To keep this review short, on terms of characters and art, Bambino excels. The shading and exaggerated lines are really good at conveying the hectic and stressful atmosphere of a top class kitchen in a top class restaurant. Yet at the same time it also works to convey the beauty of both the process and product of good Italian cooking. All of the characters, even the small side characters, are well developed with their personality seeping through their actions and minor characteristics. Sometimes a chapter is given a single chapter to themselves and not only does it not break the pacing, but it tells youso much even at times when saying so little.

Unfortunately the story is a mixed bag. While its low points are not as low as its high points are high, in most of the arcs the dialogue and direction of the story eventually falls into the pitfall of cheesy battle manga tropes, where all of a sudden the main character gets a flash of encouragement from a side character and miraculously turns his imminent defeat into a dominant victory. This happens multiple times, and it is not subtle in any of the times it does it. I am good in overlooking certain tropes if I enjoy myself enough, but reusing the same trope eventually leads to things getting stale. The second to last arcs encapsulates my complaints the most, when the story suddenly 180s into crazy town and becomes something its not for the entire second half of that arc.

The final arc does good at changing this and giving us something new, which bumps up my score, but if it didn't redeem itself this manga would be getting a 7. Anyway make sure to read the sequel if you enjoy it, it end on a cliffhanger and I don't want anyone thinking it suddenly got canceled.