Long before I stepped foot into the Ryoko Kui & “Delicious in Dungeon” Exhibition and knew exactly what to expect from it, I had a premonition that I would be hooked on whatever food-related exhibit it would offer. That premonition came true.
I can’t remember what I was initially looking at right before it happened, but I remember turning away from the wall I was facing, catching sight of the next room, and feeling my face break into a smile. Right there in the center was a replica of the Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom Hot Pot replica. It looked filling and appetising, especially with the faux-smoke seeping from it making it seem freshly prepared. The scorpion bits were big enough to serve as a blunt weapon, and my eyes kept wandering to the meat sticking out between the carapace, wondering what it might taste like. That marked the start of my descent into hunger. Dungeon meshi, ah, dungeon meshi.
While there’s a lot of Delicious in Dungeon material, it takes a bit of time before you get there. Like the exhibition’s name says, it’s about Ryoko Kui and Delicious in Dungeon, so a chunk of the experience is spent getting to know Kui’s pre- Delicious in Dungeon works. After moving past the giant mushroom at the entrance and the introduction section, I found myself immersed in a gallery of art of various Kui short stories, which are featured in collections like Seven Little Sons of the Dragon: A Collection of Seven Stories.
It was interesting to discover stories with ideas like a Japanese university with a dragon research club, a high schooler with angel wings, and a centaur-human society. Seeing the pages and art of these stories was even better, and I struggled to stop myself from photographing every single exhibit. I saw Kui’s depiction of humans among a crowd of gods, avian creatures (I’m assuming hippogryphs) terrorising armoured warriors, a girl seated on a flying dragon with a fish under one arm, an angel-winged person floating away from their bicycle, a crowd of mostly centaur protestors, and a mighty dragon seemingly confronting what I assumed to be a fierce deity. The ideas enchanted my mind, and the art, vivid and gentle, enthralled my eyes. This gallery contained entire worlds.
The Delicious in Dungeon part of the exhibition features less in the way of manga pages, but there was definitely a lot to enjoy with the eyes nevertheless. The experiences weren’t strictly segmented, so instead of being bombarded with all the meal replicas at once, I was guided to new ones gradually while also encountering introductions to characters and the pre-meal form monsters, neat photo spots, the manga’s cover art, interview snippets, and more. The structure makes it tricky to compartmentalise things, so here are some snippets of what I remember most fondly:
• As mentioned earlier, the food replicas. I wasn’t that crazy about the food when I watched the anime, but seeing the reproductions of dishes like Kelpie Grilled Meat, Undine Stew With Tentacles and Kelpie, Broiled and Glazed Giant Parasitic Worm, and Cutlets to Conquer the Dragon (despite the fact that I’m not brave enough to try frog meat in real life) had me thinking, “Man, I wish I could taste that right now.” You can read their recipes too.
• The Roast Red Dragon/Dragon Tail Soup/Onion Pizza gets its own mention since they (or at least the first two; I can’t remember if I saw any pizza replica) get a room to themselves. The dishes are placed on a table with benches on both sides, and there’s a picture of the party (temporarily reunited with Falin) that’s there to make you feel like you’re experiencing the food with them. I’m struggling to look away from the pictures I took of the roast as I write this.
• There’s a photo spot where you can join Laios and the gang in their frog skin getup.
• I feel like I didn’t pay much attention to the anime’s ending sequences when I was watching it, so I appreciated that there was a gallery dedicated to their illustrations, as they’re truly beautiful. “I created these based on the director’s instruction of ‘some instructions like these,’” Kui says.
• The manga cover draft section, beyond letting visitors enjoy the illustrations, provides a behind-the-scenes look at how the final version came to be via commentary from Kui and previews of the non-finalised art.
• A bit of Senshi fanservice is present. Expect to see shirtless Senshi and, er, his crotch.
• One of the photo spots is a Living Painting with a rope dangling from it.
• You can see Moriyoshi Ohara’s art setting sheets for the fifth basement floor.
• There’s a section that presents Nobutoshi Ogura’s storyboards for Episode 11 (the one where the party fights the Red Dragon).
• Marcille’s PTSD face after uprooting the mandrake is included in the key animation section of her profile area.
By the end of the exhibition, I was quite eager to head to the collaboration café for dinner (the decorations include a “Special Menu” area with art by animator Yo Himuro and more yummy food replications; the same dishes are carried by the accompanying waiter-form Chilchuck standee). I used my media voucher to snag the Laios Dragon Fight Rice and Chilchuck Melon Soda, and later whipped out my wallet for the Chilchuck Mimic Bingsu.
The rice is white rice, shaped into a dragon wing, with lots of tomato sauce (I initially expected something spicy), some human (?) shaped sausages and cubes of meat patty (I think; I’m not good with food terms), a few cherry tomatoes, and some greens. I would’ve liked more meat and maybe some non-leafy greens, but the dish was decent nevertheless, and I enjoyed draining the pool of tomato sauce.
The melon soda, which came with a couple slices of melon, delivered both melon and soda flavors to my tongue satisfactorily, while the taste of the bingsu (the bottom part of which seemed to begin melting pretty early) satisfied this chocolate lover. The melted marshmallow atop the bingsu seemed to have a buttery taste to it, which I really enjoyed. The claw-shaped blue jelly that rounded off the bingsu was less impressive — not bad, but not strongly flavoured and a bit out of place (unless it’s meant to balance the stronger flavors of the bingsu and marshmallow).
If you’re curious, the other menu options are the Marcille Wild Mushroom Burger, Senshi Golem Chicken Salad, the Marcille Blueberry Smash, the Laios Mojito Mocktail, and the Senshi Winter Melon Tea. The dishes cost between RM32 to RM35 (around ~US$8) while the drinks are RM22 (around ~US$5).
While I quite liked my meal (not having to worry about the prices of two my orders helped too), it’s definitely the exhibition that’s the main highlight. The Ryoko Kui half is a nice way of introducing people to the earlier part of her career and the interesting creations that came out of it, while the Delicious in Dungeon half provides a varied experience and nails the food aspect. It’s a visually appealing experience, and damn it, I’m feeling hungry again.
The Ryoko Kui & “Delicious in Dungeon” Exhibition first popped up in Tokyo in July 2024. Malaysia is its second international stop after Hong Kong, and it will be in Kuala Lumpur from August 1, 2025 GMT+8 to September 28, 2025 GMT+8. It’s located at INCUBASE Arena Malaysia on the second floor of Fahrenheit 88 in Kuala Lumpur. The collaboration café is located outside the exhibition area.
