The new black and white Japanese restaurant that looks like a cartoon

Waku Waku on Portland Street is a restaurant unlike any other. Upon entering the new Japanese eatery, diners will find themselves transported into a whole new two-dimensional world.

Designed to look like a monochrome cartoon - thanks to a well conceived real-world optical illusion - the cafe's interior has been painted white, with every detail - from the walls to the chairs and even the knives and forks - outlined in black pen to give an trippy pen-and-paper look that’s almost like a looking at a page ripped from an artist’s sketchbook.

This flat-line design style was popularised by YND239-20, a quirky cafe in Seoul in South Korea around five years ago, and became a viral moment, drawing in people from all over ever since - especially those interior-obsessed Instagrammers looking for the next aesthetically pleasing brunch spot.

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Unsurprisingly, the concept of dining your way through an optical illusion courtesy of these 2D and comic book-style cafes has been rolled out in cafes and coffee shops across the globe - and now we have the UK’s first first two-dimensional and comics Japanese restaurant right here in Manchester.

While owner Chris doesn’t have a background in art and design, he completed the drawings by himself over the course of four months, often staying in the restaurant until 3am to get the job done in time. Originally from Hong Kong, Chris used to work in a bank, but when he and his family moved over to Manchester two years ago he took a job at a food delivery platform and began hatching his plan.

“My wife loves 2D cafes that are popular in countries like Japan, Korea and Taiwan and she said we should bring