Spotlight on Games > Ludographies
Restaurant Games
Thu Mar 16 05:01:10 UTC 2017
Games make you feel what it is to be the restaurant owner/operator, not the chef (Too Many Cooks), the franchise manager (Fast Food Franchise) or the waiter (Restaurant).

LA BISTRO
Rick Heli; Up & Away-2017; 2-6; 75
Each player can start one or two restaurants and compete with others over locations and personnel. They can also purchase renovations and advertising. They set prices at one of three levels and choose from one of eight cuisine types. These factors establish their ratings for factors like service, quality and ambiance. Customers appear in the form of a unique dice mechanism, yielding profits for reinvestment as well as fame/reputation points. The restaurateur who manages to make/save the most money wins.

Papà Paolo
Fabrice Vandenbogaerde; Quined Games-2016; 2-4; 75
In Naples compete to deliver the most pizzas. Outsmart your rivals by investing well, bidding on the right city tiles and creating your own district. Planning actions include: Delivering pizzas confers new abilities.

Darkminded Merchants
Car Tan Technology Team; Swan Panasia-2012; 3-6; 45
A competition to see who can get away with the worst practices, including using tofu as a substitute in dishes, using unsavory sauces on shrimp and adding plasticizers to the drinks.

Ristorante Italia
Riccardo Guerra, Giulio Guerra & Marco Mutta; ElfinWerks/Red Glove-2011; 2-5; 90
Game in two different versions – family and advanced – about building recipes in 4 categories represented by cards: starters, first courses, second courses and desserts, plus wines. Players draw five cards from a deck and each keep one. Completing a recipe means drafting ingredients. If you don't see the one you want you can clear the category and draw six more; then you can buy it if you're lucky enough to get what you wanted. Initially you can only make level I recipes. As you go on you may be able to accomplish better ones. You receive six actions per round and can probably put out two recipes plus a wine at most. Whoever puts out the recipes with the most total quality gets a gold star worth 10 points. There is also a blind auction, the winner getting 10 more points. Those not winning the auction must still pay half and receive nothing.

Wok Star
Juan Medina; Gabob LLC/Z-Man Games-2010; 1-4; 60
Cooperative real-time game in which players take on different roles in a Chinese restaurant. Cards represent the clientele who the players must serve individually while a twenty-second sand timer runs. Each order requires a combination of ingredients, which are tracked on the board. Players spend dice resources to accomplish tasks. Any not served constitute failures for the players. At the end of the round players use money to invest in Delivery!
Alain Xalabande; (web-published)-2009; 2-6; 30
Fast-paced game of food delivery. Decide questions like Supported restaurant types: Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, American

Restaurant Row
Greg Lam; Pair-of-Dice-2009; 2-4; 60
In New York, compete for good ingredients, employees, physical space and good reviews. Employs auctions and simultaneous action selection.

So spielt die Welt
Peer Sylvester; Bambus-2007; 2-8; 30
This book of games includes the game Aloi Mak, set in Thailand. Players each own a few food shops – serving chicken, fish and pork. [Review]

Goldbräu
Franz-Benno Delonge; Zoch/Rio Grande-2004; 3-4; 60
In the German village of Seehausen am See, breweries compete over a three week period to sell the most beer during the festival. Employs area control and simultaneous action selection. [Review]

Volle Hütte
Stefan Dorra; ASS-1997; 3-5; 30
Bar owners compete to earn the most from patrons. Patrons hop from pub to pub, always in search of something new whether it be billiards, dining, dancing or Fussball. The most appealing attraction is the dilemma of which player to pull patrons from as it's only when they leave a pub that its owner gets paid. This also opens up slots for the owner to play cards bringing in new patrons. Thus one way to win is a constant flow of customers in and out, but a second way is by use of the cards whose payoffs vary directly with the number of patrons at the moment of play. This system leads to dilemmas in composing the pub. Is it better to have one of everything or would it be preferable, for example, to own all four of the dance rooms? [Review]

Café Olé
Felix Leder & Patricia Limberger; (unpublished); 1-6; 20; 7+
Cooperative game of serving pastries and drinks in a cafe. After revealing an order, players use dice cards to roll dice which yield ingredients. They win if they can finish all of the orders before the surprise closing time tile appears.

Ristorante
Sergio Martins; (unpublished); 2-4; 45
Each player is a chef trying to serve arriving customers, perfect technique or prepare menus. Players take actions using action points as well as auctions and set collection.

Seafood Palace
Keng Ho Pwee; (unpublished); 3-5; 90
Players are Chinese seafood restaurant owners in Singapore. The more resources they put into a dish, the more likely that customers will identify that dish with the restaurant. Employs dice drafting, auctions and resource management. Dish cards reflect public demand.

Created: Thu Mar 16 05:01:10 UTC 2017

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