alice.
Missing Mom: Her mother passed away some time ago.
Older Than They Look: As is expected for elves, Fardania is much older than she appears, being implied to be at least 100 years old (the age that an elf becomes an adult), while appearing around her 20s to 30s.
Parental Substitute: Fardania basically adopts Alice upon finding her wandering the forest and using her magic sense to detect that the girl was led astray and abandoned by her people.
Picky Eater: Wood elves are very in-tune with nature and can't eat anything of animal origin, including milk and eggs, meaning they're basically vegans. They also avoid bread for reasons that aren't really explained in-universe ^note. Though it's most likely that she can't eat Nekoya's bread specifically because it's probably basted with melted/clarified butter during the baking process for a more brown finish.
Trademark Favorite Food: Tofu steak. She gains a liking for rice later on.
Tsundere: She puts up a fairly haughty attitude around other beings, but hides the fact that Tenshu's cooking greatly impresses her.
Unknown Rival: Fardania views herself as a rival chef to the Master, her having a low opinion of human cuisine and doubting that a human could make a good meal fit for elf consumption, but after the Master serves her a fantastic meal, she views him as someone she vows to surpass in terms of culinary techniques and tasty food. But since she never tells him this, he views her as simply just another of his customers.
Walking the Earth: After her first visit to Nekoya, Fardania sets out to travel the land in order to learn more about food and improve her already good cooking skills. This also means that, much like the Halflings, she can't visit Nekoya as often as other customers who have constant easy access to a door.

The Land of Flowers

The domain of the Fairies. A mysterious land of perpetual spring, long ago the humans and demons both tried to fight over this territory until the locals drove them both off with their magic and control of nature. They're currently living happily in an isolated region, going about their business without bothering with what their neighbors are up to.

Queen Tiana Silvario XVI

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tianasilvario.jpg

Voiced by: Yoshino Aoyama (Japanese), Anastasia Muñoz (English)

The queen of the fairies.

Aura Vision: She can use one to see the magical power of the beings at the restaurant.
Fairy Sexy: Most fairies in general are this, but Tiana is a prime example. Though due to the nature of the anime, it's not really touched upon.
The High Queen: To her kingdom of fairies.
Lilliputians: Tiana and her subjects are the "size of your fist" type of fairies, to the point where they can all line up on a table comfortably. This sidesteps the issue of Tiana bringing several hungry subjects with her every time she visits the restaurant, as they're small enough that a single regular-sized dish is enough to feed all of them.
Mundane Utility: She summons a scary-looking moss golem to... open the door to the restaurant, because fairies are too small to open it themselves.
Our Fairies Are Different: Tiana appears to have great control over the power of nature and flora, creating a large vine golem from just a seed.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: When the door to Nekoya first appears in her kingdom, Tiana herself leads a group to assess any possible threat. She's also the first to try crepes at Nekoya to make sure it's safe to eat, rather than allow any of her subjects to do so, in part because her magic also makes her immune to any poisons.
Sweet Tooth: A trait shared among fairies.
Trademark Favorite Food: She doesn't seem to have a favorite filling, but as a whole, crepes.

Gold Family

A family of merchants, infamously plagued by "Gold's Curse": a sudden, irresistible temptation to drop everything for a life of adventure, treasure hunting, and danger.

In General

It Runs in the Family: Gold's Curse randomly afflicts a member of the family every generation. The tragic, sudden ends of many of those affected have caused the rest of the family to call it such.
Meaningful Name: Their surname aptly applies to the whole family, as all of them constantly work towards gathering more gold, whether as merchants or treasure-hunters.

Sarah Gold

Voiced by: Kiyono Yasuno (Japanese), Caitlin Glass (English)

A treasure hunter who inherited her beloved great-grandfather William's "curse" and lives most of her life as a treasure hunter as he did. Curious as to why he chose to spend his final days at a grim town in the middle of nowhere than the royal capital that he could easily afford with his family fortune and spoils, she ends up finding the restaurant and by happenstance, becomes as fond of her grandfather's favorite order: Minced Meat Cutlets.

Later on, she develops an odd friendship with Heinrich Seeleman as they frequently dine together, and eventually gives Aletta a permanent job and home as her housekeeper.

Adaptational Context Change: In the anime, she's not able to visit Nekoya for a while due to finding what seems to be evidence for a great treasure that she needs to dedicate time to properly translating. In the light novels however, this was actually because she had obtained her long lost cousin William Gold Jr.'s treasure hunting journal after running into him ten years after his disappearance. While his journal proved to her family that he was alive, the translating of his journal was to find out what information they could use... and also because his handwriting is so messy and filled with code phrases that William Gold Sr. used, that only Gold family treasure hunters like Sarah could even figure out what it was saying.
Benevolent Boss: When Aletta becomes her housekeeper, Sarah treats her like family rather than as just the help.
Black Sheep: She's looked down upon by her family, a legacy of merchants, due to her seemingly hereditary hunger for adventure that has claimed the lives of many other Golds.
Generation Xerox: She falls in love with the same food as her grandfather. She also ends up following in her grandfather's profession, to the dismay of the majority of her family.
Legacy Character: She's the second "Minced Meat Cutlet" to visit Nekoya, the first being her grandfather, William.
Nice Girl: Sarah is more than happy to befriend Aletta, unlike most other people, and immediately hires and provides lodging for her when Aletta takes up a second job as a housekeeper.
Rejected Marriage Proposal: From Heinrich, after he admits his love for her at the wedding reception for Prince Shareef and Adelheid. While she doesn't dislike him, she's not too impressed by his timing and springing it on her the way he did.
Related Differently in the Adaptation: In her introductory chapter in the original light novel, she's William Gold's great-granddaughter.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's a rather tomboyish adventurer, while her younger sister Shia is a Proper Lady.
Trademark Favorite Food: Like her grandfather before her, fried minced cutlet.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Heinrich most of the time. They argue, they fight, but their tables are always right next to each other, and sometimes they sit together at the same table.

Shia Gold

Voiced by: Sumire Morohoshi (Japanese), Felecia Angelle (English)

Sarah Gold's younger sister. Though she loves her dearly, she sorely wishes that she were not afflicted by Gold's Curse and driven to long stretches away from home and in the thick of danger.

Big Sister Worship: She deeply treasures her big sister, Sarah, and constantly worries about Sarah's dangerous lifestyle.
Nice Girl: While she's wary of Aletta being a demon due to her sheltered merchant upbringing making her only know of them through tales of the olden times, just like her sister she lacks any Fantastic Racism about it, and once they bond over a shared Sweet Tooth, Shia develops a fast friendship with Aletta in spite of her demonic status.
Secret-Keeper: While she doesn't know about the door, in the light novels she knows that Aletta and Sarah are getting the cookies from somewhere that they don't want to tell, and thus chooses to keep them for the sake of their privacy (and also because she figures the baker wouldn't want to get swamped).
Sibling Yin-Yang: Shia and Sarah still love each other. However, Shia embraces the easy and lavish lifestyle of her family while Sarah rejects it in her taste for adventure.
Sweet Tooth: Shia quickly befriends Aletta after she shares some cookies from the human world, and entrusts Aletta with a whole gold coin so she could buy more for her. She is immensely surprised when she finds out that a large box costs the equivalent of just 2 silver coins.^note1 gold = 100 silver = 1000 copper. Humorously, her other associates and family members have also taken a liking to the cookies that Aletta provides, to the point of badgering Shia (who by proxy asks Aletta) who the baker is.

William Gold

A deceased treasure hunter and a former regular of the Nekoya. He loved minced meat cutlets and never left the restaurant without sandwiches to go.

Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: A minor case, but in the anime William Gold is Sarah's grandfather, while in the light novel he's her great-grandfather.
Adventurer Outfit: In flashbacks to when he was still alive, he was never without his fedora and a heavy coat perfectly suited for protecting against the cold and the elements in the most remote and dangerous locations.
Gentleman Adventurer: He was born into wealth but chose to drop a comfortable life and position within the family business for venturing far and wide for treasure. As his family would say, he was afflicted by "Gold's Curse."
Posthumous Character: He's been dead for some unspecified amount of time by the start of the series, and his beloved granddaughter Sarah Gold discovers his "greatest treasure" (a door to the Nekoya) through the adventuring journal he left behind.
Trademark Favorite Food: Minced Meat Cutlets, like his granddaughter, Sarah.

Land of the Sea

A collection of numerous islands spread across the border between the Eastern and Western Continents, with a specific area near the south of the Eastern Continent being considered the "mainland" of the nation. It has a thriving population of humans, mermaids, and other more exotic beings like the Lizardmen.

Arte

Voiced by: Ayaka Suwa (Japanese), Amber Lee Connors (English)

A mermaid, she was a loyal patron of the restaurant and a follower of the Blue Dragon God. After saving Roukei from drowning in a storm, the two strike up a relationship, going on dates together at the Nekoya.

Curtains Match the Window: She has blue hair and eyes.
Godiva Hair: In her mermaid form.
Our Mermaids Are Different: Arte can assume a terrestrial form by offering a prayer. But rather than growing human legs, she instead gains draconic clawed legs.
Trademark Favorite Food: Hamburg Steak.

Doshun

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doushun2.jpg

Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Oscar Seung (English)

The court diviner from the Land of the Sea's wealthy mainland (The Ocean Nation in the Light Novel). He has an adversarial yet respectful relationship with Soemon, a samurai from the neighboring Land of Mountains.

Adaptational Nice Guy: The anime softened the edges of Souemon and Doshun considerably from the Light Novel, where they eventually show that they have an immense mutual respect for each other. By contrast in the Light Novel, they (at least in their introduction in Volume 1) are bitter rivals who can barely tolerate each other, sniping at each other even as they eat, and basically end as stubborn as they were when they entered the story.
Eyes Always Shut: Not always, but he does have his eyes shut most of the time.
Friendly Rivalry: Doshun and Soemon have a strong rivalry due to being from neighboring countries that are rivals to one another, as well as their Slobs Versus Snobs dynamic, and spend a lot of time bickering before having their meals at Nekoya, since they always go in at the same time. However, they still have a lot of respect for one another, keep one another informed on the goings-on of their respective countries, and readily try and enjoy one another's favorite type of okonomiyaki.
Pet the Dog: While Doushun in the light novel is much more snobbish and mean, he does have a soft spot for the princess Fairey, allowing her to "secretly" enter the Nekoya door in order to better understand the world and eat Nekoya's fine cuisine.
Slobs Versus Snobs: The snob to Soemon's slob. Doshun is a cultured and well spoken magician, dresses well and puts emphasis on elegance and manners, whereas Soemon has a gruff demeanor, focuses on physical strength and skill as a samurai, dresses a touch shabbily and is a bit more loose regarding table manners.
Trademark Favorite Food: Okonomiyaki, specifically with seafood and a lot of bonito flakes, though he also enjoys it with pork and egg.

Gaganpo

Voiced by: Makoto Yasumura (Japanese), Tyson Rinehart (English)

The Bluetail Lizard Tribe's current champion. Aside from being the leader for their most dangerous and epic hunts, he also has the special privilege of being able to go to the restaurant and order as many omelet dishes as his stomach can handle while still buying party platters for the rest back home.

Authority Sounds Deep: When speaking to his fellow lizardmen, he has a strong baritone and commanding presence.
Berserk Button: As mentioned below, and shared by Gaganpo's tribe, so much as touching the lizardmen's door to Nekoya is enough to incur their wrath, as they consider it sacred.
Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Despite the magic of Nekoya's door being able to translate what is spoken, the lizardmen's language seems so far removed from the other spoken languages of the other world that Gaganpo can only speak a few words and can't really form coherent sentences. Likewise, he can't really understand much of any other spoken language at all, to the point that teenager Jack has to resort to pantomime so Gaganpo can understand that Jack just wanted to know where he was from (Gaganpo thought that Jack wanted to steal his omelette rice), to which Gaganpo then barely manages to reply enough words for Jack to understand. This is heavily contrasted by how he speaks with a genuinely eloquent and commanding presence when talking to his fellow lizardmen. At Nekoya, only Kuro can speak with him with no problem, as her telepathy allows them to have perfectly normal conversations.
Legacy Character: He's not the only one in his village who has visited Nekoya. He's just the current one, as the current Tribe Champion and winner of the annual contest.
Lizard Folk: Hails from a village of lizardmen.
Serious Business: The Lizard Men worship the Nekoya and its door as a religious place, akin to the source of the food of the gods (from which you can order takeout). Every year, they choose their strongest warrior to have the pleasure of dining in and the duty of buying omelets for the rest of them, and as explained by the Halflings, do not dare use their door unless you want the entire tribe to come down on you for defiling their sacred place.
Terse Talker: In the light novels, the magic of Nekoya is much more potent and able to translate his language more effectively. He's just not much of a talker, preferring to focus on his meal.
Trademark Favorite Food: Omelette rice, which he also orders three party-sized orders for the rest of his village. These are filled with minced meat and onions, bacon and cheese, and white cream sauce and shrimp. The lizardmen are extremely fond of these, since their swamp doesn't possess any of the ingredients to make it themselves, and their attempts with crocodile eggs haven't borne much fruit.
Younger Than They Look: He may be a full-grown adult by lizard men standards, but he's only 8 years old by human standards.
You No Take Candle: Due to the lizardmen having difficulties both learning and speaking the common tongue, and their own language being so different from everyone elses', Gaganpo always speaks heavily broken sentences when forced to say anything besides ordering omelette rice. This is substantially downplayed in the light novels, as the door's magic is much more effective there, so it comes off less as an inability to understand other people's languages so much as him being very to the point about what he wants, and not particularly caring about what's going on around him unless it interrupts his eating.

Roukei

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese), Howard Wang (English)

An ordinary fisherman from the Land of the Sea. Arte saved him from drowning during a freak storm and becomes a regular after he agrees to pay for her dinner at the Nekoya as gratitude.

I Owe You My Life: To Arte when she rescues him from drowning.
Nice Guy: Roukei's your standard soft-spoken teenage boy.
Rescue Romance: Seems to have fallen for Arte after she saved him from drowning.
Ridiculously Average Guy: Out of everyone from the other world, Roukei is so unimpressive and without any noticeable traits, it's kind of impressive.
Trademark Favorite Food: Hamburg steak, just like Arte.
Wise Beyond His Years: Despite just being a teenage boy and a fisherman's son, he displays a great awareness of mermaid customs around the other world.

Customers of the Western Continent

The Land of Mountains

As the name implies, it is a land-bound region full of rich ore deposits and tall mountain ranges, which is located near the southern end of the Western Continent and neighbors the Land of Sea's mainland. Tatsugoro hails from this region and the Dwarves also make their home here.

Souemon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/soemon2.jpg

Voiced by: Tsuyoshi Koyama (Japanese), Bill Butts (English)

A samurai from the Land of Mountains in the Western Continent. He has an adversarial yet respectful relationship with Doshun, a court diviner from the neighboring Land of the Sea.

Adaptational Nice Guy: The anime softened the edges of Souemon and Doshun considerably from the Light Novel, where they eventually show that they have an immense mutual respect for each other. By contrast in the Light Novel, they (at least in their introduction in Volume 1) are bitter rivals who can barely tolerate each other, sniping at each other even as they eat, and basically end as stubborn as they were when they entered the story.
Friendly Rivalry: Souemon and Doshun have a strong rivalry due to being from neighboring countries that are rivals to one another, as well as their Slobs Versus Snobs dynamic, and spend a lot of time bickering before having their meals at Nekoya, since they always go in at the same time. However, they have a lot of respect for one another, keep one another informed on the goings-on of their respective countries, and readily try and enjoy one another's favorite type of okonomiyaki.
Slobs Versus Snobs: The slob to Doshun's snob. Souemon has a rather gruff demeanor, focuses on physical strength and skill as a samurai, dresses rather shabbily and is a bit more loose regarding table manners, whereas Doshun is a cultured and well spoken magician, dresses well and puts emphasis on elegance and manners.
Trademark Favorite Food: Okonomiyaki, specifically with pork and egg, though he also enjoys it with seafood.

Guilhelm and Garde

Guilhelm

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gard_0.jpg

Garde

Guildhelm voiced by: Tetsu Inada (Japanese), Greg Dulcie (English)

Garde voiced by: Tomoyuki Shimura (Japanese), Bill Jenkins (English)

Two friendly dwarves with a fondness for good alcohol and seafood. Like most of their race, they are highly skilled craftsmen and appreciate the finer and more luxurious things in life. After Guilhelm takes Garde to the restaurant for the first time, they eventually become the proprietors of a beloved rest stop just outside of the dwarven capital city.

Does Not Like Magic: Implied, as the two are rather freaked out initially by Kuro's Telepathy.
Large Ham: They almost put Lionel to shame with their extreme enthusiasm for dining at Nekoya.
Manly Facial Hair: As befitting of dwarves, who are commonly depicted as pinnacles of manliness, both of them have beards and mustaches so thick and bushy they completely cover their mouths. Their manliness is represented through having boisterous personalities and tough jobs that in a fantasy world would require plenty of taxing handiwork, Guilhelm being a brewmaster and Garde a glassmaker.
Mundane Object Amazement: Garde ends up taking an interest in the glass mugs that their draft beer is served in, noting that despite outwardly being very simple, creating something so uniform and well crafted in their world would take a lot of skill, due to the sheer difference in technology.
Nice to the Waiter: Taken quite literally, as Guilhelm is always very polite when ordering their meals, despite Kuro's telepathy scaring them earlier and Aletta being a demon, and he apologizes to Aletta when Garde's enthusiasm spooks her. Garde is also, enthusiasm aside, very appreciative of the service provided and is very open-minded and keen to see more of the 'Other World'; he also pays for both their meals as thanks for Guilhelm introducing him to the restaurant.
Now You Tell Me: After having finished off his Seafood Platter, Garde looks over at Guilhelm dipping one of his scallops into a plate of Tartar Sauce that was set out for both of them, at which point Guilhelm tells his friend at how tasty seafood is when dipped in the stuff, pissing Garde off that he chose now to say that.
Oh, Crap!: The two of them become very uneasy in the presence of Kuro, either possibly sensing that she's more than she seems or just being surprised.
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Let’s see… short and stout bodies whose legs can't touch the floor in normal chairs, thick and sturdy beards, loud and boisterous personalities, and a love for beer (not to mention they order a bottle of whiskey as a second round of alcohol after the beer). Yep, they're dwarves all right. (Oh, and Garde carries an axe!). About the only thing surprising is that they love seafood, considering they live in the mountains and technological limitations would keep deliveries from getting to them.
Ridiculously Fast Construction: Garde's visit to the restaurant inspires him to make a proper shelter around the door they use, to the point of being a sort of inn, which takes him just a few days despite only having Guilhelm as help. He even installs a ridiculously secure vault door to the restaurant door's room.
Trademark Favorite Food: Fried seafood platter, as well as Western alcoholic drinks.

Tatsugoro

Voiced by: Hōchū Ōtsuka (Japanese), John Swasey (English)

A famous wandering mercenary, his claim to fame being his legendary swordsmanship skills.

Adapted Out: His spotlight chapter doesn't appear in the anime.
Cool Old Guy: Despite his mature age, Tatsugoro is still an extremely skilled and capable fighter, but also quite friendly and outgoing. Teenagers Jack, Kento and Terry are in awe of him but also greatly enjoy his company when he meets them out adventuring and invites them to dine at Nekoya, with him paying for all their meals that evening.
Cool Sword: Tatsugoro's samurai sword has been enchanted with elven magic and is capable of defeating and slaying even supernatural creatures such as wraiths and ghosts.
Everything's Better with Samurai: Designed with the "Ronin" archetype in mind, from his design to his character and name.
Living Legend: Tatsugoro's skills are highly revered, which left Heinrich in disbelief when he first heard of Tatsugoro coming to make a simple casual visit. Other customers, such as Hilda and the trio of Jack, Kento and Terry, are in awe of his presence and surprised that he's a Nekoya regular.
Samurai Ponytail: His hair style consists of a long ponytail.
Shrouded in Myth: His status as a Living Legend also results in many tales told about him by bards, a number of which he openly admits are exaggerated. For example, he only killed 8 manticores instead of 100, though as Terry notes, this is still very impressive given how dangerous they are (for context, Lionel, a beastman demon who towers over the majority of Nekoya's customers, finds the idea of fighting one manticore to be quite dangerous, and while in a weakened state to basically be suicide).
Trademark Favorite Food: Teriyaki chicken with Seishu (a specific type of Japanese alcohol). He's also impressed by the delicious Teriyaki burger with rice buns after his return to Nekoya with the Trio.
- What's also notable is that compared to most other customers, who found their signature favorite food on their first attempt at Nekoya, Tatsugoro actually sampled a different dish first, sauteed pork with rice. It was only on his next visit that he would get the teriyaki chicken with seishu.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Artorius most of the time. The two argue, fight, and one episode there was a tragic mishap where a slice of Tatsugoro's teriyaki chicken ended up going to waste when Artorious tried to steal it, but they've been sitting together at that same place in the bar for years, if not decades.

The Land of Sand

A kingdom in the Western Continent that builds itself along the oases and rivers of a vast desert, relying on many forms of innovative magic to travel, trade, and survive.

Princess Renner

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/renner.jpg

Voiced by: Shino Shimoji (Japanese), Elizabeth Maxwell (English)

Princess of the Land of Sand, and Shareef's half-sister. Like her half-brother, she's an incredibly accomplished mage and politician, and when it comes to her brother's infatuation with Princess Adelheid of the Great Empire, the more level-headed of the two.

Adaptational Early Appearance: She didn't appear as a character until Prince Shareef's second appearance in the novel, whereas the anime backported her into their first episode appearance.
Adaptational Modesty: In the manga her outfit showed much more cleavage than the anime.
"Arabian Nights" Days: She comes from the Land of Sand, that's clearly based on this.
Brother–Sister Team: With her half-brother Shareef.
Brutal Honesty: She flatly points out to Shareef that if he keeps on waffling around his feelings with Adelheid, she will simply not get that he's interested in her, possibly causing her to become out of reach by the time she recovers from her illness. Additionally, if Adelheid decides that she doesn't want to be with him after she recovers, then it won't matter what kinds of overtures he makes towards the Empire; she simply won't be available to him given she's their beloved crown princess.
Deadpan Snarker: She's not too impressed with her half-brother's antics around Adelheid, noting that he tends to take far too many baby steps (if he can even speak to Adelheid at all), snarking a lot in her head while hitting him with hard facts out loud.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: She and her brother are trained magicians who seem very involved in the affairs of their kingdom.
Shipper on Deck: Wants her brother to finally man up and talk to Adelheid, to where she easily refutes his excuses to not do so.
Sweet Tooth: Unlike her brother, she prefers cream soda and sweeter drinks rather than coffee, finding the latter too bitter for her tastes.
Trademark Favorite Food: Melon soda float.

Prince Shareef

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shareef.jpg

Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru (Japanese), Ricco Fajardo (English)

Prince of the Land of Sand, and Renner's half-brother. A skilled politician, mage, and scientist, his one weakness is the stunning beauty of Princess Adelheid of the Great Empire.

Adaptational Personality Change: While he's just as lovestruck at first in the light novels, he's notably more dignified in his handling of his budding relationship with Princess Adelheid compared to his goofier antics and behavior in the anime, being able to actually hold more complex conversations with her. That being said, unlike the light novels (yet), he actually did succeed in winning her heart and getting married to her much earlier.
"Arabian Nights" Days: He's the Prince of the Land of Sand, that's clearly based on this.
Brother–Sister Team: With his half-sister Renner.
Cannot Spit It Out: The guy has made advances in magic and ease of living for his country, but can't bring himself to express his affection for Adelheid, to Renner's constant exasperation. It takes him quite a while to even open up negotiations for trade that would hopefully lead to a marriage proposal being accepted. Eventually he works up the courage to go through with proposing, and they do indeed get married.
Official Couple: He ends up engaged with Adelheid. After spending nearly two whole seasons constantly dancing around the subject of his feelings for Adelheid, he finally works up the courage to propose to her after opening trade relations with the Empire. She accepts.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: He and his sister are trained magicians who seem very involved in the affairs of their kingdom.
Trademark Favorite Food: Coffee float.

Customers of The Southern Continent

A mysterious continent mostly unknown to the civilizations from the main continents, beyond rumors of the races living there existing in a state of near-harmony.

Emilio

Voiced by: Kōhei Amasaki (Japanese), Clifford Chapin (English)

A very effeminate boy who came upon Lucia's lamia tribe after passing out from starvation trying to become manlier. After joining her for a meal and taking up Lucia's offer to train him as a priest of the Lord of Red (Red Queen of the Ancient Six Dragon Gods), he becomes a regular customer.

Babies Ever After: Due to his hidden potential as a Priest, he ends up siring 10 kids with Lucia's grandchildren later on.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: He has an absurdly feminine face, with many like Aletta confusing him for a girl, plenty of men proposing to him on sight, and trying a manlier appearance, such as cutting his hair short and wearing masculine clothing, just makes him look like a tomboy. He ends up meeting Lucia because his attempt at bulking up resulted in him forgetting to eat for several days and passing out near her clan home.
Even the Guys Want Him: His feminine beauty has resulted in both men and women finding him cute and pretty. He'd rather prefer not to be popular with guys, though, since the frequent proposals get both uncomfortable and tiring.
I Just Want to Be Badass: Due to how he hates being mistaken for a woman, he strongly desires to become a big, buff, and strong manly man so that people would take him more seriously. He ends up getting his chance to become a stronger person through Lucia's training.
Trademark Favorite Food: After Lucia introduced him to it, he gained a fondness for Scotch Eggs, both hard-boiled and soft-boiled.

Lucia

Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa (Japanese), Morgan Garrett (English)

The leader of a lamia settlement, high priestess of a Red Queen cult, and frequent customer to Nekoya alongside her grandchildren, she comes across Emilio following his failed buff-up escapade, and introduces him to the restaurant before taking him under her wing to help him train up the manlier body he wants.

Explosive Breeder: An example by proxy, but she has numerous granddaughters that are implicitly born from an equally extensive number of daughters.
Mum Looks Like a Sister: A ridiculously exaggerated example. She's old enough to be the grandmother of numerous adult lamia, yet she looks like she's their older sister.
Nice Girl: She's unfailingly polite to everyone she interacts with, is a doting mother and grandmother to all the lamia in her family, and readily saved Emilio's life, providing him with food and now a home as well. she does turn out to have some ulterior motives in the light novel, having seen his potential as a priest, but it doesn't make her kindness any less genuine.
Secret-Keeper: In the light novel, she's one of the few people who knows that Red Queen is not a demon woman, but actually her deity.
Snake Person: She is a lamia, having the upper half of a human woman and long lower half of a snake.
Trademark Favorite Food: She and her family greatly love Scotch Eggs.
Weredragon: As a faithful and dedicated worshiper of the Red Queen, her faith and training has granted her the power to become a dragon herself, which she uses as a selling point for convincing Emilio to become her disciple. It's also revealed in the light novels that she also saw his potential as a priest of the Red Queen, thus giving her more incentive to help him reach his full potential.

Customers From Other Regions/Nomads/Assorted

This section is for customers who live far from humanoid civilization, are nomadic in nature or choice (such as the Halflings), or whose place of origin is not entirely confirmed.

Alexander

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Micah Solusod (English)

One of the Four Legendary heroes, he is a half-elf swordsman. He is infamous for being an unbeatable, nigh-immortal mercenary, and has earned quite a number of grudges and enemies over his long lifespan.

Absurdly Youthful Father: Because of his elvish blood, he looks the same age as his great-granddaughter.
Dirty Old Man: Though he may not look old, he's quite long-lived and is well known as a perverted womanizer. One of the reasons Artorius waits to a later hour to take him to Nekoya is because he doesn't want Alexander trying to get frisky with some of the regular female customers who are quite attractive, some of whom are royalty as well.
Hero with an F in Good: Alex may be a legendary hero by historic standards, but his character is far less redeemable than what your standard hero should be. To be blunt, he's pretty much the most assed of all fantasy customers who visits the restaurant with plenty of them having a bone to pick with him. His old pal Artorius certainly took note of this and purposefully avoids taking him to the restaurant during the lunch hour, since that's when most customers with a grudge against him like Lionel have their meals.
Hired Sword: He became a very successful mercenary after the Demon War.
Jerkass Façade: Alexander comes off as flippant and easy going, and is dismissive when reading his son's headstone about having no father, but he went to his son's favorite restaurant and then his grave on the aniversary of his death. He leaves flowers for his son and wife before breaking down at his wife's headstone lamenting about how the war kept him from them. Finally he leaves quietly and smiles at his great-granddaughter Adelheid, proving that, at least in this moment, he is not as flippant as he let on.
Oh, Crap!: Has the same reaction as Artorius when he senses Kuro.
Older Than They Look: He may look like a teenager, but he's likely at least as old as Artorius.
One Degree of Separation: He's the one who abused and captured Lionel, was the father of Emperor Wilhelm and thus Adelheid's great-grandfather, and fought alongside Artorius and Yomi (who happens to be Master's grandmother) during the Demon War.
Outliving One's Offspring: Because half-elves can live for centuries, and elf-hybrid genetics don't follow Mendelian inheritance, he has already outlived his son, the fully human Wilhelm.
Parental Neglect: He's the father of the late Emperor Wilhelm. However, he didn't give much, if any, affection to Wilhelm, and was basically absent from Wilhelm's life, to where Wilhelm didn't consider him his father. His dismissiveness towards Wilhelm's bitter epitaph doesn't help his case.
Trademark Favorite Food: Enjoys croquettes just like his son.

Arius and Iris

Left: Arius, Right: Iris

Iris voiced by: Nao Tōyama (Japanese), Bryn Apprill (English)

Arius voiced by: Ayaka Asai (Japanese), Mikaela Krantz (English)

A pair of young sirens, who stumble onto the restaurant after finding Alphonse's old cave, instructions about the restaurant, and most of the gold he used to pay for his meals.

Ambiguously Related: It's a bit unclear what exactly their relation to each other is, whether they're siblings or lovers. Iris once mentioned hearing about the "chimera killer island" from her "granny", but that could be either both their grandmother, only her grandmother, or a siren elder the two respect and call "baba". Same goes for whether "making a nest" means just setting up a living place to rest or settling down together.
Bizarre Taste in Food: Arius originally thought that this was the case for them, as while eating raw fish is normal for sirens and other bird-like races, he doubted any other race was willing to eat anything uncooked. He was happily surprised to learn that other races have come up with delicious dishes using raw fish.
Constantly Curious: Iris won't stop asking questions about everything.
Dreadful Musician: Unlike common depictions, being a Siren doesn't automatically mean they're good singers, shown best as their performance amounted to slamming random piano keys and off-key wailing.
Magic Music: Their singing has a mesmerizing effect on those who cannot resist it, though interestingly enough it's shown to be an inherent Siren trait, since they manage to do so despite being Dreadful Musicians.
Our Sirens Are Different: They follow the harpy-like mold, though being Winged Humanoids rather than possessing arm wings, and while they can let loose a mesmerizing Siren Song, they don't inherently possess beatifully melodic vocals, with them being Dreadful Musicians who nonetheless can mesmerize anybody that hears them without magical resistances.
Perpetual Molt: Their wings are constantly leaving feathers.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Arius is far more thoughtful than the energetic Iris.
Trademark Favorite Food: Carpaccio, due to Sirens eating only raw fish.
Winged Humanoid: Unlike other representations of Sirens, they have wings on their back, like angels, although they also have talons on their feet.

Ilzegant

Voiced by: Akeno Watanabe (Japanese), Dallas Reid (English)

A very intelligent elf who lives by his lonesome on a floating island named Paradise, which was created as a result of his parents attempting to flee an epidemic that had struck the elven race years ago. Ilzegant finds himself incredibly bored after centuries of having no one else to interact with, and having burned through all of his parents' research ages ago. The Nekoya door's appearance ends up being a muchly needed change of pace for him.

Allergic to Routine: A downplayed example. It's not that Ilzegant gets bored easily so much as he lives all alone on a floating island, has never interacted with anyone besides his now deceased parents, and has read and researched every book available in the island's library, thus he finds himself with nothing new to do. Once the door to Nekoya appears on his island, he's elated to now have a new place to go to, things to try out and something new to research.
Constantly Curious: Fitting for someone who has spent many decades doing research and studying but has also grown bored living mostly by himself on a floating island with no interaction with others, Ilzegant is curious about anything and everything in Nekoya and the people in there. After enjoying green tea shaved iced, he especially grows curious about just the sheer aspect of cuisine and all that entails, and sets out to research it, starting by purchasing sugar and salt from the Master to try recreating the shaved ice he just ate at Nekoya. Later on when he witnesses Prince Shareef ask Princess Adelheid to marry him, it becomes clear even customs such as marriage proposals are fascinating to him.
Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Ilzegant is long lived, has a large library of books and has done extensive research on many things. As such, he has a vast array of knowledge on almost everything, to the point that he instantly recognized Nekoya as being in another world without needing to be told, and he also describes things in very specific and analytical detail. About the one thing he has little knowledge about is cuisine in general, and after his first visit to Nekoya, he sets out to research this as well.
Hikkikomori: He has lived in a floating island in the sky for over 200 years that he isn't able to get down from, never having interacted with anyone aside from his now deceased parents and having only a golem for company. He's not anti-social, though, and is quite excited to explore Nekoya and interact with the people there once the door to it appears on his island.
Innocently Insensitive: A side effect of his isolation and inquiring nature is that he doesn't always immediately consider how others might react to him ignoring their personal space, though to his credit he backs off quickly once he realizes it.
Older Than They Look: Being an elf, he looks like a young man, but is actually well over 200 years of age.
Trademark Favorite Food: Becomes instantly hooked to green tea shaved ice with sweet red beans and mochi, so much that the first thing he sets out to do when he returns home is try to recreate it.

Pikke and Pakke

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pikke_pakke.jpg

Left: Pikke, Right: Pakke

Pikke voiced by: Minami Takahashi (Japanese), Marin Miller (English)

Pakke voiced by: Yūki Takada (Japanese), Risa Mei (English)

A married halfling couple. Due to their nomadic nature, they never stay in one place for long, so they count on knowledge shared amongst themselves and other halflings to find doors leading to Nekoya.

Adaptational Late Appearance: In the Light Novel, Pikke and Pakke appeared as early as Volume 1 of the story, just after the introduction to Princess Adelheid. In the anime however, they don't appear until the middle of the second season.
Big Eater: It's stated that halflings can eat much larger portions than humans, despite their small stature. Pikke and Pakke manage to eat fifteen portions of cream croquettes, with three croquettes per portion, in one sitting.
Hobbits: They're pretty much archetypical halflings, possessing the height and appearance of children despite being adults, going completely barefoot everywhere no matter the terrain, and being capable of eating a lot more food than their child-like appearances suggest they could handle.
Keet: They're energetic to a child-like degree.
Nice Guy: They're very nice and polite. As they're earning money to go to Nekoya by selling soup, they mention to their customers how delicious it also is by having it with bread to dip in the soup, which gets their customers to buy bread from the bread salesman they set up shop next to, giving him some good sales as well. They even provide him with the recipe for their stew, allowing him to recreate it for himself and boost his business considerably.
Older Than They Look: As halflings they look like small children, but are actually old enough to live on their own and be married to each other.
Trademark Favorite Food: They favor foods with knight's^notebechamel sauce on it, even earning money by selling soup made with said sauce. As such, cream croquettes end up becoming their favorite.
Walking the Earth: Due to their nomadic nature, they're constantly traveling around the world, seeing the sights, experiencing new things, and spreading the joy of Nekoya food. As a consequence of this, though, they need to utilize word-of-mouth to figure out where a Nekoya door might be nearby, since they can't return to ones they already know unless their travels bring them back to a prior place.

Red Queen

Voiced by: Shizuka Itō (Japanese), Stephanie Young (English)

A powerful dragon goddess who has declared Nekoya and its employees to be part of her treasure ever since one of its doors appeared amidst her hoard.

Adaptation Personality Change: While her design is still the same, the manga depicts the Red Queen with an entirely different personality. In the anime, she is shown to be regal and calm, but possessing a strong and intimidating presence, and is overall quite courteous so long as you aren't on her bad side. In the manga, she makes her first appearance by bursting into the restaurant naked, being a bombastic Large Ham, and barely able to keep her patience on her order, basically being a Hot-Blooded Cloud Cuckoolander.
All-Powerful Bystander: Despite being one of the most powerful beings in the other world, she mostly keeps to herself, tending to her hoard, and actively avoids making contact with lesser beings. If anyone does something to harm Nekoya or its staff however, she will intervene, as someone who tried to kidnap Tenshu discovered the hard way.
Berserk Button: While we don't see it happen, Pikke notes based on halfling word-of-mouth that anybody so much as touching her personal door will be pretty much gambling their life for food, since she counts it as her greatest treasure she would kill to keep safe.
Big Eater: She is a dragon, and eats an entire pot of beef stew with ease. In Chapter 78: Barbecue, Once More, she also ends up eating enough of the barbecued meat for five people.
Declaration of Protection: As a dragon, she's fiercely protective of her treasure hoard, but she also considers the restaurant one of her treasures, and has magically warded it against those who would threaten it. She extends this protection to Aletta after she's hired as a waitress.
Dragon Hoard: She has quite a large hoard in her mountain lair. Since a portal to Nekoya is part of that collection, she is rather protective of the restaurant and the people in it.
The Dreaded: Out of all the god-dragons, the general populace view her with heavy terror and wariness, as she's known to have a fiery temper that isn't hard to set off, and while Kuro is technically more feared overall, her Self-Imposed Exile leaves Red as the scariest dragon still living on the planet. Red herself is fully aware of her reputation, viewing it as perfectly understandable, and as such does her best to wait until shortly before the shop closes to avoid terrifying the other patrons.
Fiery Redhead: Her human-form hair is as scarlet-red as her dragon-form scales, and fittingly enough she has an aggressively willful and somewhat fiery personality that she has some difficulties tempering when interacting with the Master.
Foil: To Kuro, her fellow dragon queen. Both are ancient dragons whom are considered The Dreaded, worshipped by many and love Nekoya's food to the point that they consider it to be under their protection.
- However, Red Queen takes the form of a tall and beautiful woman with a regal and intimidating presence, whereas Kuro takes the form of a younger looking elven woman with dark hair, with much of the intimidation coming from her suppressed power. Both women are also prone to being naked when they transform, but Red Queen has enough social skills to avoid accidentally doing so around the restaurant, while Kuro's first time there ends up being a Naked First Impression due to her lack of social experience.
- Red Queen is capable of holding long complex conversations verbally and has a personal servant for her personal needs, but otherwise seems content to not have many friends. Kuro is a Terse Talker who speaks predominantly through telepathy, and prior to Nekoya had no real friends or companions besides the other dragons due to the nature of her powers.
- Finally, while Red Queen is recognized as dangerous, this is driven due to her fiery personality, or if people intentionally cross her or hit her Berserk Button (as the Child of White found out the hard way), but otherwise isn't likely to kill someone simply because you're in her presence. By contrast, while Kuro can be agitated, she is generally more inclined to be passive unless provoked or attempting to enforce a rule within Nekoya. As a dragon, she tends to be a danger because her Walking Wasteland powers cannot be turned off while in dragon form, making her a threat simply by existing whether she wants to or not.
Hidden Depths:
- Through her deal with the manager, the Red Queen claims the restaurant as her treasure. Since she's an ancient dragon and essentially a deity in her world, it's unwise to disagree with her. However, she will only ever go there when she is certain no other customers are around and claims this is for their benefit as well as her own for she does not want them to be unnerved by her presence. Furthermore, when Aletta is made part of the restaurant staff, she receives Red Queen's blessing as well.
- She makes sure to wear clothes in her human guise whenever she goes. This is also shown to be for Nekoya's sake as she has no problem at all strutting around her hoard, naked as the day she was born, in the same humanoid form.
- She loves beef stew so much that she would happily pay the Master entire chests worth of gold coins for it, but instead pays the normal amount it costs every time, because she made a deal with the previous Master to do so and feels honor bound to never break said deal.
Horned Humanoid: The horns on her head and her Hellish Pupils when shapeshifted are the main indicators she isn't human.
Hot in Human Form: Her humanoid form is a Head-Turning Beauty.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's a Fiery Redhead with a borderline Hair-Trigger Temper that has caused everybody in the world to view her as The Dreaded, but beneath the volatile attitude is somebody that loves her sisters, cherishes Nekoya and the Master, and holds a genuine desire to keep the world and its people safe, including wanting to avoid causing any potential panic with her presence by only visiting near closing time.
Lady in Red: Befitting her name, she has blood red hair and wears a matching dress in her human form.
Mistaken Ethnicity: It's revealed in the light novels that she's mistaken by the Master for a demon woman, thus likely explaining why she doesn't cause more of a stir than a dragon god should.
Ms. Fanservice: Her human form is a voluptuous bronze-skinned woman with long flowing red hair, which the Light Novel takes its time putting into detail. She's also completely naked upon performing her transformation into this. Although Godiva Hair, Scenery Censor, Shoulders-Up Nudity and Toplessness from the Back are used to prevent any actual nudity.
Physical God: One of the most powerful, likely enough that her blessing has a subliminal effect on others.
Really 700 Years Old: It is mentioned she's 100,000 years old.
Red Baron: She's known as the "Red Lady" among the halflings, due to her Lady in Red form being the only appearance most people, especially fellow customers, see her in.
Shameless Fanservice Girl: Since she's a dragon, she doesn't usually wear clothes and often forgets about putting them on when in her humanoid form. The only reason she puts on clothing is purely to ensure that people don't become discomforted by her.
Trademark Favorite Food: Beef stew. She always comes in with a huge pot to get beef stew take out, so she can eat it in dragon form.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: She's a dragon who can transform into humanoid form at will, which she uses to interact with mortals.

Romero and Julietta

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/romerojulietta_2.jpg

Left: Romero Right: Julietta

Romero voiced by: Taku Yashiro (Japanese), Zeno Robinson (English)

Julietta voiced by: Miyu Tomita (Japanese), Marisa Duran (English)

A dark retainer noble couple on the run from their former kingdom. While escaping pursuers attempting to execute them as traitors, they stumble upon Nekoya and use it to hide for the day. After experiencing both service and safety from the Master, they become regular customers.

Adaptational Nice Guy: Romero and Julietta are still the same couple in love that they are in the anime, but Romero is much more squeaky clean (or at least not as explicit about what he might have done as a vampire) compared to his Light Novel counterpart, who is explicitly stated as having taken people's lives in order to feed himself. That being said, he is extremely aware of this and acknowledges that if he were killed by their pursuers, he would deserve it.
Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: They have heavy dark circles under their eyes, which give off an Exhausted Eye Bags impression that, combined with a deathly-pale complexion, make the Master worried about their health, but Romero reassures him that they just naturally look this way.
Dark Is Not Evil: Though they are vampires, creatures of the night, they aren't at all malevolent, simply being two people very much in love who wish to live together in peace.
Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: They have rather freaky appearances and initially express wariness towards the Master, but once they realize he means no harm and is a great chef, they show that they're quite friendly and accepting towards humans and other races that don't threaten them.
One to Million to One: The end of their introduction shows them turning into flocks of bats in order to both fly to Romero's hideout and do so stealthily.
Our Vampires Are Different: They have most of the common vampire traits such as a deadly aversion to sunlight, a corpselike complexion, a fondness for blood-like drinks, and an utter dislike for garlic. Interestingly, they're actually slightly different from proper vampires like Rorona, who require being bitten by another vampire and praying to Kuro for conversion, whereas Romero was born blessed by Kuro and he converted Julietta with an unexplained but clearly biteless method.
Really 700 Years Old: Rorona notes based off her vampiric senses that, while Julietta is as old as she looks due to being recently converted, Romero has been alive for at least a few centuries, and despite that he looks the same age as Julietta.
Shout-Out Theme Naming: Their names are quite blatant references to Romeo and Juliet, and their introduction is directly based on the scene where Romeo tries to elope with Juliet. Unlike how things turn out for the literary couple, Romero and Julietta successfully escape their tragic circumstances and happily live free enough to enjoy Nekoya weekly. Romero's name also brings to mind George A. Romero, a filmmaker famous for making horror movies about the undead.
Sickeningly Sweethearts: They are this in the manga, constantly gushing over one another, which is seen annoying at least one customer. They avert this in the anime and light novel, as their behavior at Nekoya in those versions is more casual and polite.
Stealth Pun: In an ironic sense, their Trademark Favorite Food is steak, which is a homophone for stake, something normally used to kill vampires.
Trademark Favorite Food: Beefsteak and blood-red wine. They're later shown to enjoy every form of beef, particularly finding roast beef to go best with the wine while beefsteak works best standalone. It's especially notable given that cow meat in their world is usually tough and stringy, so the tenderness of Nekoya's beef makes an even stronger impression on them.
Vampires Are Rich: Though it's not known how he achieved it, Romero is quite wealthy, thus he and Julietta have no trouble in ordering beefsteak and wine, the most expensive meal on the menu, every time they visit Nekoya.
Weakened by the Light: As they are a vampire variant, sunlight is lethal to them, whether natural or artificial. They initially think the bright lights of Nekoya are a sunlight trap until they realize it doesn't hurt them at all.

Rorona

Voiced by: Manami Numakura (Japanese), Macy Anne Johnson (English)

A young girl who recently became a vampire, otherwise known as the "Black Brood" amongst the Black Dragon religion, with her particular sect located in the Land of Vampires. In the middle of enjoying her newfound powers, she stumbles upon Nekoya and meets Romero and Julietta, and following both them easing her into the restaurant and learning the joys of roast beef, she becomes a regular.

Adaptation Explanation Extrication: It's not clarified in the anime, but in the light novel she isn't just a random vampire girl, but a priestess of the Black Brood.
Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: The first thing she joyfully notes about her vampiric transformation is gaining prominent dark circles to her eyes, confirming this is indeed a natural trait for them, and while they add to her wary Death Glare when thinking of attacking Aletta, when calm she's no more freaky and no less friendly than Romero and Julietta.
Daywalking Vampire: Something that most prominently sets her apart from Romero and Julietta is that she belongs to a sub-sect of the Black Dragon religion that has been granted the ability to survive and remain powerful in sunlight by coating their bodies in dragon scales.
Dark Is Not Evil: Much like Romero and Julietta, she's a vampire who is not evil, and is actually quite friendly and polite.
Femme Fatalons: Becoming a vampire turned her nails long and sharp like claws, which she shows are very much capable of harm, given Kuro had to psychically paralyze her to prevent her from hurting Aletta out of misguided defensiveness.
Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: While she initially expresses defensiveness and brandishes her claws towards Aletta for being a demon (causing her to believe it's a dangerous demon settlement), after being stopped by Kuro temporarily paralyzing her, seeing Aletta be helpful and kind dispels her worries and she spends the rest of her visit being nothing but good-natured.
Genki Girl: Unlike the more calmly mannered Romero and Julietta, Rorona is very perky, energetic and excitable.
My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Due to her being a devout follower of the Lord of Black's sub-division of the Black Dragon religion, she's able to slightly break through Kuro's aura-blocking efforts and realize her power, though she mistakes her for a fellow faithful rather than the actual Goddess.
Our Vampires Are Different: Unlike Romero and Julietta, she's a proper bonafide vampire, not only possessing the same traits as the duo, but also having been converted with a neck-bite, along with possessing retractable bat wings and claw-like nails. That said, even amongst vampires in the story, she's notable for coming from a sect of Daywalking Vampires who utilize prayer-granted blessings from Kuro to grow sun-blocking scales.
Trademark Favorite Food: Following being introduced to it by Romero and Julietta, she comes to adore roast beef with wine.
Winged Humanoid: Her vampiric powers include being able to summon magical bat wings on her back, allowing her to fly effortlessly, though as a newly-converted vampire she has trouble staying in the air for long, especially amidst strong winds.

Other Notable Characters

Various characters who both don't work at Nekoya (at least currently) and strictly speaking aren't customers, but have a significant tie or role related to one of the Nekoya characters.

Daiki Yamagata / "Former Master"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daikimasterisekaishokudou.png

As a young man.

Voiced by: Kazuhiko Inoue (Japanese), Bradley Campbell (English)

The deceased former head chef and master of Nekoya, and the current Master Mako's grandfather and Yomi's husband. Though ethnically Japanese, he grew up and learned to cook in China. Many years ago, "after the war", he saved Yomi after finding her washed ashore, far away from her home in the Other World. Eventually falling in love and marrying her, he moved to Japan, opened the restaurant that would become Nekoya, and found himself serving food to the patrons from his wife's former home. A kind and generous man like his grandson, he served excellent food to many generations of patrons until his eventual passing.

Been There, Shaped History: While it's not exactly known just how much he knows about his influence on his wife's old home, it's safe to say his cooking shaped a fair bit of the world:
- The lizardmen hero of the time, Gerupa would be the first to dine on his omelette rice, thus starting their fabled tradition that his successor Gaganpo would follow in.
- The beast man Lionel would begin his path towards redemption for his past crimes after being fed Katsudon (Pork Cutlet Rice Bowl), something that would lead to him redeeming himself and dominating the gladiatorial arena as "The Lion King".
- His restaurant would serve as the basis of one of Adelheid's fondest memories with her grandfather Wilhelm, something that would eventually bring the adult princess back to Nekoya as a regular patron under his grandson's cooking. This in turn would lead to her meeting Prince Shareef, building a strong friendship with him, and leading to their eventual love and marriage, cementing a strong trade relation between the Land of Sand and the Eastern Empire.
Foil: To his grandson. Both are excellent chefs who take their cooking quite seriously, are kind and benevolent men to their patrons, and are overall professional even in the face of the absurdities of their customers. However, Daiki is shown to be slightly more jovial and prone to joking, being willing to pull Lionel's leg on whether he'd have to pay or not. Compared to his grandson, who is overall more straightlaced and tends to never go out of his way to provoke anyone (intentionally), and can at times be thrown off by extremely bizarre events, such as Kuro taking all of the bounty hunters' weapons into the kitchen to keep them from fighting each other.
Happily Married: Was this to his wife Yomi before his death a decade ago. It's clear their love allowed for Yomi to develop her own identity outside of being the hero.
I Was Quite the Looker: A handsome man in his youth.
Posthumous Character: He's already dead by the time the story starts, but by way of flashbacks, the comments from long-standing patrons about him, and Yomi's conversation with Mako, he gets plenty of detail shown about who he was as a person.
Rescue Romance: He found Yomi starved and half-drowned on the beach, and nursed her back to health with his kindness and excellent food. His love and care helped her find her own unique identity and eventually they fell in love.
Supreme Chef: Much like his grandson, he was an excellent chef who created dishes and cuisine that the oldest Nekoya patrons would dine on in delight.

Yomi / Koyomi Yamagata (Massive Unmarked Spoilers)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yomi_9.jpg

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (Japanese), Michelle Rojas (English)

The strongest of the Four Legendary Heroes who slew the Demon Lord. She disappeared through a transdimensional portal, opened during the Demon Lord's demise, and found herself on Earth, where she met Daiki, the former Tenshu, and together they opened Nekoya. Her connection to her old world may be responsible for the mysterious doors welcoming the residents every Day of Satur.

The Chosen One: Yomi was born and conditioned to slay the Demon Lord. This left her emotionally stunted and unable to find her own identity outside her purpose, at least until she ended up on Earth and met the former master of Nekoya.
Half-Human Hybrid: An ogre father and a human mother, though she appears entirely human, possibly due to the circumstances of her conception.
Happily Married: Was this to the former master of Nekoya before his death a decade ago. It's clear their love allowed for Yomi to develop her own identity outside of being the hero.
I Choose to Stay: It's implied Yomi could return to the parallel world if she wished, but she prefers to stay on Earth as a normal woman. One of her old companions deliberately keeps Yomi's survival a secret from their world for her happiness.
Mistaken for Suicidal: After she was transported to Earth, Daiki found her washed up on the beach and thought she was trying to drown.
Never Mess with Granny: The light novels reveal that she still regularly defeats spectres and evil beings who wander into Japan via the connection between Nekoya and the Other World, despite being basically retired from that line of work.
Noble Bigot: She fought for the salvation of the world against the Demon Lord, and a natural consequence of that is her still holding some prejudices towards demonkind well into old age, even though the majority of demons have abandoned their wicked ways and integrated into society. That said, she isn't a Racist Grandma holding to complete Fantastic Racism like some people, acknowledging that the times have changed and never stooping to insults or condescending attitude, as shown with her treating Aletta as nothing less than the helpful waitress she is.
Passing the Torch: While she and Daiki already did this in spirit when they retired from cooking and left Mako in charge, the Season 2 finale (and ending of light novel 4) has her making it official by passing on the "master" key to him, which when broken will erase the link between the two worlds, signifying that she views him as a worthy successor to her and her late husband and deserving of truly owning the restaurant, including the right to end it when he sees fit.
Rescue Romance: What her relationship with Tenshu's grandfather Daiki ultimately became.
Secret Secret-Keeper: Yomi was able to instantly recognize Kuro as The Black Queen with just a simple glance when they first met.
Together in Death: A major reason why she chooses to stay in Japan despite her husband dying a decade ago, and the opportunity to return to her birthplace: Because she was ultimately freed from the broken woman she used to be as a hero by him, she wishes to be buried alongside him when she passes on.
Trademark Favorite Food: Like Artorius, tonkatsu or fried pork cutlet, though she prefers hers paired with rice. This is because it was the first dish Daiki made for her after she ended up on Earth.
Walking Spoiler: Talking about her is difficult without spoiling the truth behind how the Restaurant to Another World came to be.

The Ancient Six

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ancientsixdragongodsall.jpg

From top to bottom, left to right: Red Queen, Blue, Green, Gold, White, Black Queen/"Kuro".

The Ancient Six are six mighty dragons who, after defeating "It"/The Million Colors of Chaos/Chaos of the Many Tentacles, took over as the world's new deities within their own territories. For more information on Black Queen/Kuro and Red Queen, check their respective bios further above.

Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The anime states that Gold is fearful of death, but doesn't go into depth as to why, leaving an impression that they are cowardly compared to the others. The light novels explain that they fear death because they associate it with the Eldritch Abomination, who is a part of the Other World's life cycle and cause of immense death and destruction. Gold and others like them were only able to avoid death because they could fly out of the creatures' reach.
Dragons Are Divine: With the death of "It", the dragons cement themselves as the most powerful beings in the Other World. They all have their own sects and religions dedicated to them, each referring to them by different names or titles that reflect their near-divine might and seeking their blessings.
The Dreaded: Being dragons, even Kuro (whom is considered to be the weakest among them) is a danger to the average mortal. Everyone is understandably terrified of crossing their paths, especially those who can recognize them when they are in disguise, like the Sage Artorius. Even their shapeshifted forms (especially Kuro) can inspire intense power and dread in those around them, and it's an absolute deathwish to invade their territories or worse, attempt to take something they consider worth guarding from them. In Red Queen and Black Queen's case, it's the Nekoya restaurant and staff.
Elemental Powers: Each Dragon has domain over a specific set of powers and elements:
- Red: Fire
- Blue: Water and Ice
- Green: Plants And Earth
- Gold: Air
- White: Life and Light
- Black/Kuro: Darkness and Death
Humans Are Special: White is the only dragon who explicitly takes this mindset, even granting their power to the Child of White differently from their peers. This is distinct given humans are explicitly stated to be the weakest of the mortal races, magically and otherwise.
I Have Many Names: Being considered deities, they each tend to get a lot of names and titles:
- Red: Red Queen, Lord of Red.
- Black/Kuro: Black Queen, Lord of Black, Goddess of Darkness.
- Green: Lord of Green, Lord of Earth.
- Gold: Lord of Gold, Lord of the Skies.
- Blue: Lord of Blue, Lord of Water.
- White: Lord of White, Lord of Light.
- This actually causes some confusion, as each of the dragons having so many different titles can result in different sects talking about the same deity, but assuming they're talking about someone else entirely. For example, two of Kuro's titles are the Lord of Black and Goddess of Darkness, but are seen as separate entities by Rorona, Romero, and Julietta until the confusion is cleared up.
Patron God: Each dragon has their worshippers and followers who ask for their blessings and pray to them. For several examples:
- Red has the lamia cult led by Lucia in the anime.
- Kuro is worshipped by different sects of vampires, including Romero, Julietta, and Rorona.
- Blue is worshipped by mermaids such as Arte and Camilla (the latter of whom is a high ranking priestess in the light novels).
- Green is worshipped by Lilliputians, as well as the bulk of the Empire's population due to the belief that they had provided them with the cobbler's tubers via Emperor Wilhelm (they didn't; Wilhelm brought potatoes over from the Earth side of Nekoya).
- Gold is worshipped by Antonio.
- White is distinct in that not only are they worshipped by multiple priestesses shown in the novels, like Katalina and Celestine, but they are also the only one who have intentionally granted their power to a specific vessel called The Child of White, who is prophesized to lead their followers.
Small Role, Big Impact: In the context of the Nekoya restaurant, their actual role is fairly small. However, their actions had dramatic effects:
- Without them banding together to fight against Chaos of the Many Tentacles, the creatures born after would not be so weak and thus resulting in Kuro having to isolate herself on the moon. She thus would have never came into contact with her door, and become a waitress.
- Without White, the Child of White would not have come into existence, and thus never attempted to kidnap the Master for his sweets, thus enforcing that it's possible for Nekoya to ban people for life.
- Without them defeating the Eldritch Abomination, there would be no demon king, and thus no reason for Yomi to fall into the other world. Thus no Nekoya bridging the worlds together.
Time Abyss: Red is stated to be over 100,000 years old, and Kuro herself is at bare minimum 35,000, making the dragons the most ancient creatures still alive in the Other World. For comparison, the oldest elf in the world (Selena) is only 3,000 years old, and that was due to her immortality spell given the average lifespan for an elf is 1,000.
Weredragon: Priests who are especially devoted to the Ancient Six can be blessed with a fraction of their power, enabling them to use dragon parts on their bodies, or even become dragons themselves. Arte and Camilla (both mermaid priestesses) demonstrate the usefulness of this in the anime, gaining draconic feet in order to walk on land.

Balrog

Voiced by: Masayuki Kato (Japanese), Cris George (English)

The Red Queen's demon butler.

Dark Is Not Evil: He's a demon with a frightening appearance, yet is very polite, genteel and well spoken.
Flat Character: As he never goes to Nekoya nor ever samples its food, the viewers/readers don't get to know anything about him beyond just being the loyal butler of the Red Queen.
Undying Loyalty: Towards the Red Queen, serving as her faithful butler.

Emperor Wolfgang

Voiced by: Joji Nakata (Japanese)

The current ruler of the Great Empire. Son of Wilhelm and father of Adelheid.

Authority Sounds Deep: Joji Nakata provides his usual deep baritone to Wolfgang, and what has been shown of him is a strong and commanding yet reasonable presence deserving of such a voice.
Locked Out of the Loop: Unlike his father and daughter, he is not aware of Nekoya's existence, so the news that the distant Land of Sand wants a trade alliance was pretty surprising for him.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: He is often away from the palace traveling the world for diplomatic missions. He also regularly keeps an eye on his vassals and neighbours, judging by Adelheid's comments regarding what he thinks about Lastina.

Flying Puppy Bakery Owner

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/puppy_2.jpg

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (Japanese), Luis Bermudez (English)

The owner of the Flying Puppy Bakery, located above Nekoya in the same building.

Childhood Friends: He and the current Master have known each other since elementary school, which is also how he came to learn of the restaurant's secret.
I Owe You My Life: In college, he was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him crippled from the waist down. Thanks to medicine brought from the other world, he made a full recovery, which is one reason he wholesales his baked goods to the restaurant on Saturdays.
No Name Given: His name is never mentioned.
Secret-Keeper: He knows all about the magical door and the denizens of the other world that visit Nekoya every Saturday being friends with the Master since childhood, though for some reason, he never goes into Nekoya when the other worlders are there. Granted, he does have his own bakery to run.
Supreme Chef: The Flying Puppy owner is the one who provides the Master with most of the desserts that are served to the denizens of the other world. Considering that everyone who tries the desserts there are enamored by them, it's made clear that the Flying Puppy owner is as highly skilled a pastry chef as the Master is at savory cooking.

Hannah

Voiced by: Yu Wakui (Japanese), Emily Fajardo (English)

Princess Adelheid's personal maid, who eventually becomes Adelheid's companion during teatime at the princess's insistence.

Adaptation Explanation Extrication: A very odd case, in that in the Light Novel, she actually DOES see the Nekoya door prior to it vanishing when Adelheid returns back, but doesn't really seem to dwell on the subject too much. A more notably important case is why she's Adelheid's maid; namely that as a lower ranking person, she can risk being around Adelheid while she has the Pauper Killer's Disease, and thus if she gets sick no one of importance is lost (though it is noted that if she did get sick, the Empire would at least take responsibility for her recovery, so she's not utterly discarded).
- She's also noted as having trained to become a priestess with the Lord of Earth in the event she cannot be married due to her work under Adelheid.
Impoverished Patrician: Hannah (in the light novels) hails from a lower-ranking noble house that struggled to maintain its wealth after the Empire became more prominent. Combined with many of their potential heirs surviving into adulthood instead of dying due to the mortality rate of the medieval era, and there ended up being very little money left for said heirs to possess. Hannah is actually one of the major providers of income for the family with her job as the Imperial Princess' servant.
Innocently Insensitive: While she meant no harm, she accidentally hurts Princess Adelheid's feelings when she unintentionally insinuates that the illness the princess currently has scares her. She's understandably mortified of this, and it takes another Older and Wiser maid to get her out of her funk.
Locked Out of the Loop: While Hannah gets to enjoy tea and sweets purchased at Nekoya, she has no idea where Adelheid obtains the things she serves during teatime, with Hannah being completely in the dark about the existence of Nekoya. Interestingly, Hannah decides to fulfill this trope herself, stating that so long as the princess is this happy, then she can handle not knowing where Adelheid goes to obtain those things.
Sweet Tooth: Much like Adelheid, Hannah has a special fondness for desserts.

"It"/The Million Colors of Chaos/Chaos Of The Many Tentacles

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chaosofthemanytentaclesisekaishokudou.png

An eldritch creature that once dominated the Other World, and empowered the demons that were born with its blessings. The Ancient Six Dragon Gods ultimately banded together to kill this fearsome creature, and upon its defeat, settled on the Other World within their own domains as deities.

Adaptational Explanation Extrication: In the anime, it's not entirely explained as to what it is, and how it's tied into the series beyond how it affects Kuro and Red Queen's backstories, rendering it Diabolus ex Nihilo. In the light novel, it's explained as being a creature that was inherently tied into the Other World's cycle of life, simulataneously strengthening many of the creatures it also devoured. When it dies, all subsequent creatures born without its blessings were substantially weaker as a result.
Almighty Idiot: While all powerful, it also possesses no intelligence, and just mindlessly destroyed and consumed whatever was in its path.
Eldritch Abomination: Drawing from the Cthulhu Mythos, it has far too many mouths with sharp gnashing teeth, many tentacles, and strange orbs on its body. It's also the deity that the demons pray to and receive their blessings from.
God of Evil: How it's perceived by the current mortal races and the six dragons, to the point that most races (especially the priests who follow the Ancient Six) deem its followers with a very negative light. That being said, it's very ambivalent as to how intentionally evil it actually was, given we only have the word of the deities who killed it, its Almighty Idiot tendencies, the fact that it's integrated into the cycle of life prior to its demise, and many of its followers not necessarily being evil themselves (like Aletta).
Godzilla Threshold: It's considered to be such a massive threat that all six of the divine dragon gods banded together to fight it for one thousand years, despite usually never going into each other's domains. The Lord of Blue has also made it a point to have Camilla (a priestess of the Lord of Blue) keep an eye on its current deathplace to make sure that no one attempts to revive it.
The Juggernaut: Fitting for an Eldritch Abomination, this creature is noted to be incredibly difficult to kill. For comparison's sake, the Dragon Gods are considered to be some of the most powerful characters in the cast, yet it took nearly one thousand years of pooling their power together and hit and run attacks to be able to finally defeat Chaos.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Whether using the novel name The Million Colors of Chaos or the anime name Chaos of The Many Tentacles, both do well to emphasize its status as an Eldritch Abomination that brings chaos and destruction.
Shout-Out: To the Cthulhu Mythos, with particular leanings towards Azathoth, "The Blind Idiot God".
Villainous Legacy: Despite it being dead, it has left a massive impact on the Other World that affects a number of the Nekoya customers to this day:
- One demon spawned by it would rise to become the Demon Lord and wage a massive war against humanity, requiring the Four Heroes to slay him, after which the hero Yomi would be cast into a void and end up on Earth while demonkind would become recipients of Fantastic Racism that's still present even after their best efforts to atone for his actions leading them.
- Aletta would not have received her horns that led to so much discrimination against her as a result of its weak blessing.
- Camilla was "demoted" as a priestess by the Lord of Blue in order to keep an eye on the creature's current death place, to make sure that no demons attempt to revive it.
- Black Queen/Kuro would not have to live on the moon's surface without this creature's death, since the creature's demise ensured that all living beings would be too weak to survive her death magic.

Light Novel Exclusive Characters

These characters have made their way into the Western Restaurant Nekoya at one point or another, although they haven't made their way into the anime yet.

Darker and Edgier: While not incredibly dark, some of the light novel's customers tend to have backstories that can range from the melancholic and depressing to the utterly heartbreaking. And that doesn't even factor in the darker realities of their world, such as the more heavily explored bigotry, prejudices, religious zealotry, etc.
Trademark Favorite Food: An interesting element of the Light Novel's interpretation of the characters is that a number of them tend to be much more akin to Alphonse in the anime; having a signature dish they enjoy, but also more likely to try foods that are outside of their usuals.
Worldbuilding: Another element of the light novels is that they tend to cover more worldbuilding elements that the anime tends to leave out, such as the complex geopolitical situation, the various religious sects and powerplays that the various customers are part of, and how much Nekoya has impacted the other world.

General Species

Halfings

Tiny hobbit-like creatures with very big appetites. Some of the biggest customers of Nekoya, all halflings work together in order to map out where the door is likely to appear in order to guarantee they get their fill.

Big Eater: As typical for their kind. The Master notes that they tend to eat so much that they're guaranteed to eat through his foodstock very quickly by themselves, especially if a number of them come through the door at the same time (which is not uncommon since they have an entire system to keep track of the various doors). To put things into perspective, a single halfling can eat up to a whole family's worth of food by themselves, and only ten halflings can pretty much wipe out most of the Master's free refill bread and soup stock that was meant to last the entire day.
Friending Network: They take the Nekoya door so seriously that they literally developed an entire network of halflings just to find, map out, and share information to other halflings about the door's whereabouts.
Serious Business: It's Nekoya, which makes them delicious food. They have a worldwide network dedicated just to the door.

Novel 1

High Priestess Celestine Fragran

A priestess in the name of the Lord Of Light (White of the Ancient Six Dragon Gods), she is a deeply pious woman who has done her best to shed herself of earthly desires...except for the one thing from Nekoya, in Chapter 11: Pound Cake.

Forbidden Fruit: How she views Nekoya's pound cake. She tries desperately to hold onto the ideals of her church, but struggles to let go of the "sin" of loving Nekoya's pound cake. She has yet to succeed in doing so, with the narration noting that her recent attempt of trying to treat the massive has been "one step forward and fifty steps back". She eventually helps her temple become known for its fantastic desserts as a result of this struggle.
Trademark Favorite Food: Pound Cake.

Lilliputian Village

Tiny folk similar to the Faeries, they lack the magic and wings of the latter and spend their entire lives in small villages. This particular group worships the Lord of Earth (Green of the Ancient Six), and is introduced in Chapter 14: "Pancakes".

I Choose to Stay: Some of the conversations between the villagers reveals that a number of their kind chose to migrate over to Earth, with them wearing otherworldly clothes now.
Lilliputians: They are so small that not only does it take all of their menfolk pulling on a vine rope to even slightly open the Nekoya door, they need to have the Master use a tray in order to bring them up to a table.
Trademark Favorite Food: Pancakes with syrup and jam. Due to their massive size relative to the average Lilliputian, these are basically a feast for an entire village, with housewives taking buckets upon buckets of syrup back home for their own usage.

Yuuto and Taro

A young hunter and his hunting dog, Taro. His master, Mashira, indirectly introduces him to Nekoya through the Rite of Passage in Chapter 15: Ginger Pork.

Canine Companion: Distinct from the anime is that Taro is the first seen animal customer in the light novels. Granted this is noted as not being something the Master typically does, but he makes an exception for Taro due to how well-behaved he is.
Rite of Passage: To become a proper hunter, Yuuto has to successfully hunt a fierce creature, like the horned boar that Yuuto kills. Afterwards, they are able to get hunting jobs that pay better (Weaker creatures pay small amounts of silver at most, while bigger ones like the horned boar can yield up to 100 silver).
Trademark Favorite Food: While ginger pork is his first taste of Nekoya's cuisine, it's the rice that really impresses Yuuto, due to white rice pairing extremely well with the delicious meat and white rice not being a common dish for him. Taro being a dog, happily devours his own piece of the cooked boar.

Denemon and Mashira

A retired samurai and Yuuto's master in hunting. They appear in the Special Chapter: Braised Pork, when the former tries to go eat his favorite meal made by Mako's grandfather, Daiki.

Trademark Favorite Food: Braised Pork for Denemon. It's noted as being so delicious that Denemon is initially extremely disappointed to find out that the meal has been phased out, due to Mako not believing he could replicate the flavor as well as his grandfather. The former and Mashira are extremely pleased when the current Master successfully does so in their next visit.

Novel 2

Fairey

A young princess of the Ocean Nation (Land of Sea in the anime) who shows up in Chapter 25: Karubidon. She developed a taste for the dish after letting a halfling go for trespassing, in exchange for knowing about the Nekoya door.

King Incognito: Well, Princess Incognito. And she doesn't exactly do the best job, due to her lack of experience with the outside world.
Paper-Thin Disguise: To avoid being recognized as a princess, she tries to disguise herself as a commoner girl. It doesn't really work, as she has no experience interacting with commoners. The diviner Doshun knows what she's up to, and even Aletta can tell that Fairey isn't a commoner.
Trademark Favorite Food: Karubidon, or Grilled Beef Rice Bowl. She's so enamoured with it that she goes out of her way to hide her true identity to have it, feeling like she's become a commoner girl in the process of enjoying her beef bowl.

Herman, Ellen, Kai, and Bona

A family of woodcutters who make their appearance in Chapter 27: Ham Cutlet. Their Nekoya visits are considered to be a special occasion due to their poverty, and as such they tend to only go once a month. They reappear again in Novel 3, Chapter 51: Birthday Cake, to celebrate Bona reaching her ninth birthday.

All Men Are Perverts: A mild case, but Ellen is annoyed when her husband ends up checking out Aletta's rear as she leaves.
Death of a Child: Kai and Bona are the only two surviving children out of five. Their siblings unfortunately didn't make it for a multitude of reasons, and thus it's considered a special event when children manage to survive to age 9.
Happily Married: While their financial situation isn't great and they have moments where they bicker, it's obvious that Herman and Ellen love each other dearly.
Perpetual Poverty: A realistic case, as they are only woodcutters. As such, they tend to relish the meals they can get from Nekoya, due to how cheap they are.
Serious Business: To a nine year old girl at least. Bona deeply enjoyed Birthday Cake, but wasn't able to finish her serving during her brother's birthday due to already eating so much delicious Nekoya food. Her brother ended up eating her cake, and she vows to never allow that "humiliation" ever again.
Trademark Favorite Food: For Herman and Ellen, it's meat dishes with beer. For Kai and Bona, it's basically anything with cola and/or ice cream, and they especially love Birthday Cake, due to it being an uncommon treat for them to get. Due to their poverty, they tend to eat whatever the slightly cheaper special tends to be, and as such don't settle for one specific dish as their favorite.

The Master Of Leonhart's

Appearing in Chapter 30, Leonhart's is akin to the Flying Puppy Bakery and Nekoya, only it primarily serves fine alcohol instead. All of Nekoya's alcohol comes from this establishment, with its Master being a connoisseur in his youth prior to his liver giving out.

Failed a Spot Check: Despite knowing about Nekoya's secret, he somehow doesn't notice that Aletta's horns are real.
No Name Given: Like the Flying Puppy owner, he's not given a name.
Secret-Keeper: One of the few people on the Earth side to know about Nekoya's secret, and provides it the alcohol served in the restaurant.
Trademark Favorite Food: Alcohol of all kinds, to the point of being an expert in them. Unfortunately for him, his body broke down ages ago, and now he isn't able to drink any of it, so he mainly provides his customers excellent drinks instead.

Tatsuji and Otora

A married ogre couple who make their first appearance in Chapter 30: Roast Chicken. Being man-eaters, they find their way into Nekoya after the halfing Rat manages to convince them to spare him in exchange for knowledge of the restaurant.

Battle Couple: Are noted as fierce and strong ogres who have fought off hunting squads before. That being said, even they recognize that trying to battle all of Nekoya's customers (many of whom are famous and legendary warriors in their own right) would basically be suicide.
Happily Married: As rough and prone to bickering as they can be, they love each other dearly to the point of preparing to raise a child in a later volume.
I'm a Humanitarian: They eat humans and halflings. Part of their initial intro is them arguing over how to cook the halfling Rat, before he raised his proposition to them in exchange for sparing him.
Trademark Favorite Food: Roast Chicken with alcohol. They also enjoy Oden (a pot dish) when they need to eat a lot of food over the winter.

Rat

A halfling who has the unfortunate reputation of being one of the few known characters to be barred entry by the Nekoya door. Appearing in Chapter 30 alongside the ogre couple, he ends up telling the former about the door in order to escape with his life.

Dine and Dash: Has the reputation for making this mistake, and it proves a somewhat costly one for him (especially as a halfling). Despite knowing he had no money to pay for his meal, he did so anyways without the Master accepting this and left. In response, the Nekoya door barred him from ever entering the restaurant by himself, forcing him to get someone else to open the door for him.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: His Dine and Dash mistake is something he deeply regrets, and he did genuinely apologize to the Master (who forgave him). However, the Nekoya door was not so forgiving, refusing to let him grab to door by himself, and requiring someone else in order to let him in alongside them. That being said, it's still vastly preferable to being permanently barred from entering at all, like with the Child of White after he attempted to force the Master to serve him food.

Tedd, Galius, Albert, Zack, Rydia, and Sasha

A mixed party of adventurers, comprising of Tedd the Halfling, Galius the Dwarf, Albert the Human Knight, Zack the Demon Fighter, Rydia the Half-Elven Swordswoman/Mage, and Sasha the Priestess of the Lord of Water (Blue of the Ancient Six). They find themselves on a mysterious shortcut known as "Hors d’oeuvre Road" in Chapter 33: Hors d’oeuvres.

A Little Bit Beastly: Zack, due to his demonic heritage, has hard red scales.
Big Eater: Tedd, like all halflings, ends up being such a big eater that he orders an entire platter for himself. This does not amuse his team, who start going after his platter after they finish theirs and start fighting each other over the food they didn't get to eat.
Breaking the Fellowship: Played for Laughs. The absolutely delicious nature of the meal platter, and each party member only getting to eat part of it in their single-minded gorging cause the tightknit party to develop frustration towards each other. They settle on trying to get Tedd's platter instead, much to the latter's horror.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Sasha typically speaks with a serene and sophisticated voice, but when she eats her favorite food, her accent takes on a distinct twang, much to her embarassment.
Trademark Favorite Food: Each of the party have different tastes, but they all end up greatly enjoying the Hors d’oeuvre platter that Tedd gets for them. However, due to their fixation on their specific part of the plate, they end up ending into a near fight about the others hogging a different part of the plate.
- Galius - Meat and Beer. He eats the fried chicken and minced meat cutlet with whiskey.
- Rydia - Vegetables and Elf Beans. She eats the boiled elf beans and cucumber with miso paste.
- Sasha - Fish and Shripe (Shrimp in the other world). She eats the fish and fried shrimp side of the platter.
- Albert - a sweet treat made of wheat, milk, eggs, and honey he ate as a child. He eats the sausage skewers and rum raisin sandwiches.
- Zack - Eggs and Croquettes. Same thing on the platter.

Touichirou and Aya

Touichirou is a former adventurer and swordsman, while his partner and later wife Aya is a priestess of the Lord of Earth. The former recently has to go to the Restaurant from Another World without the latter in Chapter 36: Hot Dogs because the latter is taking care of their newborn child.

Babies Ever After: As it turns out, Aya is raising their newborn child, and thus doesn't have the opportunity to be able to go into Nekoya alongside her husband.
Bait-and-Switch: The initial set up and framing of the chapter strongly implies that Aya has passed away, leaving Touichirou to eat the food that brought them together alone, with his reminescing coming off as melancholic due to the loss of his partner. As it turns out, she's just back at home taking care of their newborn child, and thus can't get to the restaurant given where the door is located. And her husband is also bringing her takeout.
Happily Married: Touichirou and Aya ultimately got married and are now raising a child together.
I Have No Son!: Touichirou's father disowned him for choosing the life of an adventurer over being the family heir, but has long since passed away. Touichirou is ultimately not bothered by this, and his brother is just happy to have his sibling back after Touichirou decides to retire from adventuring.
Trademark Favorite Food: Hot Dogs and a cola.

Antonio

Antonio is a priest of the Lord of Gold (Gold of the Ancient Six Dragon Gods). A rather curt man, he looks forward to the Day of Satur in anticipation of his favorite treat in Chapter 37: Sweet Potato Tarts.

Power Gives You Wings: He can invoke the Lord of the Skies' power to give himself dragon wings.
Trademark Favorite Food: Sweet Potato Tarts. He typically doesn't like sweet potatoes (or as called in the Other World, kumaala) due to them being cooked in a way that takes away their flavor and moisture, and thus looks forward to the tender and sweet pastries.

Alisa and Meimei

A young healer from an unnamed village and her demon friend Meimei, both of them use Nekoya as a means to keep in contact with each other, while also dining on their variants of their favorite dish in Chapter 38: Mushroom Spaghetti.

A Little Bit Beastly: Meimei has goat horns, and Alisa's master had demonic eyes and scales on her face.
Forbidden Friendship: Both Alisa and Meimei are friends, but can only really meet in Nekoya due to Alisa's hometown's bigotry against demons. They cherish these moments they do have together as a result.
Trademark Favorite Food: Mushroom Spaghetti. Alisa prefers the Japanese-style, while Meimei prefers the white cream.

Alfred and Aisha

A young noblewoman who hails from the Sand Nation (Land of Sand in the anime) and her Empire-born butler, the former dearly misses seafood dishes due to the landlocked Empire lacking any easy means of obtaining them. Fortunately, Alfred happens to know of a Nekoya door in Chapter 39: Seafood Pilaf.

The Jeeves: Alfred is noted as being an older gentleman, and is very devoted to his mistress. Enough that when he finds the door to Nekoya, he makes sure to bring her along a week later to ensure she gets her fill of her favorite dish.
Tears of Fear: Aisha ends up having this in sheer terror when she realizes the variety of monsters and non-human folk (and Aletta) present at the restaurant, nearly shrieking when a nonplussed Gaganpo appears behind her and asks for her to move.
Trademark Favorite Food: Seafood Pilaf.

Novel 3

Koheiji the Merchant

A merchant from the Mountain Nation (The Land of Mountains in the anime) who finds the Nekoya door while fleeing from the wraith of a long dead princess in Chapter 44: Salt-Grilled Pacific Saury.

Came Back Wrong: The princess died back during the war between humans and demons, and came back as a wraith powered by rage and sorrow. It's noted that even priests with powerful tiers of sigils can run the risk of being killed by wraiths like this, so Koheiji's chances of survival are even slimmer.
Holy Burns Evil: The Nekoya door burns the wraith the minute it tries to open the door after Koheiji.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Koheiji notes that he stands absolutely no chance against the creature, and makes a run for it. He only escapes due to the Nekoya door.
Trademark Favorite Food: Salt-Grilled Pacific Saury. Koheiji remembers the Saury as being "the fish of the sea" that is a hugely important meal in his homeland.

Melissa

A half-elf who, after a long 10 year career of adventuring and growth, has retired after her group's team leader and mage announced their marriage plans. She also ends up permanently parting ways with the previous Master of Nekoya (Daiki) after eating one final meal there in Chapter 46: Cream Stew.

But Now I Must Go: The general nature of her goodbyes to both her party and to the previous Master of Nekoya. Having completed her adventuring and all of its ups and downs, she decides to return home to help her mother run the inn. Both the Master and herself also end up saying goodbye, with the knowledge (given his advanced age) that it would likely be the last time they'd ever see each other.
Hybrid Power: Much like all half-elves, she can tolerate and enjoy meat, eggs, milk and other non-vegan products, though she admittedly still prefers elven food and vegetables when it comes down to it.
The Mourning After: After her husband's death from old age, Melissa's mother never remarried, instead choosing to devote herself into keeping their inn going and giving Melissa and her siblings love and affection.
Shadow Archetype: To Fardania. Both have elven heritage, with their elven mothers having gone out into the world at one point, and were inspired to pursue their cooking aspirations after eating a spectacular meal at Nekoya. Where things differ however:
- Fardania is a fullblooded elf who pursues her goal in the desire to surpass the current Master's cooking, albeit with worries by her father due to her relative youth by elven standards and being his only child (and strongly implied to be related to her mother's death). She is very proud of her elven heritage and finds the idea of a human's cooking being superior to be somewhat embarassing (even if she's otherwise polite to the Master), and only started her life as an adventurer because of it. Because she's determined to not ask the Master for any help, she pursues her dreams of creating fantastic cuisine mostly on her own (later with Alice), although she does eventually achieve greatness as an elven chef alongside her protege. She also repeatedly returns to the restaurant due to still loving the Master's cooking (even if she mentally still compares her own progress in relation) and moves freely about on her journey to master cuisine.
- Melissa is by contrast a half-elf with many siblings, who's already spent 10 years of her life adventuring (with the support of her family except her father, who passed from old age when she was 10 years old) prior to retirement. She only truly began to try to cook a specific Nekoya recipe after the previous Master (Daiki, the current Master's grandfather) subtly encouraged her to. Her relationship with the prior Master was very warm and friendly, and they left on good, albeit final terms due to the Master's advanced age. Melissa is well known in her hometown for her one specific recipe that began mostly as her own experimentation, but spread in interest after her elven mother and acquaintances loved it. As far as the light novels have shown, Melissa has also not returned to Nekoya for 18 years since last she went there, partly due to a lack of time due to her success at the inn.
- Melissa is also this to Myra and Thomas Alfade, with all of them triying to replicate the receipe to their favorite dishes (elf bean cream stew, macaroni gratin, and spaghetti with meat sauce respectively) after loving it at Nekoya. However, Myra is intending to figure out her own recipe with the help of her friend Johan, and Thomas is implied to have gotten help from both Masters in replicating their recipes (albeit never quite to the standard he personally likes), enjoying a business partnership with them for mutual benefit, whereas Melissa figured out the recipe for elf bean cream stew mostly on her own.
Supreme Chef: Her success in recreating the cream stew she enjoyed at Nekoya once she figured out the secret behind it's creation (soaking the elf beans in water, grinding it and boiling it to make it into a creamy paste) results in her pure elven mother and her elven friends loving it. Rumors spread about it, and now their inn is bustling with customers every day who want her high quality stew.
Trademark Favorite Food: Elf Bean Cream Stew. She actually could tolerate the previous versions of cream stew prior to this even when they had milk in it, but the unique way the Master cooked her final stew ends up being her favorite. She would also successfully replicate the recipe in her own way, paving the way to it being a must-eat dish at her mother's inn.

Arnold and Elly

Arnold is a former adventurer who's trying to take care of his daughter Elly after the passing of her mother due to monsters, but finds themselves in the middle of a terrible storm. They end up stumbling onto a cabin built around a Nekoya door in Chapter 47: Pot-au-feu.

Missing Mom: Strongly implied to be the result of a monster attack.
Trademark Favorite Food: Pot-au-feu. It ends up impressing both father and daughter that the Master is able to make this dish from leftovers, especially since they expected much less than what they got.

Selena

An elven woman who is one of the oldest beings in the Other World, due to developing the means to immortality...at a price of not being able to leave the location where she can maintain her immortality. The only exception to this is once every year, when she goes to the Nekoya restaurant for a special dish in Chapter 52: Sweet Red Bean Soup.

Immortality Immorality: Not Selena herself, but rather her friends due to sheer arrogance and dismissiveness of the consequences. Said friends were the developers of the spell that would enable them to become liches, but disregarded her warnings on the dangerous side effects. The end result is that her old friends are now all undead beings who retain knowledge, but have lost themselves entirely to become monsters who bring death to others.
Irony: The light novels make a consistent joke about how short Aletta's waitress skirt is relative to Other World standards, yet Selena's outfit is so revealing that it makes Aletta look conservative by comparison.
Living Forever Is Awesome: Zigzagged case for Selena. On the one hand, she has successfully developed a spell that allows her to live forever without the risk of being turned into a horrible monster like her friends. On the other hand, she is now restricted to the forest that she lives in right now, and if she ever leaves it for too long, she would die within 10 years. She's thus incredibly lonely, at least until 30 years ago when the Nekoya door was revealed to her by Christian.
Ms. Fanservice: Her image in the light novel shows she wears a dress with a Navel-Deep Neckline that doesn't hide her figure or chest much.
The Smart Girl: Selena was the only one of her friends who managed to create an immortality spell that didn't have the horrendous drawback of turning you into an undead monster, as well as trying to warn them of the dangerous effects. She also deeply enjoys talking about scientific research, and thus is very happy to talk with Christian about his discoveries regarding cooking, as it reminds her of better days when her friends did the same prior to their horrific transformations.
Time Abyss: Selena is approximately 3000 years old due to her immortality spell, making her one of the oldest beings who isn't a dragon or deity.
Trademark Favorite Food: Sweet Red Bean Soup. Given it only gets prepared once every year, she looks forward to it immensely.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Selena's friends are the ones who developed the cursed spell that turns people into liches. As such, they end up being distantly responsible for the foolhardy actions of the Half-Elven King who tried to preserve his life to reign over his kingdom forever, but ultimately ruined his Ancient Kingdom and brought immense discrimination to all half-elves.

Glenn and Ignis

A human and demon soldier who work the night shift together as guards. Glenn is the human, while Ignis is the demon. After a long night's work, they make their way to Nekoya for Chapter 54: Sausage and Potatoes.

Aerith and Bob: While not that uncommon in the Other World, the deliberate dissonance between the relatively mundane Glenn's name vs Ignis' more otherworldly name sticks out for these two.
A Little Bit Beastly: Ignis has prominent boar tusks out of his lower jaw.
Luminescent Blush: Ignis has this in response to Aletta's relatively innocent by Earth standards, but scandalous by Other World standards waitress outfit.
Trademark Favorite Food: Sausage and Potatoes. Ignis prefers his with cider, while Glenn prefers his with ale, and both have gotten into arguments about which one is better suited for the dish.

Graham Beltran

A knight of the empire who passes by Glenn and Ignis on his way to the Restaurant to Another World in Chapter 55: Seafood Pesto Pasta.

Irony: A a young man, he preferred meat to seafood because the latter was so abundant in his hometown. Now as an adult, he's so far away from seafood in the Empire and meat and cobbler's tubers are such a common part of his meal that he's developed a preference for seafood dishes.
Shadow Archetype: To Heinrich Seeleman. Both are knights whom hail from seaside towns, and have a preference for seafood dishes due to not being able to get it as often as they did as a child.
- Heinrich distinguished himself and became the captain of his own fortress after he heroically ran for the Duchy with a message for reinforcements against a horde of Mothmen. He discovered the Nekoya door on the verge of collapsing from starvation, with the restaurant playing a role in his heroism. He prefers the fried shrimp specifically alongside cold ice water, and rarely changes his preferred order.
- Graham by contrast became a knight through the usual channels, and hasn't made any significant accomplishments of his own yet, and thus can't easily obtain any foods he wants due to a lack of money. He discovered the Nekoya door in the same way that Glenn and Ignis likely did, and mostly treats it as a reprieve from his typical diet. He prefers seafood dishes in general, and will change it in order to complement the wine he drinks.
Trademark Favorite Food: Seafood dishes with wine. His first order is the seafood pesto pasta with white wine, since he notes that he has to pair the wine with the correct seafood plates to make them taste right.

Albert

A rugged man of a remote country in the Eastern Continent, he is the third prince of his nation. He makes his appearance having fought his way to an old elven ruin to visit Nekoya back when Daiki was still the Master in Chapter 56: Pork Chops.

Irony: He loves the food of Nekoya, but finds it annoying that it shows up in such an inconvenient spot, even if he's good at fighting the horrors of the ruins off. The Nekoya door in reality can appear basically anywhere, so if Prince Albert were to search hard enough, he could probably find another one in a safer location.
One-Steve Limit: Has the same name as the knight from Volume 2's adventuring party.
Real Men Eat Meat: A giant muscular man who loves the tender pork chops, but is also impressed with how delicious the side dishes of vegetables are as well.
Trademark Favorite Food: Pork Chops, as well as the makeshift pork chop sandwich he makes from Nekoya's bread. He practically gorges himself on this delicious feast to the point that he needs to rest before heading back out into the dangerous ruins.
What's Up, King Dude?: Daiki tends to treat him very informally, and Prince Albert doesn't make any effort to correct him, since ultimately he's not likely to get the throne and doesn't see any point in enforcing his royalty in such an environment anyways.

The Child of White and Katalina

The other person who was banished from using Nekoya's door, only much more permanently. Blessed by the Lord of White (White of the Ancient Six), the Child of White is his most powerful servant destined to lead his followers of Light. After his incident regarding the Nekoya door, he sends Katalina, the high priestess of the Lord of Light, in his place to obtain his favorite confection in Chapter 57: Tiramisu.

Act of True Love: Katalina still chooses to love and serve the Child of White's whims. It also helps that she is his most trusted priestess and his birth mother.
Bratty Half-Pint: The Child of White is very self-important due to being chosen, but for the most part is just very cold, formal and a bit rude, including to Katalina his birth mother. She puts up with it out of love for her boy. This ends up causing him a lot of problems with the Nekoya door, as his presumption of superiority caused him to upset the door (and unbeknownst to him, the Red Queen) by trying to kidnap the Master, thus ensuring his permanent banishment from the restaurant.
Creepy Child: The Child of White is described as being otherworldly white, with permanent draconic eyes, as well as a rude and cold personality. This is due to being blessed by the Lord of Light.
The Chosen One: The Child of White is prophesied to lead the Lord of Light's followers.
No Kill like Overkill: The Child of White goes very overboard in "protecting" the location of the Nekoya door he sends his followers to, by rigging it with a light spell so powerful that it would pretty much guarantee an instant world of pain. Katalina notes that she's had to undo the spell many times, and the Child almost always puts it back up later.
Persona Non Grata: The Child of White suffers the most severe punishment that the Nekoya door can give after he attempts to force the Master to serve food only to him, by ensuring that the Child can never enter the door again under any circumstances. This actually scares the Child, since his power vastly outweighs nearly everyone he knows, so for a door to easily deny him access is disturbing. Unlike Rat, who can enter as long as someone else opens the door for him, the Child has to send someone else in his place to open the Nekoya door and get food from the restaurant.
Sweet Tooth: Both the Child of White and Katalina have immense fondness for the confections of Nekoya. It was this sweet tooth that caused the whole incident in the first place, and thus necessitating Katalina to come in his place.
Trademark Favorite Food: Tiramisu.

Tida, Fen, and the Trade Ship Crew

A trade ship that had the misfortune of running into a typhoon, forcing it and its crew onto a nearby deserted island until the weather improved. Tida, one of the crew members, stumbles onto the Nekoya door in Chapter 58: Pork Soup, Once More.

Deserted Island: The trade ship lands on this. This proves to be problematic, since they find themselves stuck in the middle of a typhoon until it passes, and without sufficient food supplies to last long enough.
Horny Sailors: The end of the story mentions that they intend to find some women at shore once they finally manage to leave the island.
Morton's Fork: What the captain Fen finds himself in. If he and the crew stay on the island, they have no idea how long it will take until the weather improves, during which they could risk death by starvation. But if they leave, they risk the ship being torn to pieces in the ferocity of the typhoon. And if he does nothing, then a mutiny will occur. Thankfully, Tida comes back with some delicious Nekoya food to save them the trouble.
Trademark Favorite Food: For Tida, it's pan-fried rolled eggs, but he and the crew also love pork soup with riceballs. The crew easily consider it one of the most delicious things they've ever eaten, and despite finishing it and getting hungry the next day, they are in high spirits due to being able to sail by that point.

Novel 4

Junior and Mariabell (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

The great-grandson of William Gold and cousin to Sarah Gold. Afflicted with the "Gold Curse", William Gold Junior had the misfortune of finding a teleportation device that transported him to the Southern Continent, stranding him there for ten years with no means of getting home or telling his family that he was still alive. Having settled down on there, he's also taken on a disciple, a Lord of Red practitioner named Mariabell, whose own father found a Nekoya door atop some mountains. They appear in Chapter 61: Almond Chocolates, on Valentines Day.

Dead Guy Junior: Junior is named after his great-grandfather, and much like many other Golds before and after him, took up his profession.
Happily Married: Junior is married to Mariabell's older sister.
The Illegible: Junior's handwriting is noted by Sarah to be much messier than her's, and unfortunately just as densely packed with 10 years of knowledge about the Southern Continent. To further add to the headache, it's also mixed with various codes and phrases that only her great-grandfather William Gold Sr. used, making it even harder to decipher even for someone who could understand it like Sarah.
Take Up My Sword: Junior gives Sarah his journal to show to his family that he's still alive. This is considered a very big deal in treasure hunter culture, as treasure hunting journals are basically all of the information a treasure hunter gathers on their journey, and could sell for a massive amount of money.
Teleporter Accident: During his searching into some ruins, he found a teleportation device that teleported him to the Southern Continent. He's been stranded there for ten years, with no way to tell his family that he was still alive until he happens to find the Nekoya Door and reunites with his cousin, Sarah Gold.
Trademark Favorite Food: Almond Chocolates.

Anna

One of Celestine's priestesses that she brought into the Western Restaurant Nekoya in order to learn how to make their delicious confections in Chapter 65: Strawberry Yogurt Mousse. She finds herself feeling out of place due to her lack of exceptional qualities.

Always Someone Better: Anna notes that she is not particularly exceptional compared to her compatriots, being "fairly talented" at best in comparison to their specialties.
- She's a talented priestess, but is basically nobody compared to Celestine being next in line to take over for the current leader of the Light's followers Lord Leonard (one of the four legendary heroes alongside Artorius, Alexander, and Yomi). And because Anna is a half-elf, she can never hope to gain any high ranking positions due to the stigma against half-elves caused by the fall of the Ancient Kingdom.
- She's not particularly notable with swords, with both Celestine and Carlotta being skilled Holy Knights (swordswomen who wield holy blades to fight). The latter in particular shares commoner origin, but is noted to have killed swathes of undead.
- Julianne is former nobility and thus familiar with luxury and is one of the most worldly of the priestesses, compared to Anna having spent her entire life in the monastery after being left there as a baby, and thus having little to no worldly experience.
Long-Lived: Her main quality that resulted in her being chosen as part of the Nekoya entourage: being a half-elf, Anna's lifespan will last centuries, thus making her well suited to learning Nekoya's secrets and ensuring that the knowledge can be held onto for generations to come even as her fellow compatriots will eventually die from old age.
Trademark Favorite Food: Strawberry yogurt mousse.

Bridgette

The high priestess of Celestine's Church ten years earlier, she appears in Chapter 66: French Onion Soup, and would introduce the door to her successor later on.

Foil: To her successor Celestine. Bridgette is very casual and doesn't make much effort to maintain any sense of decorum while in the restaurant, compared to the far more repressed and regal Celestine. They both enjoy having alcohol in their foods, but whereas Celestine eats predominantly sweet confections and baked goods with rum raisin in it, Bridgette drinks the alcohol directly, supplemented with savory finger foods.
Functional Addict: Bridgette is noted as being a heavy drinker, but still manages to handle her religious duties given her high rank. She's also cut back on her alcohol consumption after realizing that the more high quality alcohol of Nekoya tastes better when drunken sparingly.
Trademark Favorite Food: Alcohol, with various side dishes like the titular french onion soup.

Hachirou and his Parents

A halfling who wanders the world, he goes to Nekoya to meet up with his elderly step parents for the first time in half a year in Chapter 69: Oyakodon.

Happily Adopted: Hachirou was adopted by his step-parents after their own children had left to seek their own fortunes. Given just how affectionate they are to each other, it's safe to say it's a happy family even after Hachirou grew up and left to go on his own journey.
Walking the Earth: Both Hachirou and his step-parents are doing this as most halflings in the Other World seem to do, having not seen each other for half a year.
Trademark Favorite Food: Oyakodon, or Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl.

Shota

A young man who works for Bakery Kimura on the Earth side of the Door, he first appears in Chapter 71: Tuna Mayo Corn Bread. He didn't look forward to the Saturday deliveries until Aletta started working there.

Breaking Old Trends: With the exception of the Master and the Flying Puppy Bakery owner (who haven't had any favorite foods mentioned, but are aware of Nekoya), nearly every character in prior novels are not only aware of the secret of Nekoya, but also has had a favorite food of some kind mentioned. Shota is the first character from the Earth side who is not only unaware of the truth behind Nekoya, but also doesn't have a stated favorite food.
Crush Blush: Has these around Aletta.
Locked Out of the Loop: Shota is completely unaware of the truth about Nekoya, only noticing that Aletta works on Saturdays despite there usually being no customers that he can see.
The Perfectionist: Shota's father is this in regards to baking, not allowing Shota to start selling his tuna mayo corn bread until the latter had reached his high standards. He finally succeeds, and gives the titular baked good to Aletta as a present.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He thinks Aletta's horns are just hairpieces, being otherwise too enamoured with her to notice that she's a demon.

Nadel the Travelling Merchant

A merchant who had the misfortune of getting stuck in the middle of the Land of Sand's desert during a full moon, when undead would rise from their graves to add the living to their numbers. He fortunately stumbles onto a Nekoya Door near closing time in Chapter 73: Peperoncino.

Crossing the Desert: Nadel attempted to travel through the desert to reach a town, only to find out that a familiar oasis he frequented had dried up, and that he had mistimed his crossing during a full moon. To make matters worse, he had only had dried figs and water for a meal that day. Fortunately he manages to find the Nekoya door and eats his fill, before continuing his journey with the intent of seeing if he could replicate the food he had eaten.
Trademark Favorite Food: Peperoncino with wheat noodles.

Adelia and Sophie

Sophie is a human priestess who worships the Lord of Earth (Green of the Ancient Six) alongside her best friend Adelia. Both of them love cobbler's tubers, and especially have an infatuation with potato chips in Chapter 75: Potato Chips.

Interspecies Friendship: Sophie is human, while Adelia is only described as a beastlike priestess (possibly demon given that most beastlike traits tend to be affiliated with demons).
Rags to Riches: While it's not explicitly stated how much money they made prior to Sophie finding out about potato chips, Sophie's parents are noted to have gained great prosperity after creating their own version, to the point that other stalls have popped up to copy them. Sophie considers all of this to be further proof of the greatness of cobbler's tubers, and the greatness of the Lord of Earth.
Trademark Favorite Food: Cobbler's Tubers, but especially potato chips in their various flavors, like salt, seaweed salt, and cheese. Adelia also loves fried egg with her cobbler's tubers.

Oniwaka and Shoujirou

A half-ogre priest of darkness and his retainer in the Land of Mountains, Oniwaka was training for a wraith extermination job before stumbling on the Nekoya door in Chapter 77: Three-Color Rice Bowl. After eating a feast at Nekoya, he ends up bringing some takeout to Shoujirou.

Half-Human Hybrid: Oniwaka is half-ogre, with his mother apparently falling in love with an ogre man who had saved her from a landslide. He was trained in the Shrine of Darkness to become a high priest.
Missing Mom: Oniwaka's mother was Shoujirou's previous master. Despite eventually being found, her life in the mountains and losing Oniwaka's ogre father to samurai was too much, causing her to eventually succumb to illness not long after her rescue.
Parental Substitute: Shoujirou considers Oniwaka to be his son, and acts as his bodyguard just as he did with the boy's mother.
Trademark Favorite Food: Oniwaka enjoyed ginger pork like Yuuto in the first light novel, but both he and Shoujirou like the three-colored rice bowl (Sanshoku-don) with meat, eggs and beans as well.

Gerhard and Claudia Hepken

Gerhard is the fifth son to a family of knights, who married Claudia, the daughter of a lord who had once found a Nekoya door within their getaway manor. Upon reporting it to his wife, she excitedly hopes to go there to eat her family's favorite food in Chapter 79: Cheese Chicken Cutlet.

Shadow Archetype: Claudia is this to Princess Adelheid. Both are young women with fond memories of their time in Nekoya with their beloved family members (Adelheid to her grandfather Wilhelm and Claudia with her father, mother, and grandfather), but didn't remember about the door until many years later due to being too young. However, Adelheid discovered the door in her home while suffering from crippling loneliness and a dangerous disease, in response to her desire for companionship and a means to have something happen instead of staying alone in a boring manor, as well as reliving her nostalgic feelings of her grandfather eating her favorite sweet parfait. She would only find love later on during her visits to Nekoya with Prince Shareef. Claudia's husband by contrast is the one to find the door by accident, and the event serves as a means to help her and her husband become closer while eating a savory dish her family loved.
Trademark Favorite Food: Cheese chicken cutlets with lemon juice and beer.

Novel 5

Meifan

A dwarf elder long past her prime, she spends much of her days in quiet retirement near a spring...and a Nekoya door in Chapter 85: Oil Sardines.

Trademark Favorite Food: Sardines with Umeshu (Plum Wine). She attempted to replicate the latter to decent success with the women and younger dwarves, though men considered it too sweet and not strong enough.

Elmer

A half-elf once believed to be strong enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Demon Lord Altina, he is the current successor to former Duchy admiral Alphonse Flugel, who later takes him to the Nekoya restaurant in Chapter 86: Croquettes, Once More.

Ambiguously Gay: Elmer's descriptions of the Emperor Wilhelm sound extremely close to lovingly devoted in his chapter, describing his younger self as almost as beautiful as his mother.
Been There, Shaped History: He was old enough to fight alongside Wilhelm, and was there when the emperor brought back potatoes and ensured its place as a staple crop in the Other World.
Protectorate: He swears to keep an eye on Princess Adelheid in Wilhelm's place, since she will one day be married to Prince Shareef.
Reluctant Retiree: A zigzagged case. Admirals for the Empire are able to serve in the Duchy for at least fifty years before retirement, something that ultimately isn't a big issue for humans since they inevitably will age and lose their capabilities around that point. Elmer, being a half-elf, could realistically last for nearly double that time due to his longer lifespan, but because of the law being designed to ensure that half-elves cannot repeat the mistakes of the Ancient Kingdom, he's ultimately forced into retirement. He's not entirely against it, due to being freed of the responsibilities of an admiral, but also admits that his children consider him dead because of it.
Secret-Keeper: he ends up being one of the few people who figures out that cobbler's tubers came from Nekoya, given that Wilhelm once promised him to bring him to the Restaurant in the past, but died before he could fulfill that promise.
Trademark Favorite Food: Croquettes.

Ulrich and Soujun

A former mercenary turned town guard, Ulrich becomes privy to the Restaurant Door after a memory scrambled Soujun tries to figure out where the Door is after drinking too much, wanting to take part in the delicious food he received before blacking out in Chapter 87: Chinese Congee.

Alcohol-Induced Stupidity: Soujun shared a drink with an old friend of his before trying to find his way home, but instead ended up finding the door to Nekoya. Due to being drunk, he made what he assumed was a ridiculous order for a rice dish and received it. However, because he blacked out not too long after and ended up being dumped back in his home, he cannot remember where he found the Nekoya door and is desperate to do so in order to eat congee again.
Contrived Coincidence: Soujun and Ulrich have no means of figuring out where the door is, at least until they run into Tedd, who was caught by Ulrich trying to break into Soujun's house to enter his closet where the Nekoya door is.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite having every reason to dismiss Soujun's claims, it's a combination of the small details that he does remember that pushes Ulrich to at least try to help him, even if he isn't sure whether he can.
Trademark Favorite Food: Chinese congee for Soujun, and beer and sausages for Ulrich.
What Did I Do Last Night?: Soujun remembers that he received a delicious meal from Nekoya, but due to being so drunk, he ends up forgetting where the Nekoya door is...or if the door existed at all. The only reason Ulrich is able to help him is primarily because he remembers that the restaurant was open late at night, long past any food places in the Other World would have been open. That, and a run in with the halfling Tedd.

Alzas

A wandering bard, he heard tales from his friend Marina about the Restaurant to Another World. He would end up there after a landslide hurt his leg and he stumbled on the door in Chapter 88: Chili Chicken.

The Muse: Alzas was searching for this for his next songs, as if he doesn't, then his songs will become repetitive and earn him less coin as a result. He ultimately finds it in Nekoya and its amazing food.
Trademark Favorite Food: Chili chicken.
White Magic: his leg injury is instantly healed by a priestess of the Lord of Light implied to be Celestine.

Paul and Reiner

A fortress soldier, Paul is currently working as a town guard until his young son comes into his life after the boy's mother passed away. He decides to take Reiner to the Nekoya door for a special treat in Chapter 90: Deep-Fried Fish Cakes.

Does Not Like Spam: Reiner dislikes fish, due to getting a piece of dried fish that his father bought for nostalgia's sake, but he found to be gross. He changes his tune somewhat after eating Nekoya's delicious fish cakes.
Missing Mom: Reiner's mother passed away from an illness a month earlier.
Trademark Favorite Food: Seafood for Paul, and especially Nekoya's fish cakes in spicy mayo sauce.
Who's Your Daddy?: A side-effect of the area that Paul and Reiner live in is that during the war between the Kingdom and Empire years ago, it was not uncommon for the soldiers to get into trysts with the local women. The problem is that it was often near impossible to tell who the father was if those women happened to get pregnant due to the sheer number of different men going to those women.

Gustaff and the Wraith

A young man who fled his family to become an adventurer and escape poverty, honing his skills for five years before attempting to tackle the ruin of the Ancient Kingdom. Unfortunately for him, he fell through the rotting ruins and broke his leg, and ends up meeting a curiously non-hostile wraith in Chapter 91: Katsu Sandwich.

Injured Self-Drag: Gustaff has to do this in order to reach the Nekoya door after breaking his leg from falling.
Shadow Archetype: The wraith is this to Junior. Both are treasure hunters who had the misfortune of disappearing in ruins, with their family not knowing what became of them for years. However, whereas Junior was lucky enough to end up being teleported to the Southern Continent and ultimately managed to reunite with his cousin Sarah Gold and pass on the knowledge that he was alive, the wraith Julius Gold unfortunately perished in the ruins after getting cornered, only clinging to his sanity post-death due to drinking holy water. Ultimately he has to rely on a complete stranger to help him after fulfilling his final curiosity about the Nekoya Door, with his family only finding out his fate posthumously.
Take Up My Sword: After Gustaff returns from Nekoya, the wraith asks him to bring their sword and journal back to their family, since they can't do it themselves anymore. He obliges, and ends up with a hefty reward when it turns out that the sword and journal belong to the former treasure hunter Julius Gold, whose family didn't know what became of him.
Trademark Favorite Food: Katsu Sandwich for Gustaff, since the wraith can't exactly eat.
Token Heroic Orc: The wraith Gustaff meets is noted to be non-hostile, which is very odd given that they're typically spiteful spirits stuck in the afterlife and affected by dark magic. It's strongly implied that the wraith drinking holy water in life might have saved it from being reduced to a monster. Good thing for Gustaff too, given it wants his help.

Characters / Restaurant to Another World

Western Restaurant Nekoya

Staff Members

Customers of the Eastern Continent

The Great Empire

Samanark Duchy

Alfade Trading Company

The Demon Kingdom

Traits Shared Between All Three:

Traits unique to Alicia:

Traits unique to Hilda:

Traits unique to Ranija:

The Elven Territories

The Land of Flowers

Gold Family

In General

Land of the Sea

Customers of the Western Continent

The Land of Mountains

The Land of Sand

Customers of The Southern Continent

Customers From Other Regions/Nomads/Assorted

Other Notable Characters

Light Novel Exclusive Characters

General Species

Novel 1

Novel 2

Novel 3

Novel 4

Novel 5

Alternative Title(s): Isekai Shokudou

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Restaurant to Another World

Edit Locked

Western Restaurant Nekoya

Staff Members

Customers of the Eastern Continent

The Great Empire

Samanark Duchy

Alfade Trading Company

The Demon Kingdom

Traits Shared Between All Three:

Traits unique to Alicia:

Traits unique to Hilda:

Traits unique to Ranija:

The Elven Territories

The Land of Flowers

Gold Family

In General

Land of the Sea

Customers of the Western Continent

The Land of Mountains

The Land of Sand

Customers of The Southern Continent

Customers From Other Regions/Nomads/Assorted

Other Notable Characters

Light Novel Exclusive Characters

General Species

Novel 1

Novel 2

Novel 3

Novel 4

Novel 5

Alternative Title(s): Isekai Shokudou

Previous

Index

Next