Ristorante Paradiso



Ristorante Paradiso is a josei manga by Natsume Ono (Not Simple, House of Five Leaves) that ran from 2005 to 2006. The continuation, Gente ~The People of Ristorante Paradiso~, started shortly after and is currently ongoing. It also spawned a 12-episode anime series that combined plots from both the first series and Gente.

The story is about Nicoletta, a 21-year-old woman who comes to Rome to confront her mother, Olga, about her parental abandonment. Olga doesn't want her husband, Lorenzo, to know that she has a daughter and was divorced, so she keeps Nicoletta quiet by supplying her with an apartment and a job at Lorenzo's restaurant, Casetta dell'Orso.

During her time at the restaurant, Nicoletta meets and falls in love with Claudio, the head waiter. While she isn't sure about her feelings at first, she eventually decides to go for it. Claudio, on the other hand, is divorced and doesn't know when to let go. The other complication is that Claudio is twice Nicoletta's age.

Both the manga and the anime have been licensed by Viz, with the anime being streamed on Crunchyroll.

This series provides examples of:

 * Adaptation Expansion
 * The Apprentice: Nicoletta to Furio and Teo. Originally, Teo was Vanna's apprentice until she left.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Claudio's full name is "Santo Claudio Paradiso." Also an example of Who Names Their Kid Dude?
 * Beta Couple: Olga and Lorenzo.
 * Big Eater: Gigi.
 * Did Not Do the Research: despite the fact that the story happens in Italy the characters behaves like japanese, bowing to each other, as an example, or going to a "dojo karaoke", as mentioned by Vito. The scenery "vaguely resembles" something european, nothing accurate.
 * Fetish: Olga have a fetish for older man with reading glasses so all the restaurant's employees match with this description.
 * Food Porn: It does take place in a restaurant after all.
 * Gratuitous Italian: there is an atempt to include italian expressions and italian text in the anime but if you really speak italian, you will be surprised, specially with the written text.
 * Grumpy Old Man: Luciano, mostly towards Nicoletta.
 * Happily Married: Olga and Lorenzo, Vito and Marina.
 * Hollywood Heart Attack:
 * Josei
 * Love At First Sight: Nicoletta for Claudio and Vito for Marina.
 * May December Romance: Vito and Marina;
 * Motorcycle On the Coast Road
 * Mr. Fanservice: In canon, the male staff is a good part of the reason why so many women in Rome love the restaurant.
 * Names to Know In Anime: Fumiko Orikasa (Nicoletta), Haruhi Terada (Olga), Jin Yamanoi (Claudio), Kenji Nomura (Lorenzo), Takaya Kuroda (Vito), Yoji Ueda (Teo), Yoko Soumi (Vanna)
 * Parental Abandonment: Olga left Nicoletta with her grandmother when she was five, since Lorenzo didn't want to marry a woman who was divorced or had children.
 * Sexy Spectacles: Olga has a thing for guys in glasses and only hires waiters who wear them, though she doesn't mind if they are Purely Aesthetic Glasses.
 * Sharp Dressed Man: Every. Male. Character.
 * Shipper On Deck: By the end, EVERYONE ships
 * Supreme Chef: Teo