The last time we went to a movie theater was in 2022, when we watched Top Gun: Maverick. Three years later, we finally returned to the big screen to watch a Japanese film: The Solitary Gourmet (孤独のグルメ). While it’s nowhere near as grand as the Tom Cruise blockbuster, we found it equally entertaining in its own way.

The Solitary Gourmet is a beloved Japanese TV show we first discovered on Netflix. It’s also available on Amazon Prime and possibly other platforms. Based on a manga of the same name, it has become one of our favorites. In fact, we enjoy it so much that we were happy to pay for the movie version at the theater.

The show is incredibly relaxing to watch, with a simple yet captivating premise. It’s so straightforward that we didn’t even need English subtitles to follow along. The story revolves around Inokashira Goro, an ordinary Japanese salesman who travels across Japan, mostly for work. During his trips, he inevitably gets hungry and explores local restaurants. It’s amusing, inspiring, and gives us ideas for places to add to our dining bucket list. What makes it even better is that the restaurants he visits are real—and we’ve even been to a few of them after seeing them in the show!

While the TV show mainly focuses on Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures, the movie expands the scope. Goro starts his journey in Paris, then moves on to Nagasaki, and even visits Korea before eventually returning to Tokyo for a heartwarming finale. Despite the change in setting, the movie stays true to the spirit of the TV series.

We left the theater happy and, just like Goro, ready for a meal.