Overall: very enjoyable after a hard day's work with a cup of cappuccino by your side. Preferably on a cold snowy night.
(you may have noticed that the overall score is higher than any of the other individual categories' scores - that's because this series is much better when every category is thrown in together)

Storyline: practically nonexistent - too many flashbacks and random new episodic characters that just pops up and goes away for two or three episodes. (actually, although this is a food-focused series, very little cooking has been fully presented - after a while, you'll realize that the animators haven't done much research)

Music: so-so BGM (soothing Italian or Italian-wannabe music, mostly), so-so OP (voice is too flat until the main theme melody), good ED (solid voice/melody)

Characters: decent fleshing out main and secondary characters (sometimes, the secondary ones get fleshed out too much). It needs more time spent on Claudio, the main male protagonist.

Animation: beautiful scenery/background, great use of texture fillers, attractive character design, good lighting fillers, low fps (frames per second) on some parts, awkward/stiff body and facial movements on some parts as well

Oh my goodness me! Whereabouts do I even start on reviewing this amazingly enjoyable anime! From the minute I watched the very first episode, I just knew I was in for a really different & refreshing treat from the word go! What impressed me the most was how much more of a mature storyline this anime had compared to many others that I have watched on here already, and the whole "Younger girl falls for older man" scenario, it was truly captivating!

All of the characters are really good and very well animated, of which you warm to instantly with their shiningly bright personalities & smart appearance, not to mention the fact that they all wear spectacles whilst serving aswell! Another thing this anime has done is inspire me to take up on beginning to learn Italian for myself, I've even bought a dictionary & phrasebook already to get me started! It's also one of those shows that gets you craving for a good glass of wine and some tasty pasta & pizza dishes too!

The only thing I will say is that I wish it were longer than 11 episodes, but apart from that, really, REALLY superb viewing!

OMG this anime is about girls with oji-sama compexes!! and it is surprisingly a very refreshing anime
ok.. look when i mean refreshing .. did anybody watch Ouran High School Host Club?? ok well when i say refreshing i mean like that episode when they were competing to see who would will the "Most Refreshing" competition for the prize of getting the last room of the hotel Haruhi was working at... well this anime is kind of refreshing like that... and sorta of a hosting thing like the guys did in their club in the OHSHC anime (which is an awesome anime), but these are all old guys... but anyway it was really good and ppl should watch it cause it is one of the most unique and original animes i have ever seen... or at least in a while^^

I really didn't expect to follow this anime with such interest and passion. I really loved the idea of discovering the present and past life of all the employees in an italian restaurant. A good change from the usual "save-the-world", "which-one-to-love" and " believe-in-myself-to succeed-in-life" storytelling in most animes nowadays. What may unsettle the viewers would be the storytelling which is very reminiscent of the neorealist cinema in Italy, where they show lots of details in the life of the characters to express their personalities and their psyche. It is quite different from the usual mainstream action of America's entertainment. But a very good way to view another style of storytelling.

However, the only thing I am nitpick would be the ending credits which tend to be too much child-like and in contrast for the context of the anime. Personally, I think both the music theme and the use of the teddy bear to make the series more cute doesn't work and becomes too much corny.

For the music, which I liked, I think that it would have been great had the op theme and end theme had been italian songs, so that the story would have been much more immersed in the italian culture of the series.

Great to see also that the italian written and read in this series is well written and workable.

A very good job from the director of "Saikano"

The series is short yet it leaves a lasting impression! here are my thoughts on the series...

watching this made me feel like i was in Rome at the restaurant the animation is absolutely stunning and there is amazing backgrounds and unique character designs. Each character plays an important role and are all vastly different in personality giving you some variety in the series. The story line is slow but that is how it is meant to be and it works for the series. The genre is basically romance or "slice of life" and its a great show to watch on a snowy night because it brings a certain warmth to you , the music is classic Italian style (witch fits for the series) and along with the animation the music really makes you feel like your in Rome and in the middle of it all! overall i loved this show and its perfect for anybody there are only 11episodes but its a cute and heart warming show watch it if you have the time!

This was an alright anime. I thought I should try something different and it wasen't as bad as I thought. The music fit well and the characters were alright. The animation is unique in its own way and the story wasen't half bad. I say this a anime for those calm viewers who like shows that don't like the huge twists and stuff like that. Easy to follow, and not too long of a series. I say if you wanna try a different anime than your usual likes, try Ristorante Paradiso.

Storyline
The storyline of this story is alright I don't consider it to be like totally good it has lots of its flaws. lot of people complain about a young girl having the hots for a senior. In my view its a anime anything can happen. So it's alright it's that its just weird and unexpected for a girl to have the hots for a senior which she can go for a guy around her age. But you don't see a lot of that in life a girl having the hots for a man younger than her by 20 years.

Music
The music im not totally into it and i choose to skip the opening theme song

Characters
All of them are mature but they are all senior's and they did put couple of young good looking characters. Not much to say about it but its just that a lot of seniors in this series. But couple of the characters just tend to be the way they are like having trouble to move on.

Animation
The anime is pretty good and its also HQ. Which I enjoy and the other thing I enjoyed about is the widescreen view

so i give it a 3 star

Ristorante Paradiso is the kind of series that comes every once in a while and becomes like a breath of fresh air amidst the popular mainstream series and their generic clones. As an Otaku it is hard not to appreciate what it boldly tried to venture on and yet lament on how it fell short.

Storyline
While the first 2 episodes seem promising for a story about a taboo love with family tension sprinkled in those premises are sadly left unexploited. For a such a short series to take most of its time introducing secondary characters and leaving the juicy bits so unattended for most of its running is a receipe for disaster. What kept me watching was the tiny little bits of hope that it would get to what its niche audience was drooling for, the taboo romance between Nicoletta and Claudio. I was looking forward to a torn Claudio and a distressed Nicoletta fighting with their emotions for one another, sadly the latter became too passive in her approach after her second episode and the other was just too indifferent. Also a very important character was surprisingly left out, the restaurant owner made very few appearances and had very little to do with Nicolletta. I was hoping a bond would grow between the two as friends which would create an inner conflict with Nicoletta making her rethink her decision wether to come out as her mothers daughter or not. Well, events do happen but unfortunately all at once and in the last episode; some may like where it goes but most will regret how it got there.


Characters
The characters all have their own different quirks and are visually pretty distinct from one another. Its hard not to like the restaurant staff, older sexy gentlemen that have a thing for pleasing women. What is there to hate? The character I did dislike however was Nicoletta. Her actions are on either side of the extreme, wether too forward or too passive, she'll just eat at your patience. Her mom is just as irritating but she has a right to be since she is not the protagonist.

Animation
Aside from its story what sets Ristorante Paradiso apart from most series is its art style. The backgrounds have a distinct hand painted like quality and its one of the reasons it has attracted some fans . Unfortunately for Paradiso however, its beautiful art style doesn't make up for its stiff and minimal animation that fails to rise to anything but average [perhaps they blew their budget on the backgrounds] . Suddle gestures seem omitted most of the time and its a real shame because for a series in which most of its episodes revolve around mundane slice-of-life scenarios that deal intimately with its characters these are sorely lacking.

Sound
The OP and ED in my opinion are just god awful, another reason to be thankful for the internet, so we can just skip right over them. :D
The background music is more bearable, but thats not saying much. : /
Voice Acting... now there is this thing about animes and trying to speak in other languages other than japanese that frankly for what they try to do they end up doing a 180. Incidentally this year's awards go to: Its pretty unnecessary and more often than not it takes away more from the whole experience or causes confusing situations, but for Paradiso is not as painful I'll admit. The voice acting in general is pretty average though.

A decent mild distraction, if you are looking for a gripping romance story however I suggest you look somewhere else.

I really was thrown when I first started watching this anime.I'd never seen or heard of an anime that had a male cast of strictly older guys. Over the course of it's 11 episodes, I've grown very fond of this show and am sad to see that it's over. It turned out to be the single gem in the current anime season and there is such a wonderful sense of family in this that is hard to find elsewhere.

Overall:it's has a good food, nice people, great sound, a good anime to have a good side of hot chocolate

Characters:There a good they always know what there doing at all times and very nice and gentle