REVIEW: ‘Tastefully Yours’ Is A Half-Baked Romantic Venture

Tastefully Yours is a straightforward romance story, which, on its own, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When done right, the most traditional romance can make a substantial impact. However, the storytelling has little wiggle room for error when going the more conventional route. Throw in a reduced episode count, as is the case with Tastefully Yours, and the writing has to be tight enough and strong enough to carry things through. Unfortunately, while starting strong, the series loses its way and struggles to maintain momentum, with its weakness laid completely bare by the end of its run.

The recipe for at least familiar trope-ish success was there from the start. Starting with Han Beom-woo (Kang Ha-neul), the food conglomerate heir with the most obnoxious personality, he is clearly being set up for a rehabilitation arc. He buys out food companies, stealing their recipes to use in the Hansang Food Company’s restaurants, with little thought to the consequences for the people whose labor helps keep the business thriving. This flippant attitude, combined with his sense of superiority, comes back to bite him when his bullying tactics are publicized, and he ends up exiled from the company.

The only thing left for him? Mo Yeon-joo’s (Go Min-si) restaurant business. Making her official romance lead debut, Go Min-si is typecast as the steely and prickly restaurant owner. Drowning in debt, she needs a win to keep her dream of owning a restaurant afloat. That’s where Beom-woo comes into play in all of his ignorance and swagger. Lured in by a social media post featuring her food online, Beom-woo initially plans to trick Yeon-joo so he can steal her recipes. Of course, throughout Tastefully Yours, this goal of his changes.

Part of this is due to his growing feelings for Yeon-joo. Beom-woo falls into the ‘he fell first‘ category of romance tropes, with his feelings a lot more present at the beginning of the series. Yeon-joo, rightfully, takes more time to develop a crush on him. But their time spent together, either foraging for exalted mushrooms in the woods or Beom-woo acquiring a specific spice she needs, ends up melting her resolve little by little.

The chemistry between Go Min-si and Kang Ha-neul keeps Tastefully Yours afloat.

The natural chemistry between Kang Ha-neul and Go Min-si makes this process even more believable. Go Min-si’s Yeon-joo is more limited expressively, unless irritated, making the focus shift to the actress’s micro-expressions. Comparatively, Kang Ha-neul’s Beum-woo is more bumbling and clumsy. He wears his emotions on his sleeve, for better or worse, making it nearly impossible to hide anything from anyone. At least, that’s the case whenever he’s around Yeon-joo and his newly acquired friends.

While much of Tastefully Yours‘s success relies on the performances from Kang Ha-neul and Go Min-si, the entire cast does a lot of heavy lifting with the material they have. Kim Shin-rok‘s Jin Myeong-sook and Yoo Su-bin‘s Shin Chun-seung round out the core cast of characters in the restaurant, providing moments of clarity and plenty of humor to keep things from getting too dark. All four have great chemistry as a group, further solidifying the magic they’ve created working together in this restaurant.

We almost get a similar development with some members of the Hansang Food Group, but it’s not as prominent in comparison. Set up as the looming villain of Tastefully Yours, Beom-woo’s brother, Han Sun-woo (Bae Na-ra), is a consistent thorn in Beom-woo’s side, with his eyes on becoming heir to the Hansang group. With Han Yeo-ui (On Min-ae), their mother, pitting her two sons against each other merely to boost the company’s overall success, it seems unlikely that any family members will emerge as winners.

It takes Beom-woo and Sun-woo failing and rendering themselves exhausted to realize how pointless fighting is. Their actions are not something to be proud of. Similarly, for Jang Young-hye (Hong Hwa-yeon), the celebrity chef who has worked for both brothers, her confidence is rattled when coming face-to-face with Yeon-joo in a competition. Her success later on in Tastefully Yours is soured by the fact that she used another chef’s recipe. She ends up leaving the Hansang Food Group to see if she can succeed independently without underhanded methods.

Success and how we define it are ultimately at the forefront of each character’s mind.

This all boils down to the theme of success that plays out across Tastefully Yours. How do we define success? What are we willing to do to achieve it? Are we willing to live with ourselves in the process? All of the characters in Tastefully Yours have goals rooted in personal and financial success. When a character focuses more on acclaim and financial material gain, they noticeably have more of a crisis of conscience. When a character obtains enlightenment or freedom from the “material,” they achieve clarity and happiness.

With the limited ten episodes we are given, writer Jung Soo-Yeon does their best to flesh out these themes and these important character developments, but there’s not enough time to let these elements sink in. There’s a clear prioritizing of plot to keep things moving that only further highlights the importance of episodes or scene moments to let things sit and digest. This has been a growing trend and criticism of mine when observing these shorter episode orders for KDramas. Something’s got to give for time, and it’s usually the characters.

With such limited time to spare, it also makes storylines involving side quests a little trickier to forgive. In Tastefully Yours Episodes 7-8, Yeon-joo goes to Sapporo with her ex-colleague and crush, Jeon Min (Yoo Yeon-seok), to help him. While it allows us to learn more about the mysterious woman, and there’s a moment where Hansang gets thrown in as a plot-related speedbump, when related to the rest of the series’ trajectory, it is a distractingly weak addition to the story.

In Episodes 7-8, a side plot unfolds where recipes are finally stolen, which kept the main endgame – defeating Hansang – a priority. So, it’s not like these episodes were completely dedicated to this Sapporo adventure. However, with so few episodes and the need to make the best use of the time provided, this is where nitpicking comes in. This is foundational to figuring out what works and what doesn’t in storytelling.

Tastefully Yours ultimately could have been stronger.

This becomes most apparent in the Tastefully Yours finale, where Yeon-joo and Beom-woo still have an unresolved issue between them. The conversation to address it? Super short. Some allowances can be given when considering that this is meant to be a mature discussion handled by two mature adults. But given everything they’ve gone through, the utter betrayal laid at Yeon-joo’s feet, this moment left in the episode’s final moments is undercooked and reads more like a quick cap on the topic.

The finale also lacks finality. Rather than feeling like a natural end, it almost feels like there’s another challenge waiting around the corner. Whether this is due to how Tastefully Yours has been paced with its plotting or in the execution of its wrap-up, it’s unclear. Ultimately, it doesn’t satisfy or feel complete, and this is just a footnote in an overarching story.

It’s a shame because Tastefully Yours could have easily evolved into a comfort food-style of watch for romantics everywhere. Instead, it lacks the special sauce and care needed to make this KDrama, well, tasty. For all its emphasis on flavor, execution, and customer satisfaction, this romance ultimately proves to be underwhelming despite the cast’s best efforts.

All episodes of Tastefully Yours are now streaming exclusively on Netflix.