Thank you Sekai Project for sending us this game to review!

Love’s Sweet Garnish is a mostly kinetic visual novel that tells the story of Asaki, who decides to take over his grandmother’s café while she’s recuperating in the hospital from a back injury. His female childhood friend, Chisato, is an excellent pastry chef who looks forward to the café’s re-opening as it’s been shut down for over a month. Chisato is also the designer of the waitress uniforms that attract two of Asaki’s classmates, Rira and Richer. The two new hires are instrumental in creating some new pastries that become the talk of the town and revitalize Café Carmella.

There are only two choices to be made in this game and depending on your selections, Asaki will fall in love with one of the waitresses. Love’s Sweet Garnish isn’t the first café themed visual novel I’ve played, and it probably won’t be the last. Despite the unoriginal story, I still did enjoy my 5.5 hours spent in this title.

Each story arc has a different nemesis and hurdle for the café and its employees to deal with. On my first run, I fell in love with the white haired and bunny ear wearing Richer. On my second play through I was able to resume my save from the first choice selection. If you didn’t save there, you can automatically fast forward or skip to the first choice prompt. Out of the two endings, I felt that Rira’s was the intended one.

No matter which choices you make, walking in on Rira undressing is unavoidable. Thankfully, the Steam version of this game only shows her in her undergarments. Nothing past holding hands and kissing are alluded to in this game either. An adult DLC is available, but this review is based off of the Steam "All Ages" version. There is some minor language (d*mn), but it doesn’t happen often. On a positive note, I like how this game addresses bullying, blackmailing, gossiping, and other negative behaviors.

The visuals are top-notch in this title and I love the art style. The chapter loading screens show the female characters in a chibi style while they are drawn anime style throughout the rest of the game. Each of the characters are shown with varying expressions during their conversations which brings them to life. The backdrops are colorful and nicely detailed as well.

Though the background music wasn’t particularly memorable for me, the Japanese voice acting on the other hand was well done. I’m grateful for the subtitles though they were not shown on the loading screens so I had no idea what they said.

If you enjoy harem visual novels and don’t mind only two choices, Love’s Sweet Garnish will entertain you for a short while. The price is reasonable though you may want to hold off for a sale. It’s certainly not an original or the most engaging visual novel I’ve played, but it’s not the worst one either. It’s also one I wouldn’t mind letting my kids play as long as it's the all ages version.