Photo credits: TVING

[Review] The Witch’s Diner

This week’s review is all about the series ‘The Witch’s Diner’. If you like fantasy or the actress Song Ji-Hyo, keep on reading!

Plot

‘The Witch’s Diner’ is a webseries produced by TVING. The story is based on the novel of the same name by Goo Sang-Hee. The novel was adapted by Lee Young-sook and directed by So Jae-hyun and Lee Soo-Hyun.

The witch in this story is Jo Hee-Ra portrayed by Song Ji-Hyo. She runs a restaurant that grants wishes through food. She starts renting the restaurant run by Jung Jin and her mother. 

Jung Jin is played by Nam Ji-Hyun who you’ll recognize from shows like ‘365: Repeat The Year’, ‘Suspicious Partner’ and ‘Shopping King Louis’.

Jo Hee-Ra and Jung Jin are more intricately connected than you may think at the beginning. Though it’s not exactly the most surprising plot, it’s still very enjoyable. 

The last main character is Lee Gil-Yong, played by Chae Jong-Hyeop. You’ll know him as his nickname from ‘Nevertheless’, Potato Boy. He’s a bit in love with Jung Jin and wants to help her out. 

Every episode the restaurant gets a customer who wants a wish fulfilled by eating Jo Hee-Ra’s magical food. We get to know the customers a little and we get to see how the wish comes true, sometimes in very surprising ways. 

We get some big actors coming in for an episode like Lee Kyu-Hyung (‘Hi, Bye Mama’), Ahn Eun-Jin (‘Hospital Playlist’), Lee Joo-Sil (‘Svaha: The Sixth Finger’) and many more.

Overall

‘The Witch’s Diner’ is only 8 episodes long so it’s a very quick and easy watch. I kind of wished they had turned it into a fully fledged K-drama with 16 episodes. The characters were great but could have used some fleshing out which they could have done in extra episodes. 

The world building could also use some more work. I’m writing this in, because I’m super intrigued and I wish I could have learned more about it.

The performances were really great. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this show and it had me wonder what kind of thing I would wish for. 

Go ahead ahead and watch the trailer below.

The webseries is available on Viki.

Ilse Van Den Heede
A writer with a slight coffee addiction and a tendency to find K-Indie gems in the YouTube rabbit hole.