Hidden Dishes Series

There is a restaurant in Toronto. Its entrance is announced only by a simple unadorned wooden door, varnished to a beautiful shine but without paint, hidden beside dumpsters and a fire escape. There is no sign, no indication of what lies behind the door. If you do manage to find the restaurant, the décor is dated and worn—homey, if one were to be generous. This is the story of the Nameless Restaurant.

Mo Meng is reminded of that fact once again as the Nameless Restaurant faces a new challenge. Magic and its old wielders are returning to the world. For the restaurant, wards of anonymity and camouflage are fading, leading to the arrival of new customers. And some older friends. What started as a way to pass the decades and feed a few customers has become actual work. The world is changing, and to face it, the Nameless Restaurant, along with its proprietor and patrons, will need to embrace the change with a good meal and new friends.

For the Nameless Restaurant, once a discreet hole-in-the-wall meant for a cast of supernatural regulars, the increasing levels of background magic has brought with it that most dreadful of locusts—new customers. The staff of the Nameless Restaurant are finding the influx of new customers—both mortal and magical—to be a challenge. They're reaching a breaking point, and something has to give. The only question is, will it be Mo Meng's rules on magic or the restaurant itself?

For once, Mo Meng isn’t the one behind the counter. After years of serving dishes at the Nameless Restaurant, he’s taking a rare day off. His destination? The soft launch of a new restaurant, where he’s been invited to sample their debut menu. At least, that was the plan. But while he might have left his restaurant behind, its patrons and their problems are a little harder to lose.