Bon Appétit, Your Majesty review: A Joseon-era Culinary Class War that leaves you hungry and swooning over the leads!

Lim Yoona and Lee Chae-Min rom-com’s has the quintessential K-drama bits while creating an identity of its own!

Bon Appétit, Your Majesty review: Since the past two years, with K-dramas like Lovely Runner, A Time Called You, Twinkling Watermelon amongst many others, time travel has become a popular genre makers are going for! And it has seemed to give the audience what they want and the cast and crew the desired results out of a series. Netflix and TvN’s latest K-drama, Bon Appétit, Your Majesty also makes time travel its central theme but blends it with a twist that keeps it different from what we’ve seen before!

After winning a famous cooking competition in Paris, Yeon Ji-Yeong(Lim Yoona) is ready to travel back home to meet her father. But before she does that, she is asked to make a quick stop to collect a book called ‘Mangnurok’ that accompanies her on a flight back. When she unexpectedly opens the book on the flight, it makes her travel back in time and she finds herself in the Joseon era. From the very first moment she sets foot there, she meets the king of the Joseon dynasty, King Lee-Heon(Lee Chae-Min), who is known to be a tyrant and a gourmet at the same time. Their first meeting is no fairytale, in fact it repels you to see him be rude to her. But with deliciously aesthetic food and a good heart, Ji-Yeong turns the tyrant into an absolute softie and it is heart warming to watch him be wrapped around her finger eventually. 

Also Read: Homebound review: A tale of friendship, hope, prejudice and so much more!

All things said and done, you’re mistaken if you think Lim Yoona and Lee Chae-Min are the leads here. The food is the real hero that not only makes you want to eat Korean food but also keeps you intrigued to see what Ji-Yeong is going to make next. The CGI done to the reactions when the king tries the food adds to us experiencing everything through the character’s POV. The Culinary Class Wars like setting, the way Ji-Yeong brainstorms into giving modern day dishes a Joseon twist and to actually see those recipes come to life, all tie up to make a binge-worthy K-drama! When it comes to the actors, Lim Yoona clearly gets an A for effort for spending time to learn everything that she is making on the show. A lot of the story is through her perspective and she fairs well at all the heavy lifting when it comes to carrying the 12 part show. Bon Appétit, Your Majesty is to Lee Chae-Min what Lovely Runner was for Byeon Woo-Seok. Another breakthrough star gets his time to shine after years of trying his luck and we cannot wait to see him in more rom-coms like these!

Having said that, the climax of the show felt rushed and half-hearted, not because it did not paint me the picture I wanted but because one of the dialogues actually told us, “That’s not important”. While we love a happy ending, it’d be great if it's done with some reasoning along with it instead of merely banking on the romantic feels. But as the credits of the last episode rolled, I found myself missing the show, the lead actors and all the food featured on it already and that should say enough about how even with its flaws, it managed to create an impression on me!

All episodes of Bon Appétit, Your Majesty are currently streaming on Netflix!

For more reviews, follow us on @socialketchupbinge