Dinner
anyone?
As they say an army travels on its stomach, and Restaurant Empire takes
tactical simulations to a whole new level. You are an entrepreneurial
restaurateur, and your job is to build a restaurant from the ground up; from
selecting the building for your location through the flowers on the table.
Let’s begin with the two basic game modes. If this is your first time
through, you should start with the campaign mode. This is an 18 scenario
campaign in which you will build and run restaurants, and challenges you with
different goals to accomplish along your way to becoming a renown chef and
restaurateur. Your first foray will in the campaign mode will give you all the
requisite coaching and training you need from your uncle (a semi-retired famous
chef in his own right), and expose you to all the controls and facets of the
game.
The other game mode is the Sandbox. This is a free-form playing mode where
your only entrepreneurial restriction is the cash you have to play with. The
first few times you play Sandbox, make sure you load yourself with plenty of
initial cash to avoid frustration, once you are a more accomplished player, you
can challenge yourself more by limiting your initial capital.
You are initially given your uncle’s restaurant to run in the campaign mode,
but right from the start in the Sandbox mode you will have to pick a location to
build your restaurant. You will need to keep in mind what sort of traffic and
presence your location will generate, as well as the proximity of the
competition. Of course, the more prime the location, the more it will cost you
to buy and run your restaurant. Once you have chosen your location, you will
need to pick the size and cuisine and finally name your restaurant.
Your next step will be to lay out your restaurant. This turns out to be no
easy task for the novice. You will need to set aside floor space for the
kitchen, restrooms, and walk space for the customers and staff. You definitely
want to maximize your available seating, but need to be very mindful of the
ability of people to move around and work in your restaurant. Too small a
kitchen will cause delays in cooking and filling dinner orders, and too few
restroom stalls will make uncomfortable patrons look elsewhere to find a better
overall dining experience. You also need to make sure that there is enough room
for your customers to get to and from their tables, and make sure the walkways
are ample enough so that your servers are not continually bumping into and
slowing each other down. The design can be even trickier if you have a
multi-level eatery, although dumb-waiters can help a bit there.
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