The stern-faced master of this diner only wields his knife from midnight to 7 am. The yakuza Ryu has been a regular since he tasted the โred wienersโ.
Struggling singer Miyuki orders her favorite โnekomammaโ. Master recalls another regular who is a lyricist. He later writes her a song as a gift.
Miki, Rumi and Kana meet at the diner to eat โochazukeโ (hot tea over rice) and gab about men. Master secretly calls them the โochazuke sisters.โ
Master starts each night by making potato and macaroni salad. A recent regular and charismatic porn star has become a fan of his potato salad.
Komichi brings food critic Toyama to the diner, who kills the mood. Goro comes for his usual butter rice which turns Toyama into a weekly patron.
Boxer Kacchan always eats katsudon (pork cutlet over rice) after a win. He falls in love with another regular Akemi. A big match suddenly comes up.
Hopeful star Risa meets struggling student and newspaper delivery boy Nakajima at the diner. They share an egg sandwich together. Could this be love?
Ex-idol Rinko visits the diner. Her former fan club members get excited when they hear she ate a plate of pan-fried noodles topped with a fried egg.
Yachiyo, an older lady, visits the diner two days in a row. She becomes friends with Marilyn the stripper and they go out clubbing together.
Gen, who usually comes with his โbig broโ Ryu, is alone tonight when he orders ramen. He then stabs the leader of an opposing gang and disappears.
Yakuza and diner regular Ryuโs favorite meal is Masterโs โred wieners.โ One day, his high school baseball teammate-turned-detective Noguchi appears.
Saya always orders fried chicken and then dozes off at the diner. She financially supports her struggling comedian boyfriend, but he is cold to her.
Oren, drunk again tonight, eats sake-steamed clams at the diner. Her worried son carries her home. He is unable to take away her joys of drinking.
Bento shop employee Shoji has a crush on Ikumi, who loves Masterโs aspic. He is shocked when patron Komichi tells him Ikumi works in the sex trade.
Filmmakers Genki and Yuki bring canned pineapples to Master who makes them sweet and sour pork. They meet Kikuno and ask her to star in their film.
After novelist Suzuki leaves, hostess Hana and her customer enter the diner. Hana sheds tears as she eats her creamed stew, remembering her mother.
Regular customer Tsukiko is a TV screenwriter. She comes again alone, revealing how she recently shared Masterโs pickled cabbage with a cab driver.
Hitomi often supported young men only to be cast aside. She falls in love with older man Hashimoto. The two eat cold noodles at the diner on weekends.
Patron Kanemoto visits the diner with beautiful Chiaki. Seeing Masterโs meat and potato dish, she recalls how her family was too poor to buy beef.
Gyoza is the one item Master orders from Murata instead of making himself. Murataโs wife Momoko has an intimate past with diner regular Katagiri.
Widowed singer Misao Kashima makes a rare visit to eat minced meat cutlets. Misao has been unable to perform on stage ever since she lost her husband.
Comic editor Uno brings up-and-coming award-winning artist Hashimoto to eat Masterโs pork-wrapped tomatoes. He lives with a woman and writes comics.
Private detectives Kei and Mamoru are drawn to the aroma of Masterโs simmered taro and squid. They spend the night together after leaving the diner.
Regular Komichi falls for Kasumi, whose past is unknown. She asks Master to make pickled ginger tempura, a taste familiar to people from Osaka.
Miho and Sayuri, in charge of their elementary school reunion, order vermicelli salad. The two recall their old schoolmate who loved the dish.
The weather is getting cooler so Master prepares extra stuffed cabbage to the regular customersโ delight. Only the stripper Marilyn feels differently.
On Saturday mornings, Yoshio and wife Mizue come to eat clam soup. People refer to them as a close couple. Yoshio is actually Mizueโs third husband.
โDo you have sautรฉed burdock?โ asks stately Chizuru Ichikawa as she enters the diner. She is Genโs former high school teacher, club adviser, and crush.
Detectives Noguchi and Izumi always disagree. He wants โliver and chivesโ, she wants โchives and liverโ. She tells Master she wants a new partner.
Itโs New Yearโs Eve. The regulars all come by to ring in the new year with Masterโs soba noodles. The diner is always a special place for them.