The Busy Bistro • 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle from The Magic Puzzle Company • Series Two

No magic reveal spoiler…This is our first Magic Puzzle. I am not a puzzler. I purchased this so we could work on it as a family while my mother-in-law was visiting for the month. Previous to that I did a 500 (Hong Kong mystery puzzle by kitty wong) and 850 (US States by Re-marks) to help my son learn his states and capitals. This was much more challenging. It’s only 150 pieces more, but it felt like a big jump. And like everyone said before, trying to do the edges may not help that much. We didn’t complete the outside edge until we were nearly done with the puzzle.I tried to do solve this puzzle without looking at the map but after a couple of hours I surrendered. My mother -in-law who is almost 80 thought it would be a little to challenging to complete alone. They next day we had more family over. With many hands we completed the puzzle that evening. They refused to leave until it was finished. They did leave before the magic middle was completed but got to stay for the rearranging. IcompletedThe middle after they left and my husband went to bed. Needless to say my husband was a ïdxdsddI love this puzzle so much. Many reviews do not talk about the specific puzzle but I have to say the Busy Bistro is absolutely adorable! It’s sort of like Japanese ratatouille without humans. If you are familiar or fond of Japanese culture you will be delighted with the references. If you like cute busy mice you will love this. I have include images of a couple of Easter eggs. . The reveal is cute and it makes sense that some of the mice are working so hard.I can’t wait to get more puzzles from the Magic Puzzle and can’t wait to buy them for friends. MP offers a range of difficulties, but would rate this as challenging. MP offers a good range images. And even though some images do seem to lean towards one gender or another I think they are all interesting enough that anyone would enjoy helping to solve the puzzle. I am concerned that the company is going out of business because they haven’t updated their website and people have said they have not received callbacks from customer service. They can’t go out of business. They need to make more cool puzzles!!!Puzzle piece quality is loose but the puzzle pieces are very study and you can easily tell if a piece fits or not. This was not the case with my Hong Kong Mystery puzzle from another kickstarter. The unique pieces are delightful. Please buy their puzzles!Busy bistro adds another layer becuase the scene is set in Japan. I was so obsessed with this puzzle I Google translated all the Japanese and it’s worth it to do so. I realized there was a huge hint given about the reveal in the most clever way. There were a couple of things I couldn’t translate due to size. If you read Japanese please tell me what it means.My one grievance is that the 3rd fish Easter egg is barely visible on our puzzle but you can see it in the map.This is the best. It’s a great way to spend screen free time with family and friends.

The Magic Puzzle Company absolutely hit it out of the park with the Busy Bistro Puzzle. The puzzle is well made with uniquely shaped pieces that are cut so it's challenging to solve the puzzle, but also cut so that fine details are preserved. I've done puzzles where tiny signs or faces are unceremoniously hacked in half because of a poor cut, and the Magic Puzzle Company practically eliminated this problem by having the pieces custom cut that they pictures and fine signs (such as the tiny rat's faces or little signs) are in the center of the puzzle pieces. The pieces fit together exactly together but have a slightly looser feel to them, so it's easy to disassemble the puzzle when completed. This is not a puzzle you can pick up from the corners and effectively pick the entire puzzle up as the pieces do not "lock" together. The puzzle image is very clearly printed on the thick cardboard stock and has a slight sheen to it. We had no issues with "sticky" or incompletely cut pieces and there was no dust or debris in the bag when the bag was first opened. Because it's a fairly complex puzzle (especially if you don't know the secret), it comes with two posters so that more than one person can hover over the puzzle and still have a sort of guide. As for the difficulty of the puzzle, it definitely is more challenging than most puzzles, but not as mind jarring as the Magic Puzzle Company's "Sunny City", which relies on a lot of beiges colors and seemingly repeating details.Speaking of detail, I loved the amount of Easter Eggs hidden in this particular puzzle. This puzzle included so many references, including homages to Ratatouille, Overcooked, The Simpsons (MR. SPARKLE!), and even a box of Hagoromo Bungu Chalk which made my math professor brother-in-law nod in knowing approval. Those who have completed the Magic Puzzle Company's Crystal Cave may also spot an amphibian visitor from that puzzle. Those who have never completed a Magic Company Puzzle before will definitely be delighted by the extra surprise upon completion of the puzzle - all I can say is DON'T OPEN THE EXTRA ENVELOPE UNTIL YOU'RE DONE! If you've never completed a Magic Puzzle Company puzzle before and want spoilers on this, the surprise ending can easily be found online. This puzzle was so fun for our family to complete that we ended up purchasing it for my sister's family to assemble. It's a fun and finely detailed puzzle that I would definitely recommend for any puzzle fanatic.

Magic Puzzles are our family's favorite. They're really delightful. You won't be disappointed.

I loved working this puzzle and thoroughly enjoyed the surprise ending. I really liked the feel of the pieces, it was a good challenge to complete, and I also thought the packaging was very cool.

Magic Puzzle Company's jigsaw puzzles are always GREAT. They are not sold in Japan, so I buy them from Amazon US, but they are worth the shipping cost.In the Busy Bistro this time, Japanese is written here and there, and the punchline at the end is something that Japanese would understand, but I wondered if Americans could understand it.

Difficult because of the same colored pieces but worth it in the end.

My family absolutely love each of the puzzles by The Magic Puzzle Company. They are beautiful, colorful, exciting, and unique. We love how each of the puzzles reference one or more other puzzles. We delight in the seek and find that comes in each one for when you've completed the puzzle. And the newer puzzles come with a sticker in the lid to sign and date when you've finished it, so when we share it with family they can also sign and date it and we know who to pass it to next. The quality is astounding and the pieces incredibly unique to each puzzle. Definitely check these guys out!

The best puzzle brand ever. The surprises at the end are very fun.