Love on the Menu

Such rich storylines and excellent casting

This is one of the best dramas I have started in a while. I can see why it will take 50 episodes because all of the characters have a rich backstory and a depth that you don’t always find. Almost all of the side characters are just as compelling as the main leads and I rarely find myself wanting to fast forward. The actors are also amazing, especially the ML and the oldest brother- both of them have already made me cry. The family relationships are complex and realistic and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out. I don’t know what other people don’t see in this drama but it is turning out to be one of my favorites.

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Cute start, starts to lag & illogical thinking

The beginning starts off good, then it started to frustrate me because the storyline doesn't make sense anymore. It really isn't real life, unless Mu Jin & Gyurim aren't stupid people. The audience knows Gyeol is Mujin's son. We're not stupid and obviously we know they (ML/FL) are still interested in each other but because of their pride or whatever it may be, they choose to be selfish and decide to ask the supporting leads to date even though they have no feelings for them not caring that they may hurt them in the long run. W e know they are going to gravitajte back to each other. The other storylines in this drama seem more realistic, ex: sister's & brother's situations. I'm a bit disappointed right now. I'll drop it for several weeks then pick it up again to see where they are.

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50 Episodes, Yet It Skips the Story

I’m dropping Love on the Menu, and not because it has fifty episodes or because the leads lack chemistry. I’m dropping it because I simply cannot tolerate the stupidity of its narrative anymore.

Episode 2 ends with the female lead finally considering giving love a chance despite carrying the financial and emotional burden of her entire family.

Episode 3 suddenly jumps one year forward.

They are now a couple, yet he is apparently still trying to win over the twins as if he barely knows them. More importantly, their lives remain virtually unchanged. She still wakes up at 4:30 a.m., works all day and gets home around 10 p.m., while he continues living comfortably and working as a chef.

So what exactly happened during that year?

When did they see each other? How did they build a relationship? How did two people with radically different lifestyles learn to coexist? Did he never try to help her improve her working conditions?

That was precisely the interesting part of the story — and the series skipped it.

Even more absurdly, he manages to hide for an entire year that he comes from an extremely wealthy family, despite several people around them knowing both his identity and their relationship.

Then his mother forces him to choose between his privileged life and his girlfriend. He chooses his girlfriend and, almost immediately, this educated man with professional experience as a chef is suddenly working construction.

Why? Because the plot needs him to have an accident.

Meanwhile, the female lead’s sister, who previously struggled just to afford medical school, reappears after the same time jump with a successful professional career.

Time apparently moves only when the screenplay needs it to.

There is, however, an interesting gender reversal underneath all this nonsense. The women work, survive, progress and control their own lives, while several of the men depend on them financially or choose submission to preserve their comfortable lifestyles.

Most revealing is the male lead himself. As long as he has family money behind him, he appears independent. The moment that privilege disappears, he cannot function without it.

The women learned how to survive. The privileged men never had to.

I originally thought the problem with a fifty-episode drama would be how long it would take to tell its story.

Instead, Love on the Menu has fifty episodes and somehow still skips the parts of the story actually worth telling.

Dropped after Episode 4.

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Currently on ep 6 and getting better - interesting twists and great acting

The drama does start with a typical sexist FL character - loser
but it starts quickly improving :) in ep 6 FL shows some spine
ML actor is fantastic
and the other characters are interesting, great script and acting

==== WRITTEN AFTER EP 6====
OMG, KBS seems determined to produce better and better weekenders! I am so glad!
This drama started well... very makjangy... but has quickly progressed into a very decent drama. FL is still quite stupid and backwards... the dad still lives in her house!!!!!! we all said we are dropping if she brings him... ? Bc of that I waited to accumulate enough episodes to see if the drama will become a trashy soap or NOT. Luckily the drama panned out into a very decent drama.

FL is unfortunately still a rather backwards loser character... luckily less than before... and the actress is ok, nothing special in terms of acting skillZ and her role too is too flat, too one-dimensional ... as is typical. All KBS weekend dramas FLs are very stupid and flat.
ML and the kid are really fun. The kiddo is amazing :) The other characters are interesting too, The gigolo guy, the younger siblings and the Fox.... they are all very complex characters, very good scripts!!!! and the actors are very good actors. The Fox is very interesting!!!!! She is smart and immediately figures things out and is usually correct - but rude :) Well the gigolo is interesting too but is a lot less mature or smart... and ModelTwin is a rather complex character too... we will see more of him when his bio mom shows up when he starts making money and fame :)
The bio-mom and her husband are such a nice family... on the surface lol Mom is a professional gold digger wow.... and such a CRUEL person... wow... $10K for the life of her daughter... Not even asking once about any of the kids... At least her husband is a nice person
and ML's friend is fun, and the one-sided crush chick is pathetically unreal.
The dad is ... clearly makjang but the actor makes it real. Ppl like that are out there in real life, for real...
Ah the side dish shop owner and her son are amazing too. I ship him with the Fox. He is THE ONLY suitable guy for the Fox. The roles are complex and the actors are great.

I really like the acting of ML actor, he is so expressive and really makes ML look like a real person...
The actor imo is clearly some kind of a ... player or businessman or something in real life... ? I dont know the person but he looks and acts as someone who is used wheeling and dealing and finds this plot a little ... childish :) and it comes out in his acting...
But he is a great actor, so expressive. I really enjoy watching him.

Overall, this drama is really promising, this could be the next classic! Let's keep our fingers crossed. Recipe for Love started well and then was ruined by being stuck for most episodes in the SAME stupidly boring issue, instead of spending episodes to show HOW it was resolved. Well ok you can say the issue was so deep that it took them so long to resolve it... But no, so many episodes were wasted on NOT resolving it at all... Ok whatever - the drama did not use its time well and spent too much time on the issue instead of resolving it and moving on. It seemed like the writer just ran out of ideas. Everything got MAGICALLY resolved in the last episode or two... wich is a very lazy script copout. It just did not feel real at all.

So I hope this drama KEEPS THE PACE until the end. It is going well for now! Fighting!

PS -

Know that one of the rare faults of kdramas is sexism, where FL is a clutz damsel in distress and/or naive goody loser -
and luckily it has gotten better over years, now at least FLs are competent at their jobs... but still, most kdramas have FL as a very very very immature and weak person.
IT IS IMPROVING, SO BE PATIENT AND KEEP WORKING ON ERADICATING THIS

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