Cook, Serve, Delicious! Review
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Publisher: Vertigo Gaming
Developer: Vertigo Gaming
Genre:
PEGI: 9+
Comments:
Cook, Serve, Delicious! – Android Review
Cook, Serve, Delicious is not just about preparing food, but serving it in a timely manner. You are re-opening a restaurant, conveniently named Cook, Serve, Delicious, that was once a five star restaurant in the SherriSoda Tower. It is your job to restore it into the famous restaurant it used to be.
Tap, Tap, Serve!
The gameplay has you putting together food orders by tapping on the different icons representing parts of the dish. However, each customer is different and will not order the same meal in the same way. Some might want cheese and pepperoni on their pizza while others want cheese, olives, and onions. You have to select the correct toppings for the customer to be happy. Seems simple enough, until you are trying to fill out several orders at the same time as fast as possible. Customers wont wait around forever, and if you take too long they will leave without paying. This will hurt your reputation or buzz, which is very important.
You start with four prepping stations. This is how many orders you can take at one time. Once an order is place, it will slowly disappear if you dont click on it. Depending on the order, different selections will pop up for you to choose from. If the dish requires cooking, it will return to the prep station with a timer. However, if you let food cook for too long, you run the risk of burning it and upsetting the customer.
After the order is finished, you hit serve and get a rating depending on how you did. Yellow smiley face means perfect, a green no emotion face means average (usually selecting the wrong toppings, etc.), and a red angry face means bad, either because you took too long or burnt the food.
Each level is one day of business and contains two rush-hours, one at lunch time and one at dinner time. Rush-hour is intense and I frequently missed customers and skipped chores. Wait, there are chores? Yes. Running a business also means maintaining a clean environment. If you ignore chores, customers will be more likely to give you a bad reputation, even if their order was perfect.
Do Your Chores!
The chores actually use the touch screen better than making the food. While preparing dishes consist of tapping selections, chores usually involve swiping the screen. Taking out the trash means swiping up to lift the garbage and swiping right to throw it in the bin. Washing dishes will have you swiping back and forth with a sponge and then up to move to the next dish.
The more I write about Cook, Serve, Delicious, the more I realize just how detailed it is. Before you start each day, you have to select which foods you will offer on the menu. You can only select up to four foods at one time, and they must be purchased before using them. You start out with a set amount of money and gain money after each business day.
Each item has positive and negative attributes. Some foods give extra buzz while others will take it away. There are also certain foods that customers are more likely to tip for, dishes that are simple to prepare, and foods that can attract rats.
On top of all of this, some dishes require equipment that also must be purchased, such as a grill or a deep fryer. Other equipment can help your business; tip jar nets you more money, dishwasher reduces the dish-washing chore, and even gun control to cut down on robberies!
Youve Got Mail
You also have an email that you check between days for important updates. There are alerts when a food item needs to be swapped out to keep the menu fresh, customer complaints or compliments, alerts for when an item upgrade is available, and weather alerts to let you know when it rains (because some foods sell better when its raining, apparently).
The end goal is to achieve that five star rating. To improve your rating, there are certain conditions that have to be met (a certain percentage of buzz, make a certain amount of money, pass a safety inspection, etc.). After a couple hours of gameplay, I still havent made it past two stars, which makes this an incredibly long mobile game. There are even more surprises waiting for me, such as catering opportunities and VIP visits.
The Delicious Conclusion
Cook, Serve, Delicious is a game that requires time and effort to master. Choosing the right foods, having the proper equipment, maintaining positive buzz, and many other variables will determine your success. You begin to feel a sense of accomplishment as you improve, and the variety of foods and chores keeps things from becoming repetitive. It is also incredibly polished, as I have not run into any bugs or hiccups while playing. While it doesnt accomplish anything profound, Cook, Serve, Delicious does require quick thinking and strategy. It is a great way to kill time on your phone, while becoming a master in the restaurant business.
Positives
- Challenging gameplay that requires strategy
- Many options that can affect gameplay
- Fun without being too repetitive
Negatives
- No real concrete story
- Nothing groundbreaking
Trailer
Article By Allison Hill
Allison has been gaming for as long as she can remember. She is currently taking classes for game design so that she can achieve her dream of making games. Other geek interests include web comics, anime, and tabletop rpgs.
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