Inner pages of Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide volume 1.
Romance Manga About Food, Cooking, or Eating!
I’ve really gotten into reading slice of life romance manga lately, and many of these also happen to be manga about food—cooking, eating, etc. I found this really nice, as something about reading stories about people enjoying life, falling in love, and eating good food was relaxing.
On the other side of the coin, I’ve read plenty of food-related manga that are also dramas—which give a completely different reading experience, obviously. I find it funny how they are often one extreme or the other!
After discovering so many romance manga about food, I thought it would be fun to make a recommendation list with them all. Some of the manga listed below I have reviewed before (feel free to click any pink titles to read a full individual review) and some are completely new to my site.
I hope you enjoy! (´ ω `♡)
1. How to Grill Our Love
Author: Shiori Hanatsuka
Status: Ongoing
How to Grill Our Love Kodansha page
This fun manga follows a married duo who often enjoy barbecue! As far as romance manga about food go, this one fits the bill perfectly.
It starts with a fast-pasted first chapter, introducing a character named Kenta Fukuyama. He’s a 30-year-old man who wants to try dating so he can hopefully get married, but seems to struggle in finding a good match.
In fact, he keeps getting stood up! While once again trying to date, he receives a text that the other person is going to be late… which he understood to be yet another miss (he thinks he’ll be stood up again). He was on his way out of the building when his date, Chihiro Yamaguchi, actually shows up—and she’s gorgeous!
In a panic, Kenta takes her to a yakiniku joint. Despite Kenta’s dorky personality and strange choice of location for their date, Yamaguchi was surprisingly into it, and so the two stay in touch!
But suddenly, Kenta’s job offers him a transfer that he can’t pass up. He decides to cut things off with Yamaguchi… but she shows up and suggests they get married so that they can stay together!
Despite the fast-pasted premise, this story is really cute, easygoing, and a joy to read. These two characters take some time to get to know each other (despite being married already) and often bond over Kenta’s hobby of barbecuing. This manga features lots of delicious meats and interesting meals in practically every chapter, so look forward to lots of tasty imagery!
As for the romance, it’s incredibly cute and refreshingly simple. No crazy drama or unnecessary developments! This manga simply follows a newlywed couple and their slow-growing relationship. They have their normal ups and downs like everyone else, but overall it’s just a bunch of cuteness and cooking!
If you’d love a mostly-fluffy romance between two goofs, definitely check this one out!
2. She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat
Author: Sakaomi Yuzaki
Status: Ongoing
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat Yen Press page
This fun GL series is exactly as the title describes! It starts out introducing Yuki Nomoto, a woman who loves cooking. She has no nearby friends or family to share her food with, and finds herself making too much pretty often. Not just that, but she wants to enjoy cooking a variety of interesting and fun foods without worrying about finishing it all herself!
Luckily, just down the hall lives Totoko Kasuga, a woman who simply loves eating, and has an appetite for large portions, too! Together, they make a perfect match of chef and food lover.
The food scenes in this manga are tons of fun. The meals are interesting and look delicious, and Totoko dives into the food in a way that makes you want to eat, too!
These two are the perfect opposites-attract pair, and not just because of their food-related activities. Yuki is a bit more energetic and goofy, whereas Totoko is calm and straightforward. But they match together perfectly, often enjoying each other’s company and fun food adventures. It’s so cute!
There’s even translation notes about the foods and ingredients at the end of each volume, which I love to see in manga about food. I wanna know what everything is!
Over time, these two slowly develop romantic feelings for each other. It feels very natural and not over exaggerated. I really enjoyed their dynamic and how they just seem to click personality-wise!
This lovely series also touches upon some more serious topics here and there, like sexuality, identity, food habits, breaking out of traditions, and living for yourself. While the topics are often sensitive and can make you feel a bit emotional, I feel like I haven’t seen many mangas that address these topics—so I was pleasantly surprised.
Overall, She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat is a very wholesome, cute, and meaningful read! I can’t recommend it enough!
3. Kitchen Princess
Author: Miyuki Kobayashi
Status: Completed
Read Kitchen Princess on K Manga
Kitchen Princess is an iconic shoujo series from the early 2000s that might look unassuming, but has a surprisingly melodramatic plot! It follows the young Najika Kazami, who wishes to become a professional pastry chef just like her deceased parents—as well as find her “flan prince,” which is a boy who helped her during a time of extreme sadness.
To achieve these goals, she enters a prestigious academy where students can hone their unique skills and achieve their culinary dreams. Unfortunately, the students there aren’t very accepting of Najika, and a lot of drama ensues throughout her journey.
Najika uses her cooking skills to succeed in competitions, rivalry, friendship, and even love! Most of the cooking is actually baking, involving lots of tasty sweets and treats. The manga actually has recipes at the end of the volumes too, which is so fun and cute!
Overall this story is such a joy to read. It’s hilariously dramatic, but often has a lot of fun cooking scenes as well as very sweet, meaningful messages throughout! If you have a sweet tooth and love drama, this read is perfect for you.
4. Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide
Author: Mone Sorai
Status: Final English volume coming June 2026!
Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide Tokyopop page
I recently reviewed this absolutely lovely BL series, and I can’t recommend it enough.
It follows two men who decide to travel the world together, and if their relationship lasts to the end of the trip, they’ll get married! While it isn’t exclusively focused on food or cooking, these topics are often found throughout the story, so I felt it was a good fit for this list.
These two visit lots of different countries, and so this romance features a very wide variety of foods from a multitude of cultures. I loved seeing the imagery of the different foods that the two characters eat throughout. It made me want to try all sorts of new foods!
They also cook for themselves now and then. I really enjoyed this series and how it explores not just the food in different cultures, but also popular historical locations and beautiful architecture. If you enjoy traveling, or have traveled internationally before, this manga may make you want to book a trip, haha!
I highly recommend this series in every aspect. Go read it!
5. Let’s Eat Together, Aki & Haru
Author: Makoto Taji
Status: Completed
Let’s Eat Together, Aki & Haru Tokyopop page
This fun and lighthearted manga series follows two university boys who live together and eat together often. Aki is the energetic cook, and Haru is the calm one with a large appetite. As you’d expect, there’s lots of cooking and eating in practically every chapter!
This series has such fun illustrations and descriptions of food, and the meals made within the story are often pretty creative. The two main characters are college students, so sometimes what they make is a bit creative or quirky, haha. It made me want to be more creative with what I have in my own kitchen!
They often eat with other friends too, sometimes having parties just for chatting, eating, and drinking—so fun! Maybe food parties should be a more common thing. (>∀<☆)
In terms of the romance, this series takes it very lightly and sweetly. It isn’t really at the forefront of the story, especially at the beginning—although the two have a unique chemistry and friendship that is very noticeable! Regardless of how light the romance is, the two characters’ relationship is heartwarming and fun to read.
This manga is very uncomplicated, having practically no drama. It focuses on the joy of having meals together every day, which makes it a very wholesome and easygoing read.
Let’s Eat Together, Aki & Haru is a lovely blend of delicious food and light romance… a great option if you want a low-stress slice of life manga about food!
6. Strawberry Love
Author: Irono
Status: Completed
Read Strawberry Love on MangaUp!
Strawberry Love is a sweet age gap romance series that is less about cooking and more about food itself—more specifically, strawberries and strawberry-themed sweets!
It follows a 20-year-old university student named Sara Moritani, who starts helping out on her grandfather’s strawberry farm due to him being injured and unable to work.
Usually her grandfather’s farm is partially cared for by a man named Minori Sugiura, and so she begins working on the farm with his guidance. Minori is a tall, rough-looking man who at first seems really intimidating. But Sara quickly realizes her first impression was wrong, and he’s actually a kind and surprisingly cute man who just really loves strawberries!
This manga is really cute, kind of comedic, and has some really fun characters, too. It’s honestly a very sweet romance, but you will have to get past the topic of their age difference quite often; so if you really don’t like age gaps, I’d avoid this one.
Also, this one is a bit more romance-focused than food-focused compared to the other titles on this list, although the strawberry theme sticks around throughout the entire story. The romance is fast-paced, uncomplicated, and overall just very cute. Check it out!
7. Mixed Vegetables
Author: Ayumi Komura
Status: Completed
Mixed Vegetables Viz Media page
This cute 2000s shoujo follows two high school students with dreams of working in the food industry!
Hanayu Ashitaba wishes to become a sushi chef, but is afraid of betraying her family due to her father being a pastry chef. Luckily for her, her classmate Hayato Hyuga happens to be the son of a sushi chef. Therefore, Hanayu makes it her mission to marry him and take over his family business as a way to achieve her dream job without hurting her father’s feelings.
However, this ambitious and morally questionable goal doesn’t exactly pan out the way she expects. Drama quickly begins to block her plan, and soon Hanayu finds herself having to reassess her priorities.
Despite the dramatic premise, this manga surprisingly turns out very cute and incredibly wholesome. In addition to food-related themes, it has a lot of nice messaging about family and achieving your dreams.
Don’t be fooled by the unserious romcom vibes it gives off at first impression—it actually turns out to be a much more meaningful read. Give it a try!
8. Misoshiru de Kanpai!
Author: Sai Sasano
Status: Completed
Published by Shogakukan
Misoshiru de Kanpai is another perfect choice for a manga about food.
This cute slice of life follows two middle school students as they enjoy daily breakfast together and grow closer. It starts by introducing Zenichirou, who has been raised without a mother for many years. She passed when he was very young, and his father is often away for work.
When Zen’s childhood friend and neighbor, Yae, finds out he eats convenience store food for breakfast every day, she makes it her mission to make him real breakfast instead. As a part of a long-past promise they made as kids, she declares that she’ll become his new “mother.”
This manga has a super cute and wholesome vibe, following a pure and innocent relationship between the two characters. The romance is slow-paced, adorable, and very heartwarming! Overall the story is incredibly endearing, although it can be a bit sad at times, too.
As for the food theme, this manga often gives a lot of attention to the process of cooking a variety of different miso soups, which I found fascinating! Not only that, but it explores regional varieties, the process of creating miso, the different types of miso, and more! I’m a big miso enjoyer, so I was happy to learn more about miso soup and all the different ways to enjoy it.
I really, really enjoyed this series and hope to see an official English version one day!
9. Something’s Wrong With Us
Author: Natsumi Ando
Status: Completed
Read Something’s Wrong With Us on K Manga
This absolutely bizarre and dramatic romance follows two adults that work in the confectionary industry—more specifically, they make wagashi, which is the name for traditional Japanese confectionaries.
It first introduces the female lead, Nao. When she was a young child, her mother worked for the Takatsuki family, who were known for their famous wagashi.
During this time, Nao grew a love for traditional confectionaries and even developed a friendship with the Takatsuki family’s son, named Tsubaki.
Unfortunately, everything goes very wrong very quick. Nao’s mother is accused of murdering the father of the Takatsuki family, and she soon passes away from the stress of the situation. Despite this, Nao never gave up on her love for confectionaries, and begins working in the industry once she became an adult.
One day, she finds herself competing for a business opportunity with none other than Tsubaki! Much to her surprise, he is impressed by her skills, and asks her to marry him on the spot—not even realizing who she was!
Nao would rather not associate with the family who caused her mother’s death, but she was desperate to get answers about the murder… so she agrees! This wild story has tons of crazy plot twists and drama, all while integrating various types of beautiful, tasty Japanese confectionaries throughout the plot. It’s a great read!
The wagashi found within this manga are so interesting and well-illustrated. I found them to be super creative, often holding a lovely meaning or using a unique design that I’ve never personally seen in sweets.
This series really made me want to explore more about wagashi—I can only imagine what they may taste like! If you’ve never seen them before, be sure to look them up!
Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this recommendation list of manga about food and romance! I think they’re all really great reads with a variety of plot topics and different approaches to the food theme.
Thank you for reading! Feel free to explore other recommendation lists on my site. ♡
