Best movies like Midnight Diner
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Every night, Master (Kaoru Kobayashi) is busy with customers at the restaurant he runs. He has a worried face, looking at the funerary urn which someone left at his restaurant. His customers also talk about the funerary urn.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Midnight Diner (2014):
Similar in 86%
Tamako in Moratorium (2013)
Plot Summary:
Tamako (Atsuko Maeda) graduated from a university in Tokyo, but she now lives with her father back in Kofu. Tamako doesn't help her father or tries to get a job. She spends her time just eating and sleeping throughout the four seasons of the year.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 789
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Dandelion (1985)
Plot Summary:
A pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside fast food stop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, pleads them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making".
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Comedy
Country: Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: funny, surreal, disturbing, humorous, witty, sexy, culinary, art house, buddy comedy, warmhearted
Similar in 81%
Sweet Bean (2015)
Plot Summary:
Sentaro runs a small bakery that serves dorayaki pastries filled with sweet red bean paste (“an”). When an old lady, Tokue, offers to help in the kitchen he reluctantly accepts. She will soon prove to have magic in her hands….
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France, Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: culinary, sincere, thought provoking, touching, melancholic, motivational, sad, tear jerker, poignant, art house
Similar in 90%
A Boy and His Samurai (2010)
Plot Summary:
A samurai from the Edo Period time travels to present day Japan where he meets a divorcee and her son. Soon, he discovers a passion for making pastries.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 677
Genere: Comedy
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, feel good, captivating, light, humorous, sweet, sexy, crying
Similar in 76%
What a Wonderful Family! 3: My Wife, My Life (2018)
Plot Summary:
At the Hirata home, three generations of their family live together. A crisis ensues when one afternoon, housewife Fumie falls asleep and wakes up to find a thief has stolen her secret money she kept hidden in the refrigerator.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 456
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: captivating, crying
Similar in 86%
Midnight Diner 2 (2016)
Plot Summary:
When people finish their day and hurry home, his day starts. His diner is open from midnight to seven in the morning. Pork, miso soup combo, beer, sake and shochu is all that he has on his menu. Nevertheless, he makes whatever his customers request as long as he has the ingredients for it.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, melancholic, anthology
Similar in 82%
Midnight Diner (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set in a small restaurant in the corner of a shopping district. The unusual eatery is only open after midnight, and its standard menu consists of just a single choice. However, the customers still come for the amusing chatter and the proprietor's willingness to cook any dish that they request. This drama depicts the lives of the restaurant's patrons, including a yakuza, an unsuccessful actor, a group of office ladies, a newspaper delivery boy, and a stripper.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, melancholic, contemplative, anthology
Similar in 82%
100 Yen Love (2014)
Plot Summary:
Slacker Ichiko gets into a fight with her younger sister and begins to live on her own, working the late shift at a 100 yen shop. On her way home, she passes a gym and meets middle-aged boxer Kano who trains there in silence.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, romantic
Similar in 81%
Cinnamon (2012)
Plot Summary:
Maria is a girl who loves to cook and lives with his grandmother, Doña Tere, in Mexico City's downtown. Doña Tere has a traditional Mexican restaurant called "El Molcajete". After the death of her daughter, Doña Tere abandoned his passion for cooking and stopped working in "El Molcajete", now operating under the direction of chef Rosi. Maria does everything possible to bring her grandmother back to the restaurant, while chef Rosi cooks dishes according to new trends in fusion cuisine which highlights the light food, but Maria and Doña Tere won't accept the traditional flavors and cooking secrets to be forgotten. The cuisine battle between Tere and chef Rosi is an epic fight not only between long-stablished mexican food and light food, but also a struggle of family bonds, friendship, cooking secrets, flavour’s passion and more than two hundred ingredients that are needed in order to prepare Mole, a traditional mexican sauce.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: Mexico
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, entertaining, satirical, disturbing, semi serious
Similar in 86%
The Perfect Dinner (2022)
Plot Summary:
Based on a story by Stefano Sardo, The Perfect Dinner follows Carmine (Salvatore Esposito, Gomorrah series), a Neapolitan mafioso who isn’t cut out for the criminal life. Under the protection of his boss Pasquale (Gianfranco Gallo), Carmine is sent north to run a money laundering operation through a restaurant. He simply needs to defrost frozen meals, issue receipts and dinner is served. But everything changes when he meets Consuelo (Greta Scarano), a chef who always pursues perfection and dreams of winning a Michelin star. Carmine hires her and decides to transform the establishment into a high-end restaurant. Could the love for food and dream of winning a Michelin star give them both a second chance?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 725
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, satirical, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Final Recipe (2013)
Plot Summary:
Hao's Singaporean restaurant is in danger of going out of business. Hao's grandson, Mark, secretly travels to Shanghai to attend a cooking competition despite his grandfather's wishes for him to become an engineer. Mark takes the place of a contestant who did not show up and must now impress the host, Julia Lee, and her chef husband, David Chen. Chen, who is originally from Singapore and misses his family, eventually learns he is Mark's father.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 485
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea, Thailand, Singapore
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Little Forest: Summer/Autumn (2014)
Plot Summary:
Abandoned by her mother, young Ichiko leaves her life in the city to live off the land in Komori, a small town nestled among the mountains in rural Japan. Despite the void left by her mother’s disappearance, Ichiko comes to enjoy her independence and revels in her new-found connection with food and the elements. Visually luxuriant, this film follows Ichiko through one summer and autumn, as she learns to use and respect the time-honoured wisdom of rural folk and read the cycle of life and connectedness in the environment around her.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating, melancholic, contemplative, visually appealing, epic, aesthetic
Similar in 80%
Little Forest: Winter/Spring (2015)
Plot Summary:
Ichiko (Ai Hashimoto) lived in a big city, but goes back to her small hometown Komori, located on a mountain in the Tohoku region. She is self-sufficient. Ichiko gains energy living among nature and eating foods she makes from seasonal ingredients.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, sincere, captivating, realistic, epic, poignant, aesthetic
Similar in 77%
Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories (2016)
Plot Summary:
In an otherwise mundane diner open from midnight to 7 a.m., there is no menu – but the chef cooks anything his customers want. Each episode is about different a different customer, as they find simple yet profound connections with one another based on their shared love of a particular dish.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, sitcom, anthology
Similar in 89%
Bunny Drop (2011)
Plot Summary:
Daikichi learns that his recently deceased grandfather has an illegitimate daughter with an unknown mother. The girl's name is Rin and she is just 6 years old. Everybody in Daikichi's family looks at the girl as an embarrassment and wants no part of her. Daikichi, annoyed by his family's attitude, decides to raise Rin by himself. Even though Daikichi himself has no experience raising a child and is still single. The movie is based on Yumi Unita's popular manga series "Usagi Drop".
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: anime, sentimental, sincere, light, humorous, captivating, manga, crying
Similar in 88%
After the Storm (2016)
Plot Summary:
Ryota is an unpopular writer although he won a literary award 15 years ago. Now, Ryota works as a private detective. He is divorced from his ex-wife Kyoko and he has an 11-year-old son Shingo. His mother Yoshiko lives alone at her apartment. One day, Ryota, his ex-wife Kyoko, and son Shingo gather at Yoshiko's apartment. A typhoon passes and the family must stay there all night long.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, semi serious, sincere, touching, melancholic, art house, independent film, weird, cult film
Similar in 83%
Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi Battle (2010)
Plot Summary:
"Le Grand Chef 2" begins with the Korean president visiting the Japanese Prime Minister and becoming involved in a heated debate over the origins of kimchi. The Japanese Prime Minister makes the bold claim that kimchi is an original Japanese dish which sets off the Korean president. Upon the Korean's president return home he sets upon a globalization plan for kimchi, which includes a nationwide "Kimchi Contest". Then, a lady named Jang-eun (Kim Jung-Eun) and her step-brother Sung-Chan (Jin Goo) compete in the Kimchi dish contest, with both siblings using their mother's kimchi recipe.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 261
Genere: Comedy
Country: South Korea
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: feel good, captivating, entertaining, satirical, semi serious
Similar in 78%
Cook Up a Storm (2017)
Plot Summary:
A Cantonese street cook and his chief rival, a French-trained Michelin-starred chef, discover they have a lot in common as they prepare for a world-famous culinary competition. An international culinary competition becomes a battleground between rival cooks, one famous for his Cantonese street food and the other a Michelin-starred chef trained in France. But their rivalry takes an unexpected turn when they discover a common foe and combine their skills in a fusion of East and West.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: entertaining, exciting, humorous, captivating, smart
Similar in 86%
Le Grand Chef (2007)
Plot Summary:
A young, incredibly talented chef quits the profession after a contest to head a world-class restaurant ends in tragedy. Retiring to a small rural town with his grandfather, he finds a new and more peaceful existence, working as a farmer and selling vegetables at the local market. Even though content in his new life, when a nationwide cooking competition offers him the chance to take on his long-time rival, Seong-Chan embarks on a journey that will forever change his view of the world and lead him to the most startling revelations.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sincere, humorous, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Soul Kitchen (2009)
Plot Summary:
SOUL KITCHEN film centers on a likable but hopelessly disorganized restauranteur, Zinos, whose cafe is second home to a motley crew of lovable eccentrics. When his girlfriend Nadine up and moves to Shanghai, a love-sick Zinos decides to fly after her, leaving his restaurant in the hands of his unreliable ex-con brother Illias. Both decisions turn out disastrous: Illias gambles away the restaurant to a shady real estate agent, and Zinos finds Nadine with a new lover. If the brothers can stop arguing and get it together, the Soul Kitchen might still have one last chance at staying in business. The mayhem that follows is a hilariously entertaining story of self-realization, set to an irresistibly soulful soundtrack.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany, France, Italy
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: talky, feel good, funny, entertaining, humorous, semi serious, visually appealing, culinary, realistic, inspirational
Similar in 90%
Eat Your Heart Out (1997)
Plot Summary:
A womanizer gets his own cooking show and, ironically, the females who call in end up airing their relationship problems to him.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 429
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
Bread of Happiness (2012)
Plot Summary:
A couple decide to relocate from Tokyo to the northern island of Hokkaido where they settle and establish a bakery and café called Mani. One cooks. The other bakes. Everyone walks out happy.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 756
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, captivating, realistic, semi serious, culinary, independent film
Similar in 88%
Umami (2022)
Plot Summary:
Following a near-death experience France's leading chef throws himself into a quest seeking the flavor that has confounded his life since he was defeated by a Japanese chef's bowl of noodles as a young man.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 472
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Kamome Diner (2006)
Plot Summary:
Where are we welcome? On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her, and meets Masako, a formal and ethereal middle-aged woman whose luggage has gone missing. The three women work in the diner, interact, and serve customers. A somewhat brusque man teaches Sachie to make delicious coffee, then he returns under other circumstances. Three neighborhood women inspect the empty diner every day; will anything bring them inside? The number of customers gradually increases, but the diner seems to attract only those with problems. Conversation with Sachie and the tasty food seem to resolve people's woes. We learn why Sachie serves rice balls; but why Finland?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, touching, humorous, semi serious, sincere, captivating, independent film, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 75%
The Chef of South Polar (2009)
Plot Summary:
When eight men are assigned to live 14,000 kilometers from home in inhumanly cold conditions, food becomes their new existence.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, semi serious, sentimental, realistic
Similar in 76%
Love's Kitchen (2011)
Plot Summary:
Rob Haley (Dougray Scott), an up-and-coming chef and restaurateur in London, is grief-stricken when he loses his wife. With encouragement from his infamous friend and real life TV Chef Gordon Ramsay, Rob decides to spice up his life by turning a run-down country pub into a gourmet restaurant. His food catches the eye - and taste buds - of beautiful American food critic Kate Templeton (Claire Forlani) and they soon both write a recipe for love that leaves both their hearts - and their stomachs - in full.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, humorous, semi serious, culinary, realistic
Similar in 88%
The Ramen Girl (2008)
Plot Summary:
An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a râmen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: feel good, inspirational, touching, humorous, semi serious, romantic, teen, culinary, thought provoking, realistic
Similar in 89%
Le Chef (2012)
Plot Summary:
A veteran chef faces off against his restaurant group's new CEO, who wants to the establishment to lose a star from its rating in order to bring in a younger chef who specializes in molecular gastronomy.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Spain
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: light, sentimental, funny, touching, sweet, feel good, humorous, culinary, social, happy
Similar in 76%
Burnt (2015)
Plot Summary:
Adam Jones is a Chef who destroyed his career with drugs and diva behavior. He cleans up and returns to London, determined to redeem himself by spearheading a top restaurant that can gain three Michelin stars.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 130000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: inspirational, entertaining, culinary, exciting, talky, emotional, motivational, social, satirical, family comedy
Similar in 85%
The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
Plot Summary:
A story centered around an Indian family who moves to France and opens a restaurant across the street from a Michelin-starred French restaurant.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 87000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: India, United Arab Emirates, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: feel good, inspirational, sentimental, touching, sweet, culinary, humorous, serious, realistic, semi serious