Dine With Love (2022)

Great start that crashed and burned

I love both Gao HanYu and Jade Cheng. I love food flicks, and the focus on food as a heart-of-the-family was amazing; Recipes that could be repeated.

Episode one was everything I could have hoped for. ML notices all the social cues he should. FL is competent and capable at work, while also showing her care for work colleagues and awareness of work/life balance. ML promotes FL to director clearly through a show of her skill. We see ML as isolated and lonely, hiding his warmth and caring nature. The recipe was completely at-home repeatable. FL+ML have perfect chemistry. Second couple is a wonderful pair, and teases/supports main couple beautifully.

The next few episodes you have the usual tropes that come with lonely CEO who only has work to accompany him, and FL trying to balance it all. Some of the tropes are pleasantly flipped, like when the CEO is the one who trips and accidentally kisses the girl.

Somewhere around episode 8 I realized that I had been fast-forwarding through a lot of scenes. Repeatable recipes had vanished. Second couple stereotypical but supportive of first couple; waste of time to watch them. Third couple weirdly supporting each other's stalker behaviour; just irritating.

Main couple finally get together episode 9, at which point I realized that both ML's competence at work, and social awareness has been completely written out of the script. He does stupid stuff at the office that's completely out of character. But first dinner with mother-in-law he's completely out of it, for example literally grabbing soup-poured-for-mom and drinking it himself.

Why do script writers feel that they can have such completely implausible behaviour? I know the story is good when I want to yell at the characters. I know that the story is bad when I want to yell at the script writers.

I skipped ahead to the last episode, and watched as much of it as I could. The timing is seriously weird, both the relationship, and the show. In the relationship, they go from barely speaking to each other to marriage proposal ("I've changed") in only a few days time. In the drama, he proposes and The End.

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Slow paced

Cute and a different drama, but not something everyone would like watching.

The leads are quite new so I am not sure if many people would like it but I surely liked watching the drama.

It was a great pass time to watch it, the story was very slow paced, but the characters developed by the end, the story towards the end also started making more sense to me and I learnt a few things from the show that I would always remember.

It is not something many people would enjoy watching. So it depends from person to person.

But for me, it was a good one time watch drama.

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A True Gem

With only 16 episodes like Kdrama, this drama packs everything I love without any second to waste.
Happy Ending - the couples all end up happily including even the cats
No Villains - with the exception of FL's jerk of an ex and his hateful mum, none are irredeemably bad characters
FL - One of the best character I've come across and perfect in my eyes. Gentle yet firm and rational when decisions needs to be made. Handles work crisis so effectively targeting win-win situations rather than by ruthlessness and sees the strength in others. Cooks so well and has such a sweet temperament I'd want her as a wife too. To me, her love and priority for family which others see as a weakness and makes her emotionally unstable is what gave her strength and persistence. She could out-talk the ML and give him a run for his $.
ML - due to his childhood and the traumatic incident which happened to him at eight, it made him cold and unfeeling. But I do not feel his character repulsive because he is only ruthless to those whom he feel is incompetent yet he acknowledges FL's capability, is not intimidated by it and trusted her ability to do more. This is the type of ML character that is logical for FL to develop feelings for, not some mean, domineering guy that belittles FL's effort or put her down in front of others like another drama I dropped.
Without the need to drag the drama longer, we can still feel the chemistry of the couples, the strong bond between FL and her best friend, the close relationship between uncle and nephew, the cute antics of the actress and the Director, the character growth of a few of FL's colleagues - in fact, all scenes with supporting casts were memorable and do not come across as fillers.
This drama is definitely on my re-watch list.
Do watch the bonus episode though I've yet to find it subbed - https://youtu.be/35JaUmN5IcQ. Not sure why it's not included with playlist of the drama at MangoTv's channel.

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Lovely romance!

This is a superbly NICE romance Cdrama. The acting by the two leads (高瀚宇 and 郑湫泓) are fantastic. They depicted the characters perfectly - 郑湫泓 depicted the female lead character with the right amount of patience, innocence and forebearance, and showed the dilemma the lead character had in choosing between love and taking care of her ill mother; 高瀚宇 depicted the male lead character with the right amount of arrogance in the first two episodes, childish innocence in his interactions with the female character and his uncle, melancholic frustration and depression when he was dumped. If you like romance, great chemistry between the leads, and cooking/food, this is a MUST watch. I do wish this drama had 1-2 more episodes; the ending was a bit rushed. The soundtrack suits the romantic mood beautifully. Highly recommended Cdrama.

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Cute Romance

I like this drama. However, it starts to drag midway towards the end. The end feels rushed. The bonus episode cannot be viewed on many platforms, but even that episode misses the mark a bit. Some scenes seemed 'extra' and unnecessary. I feel that the writers' started to go another route midway and it didn't fit so they tried to correct it by the end. I have a problem when you write a person who is smart, astute and compassionate yet when trouble comes, they have no logic, common sense or communication skills. The ML was consistent throughout. The FL was written well until midway it felt like a different character that you start not to root for. The issues throughout were okay and felt realistic. How the FL handled the ML throughout his illness along with her mother makes you question the 'love factor'. A few unnecessary conversations and clips that could have been deleted and the drama would have been better. Overall, it is cute. Kissing scenes leave you warm and fuzzy. But I feel the writers fell short with the character balance and consistency. Rewatch value is debatable.

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Sweet paint by numbers romcom with a ton of philosophical points

This show is your typical paint by numbers romcom

What sets it apart and make it more enjoyable are 3 things

1. The chemistry between all 3 couples are electric. Like sugar sweet electric. Each three go through the ups and downs and uncertainties of a relationship.. surprisingly with decent attention paid to all three. Nothing is really overshadowed. Though some parts are time skips u just gotta accept without it being said or shown

2 the philosophical points for each episode. How it ties into the food made or reason ... so good
And the food. Yumz

3. Its really light and sweet. Theres a whole lot at the end that seems forced or rushed. And u definitely gotta take it with a grain of salt lots of it at times. But its really worth it

Music i personally like but def repetitive

Good show will make u smile. Cry and feel the flutters

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Food, Romance & Some Humor

This was a beautiful watch for me, I enjoyed it a lot.
I discovered this Drama on Viki end of July 2022, I was looking for something
to watch that had a romantic fluffy vibe and after reading the synopsis, I started
watching, I recognized the ML(Gao Han Yu) from The King's Avatar and that was the first
time I watched him in a Drama. It was very refreshing to watch him as ML in this drama,
He connects well and know all the angles he is framed in on screen. The FL was new to me
but very received, she acted very well and the two had chemistry. If you are a foodie like me
you will love this show, if you are a hopeless romantic, it will put some spark in your day lol.
Just watch the show and enjoy it. It's a slice of life with a good balance of family, friends
work & romance! It does have an ex girlfriend/boyfriend appearing but it's not dragged with them.

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Heartwarming Story

I am surprised that this drama's rating is so low as I thought it was a superb romance drama that had depth, great character development and was creatively put together. The concept of using food to tie the story together in each episode and to relate the beginning to the end lent a different dimension to the drama. The 2 leads were well cast - Gao Hanyu excellently portrayed the cold and harsh Yu Hao with a hidden soft side and Jade Cheng played the simple but warm hearted Su Ke Lan. Su Ke Lan's dowdy clothes and slightly unkempt hair were a contrast to the sharp well-tailored suits worn by Yu Hao but this contrast emphasised that the attractions between the two went beyond the superficial. The chemistry between both draws you into their developing romance. The only negative point for me was the irritating personality of the second lead Zhang Bi but I supposed every drama needs to have one of these characters.
Overall I will recommend this to anyone who enjoys a slow-burn romance and who loves to ogle at the sharp features of the male lead. I hope there will be more positive reviews to increase the overall rating of this show.

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Don't know what happened with this one

The series started quite strong but turned into a cliché. We struggle through numerous episodes for the couple to love each other and be together only to have the heroine turn into a fool. She gives up the man she loves to be with her dying mother. Throws him away because she can't love two people at the same time. DUMB. The soundtrack was memorable and fit the storytelling. The supporting characters were uninteresting, skipped over a lot of those stories. The ending felt rush and by the end, I frankly did not care how it ended. I don't plant on re-watching this drama.

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A Pleasant Drama

This drama is not the type that will grab your attention at "get go" nor does it drive you to binge watch the entire drama in one or two days. However, the story is enticing enough to take you to the end with the main leads, the scenery, the delightful dishes and a good theme song.

ML, Yu Hao is the owner of a fresh food company, sponsors and participates in a food show to promote his company. However, he does not know how to cook. So, he hires a double to make dishes on the show. This makes his team un-comfortable and in time, this was exposed to the public, which makes his fans lash out negatively affecting his company image. During this time Yu Hao's PR team also left him due to his bad temper. In comes, Su Ke Lan, who takes over temporarily. She somehow manages to ease the relationship/tension between Yu Hao and the Program team. On top of this, she also managed to talk Yu Hao to understand and learn cooking himself.

Su Ke Lan then teaches him to cook. Not only was she successful in getting him to love cooking, she also manages to warm Yu Hao's heart turning him from a cold and ruthless person to an open and gentle person. Though at the core of his character, Yu Hao is a really nice person but has problem showing them due to early childhood issues with his family. By having Su Ke Lan by his side, through the way she teaches him to cook, she slowly teaches him how to communicate and interact with the people around him through food.

A pleasant drama to watch.

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