Tastefully Yours is a cozy food drama, and for the most part, that's exactly what I got. The story follows Han Beom-woo, played by Kang Ha-neul, who's this uptight food company executive who gets cut off from his rich family and ends up in the countryside. There he meets Mo Yeon-joo, played by Go Min-si, who runs this amazing little restaurant with incredible food but struggles to make ends meet. What starts as a clash between his corporate mindset and her passionate cooking slowly turns into something beautiful – they end up running the restaurant together, with plenty of banter, food, and romantic tension along the way.
The show promised to be a tight 10 episode romantic comedy about food, love, and finding yourself, and honestly it stuck to that promise. The early episodes had this perfect mix of enemies to lovers energy, gorgeous food scenes that made me hungry every single time, and this wonderful found family dynamic with the supporting characters. There's something so satisfying about watching Yeon-joo, boss around this former rich guy, making him run errands and basically treating him like her personal assistant while he slowly falls for both her and her cooking.
Kang Ha-neul was absolutely the standout performer here. I've seen him in other dramas, but watching him play this arrogant guy who slowly melts into someone genuinely caring was just perfect. He nailed the physical comedy, there's this scene where he falls with a food cart that had me laughing out loud – but he was equally good in the emotional moments. When Beom-woo has his first taste of Yeon-joo's kimchi and gets this nostalgic flashback, you can see everything change in his face. The man can act with his eyes like nobody's business, especially later when the drama gets heavier and he's dealing with guilt and regret.
Go Min-si held her own, as Yeon-joo, bringing this fierce energy that made her instantly lovable. I loved how she never backed down from anyone, whether it was ripping up Beom-woo's business card in their first meeting or standing up to fancy Seoul chefs who looked down on her countryside cooking. She made Yeon-joo feel real – someone who's incredibly talented but also vulnerable, trying to prove herself in a world that doesn't always appreciate what she does.
The supporting characters were comedy gold, especially Kim Shin-rok as Jin Myeong-sook and Yoo Su-bin as Chun-seung. Seeing Kim Shin-rok go from playing intense villain roles to this hilarious wild card was such a treat. And Chun-seung, this spoiled restaurant heir who can barely boil water, brought so much heart to the show. The four of them together created this chaotic but loving family dynamic that made every scene feel warm and genuine.
What really worked in the beginning was how the show used food as storytelling. Every dish meant something – Beom-woo learning to cook with actual seasoning instead of just following corporate formulas, Yeon-joo's elevated Korean dishes that showed her CIA training, the way sharing meals brought people together. The cooking scenes were beautifully shot, almost like watching anime come to life, and they always served the story instead of just being pretty visuals.
The romance felt refreshingly honest too. Instead of dragging out misunderstandings for episodes, Beom-woo pretty much admits his feelings by episode 4, and both characters are surprisingly direct about what they want. There's this great moment where Beom-woo tells Yeon-joo he wants to "get madly involved" with her, and it's both funny and sweet because you can tell he really means it.
But then the drama started to lose its way around the middle. The whole subplot with Yeon-joo's ex-boyfriend showing up felt like it came from a different show entirely. Just when we were getting comfortable with the cozy restaurant family, suddenly she's flying off to Japan with this Michelin star ex, leaving behind a hundred detailed instructions, but not a single explanation for why she was leaving. It felt so out of character for someone who had been so direct and honest up to that point.
The Japan episodes dragged terribly, and not just because the ex-boyfriend was manipulative and boring. The whole thing felt like unnecessary drama for drama's sake, especially when the show had been doing so well with smaller, more intimate conflicts. Instead of focusing on the relationships grown to love, we got this detour that made Yeon-joo seem indecisive and Beom-woo seem helpless, waiting around for her to figure out her feelings.
When the betrayal storyline hit, with Beom-woo's involvement in leaking Yeon-joo's recipes – it had real emotional weight, but it also felt rushed. The show had done such a good job building trust between these characters that watching it crumble was genuinely heartbreaking. Kang Ha-neul's performance during the confession scenes was incredible, all trembling lips and guilt-ridden eyes, and Go Min-si's quiet devastation was more powerful than any big fight it could've been.
The final episodes tried to wrap everything up with a cooking competition and family confrontations, and while there were some beautiful moments, especially Yeon-joo cooking for Beom-woo's mother and the quiet reconciliation – it all felt a bit too neat and rushed.
What frustrated me most was that the drama knew exactly what it wanted to be in those first few episodes. When it focused on the simple joy of cooking together, the comedy of these very different people learning to live with each other, and the slow build of genuine affection, it was absolutely perfect. The moments that worked best were often the smallest ones – Yeon-joo knocking on the wall to tell Beom-woo to be quiet, him awkwardly trying to help with restaurant tasks, the whole group working together to prep for busy nights.
The show also deserves credit for avoiding some typical romance drama pitfalls. Beom-woo's jealousy never became toxic, the class differences between the leads were handled thoughtfully rather than being played for cheap conflict, and even when things got dramatic, it never lost sight of why these people cared about each other.
If you're looking for a food drama with heart and some genuinely funny moments, Tastefully Yours is still worth watching, especially for Kang Ha-neul's performance and those gorgeous cooking scenes. Just know that it's a bit like a meal that starts with an amazing appetizer and main course, but stumbles a bit on dessert. The flavors are still good, but you might find yourself wishing the chef had stuck with what they did best from the beginning.
Watch on Netflix