Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!

Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!

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Mastering Chef 4 Hire: Restaurants, Foods, and Everything In-Between
By scheiß auf mein chungus leben
[v2.60] General tips, descriptions and final level videos for getting gold medals on all 30 restaurants in the Chef 4 Hire mode. Also contains information on the classic CSD mode.
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About This Guide
Please note: Since CSD3 is out at this point, I am assuming that there are no further updates for CSD2 and so this guide is considered completed, bar any glaring errors.
This guide was started during v1.02, and some things may have changed since then. Almost all of its contents were written without any inside knowledge.


I decided to start making this guide after seeing a lot of discussion about the Chef 4 Hire levels and how many people were having difficulty with perfecting the later restaurants and shifts (and also because the game's pretty fun I guess). I don't think the levels are anywhere near impossible - the techniques you learn from the first game still hold true, and if nothing else, there are people out there who are farther in the game in terms of levels and gold medals. However, they will present a challenge, requiring mastery of a vast number of foods and complex recipes, utilising the new holding stations and side dishes to your advantage without getting overwhelmed, sometimes even approaching levels and restaurants with a different method of thinking.

To that end, I've written down notes on how I generally approach the game, how I tackle each restaurant, and how I internalise the more complex foods such that they don't become an issue any more. That said, this guide is not meant as a replacement to training and memorisation, and you'll still need a degree of mastery with each food if you want to perfect Chef 4 Hire. Likewise, the tips here aren't necessarily going to trivialise foods or mechanics, but they will hopefully point out areas that players have difficulty on and make the task of memorisation easier. Obviously, everyone has a different playstyle and method of learning, and you may not even find these tips useful or necessary. So long as you're able to find some other way that helps you internalise these foods and restaurants, then more power to you.

Completing the Chef 4 Hire mode with all gold medals is arguably harder than completing everything in CSD1, and will almost certainly take longer (taking away the time taken to construct this guide I've probably spent ~65 hours to complete the game), so this task is not for the faint of heart. However, I hope that this guide will also help those who are simply overwhelmed by the frantic nature of the game and are struggling not to get an excessive number of bad orders in each shift. Who knows, maybe after you get the hang of the first few restaurants you may want to try and go for gold as well!

Of course, there are other avenues in which you can ask for help if you're struggling on a particular shift or some other aspect of the game. The one that probably has the most active discussion is the official Discord server[discord.gg], where you can get realtime help, technical support, or just keep up with the state of the game.

An explanation of sections:
  • The sections immediately below are a rambling of how certain mechanics work (including a number of mechanics that are not immediately obvious from tutorials), and a list of general tips that are applicable to the entire mode (and occasionally to other modes as well). There's also a bit on some mechanics and tips for holding stations, and another bit for drinks, sides, and chores. Following that is an explanation of Chef 4 Hire mode, and then a section for each of the restaurants in the game.
  • For each restaurant, I've included a table of shifts, which level they're unlocked, buzz and number of prep and holding stations. Below that is a list of entrees, side dishes and drinks that appear in the restaurant. Foods that are outlined like so are the ones that appear in the final shift.
  • Specialised tips for the foods and shifts in each restaurants are also available. The tips for foods are shown in the first restaurant they appear in, so if you can't find help on a certain complex food it may be discussed earlier in this guide (or there wasn't much to say on it other than practice). CTRL+F is your friend here! The restaurants in this game unlock roughly in order of their appearance, and ideally this guide should be followed likewise.
  • The final shifts of each restaurant are usually accepted to be the hardest of the bunch. I've uploaded a video on Streamable for each of these shifts, which shows how I approach these days and obtain a gold medal. The gameplay in these videos is often more difficult than how the game is balanced currently, as there is now increased customer patience, more side dishes, more serving sizes for foods, and so on. Obviously your mileage may vary due to the randomness of orders, but it should capture a few more specialised pointers that I haven't expressed otherwise. These videos aren't flawless plays by any means - you can probably find a few close calls here and there, a bunch of misprepared HS foods, and so on - but on the other hand it shows that these final shifts don't demand utter perfection.
  • A playlist of all final shifts is accessible here.
This guide will contain spoilers, whatever that means for this type of game. At the very least, if you want to see what the theme of each restaurant is and unlock them for yourself, you might want to ignore those sections. The mechanics and tips in the first few sections shouldn't spoil very much, although whether that's a convincing guarantee is up to your discretion.
General Mechanics/Tips
  • Memorisation of ingredients and recipes is still the most effective method of mastering each food, and with enough practice you can start to notice patterns and construct mnemonics for certain recipes. Of course, this is made more difficult by the addition of many more foods and the existence of 'custom orders' with random ingredients, but at the same time a large number of foods are mechanically similar (Whole Pizza/Pizza Slices) and/or mechanically simple (most fried foods). Try not to look at the ingredients list, and force yourself to recall them from the recipe alone in order to reinforce your memory.
  • Inferring from the above, the less foods you have to deal with at once, the easier it is to memorise them. I tend to focus on up to three restaurants at a time, going through each shift in order and getting a gold medal for all of them before starting a new restaurant. Compared to doing many restaurants at the same time and playing only a few levels for each, this reduces the need to readapt to more complex foods and allows you to put aside the keybinds you've memorised for a food once you've completed the restaurants it appears in. This playstyle certainly won't appeal to everyone as it might seem mundane to do multiple consecutive shifts on the same restaurant with the same foods; if you find it more fun to regularly switch between restaurants and foods then do it. You won't be motivated to get gold medals if you're not having fun.
  • This game is best played with the keyboard, especially when you need to deal with a lot of prep stations and orders, and this guide is written with keyboard in mind. Learning to type well is learning the game - if you're capable of touch typing and generally hitting keys accurately and swiftly in normal circumstances, you'll probably have an easier time with the game.
  • This guide also assumes default keybinds. They're mostly intuitive, but there are some foods are full of first letter conflicts or have questionable key choices. You may want to rebind these keys to your liking - enter Practice mode with any food, open an order in the Prep or Holding station, and follow the steps on the top right of the screen.
  • Some common ingredients are bound to the same key for most, if not all foods, which makes internalising them easier.
    • A non-exhaustive list: Ground Meat -> M, Chicken -> K, Beef -> B, Shrimp -> H, Pork -> P, Cheese -> C, Corn -> R, Broccoli -> B, Mozzarella -> Z, Rice -> R, Black Beans -> A, Green Beans -> E, Green Peppers -> G, Red Peppers -> R, Yellow Peppers -> Y, Onions -> N, Sour Cream -> S, Carrot -> A, Celery -> C, Lettuce -> L, Pickles -> P, Swiss Cheese -> S, Bacon -> B, Tomato -> T...
  • Currently when you hold down a key while turning a page, if the key also exists as a placeable ingredient on the next page it will automatically be placed, which can potentially ruin your perfect day. An option exists that adds a key input delay to help alleviate this, but it will still automatically place ingredients down if the key is held long enough.
  • Similarly when using the mouse, holding down left click automatically selects prep stations or buttons in the ingredients list. This isn't very useful except in certain situations in CSD mode or when doing robberies. (You could technically do this for any food that requires pressing buttons in order but it's easier to remember those.)
  • Each day lasts for approximately seven minutes. Each rush hour lasts for exactly one minute. If these values don't seem correct then your game might have a technical issue. If it's not running at a constant 60fps then lower your settings until the game is able to reach it (then ask for help if that didn't work).
    • All orders stop at the end of the day, including chores and drinks.
  • The lowest possible buzz is 0%, with a customer patience of 37.00 seconds. Every 5% of buzz deducts 1.50 sec of base customer patience (so 35.50 sec from 0%-5%, 34.00 sec from 5%-10% etc.), to a minimum of 1.00 sec at 115% buzz. Each unique side dish adds 15.00 seconds to patience, so long as they're ready to serve and have servings left.
  • Once an order is fulfilled, another order will not arrive in that prep station until the bad/average/good/delicious animation ends and the number on the side of the prep station is no longer lit up.
  • Customers will pay the full price of any dish you serve as long as it isn't badly prepared. A bad order of any food or drink does not contribute to your daily earnings.
  • Every food gives the same amount of experience. Every mode also gives the same amount of experience.
    • A drink order (one that appears in one of the prep stations) also gives experience in the same way that food does.
    • A delicious order gives slightly more experience than a perfect order, which you can see being added once the excited faces and sound effect triggers.
    • An average order gives considerably less experience than a perfect order, and a bad order contributes no experience.
  • As with the original game, you can serve anything that doesn't require cooking or additional preparation even if you're in the middle of holding station prep, making another food, or completing a chore. These items are indicated by a blue tick next to the order. You can also trash holding stations, but this behaviour can be inconsistent.
  • When something that has been cooked or frozen reaches the red quarter, serve or prep them quick, but don't panic! The red quarter takes a longer amount of time to tick than the other quarters (a little less than double).
  • In almost all cases for prep station foods, any small mistake will result in an average or bad order, regardless of whether the final product is affected. For example, the initial prep phase of Pasta involves cooking a type of pasta and optionally various meats to be added into the final dish afterwards. If a recipe does not ask for meats, even cooking a meat in the first place but not adding it into the final dish will result in a bad order. One exception to this rule is Hamburgers - you can cook more than the number of patties required without penalty.
  • If there are an abundance of non-holding station foods that require preparation after cooking it's advisable not to get many orders of that type cooking at once. If the food is complex and you can't get through those orders in a timely fashion some of them will end up burnt.
Holding Stations
  • The food you prepare in a holding station will still have a recipe you have to follow - you can't just prepare any combination of ingredients and serve it. You also have to follow the recipe perfectly, or else it'll just show some 'meh' faces at you, and you'll need to trash the holding station and prepare the food again. Happily, screwing up here does not invalidate your perfect day.
  • As a general guide, keep at least one of each HS required food on a holding station at all times.
  • Every order for a HS Required/Optional food is good for one refresh of customer patience, available from when the order first appears. This works regardless of whether or not you already have that food cooking or ready in a holding station.
    • The refresh applies the amount of customer patience that currently exists to the order, and the orders that are affected will briefly flash white and return to their extended position.
    • You can use this trick to reset the timer for orders that have foods taking a long time to cook. Some foods that are most relevant to this will be explicitly mentioned in the restaurant section of the guide.
    • You can also exploit this to unreasonable lengths by letting the patience timer for new HS Required food orders run low, prepare a batch on a holding station to refresh the timer, then letting it run low again before serving. In the case of HS Optional orders, you could even trash the holding station on the final step and cook each order manually. This greatly reduces the rate that orders come in and can make shifts that you're struggling with a lot easier. However, I won't be encouraging the use of this strategy in this guide as it isn't the intended method of playing and it won't help you on levels that don't have HS Required/Optional foods available.
  • Every order for a HS Required/Optional food deducts one serving from the respective holding station - even an order for three hamburger patties. The station with the least number of 'freshness' sectors will be chosen - in the event of multiple stations with the same food and freshness, then the leftmost station will be chosen.
  • The last sector of HS freshness has the duration of two sectors: it first lights up normally for the duration of one sector, then flashes for the duration of another.
  • When is it better to cook HS optional dishes one by one, and when is it better to use a holding station?
    • Cooking them one by one reduces the amount of management required, and also reduces the flow of orders by occupying a holding station. However, it also creates a minefield of undercooked orders, which you have to be mindful not to accidentally press. If the food has a preparation phase afterwards, you'll also need to be mindful not to burn anything while you're making that food, and you can't serve other foods that require additional preparation after cooking.
    • Cooking them on a holding station eliminates any potential for ruining perfect days - if you make a mistake in preparation, all you have to do is throw it out and restart, and the worst you'll get is maybe some extra trash. However, the additional micromanagement may be tough to deal with on later levels, and you may not have enough stations anyway.
    • TL;DR: It often depends on how technical the food is, whether they have additional opportunity for mistakes, and how many stations you have available.
  • Once all the HS foods have been prepped, if there are any stations left I tend to keep them empty until one or two hours before rush hour. This is done mostly to ensure foods stay fresh during rush hour, and also allows me to respond to foods with low quantities remaining.
  • Selecting the right prep/holding stations is key, and while holding stations need confirmation to trash something, an incorrectly selected prep station can lead to a ruined day. Look at the keyboard if necessary to ensure you're selecting stations accurately, especially during a heated rush hour. Keep in mind that the last two prep stations are not on the same row by default (although this will not be an issue for a while). You may also wish to rebind the holding station keys to not require holding down a separate button, e.g. to the function keys.
  • It helps to keep your holding stations organised so you know what you need to remake - my holding stations are usually ordered from left to right with HS Required foods, HS Optional foods and then Side Dishes, with each food ordered by their position on the menu.
Drinks, Sides, and Chores
  • Most chores, drinks and sides are extremely simple and should quickly become second nature - you'll be doing these very frequently.
  • Drinks can fulfil a certain number of orders before an order appears requiring it to be refilled. It requires a free prep station slot, runs on a different, fixed timer than customer patience, and usually takes precedence over a food order. For two available drinks, the drink is chosen randomly (like side dishes) regardless of whether they need to be refilled or not.
    • Soda Fountains take 8 orders per refill
    • Coffee takes 7 orders per refill
    • Iced Tea takes 7 orders per refill
    • Hot Tea takes 7 orders per refill
    • Fresh Lemonade takes 5 orders per refill
    • Pineapple Juice takes 5 orders per refill
    • Horchata takes 5 orders per refill
    • Juice Bar takes 10 orders per refill
    • Beer takes 4 orders per refill
    • Craft Beer takes 4 orders per refill (so it is functionally the same as Beer)
    • Red Wine takes 4 orders per refill
    • White Wine takes 4 orders per refill (so it is functionally similar to Red Wine)
    • These refills happen every n servings of that drink (where n is the number of servings available) regardless of whether a refill is required or not, so multiple refill orders can exist at once. However, if the drink needs to be refilled and there is no space for an order, any orders done during this time will not increment the refill counter. This behaviour is probably tied to the delicious order bug.
    • Exact occasions where taking precedence does not apply needs further testing, but tends to happen with two drinks on the menu, very high buzz, and a constantly full set of prep stations. A possible hypothesis is that there exists a food order queue that grows larger the more buzz you have; when a drink runs out, the drink order is placed at the end of the queue, and so may not be seen until the rest of the food orders have been dequeued.
  • The differences between the large number of sides is more of a thematic than a functional one - many of them can be lumped into [ingredient] x 4 + dunk, [ingredient] + seasoning, or simply [choice of ingredient] + cook.
  • Side dishes are taken regardless of whether drinks are available, and drinks are taken regardless of whether side dishes exist.
  • The time bonus for sides is added after the side is ready, for subsequent orders.
  • When a side is depleted, existing orders do not lose the time bonus.
  • Normal rush hours halve the time bonus granted from side dishes (7.5 seconds instead of 15).
  • Side variants of entrees (e.g. Soup, Japanese Fried Rice, Chili) are identical or simplified versions of the original in terms of mechanics, but often hold more servings. In fact, they have the highest serving count and price of any side dish, which may be worth the preparation complexity.
  • A delicious order is obtained when a side is ready to serve and a drink is available (i.e. not taking a prep station slot needing to be refilled), and adds to the tip counter. If you don't seem to be getting delicious orders anyway, it's probably because the drinks are gone but there's no space for the refill order.
    • The amount you get for a tip is not affected by the side dishes or the drinks themselves; it's always either $2, $3, $5 or $6. The price of a drink is only added to your earnings (the one that isn't your tips) when you serve a drink order, and the price of a side dish is never added to any part of your earnings. This means there's no financial reason to choose one side dish over another (and a negligible reason in the case of drinks).
    • Currently, if any drink needs to be refilled and there is no space for the order (even if a previous order of the same kind exists) or it is the end of the day, you will not get a delicious order for the food orders you fulfil. This will also happen if you serve multiple orders at the same time without sufficient drink servings, as the drink order does not immediately show up upon running out. However, if a drink needs to be refilled and the corresponding order does exist, the food orders you fulfil will be delicious. With two drinks, if a drink that has no servings and no order is chosen to go along with a food order then the order is not made delicious. It's unclear whether or not this is intended behaviour.
    • If you refill a drink at the end of the day, the number of drink servings is not reset.
    • You don't need to strive to get a day with 100% delicious orders - it's impossible and there aren't any major rewards for doing so.
  • Chore and drink orders are not affected by customer patience, and do not receive time bonuses gained by side dishes.
  • Trash requires 0, 4, then 9 mashes.
  • Pest control chores have very similar procedures - TS, TCS, or LCS.
  • Dishwashers require a set waiting period; manage your orders to create a space for it to avoid risking a missed/burnt order.
  • Only holding stations that are prepared improperly or have expired foods will directly contribute to the amount of chores - this occurs when the station is emptied, rather than the point in which it is invalid or expired. Cancelling an HS food immediately before preparing, while cooking or when ready to serve won't have any effect, and serving orders that require HS foods contribute to chores as normal.
  • Chores usually take precedence over a food order, but strange behaviour at very high buzz (i.e. only in your Cook, Serve Delicious restaurant) with constantly full prep stations may reduce the frequency of chores coming in, similar to the behaviour of drink orders. So in some cases, the higher your buzz, the less chores you'll have to do!
  • Certain foods contribute more or less (or rarely not at all) to each chore - for example, meat slices generate more trash but do not create more dishes to wash. Check the food catalogue to see how much they roughly affect chores.
  • Bonus chore patience has been added as of version 2.51, which scales inversely with buzz from 100%. Five seconds of extra patience is added at 100% buzz, which becomes 2.5 seconds at 50%, 1.25 seconds at 25%, etc.
CSD Mode
Prep Station
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
12
19
26
32
45
60
75
Holding Station
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Unlocked At:
0
0
0
0
9
13
28
40
Entree Slots
01
02
03
04
05
06
Unlocked At:
0
0
0
4
14
18
Side Dish Slots
01
02
03
Unlocked At:
0
7
21
Drink Slots
01
02
Unlocked At:
0
11
  • In CSD mode, you get to manage your very own restaurant! Here, you can customise your menu and your restaurant to your heart's content.
  • With version 1.1, there are multiple ways to play your restaurant, all of which contribute to your progress:
    • Classic mode is much like the original Cook, Serve, Delicious, where each food has certain boosters or detractors that affect buzz, patience, price and so on. There are a large number of boosters and detractors in the game, and you can see what food has what boosters or detractors by viewing it in the food catalogue. You can also see the boosters or detractors that affect buzz in the 'View Buzz' tab of your restaurant.
    • Standard mode plays like CSD mode prior to version 1.1, removing boosters and detractors from foods, and allowing you to customise your buzz, prep and holding stations.
    • Stress mode starts you at 151% buzz, and locks your prep and holding stations to 14 and 8 respectively. Maintaining 150% buzz or more throughout the entire day grants an achievement. Not for the faint of heart.
    • Zen mode is similar to standard mode, but also removes rush hours from the day and allows you toggle infinite customer patience. If you really want to, you could advance through days without any effort in this mode.
      • It's even possible to have a perfect day with zero orders completed, if you figure out how. It's harder to do when your equipment is upgraded.
    • Currently, your performance in any mode will affect the base buzz for all modes in the next day - that is, your net buzz from perfect/bad orders at the end of a day is added or subtracted from your base buzz, and will also raise or lower the maximum buzz you can set in relevant modes.
  • The choices you have for your menu are determined by the foods you buy in the food catalogue or unlock through achieving certain milestones in this or the Chef 4 Hire mode. You'll also gain extra prep and holding stations as you level up; you'll have access to 12 prep stations and 8 holding stations by the time you reach the halfway point.
  • A randomiser option is available for every item in the menu, which selects something random in that category from all the items you have unlocked. The items also change every time you restart the day. You can unlock achievements by completing days while having a certain number of random items in certain modes - some random combinations will be harder than others, though most of them can still be cheesed by having low buzz or toggling infinite patience.
  • The money you earn is invested into the food catalogue and equipment upgrades. There are 210 foods (138 entrees, 60 sides, 12 drinks), and you start with 3 entrees, 1 side dish and 1 drink. It costs $109450 to buy everything in the food catalogue, but you should be able to amass enough money by the time you finish all the levels in Chef 4 Hire mode.
  • Version 1.1 adds equipment upgrades for your restaurant. There's an upgrade for every chore with the exception of robbery and fires, which reduces the frequency that that chore appears. The prices for each upgrade start at $750, and increase by $750 up to a maximum of ten upgrades at $7500, so it will take $247500 to upgrade everything. Note that these upgrades do not work in C4H mode.
  • There are 57 locked foods which are not purchasable in the food catalogue; these are obtained randomly through restaurant upgrades and gold medal milestones. Twenty-five foods can be obtained through restaurant upgrades, twenty-one through gold medal milestones, and seventeen through completing certain bonus objectives in this restaurant. This adds up to sixty-three ways to unlock foods, allowing you to get every food without doing everything in a certain mode.
  • Additionally, it is possible to unlock 1260 restaurant items by completing CSD and C4H mode. 250 are unlocked through restaurant upgrades, 400 through levelling up, 200 through bronze medals in C4H, 200 from silver medals, 57 from emails, and 183 from CSD mode.
    • Emails are a new addition in version 1.1. Most of them are just for fun, some give a bit of extra cash, but there is one chain of emails that grants 'historic items'. You are notified of these after completing the second day of any mode, and get daily emails afterward which give one historic item each, up until day 59 inclusive. Receiving one historic item grants an achievement.
    • By Chubigans' count as of v2.01, there are 1254 unlockable restaurant items currently in the game.
CSD Mode, Continued
  • In most cases, completing bonus objectives in this mode will grant one restaurant item. However, it is possible for objectives to give food unlocks in this mode. Exact milestones and conditions are below.
    • The combo objective starts at 5, increases by 2 up to 65, then increases by 5 up to 100. Food unlocks are granted from 65 combos onward.
    • The perfect day objective starts at 2 and increases by 2 up to 32. A food unlock is granted at 32 perfect days.
    • The 'delicious orders in a day' objective starts at 5 and increases by 5 up to 50. No food unlocks are granted here.
    • The 'complete a day in any CSD mode' objective starts at 1 day and increases by 1 up to 30. Each of these milestones grants two restaurant items.
    • The drink objective starts at 500 and increases by 500 up to 10000. A food unlock is granted at 10000 side dishes.
    • The side dish objective starts at 500 and increases by 500 up to 10000. Food unlocks are granted at 7500 and 10000 side dishes.
    • The customers served objective starts at 1000 and increases by 1000 up to 20000. This is across all modes, so doing C4H is more than enough to achieve the last objective (though you'll need to spend a day for each intermediate objective to pop). A food unlock is granted at 20000 customers served.
    • The perfect orders objective starts at 750 and increases by 750 up to 6000. Food unlocks are granted at 5250 and 6000 perfect orders.
    • The delicious orders objective starts at 750 and increases by 750 up to 6000. Food unlocks are granted at 5250 and 6000 delicious orders.
  • Your base buzz is capped at 151% at the start of a new day, and bad orders deduct one tenth of your current buzz plus 1% extra. However, in classic mode, the modifiers that affect buzz (those in the 'View Buzz' menu) are added or subtracted on top of that base buzz, so the buzz you actually start off with may be higher or lower.
  • If your buzz is high enough (150%+), you'll get a Super Rush Hour instead. This doesn't appear in the C4H mode, and surviving it gives you an achievement. If you want to know what the difference is,side dishes have no effect on customer patience, so you're stuck at 1.00 second of patience for the full hour. Also, there's a different splash screen and some different music.
  • With the right menu and high buzz, this mode is the most effective way to level up. Using meat slices exclusively allows you to dish out orders extremely quickly - fill the holding stations with meat slices, supplement them with the instant side dishes to stall the initial wave of orders while the slices are cooking, then just make sure to remake each holding station as soon as they empty out. Version 1.1 makes this even more viable by removing the minimum number of foods required in your active menu, so you can fill all your holding stations with a single type of meat slice. You can check out the video below for a demonstration.
    • Because of the strange behaviour of chores and drink orders at high buzz, serving orders immediately as they come will create an overwhelming amount of chores, especially for trash. You may want to serve a full column of prep stations and deal with all the chores afterwards - you won't have to deal with as many chores that way. As you upgrade your equipment to maximum this becomes less of an issue, and you may wish to serve orders as they come to get a few extra orders at the end of the day.
    • Using the mouse in addition to the keyboard is extremely useful for this menu, as you can drag left click over the entire column and serve all the foods in one fell swoop. You can alternate between keyboard and mouse for doing the resulting chores (mashing trash with the help of the mouse is especially recommended).
Chef 4 Hire Mode
  • Chef 4 Hire mode has preset menus, starting buzz, holding stations and prep stations. However, buzz will still increase/decrease throughout the day with perfect/bad orders respectively, and customer patience will decrease/increase likewise. Each restaurant has up to sixteen shifts, and each shift has up to six entrees on the active menu,
  • Chef 4 Hire mode has 20% normal revenue compared to the campaign (the end of day screen reflects the modified value), but tips are still in full effect. You'll probably end up with over $100k by the end of this mode.
  • There are 400 shifts over 33 restaurants in Chef 4 Hire mode. You'll need to reach level 100 to unlock them all, and the experience required for each level increases the higher you go. You almost certainly won't be able to reach level 100 without spending a few days in your own restaurant or replaying some C4H shifts - I made it midway through level 96 when I ran out of new shifts to complete, and your mileage may vary greatly depending on the rate you complete orders and the number of delicious orders you make. Luckily, you'll have more than enough money by then to buy every food and create almost any menu you want (such as one that gives the most experience).
    • The maximum level is 125 - filling the experience bar at level 125 does nothing and simply resets the bar.
  • As of the Barista Update, Zen mode is now available for all Chef 4 Hire shifts. This means no rush hours and infinite customer patience; however, you can only obtain a bronze medal at best in this mode.
    • Completing any Chef 4 Hire shift in Zen mode yields an achievement.
  • There are various milestones for the number of total medals that give rewards. You get one item for your own restaurant per bronze milestone, two items per silver, and one food per gold. Additionally, you get four items per level, and one food plus ten items per restaurant upgrade (every 5 levels, replaces level up rewards).
    • Bronze medal milestones are every two bronze medals.
    • Silver medal milestones are every four silver medals.
    • Gold medal milestones are as follows: 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 25, 38, 50, 65, 80, 96, 120, 150, 175, 200, 225, 260, 300, 330, 364.
  • Fun fact: lamb chops and stuffed peppers never appear in the Chef 4 Hire mode.
    • Lamb chops are like Ribs, but with 'L' instead of 'R'. They also serve the same amount of customers, take longer to cook, have a worse booster to detractor ratio and make less money. You'll probably forget these even exist.
    • Stuffed Peppers have four steps: select a colour (indexed by first letter), cut/hollow (bound to 'C' by default), then add a filling and a topping. The fillings and toppings are bound to their usual keys, but mind the Couscous and Cilantro.
Restaurants
Below are the restaurants present in the game, structured as outlined in the first section of the guide. Once again, entrees, side dishes and drinks that appear in the final shift of each restaurant are highlighted like so.
MAX Wieners
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Unlocked At:
0
1
2
5
8
9
10
15
Buzz %:
25
30
30
40
45
50
60
75
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
9
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
6
7

Entrees
Hotdog, Pretzel, Corn Chip Pie, Funnel Cake, Stadium Nachos, Corndog
Side Dishes:
Fried Okra, Onion Rings, Tater Tots
Drinks:
Fresh Lemonade, Soda Fountain
  • A fairly gentle introduction to Chef 4 Hire, with easy to prepare foods. The Corn Chip Pies and Stadium Nachos share a few keybinds and will feel very similar.
  • If you're trying to cook Pretzels and they just give 'meh' faces, I reiterate: you have to follow the recipe at the bottom and put the right pretzel type on. You can't put whatever you want on, and holding stations will accept nothing less than perfect preparation. This holds true for every other dish that requires a holding station.
  • Hotdogs will be the hardest food here - remember that chili is on H and onions are on N (in fact, this will be the case for most foods). Don't confuse the Hotdog buns.
  • The final shift has no sides, so there's no way to increase customer patience from its initial value. You'll want to keep two or three of each HS food ready on the holding stations, or refresh the order patience otherwise by preparing another batch. There's not much else other than get used to the rushes - the other restaurants will be less forgiving.
Biggs Burger
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Unlocked At:
3
4
6
9
11
13
16
18
22
Buzz %:
25
35
40
45
55
65
70
80
90
Prep Stations:
6
7
8
8
8
9
10
10
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
6
6
6
7
7
8

Entrees
Hotdog, Hamburger, Chicken Strips, Steak Fingers, Chicken Nuggets, Breakfast Sandwich
Side Dishes:
Fries, Side Chili, Tater Tots
Drinks:
Iced Tea, Soda Fountain
  • Various burgers, fried foods, and Hotdogs. Don't get confused between regular/premium/pretzel and biscuit/croissant buns, and keep in mind that Nuggets are bound to 'N' instead of 'S'.
  • You may first encounter Coffee and Iced Tea from Shift 4. They work similarly, although Iced Tea has more options. Don't forget to brew them before you serve! (The later Hot Tea will also work similarly.)
  • Every recipe for Side Chili starts with Oil and Chicken. You'll have to figure out the rest depending on the recipe, but you'll be seeing these ingredients on the same keybinds in other foods, so it's worth memorising them. Chili has exactly the same recipes as Side Chili.
  • You may wish to keep the holding stations full of Chili on the penultimate shift since orders are coming in fast (but this won't help you on the final shift).
  • You'll see a lot of ingredients in the Hamburger that will be in other foods with the same keybinds, so learn them well (or recall them from the original game). The sauteed mushrooms and onions on the second page have the same keybinds as the regular mushrooms and onions. If you're cooking Hamburger patties manually, there's no penalty for cooking too much.
  • The final shift will come at a bit of a shock if you're playing restaurants in order - no sides (again), a lot of buzz and quite a few more prep stations than you've had to deal with in CSD1. If you've played extreme mode in CSD1 you may wish to fall back on that experience and only keep Hotdogs and Hamburgers prepped; keep multiple stations full of them to last at least the next rush hour, and remake them whenever there's a gap in orders. You may even want to ignore holding stations completely, though you'll need to make sure that Hotdogs and Hamburgers don't burn while you're already assembling one together. Either way, the amount of extra time you can leave orders on due to cooking makes the flow of orders a lot more manageable. Just don't hit the prep stations while the orders are still cooking.
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 9 of Biggs Burger yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 22.
Eaty's
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Unlocked At:
1
3
5
7
8
13
15
17
21
22
26
29
32
33
39
40
Buzz %:
25
25
30
30
35
40
45
50
55
55
60
65
70
75
85
95
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
10
11
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Dessert Shooters, Chicken Breast, Salad, Chili, Lasagna, Ribs, Meatloaf, Soup, Spaghetti
Side Dishes:
Side Salad, Wild Rice, Fries, Mac n' Cheese, Baked Potato, Onion Rings, Steamed Vegetables, Green Beans
Drinks:
Iced Tea, Beer, Soda Fountain
  • Lasagna, Chicken Breast, Salad and Soup make their return from CSD1.
  • There is a visual indicator for Chicken Breast now to show how many times it's been tenderised, but in a rushed environment it's probably best to keep some sort of rhythm (e.g. two bursts of three hits). Double check to see whether it requires breading or tenderising, and do NOT hit it more than six times.
  • Lasagna has a bit of a recipe change, but is overall more forgiving now that it is a HS Required dish (hence is always perfect and doesn't need to be made often). It will take a while to cook though, so keep sides ready or an extra HS to refresh the order timers.
  • Salad has reared its ugly head and is now a considerably difficult dish. There isn't much of a trick other than extensive practice. Take note that chicken is not bound to K as it usually is but is either G or F for grilled or fried chicken respectively. Parmesan is also bound to P instead of R as it usually is/will be, but these always come with croutons, so if you get the two mixed up it's not the end of the world. You'll have to master this food whether you want to or not, as it'll appear quite often in the later restaurants.
  • Soup, while still quite technical, has no cutting required this time around, and is an HS Required dish. The main sticking points are bowtie noodles on N and broccoli soup on R, while broth and broccoli itself is on B; the other ingredient keybinds aren't that bad. The side variant of this dish has exactly the same ingredients and recipes.
  • Careful with Dessert Shooters - the ingredient names do not always have consistent keybinds. One recipe has C.Apple and B.Creme, which is actually bound to A and B respectively.
  • Ribs have a fairly low serving size of two four as of v2.51 although they don't take as long to cook; consider using two holding stations for these. They also cannot be served unless all the ingredients have been added, so no worrying about imperfect orders.
Chilly Bowl
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Unlocked At:
2
6
7
12
14
17
19
23
Buzz %:
25
30
35
40
45
60
75
85
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
10
Holding Stations:
2
2
3
3
3
4
4
4

Entrees
Ice Cream Sundae, Cannoli, Funnel Cake, Slice of Pie, Taiwanese Shaved Ice, Ice Cream Scoops
Side Dishes:
Absolutely nothing
Drinks:
Fresh Lemonade, Juice Bar, Soda Fountain
  • Almost all of these dessert dishes are rather technical, you have no method of getting extra customer patience, and there isn't much in the way of shortcuts. You'll need to learn them properly (especially the Taiwanese Shaved Ice) to beat the final shift, where customer patience is lower than ever.
  • Some ingredients common between foods may have different key binds - sprinkles are 'P' on an Ice Cream Sundae but 'S' on a Cannoli. Chocolate is all over the place ('C' on most foods, but 'H' on Pie Slices and 'H'/'O' on Cannoli); likewise, mango on Taiwanese Shaved Ice is 'A' for the first two pages and 'M' on the last. When food-specific keybinds are implemented, you may wish to keep mango bound to 'A' for all three pages and switch jelly almond to something like 'L'.
  • A potential pitfall in the Ice Cream Sundae is that Red Sherbet is S, Cookie Dough is D and Butter Pecan is B.
  • New in the Barista Update are Ice Cream Scoops, which have been retroactively added to various Chilly Bowl shifts. They're a mix of waffle preparation and ice cream sundae flavours - both parts use the same ingredients as their corresponding foods (you'll see waffles later, but the preparation isn't difficult). Be careful as some recipes don't ask for the dip cone on the first page.
  • There are up to five steps to making a Cannoli: cooking and placing the Cannoli (C), filling (P/H/V), topping, sauce (A/O), and sugar (S). Every ingredient outside of a particular step is locked out, meaning a mistyped key may not be the end of the world. Learning which keybinds are available at which step makes Cannoli a lot easier, and once you've completed this restaurant, you should be able to match some recipes to muscle memory.
  • Taiwanese Shaved Ice is always one ingredient on pages 1 and 2, and two ingredients on page 3. Don't confuse black jelly (B) with blackberry boba (E).
  • Use the refresh trick for Pie Slices either when necessary or to keep them occupying prep stations - you won't need the holding stations for much else. That said, I do keep a holding station for Cannoli for simplicity's sake.
  • Funnel cakes on the last shift means you can reduce the flow of orders coming in, but the extra 10% buzz and prep station makes it arguably harder than the previous shift anyway.
Chinese Food
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
8
10
11
12
14
16
18
19
20
23
25
27
30
34
Buzz %:
25
25
30
35
35
40
50
50
55
55
60
70
80
85
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
4
4
5
5
4
4
5
5
5
5

Entrees
Japanese Fried Rice, Yaki Tomorokoshi, Chow Mein, Egg Drop Soup, Wok Dish: Chicken, Wok Dish: Shrimp & Veg., Wok Dish: Beef & Pork
Side Dishes:
Broccoli, Side Chow Mein, Japanese Fried Rice Side, Egg Rolls, White Rice
Drinks:
Fresh Lemonade, Iced Tea, Soda Fountain
  • On many shifts, you'll be contending with Wok dishes. These may be hard to grasp as Wok keybinds do not seem intuitive at first glance, but they are consistent across all Woks; additionally, the keybinds are locked by preparation step and you can't cook until both a sauce and meat/tofu have been added. As a rough guide when starting out, only prepare as many Wok dishes as it takes for the first one to cook. Apart from that, practice, practice, practice.
  • Remember that Green Peppers are bound to G while Green Beans are on E. This actually holds true for many dishes that feature both ingredients.
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 1 of Chinese Food yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 4.
  • Chow Mien has two types of recipes - 'meat', which uses all ingredients on the first page except for red peppers and a random meat, and 'veggie', which uses all ingredients on the first page only. The Chow Mien side dish is the left side of the entree's first page (OHSC).
  • Japanese Fried Rice (and its side) always requires all ingredients on the first page - RSAPE. The side dish variant is that combo entirely.
  • On later shifts, it is probably best to ignore preparing Yaki Tomorokoshi on a holding station - you'll want more room for sides.
  • The final shift has 12 prep stations! That's almost the entire row on your keyboard, and it's very easy to hit the wrong prep station and send an order undercooked.
  • Shift 13 may be arguably harder than 14 as all three Wok dishes are in play. Focus on not forgetting the keybinds, keep your HS required and side dishes up as much as possible, and remember that Wok dishes take more time to burn than you might think.
Breakfast & Breakloose
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Unlocked At:
8
10
11
12
14
16
18
19
20
23
24
25
27
28
30
31
Buzz %:
25
25
30
30
35
35
40
45
50
50
55
60
65
70
80
90
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
10
11
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Muffins, Omelette, Breakfast Burrito, Griddle Eggs, Cereal, Oatmeal, Biscuits & Gravy, Pancakes, French Toast, Waffles, Breakfast Sandwich
Side Dishes:
Fruit Spread, Boiled Eggs, Hash Browns, Toast, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Sausage Links, Grits
Drinks:
Coffee, Juice Bar, Pineapple Juice
  • The hardest dishes you'll need to deal with are the Omelettes and Breakfast Burritos. Fortunately, the keybinds are fairly intuitive and you should be able to learn them at a steady pace as the shifts go by. Remember that spinach on an Omelette is 'P', and always wrap and foil wrap your Burritos before serving.
  • Everyone asks for milk with their Cereal.
  • No cooking a variable amount of Pancakes as you did in CSD1 - it's three of them every time. The game also won't let you cook with less than that amount on the stove, so no chance for mistakes.
  • Whether you prepare Griddle Eggs one by one or on a holding station is up to you. You may want to cook them one by one anyway to reduce the flow of orders coming in, but doing so adds an extra opportunity for mistakes (deciding between scrambled or sunny side up). Cooking them on a holding station eliminates the chance of ruining your perfect day, and you'll often have enough holding stations anyway.
  • Fruit Spreads don't have that many servings and spoil quickly, but their keybinds are all indexed by first letter and they prepare instantly. Good for a quick patience boost during rush hours (especially for the final shift).
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 10 of Breakfast & Breakloose yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 23.
Gree/Itali Casual Dining
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Unlocked At:
11
12
15
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
29
31
Buzz %:
25
25
30
35
35
45
50
50
55
65
70
80
Prep Stations:
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
9
9
9
10
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
7
7

Entrees
Veal Marsala, Tiramisu, Lasagna, Eggplant Parmigiana, Cannoli, Spaghetti, Quiche
Side Dishes:
Fried Seafood, Side Salad, Steamed Vegetables, Broccoli, Corn on the Cob, Wild Rice, Asparagus, Green Beans, Black Beans
Drinks:
Beer, Pineapple Juice, Red Wine
  • You may first encounter Beer from the first shift here or at Eaty's. Beer may be harder to gauge correctly than in CSD1 since it continuously fills up, but the pour time is about the same and there is a fair amount of leniency for a perfect order. You may get away with underpouring, but aiming for an exact level can often lead to overpouring. You may also want to avoid pouring while the rush hour text appears on the screen and blocks your view unless you think you've got the timing down (or turn the text off). Craft Beer appears later, but is functionally the same.
    • In version 2.60, Beer and Craft Beer fills at half the speed when it's perfectly filled, doubling the window for a perfect order.
  • You'll also stumble upon Red Wine in this restaurant. You'll need to select the brand that's being asked, but no more mashing to uncork it - it's all automatic. White Wine is functionally the same, with different brands.
  • Tiramisu is introduced here and works similarly to lasagna, but has only one recipe and is a lot simpler.
  • Veal Marsala is added with Chicken Breast - similar but slightly more involved preparation. However, you're prohibited from hitting these too many times, which is probably for the better. Always remove the wrap before cooking.
  • Quiche is quite technical with many ingredients required in every recipe, but there are only five of them and the keybindings are mostly intuitive. This food isn't required for the final levels, but take your time to practice these recipes anyway, since you'll need to know them later. You may not even have to rely on the recipes once you become confident preparing this food.
  • The final shift isn't as hard as some of the earlier restaurants. An instant side is available, and most foods are easy to prepare or demand perfect preparation anyway. If you've gone through the Chilly Bowl shifts, Cannoli should come almost naturally.
Pizza That!
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Unlocked At:
12
13
17
19
21
22
24
26
32
Buzz %:
25
30
35
40
45
45
50
60
70
Prep Stations:
6
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
6
6
7

Entrees
Pizza by the Slice, Pizza, Traditional Hot Wings, Calzone, Salad, Desert Shooters
Side Dishes:
Mac n' Cheese, Side Salad
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Fresh Lemonade
  • A shorter number of shifts but a lot of new and complex foods. At least the buzz doesn't ramp up as much. As always, practice makes perfect.
  • Hopefully you've learnt how to deal with the Salad at Eaty's, though you can get away with a crash course here. Mind the parmesan, as it's bound differently to the other foods in this restaurant (P instead of R).
  • Pizza makes its return, has been made even more difficult, and comes in two forms: a HS Required version with six slices, and a whole Pizza that must be made on the fly and has no room for error. Often times you'll need to make both versions at once. At least the recipes are exactly the same. Careful when Salad is added onto the menu, as the parmesan keybind is different between Pizza and Salad.
  • There's an order of operations for Calzone: D -> T/E -> C -> S/R -> Space -> (P/MS) -> FL. The first, third and last steps are always the same. If you're getting bad orders, you're probably either confusing the ricottas, or you're not folding and sealing.
  • Traditional Hot Wings are always S -> [sauce] -> Space -> WT. Just because it's a custom Traditional Wings order doesn't mean it can't ask for Boneless Wings.
  • You have plenty of holding stations, and usually both Macaroni and Salad sides. Get two slots of Pizza Slices, two or three Macaroni, and one or two Salads filled before the rush hours come.
All The Sports Grill
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
9
9
11
14
17
19
20
24
25
27
30
33
36
41
Buzz %:
25
35
40
40
45
50
55
55
60
60
70
80
85
85
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
8
8
8
9
10
10
11
11
12
12
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Traditional Hot Wings, Baked Hot Wings, Hotdog, Hamburger, Turkey Leg, Pizza by the Slice, Pretzel, Ribs, Fried Shrimp
Side Dishes:
Mac n' Cheese, Fries, Dinner Roll, Green Beans, Side Salad
Drinks:
Beer, Iced Tea, Fresh Lemonade
  • A lot of foods from previous restaurants, and the new ones have some fairly simple mechanics. A bit of a preliminary exam of sorts. You should be experienced enough with these foods to get through this restaurant hopefully without too much trouble.
  • Baked Hot Wings are the same as Traditional Hot Wings, except you don't have to determine which type of wing has to be cooked.
  • You may find that just one of each HS food isn't enough (e.g. Ribs), and there aren't an adequate amount of stations to hold more (at least in the earlier shifts). In this case Turkey Legs would be the first to go, then Hotdogs, Hamburgers, and finally Fried Shrimp.
Esteban's
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
Unlocked At:
26
28
29
31
33
35
36
38
40
42
44
45
47
49
51
Buzz %:
25
30
35
35
40
45
45
50
60
65
70
70
80
85
90
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
8
9
10
10
10
11
11
12
12
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Burrito, Sopapilla, Deluxe Nachos, Tacos, Quesadilla, Sizzling Fajitas, Tres Leches, Chimichanga, Tostadas
Side Dishes:
Baked Potato, Mexican Rice, Refried Beans, Pinto Beans
Drinks:
Beer, Iced Tea, Soda Fountain
  • Another restaurant with a lot of new and complex foods, this time with buzz to match. However, you'll be seeing a lot of ingredients (e.g. rice, mozzarella, beans) shared between foods, and they're mostly the same keybinds in all of them. As such, by learning the keys for one food you'll be implicitly learning the keys for other foods at the same time. This is applicable to Burritos, Tacos, Deluxe Nachos and Tostadas.
  • The second half of Tres Leches is either PCW or PMW, depending on whether the recipe asks for chocolate or normal milk. The flavour of milk is always the same as the initial base (and so can be determined by its colour).
  • Quesadillas always end in cheese and tortilla (CT), and the rest of the ingredients are on fairly intuitive keybinds (if you consider chicken on K and shrimp on H to be standard) so these shouldn't take too long to prepare.
  • The only thing you'll need to consider for Sizzling Fajitas is the type of meat; oil, onions and peppers are part of every recipe.
  • Shift 3 introduces both Tacos and Burritos, both complex foods with multiple ingredients; however many of those ingredients are common between them (including their keybinds). You'll want to space out cooking your Tacos or Burritos - tacos don't take long to cook, neither take long to burn, and their complexity means you might not be able to serve everything before they do burn. (You see an example of this in the final shift video just before the first rush hour.) They'll be paired together for quite a number of shifts, so watch out.
  • The sauces for tacos are randomised and aren't always intuitive (e.g. corn is bound to O).
  • Take care to check whether the Burrito asks for normal or b. chicken (which is bound to K and C respectively), and always wrap then foil wrap. Brown Rice is bound to B, but White Rice is bound to R, though if you press W for White Rice it shouldn't matter. Similarly, Fire sauce is bound to I, but if you accidentally press F instead it shouldn't matter (unless you've wrapped the burrito already, in which case you've already failed the order).
  • Don't misread S.Cheese for S.Cream on the Tostadas. The ingredient keybinds should be familiar otherwise.
  • The prep for Deluxe Nachos has a single recipe that never uses Fish or Pork, so you don't need to decide which of the keys to press. If you get a recipe that is three lines long, it asks for everything on the first page, all the meats, and sour cream.
  • The last five shifts are quite difficult, and shifts 11 and 15 are particularly painful. There's isn't much to say other than to master these foods. Side dishes should be prepared in less than a second, and drinks should be down to muscle memory by now. Sopapillas, Sizzling Fajitas, Chimichangas and Tres Leches should all be your easy foods where you can take a breather. You'll also have two or three side dishes to extend customer patience, so have two or three stations for each side dish occupied at all times.
Pie Right
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Unlocked At:
24
25
27
30
32
34
35
37
41
46
Buzz %:
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
65
75
85
Prep Stations:
8
8
8
9
10
10
11
11
12
12
Holding Stations:
4
5
5
6
7
7
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Pies, Whole Cakes, Tiramisu, Slice of Pie, Muffins, Tres Leches, Ice Cream Sundae, Cannoli
Side Dishes:
Cookies
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Pineapple Juice, Fresh Lemonade
  • You now have to make whole Pies, which have the same mechanics as Pie Slices but cannot be misprepared whatsoever. There isn't much to this other than practice; eventually you'll be able to attribute certain recipes to key combinations (e.g. G O O, C A L, GH W). Don't leave them unattended as they don't take long to burn.
  • The layers of a Whole Cake always alternate between the cake layer (L) and the filling the recipe asks for. The frosting is always the same flavour as the filling and is bound to the second letter of its flavour (or in chocolate's case, the third letter). Once you remember the keybinds, the process is automatic.
  • Despite the lack of sides, the final shift is not as bad as it seems, as most of the desserts take a long time to cook and hence stalls the flow of orders. However, do not neglect your HS Required dishes, as you will not be able to prepare one from scratch before the customer's patience runs out. Always keep at least two slots for each food and find some time to remake them.
FireKickers
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
19
21
23
28
29
33
35
37
39
41
43
45
46
48
Buzz %:
25
30
35
40
45
45
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
85
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
11
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Chopped Brisket Sandwich, Ribs, Tostadas, Pulled Pork Sandwich, Fried Chicken, Hamburgers, Stew, Salisbury Steak, Chicken Tenders, Club Sandwich, Quesadilla
Side Dishes:
Side Salad, Side Gumbo, Mashed Potatoes, Fries, Green Beans
Drinks:
Craft Beer, Iced Tea, Soda Fountain
  • Chopped Brisket Sandwiches are either RBO or RSO.
  • If a Pulled Pork Sandwich needs three ingredients, it's PAO; four ingredients, it's PACO.
  • Stew is a fairly simple soup-type dish - the ingredients are on their usual keybinds (mind the peas, which are on E), and every recipe for Stew starts with Oil and Beef. The Side Stew is exactly the same.
  • The Club Sandwich is the most complex food in this restaurant, but isn't required for the final shifts in this restaurant, and if you're able to sort out the keybinds for meats and differentiate between mustard (M) and mayo (Y), the rest of the ingredients should be familiar from previous foods such as Hamburgers. The bread at the bottom of a Club Sandwich is the same as the top, and the keybinds are the same as that of side Toast, with the addition of ciabatta bread.
  • Unlike other fried foods, Fried Chicken does not use a holding station. You'll need to prepare these orders on the fly and select the right cuts of chicken. Drumstick is bound to R since D is always for dunk. You may want to add multiples of the same cut last so you don't miscount them.
  • Side Gumbo is full of ingredients that have common keybinds in previous foods - you can refer to the list of ingredients with universal keybinds in the general tips section of the guide. There are four recipes in total; the first recipe asks for everything on the first page only. The entree Gumbo is the same.
  • On the final shifts, you'll need to refresh the timer for Chopped Brisket Sandwich orders by starting a second batch if they arrive at the start of the day. Make sure you have your sides ready before you do so, to maximise patience. If you keep only one holding station for these, then you'll need to keep those sides up whenever you need to
Food Shackers
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Unlocked At:
20
25
26
29
31
32
34
36
38
40
42
44
Buzz %:
25
30
35
40
50
60
65
70
70
75
80
85
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
10
11
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Chicken Sandwich, Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Biscuits & Gravy, Chili, Fried Chicken, Slice of Pie, Pot Pie, Steak Fingers, Chicken Nuggets, Chicken Strips
Side Dishes:
Side Chili, Mashed Potatoes, Toast, Fried Okra, Green Beans, Fries, Corn on the Cob, Black Beans, Tater Tots
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Iced Tea, Fresh Lemonade
  • The Chicken Sandwich and Grilled Chicken Sandwich are very similar, except the former is HS Required with two choices of chicken, and the latter is HS Optional with one choice of chicken. The other ingredients should be familiar from preparing Hamburgers.
  • There are six recipes for Chicken Sandwiches - recipes one to three use a regular chicken patty, while recipes four to six are exactly the same but with a spicy chicken patty.
  • Pot Pie has three recipes. The Chicken Pot Pie is SRKAC -> Space -> C, the Veggie Pot Pie asks for every ingredient except chicken and potatoes (so everything on the first page except K -> Space -> C), and the Loaded Pot Pie asks for everything.
Slammy's Old Fashioned BBQ
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
22
23
27
31
34
36
39
42
45
47
49
52
54
59
Buzz %:
25
30
30
35
35
40
40
45
50
55
60
65
75
85
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
7
8
8
8
9
10
10
10
11
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
6
6
6
7
7
8
8
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Brisket Slices, Turkey Slices, Ham Slices, Sausage Slices, Stew, Chopped Brisket Sandwich, Roast Beef Sandwich, Pulled Pork Sandwich, Ribs, Chili
Side Dishes:
Potato Salad, Fried Okra, Baked Potato, Mac n' Cheese, Dinner Roll, Toast, German Red Cabbage, Side Stew
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Beer, Iced Tea
  • This place is full of HS Required foods that for the most part take a long time to cook (about one and a half ingame hours) but have large serving sizes. As a consequence, consider replacing these dishes around 4:00, two hours before rush hour - remember that bonus patience from sides is reduced then. It goes without saying that at least one of each HS Required dish should be ready or cooking at all times.
  • The recipes themselves are fairly simple - Roast Beef Sandwiches are either RBO or RQO and the other sandwiches were encountered in FireKickers. Chili and Stews are the most complicated of the bunch, and even then you should be well practised with them by now.
  • When you approach the later shifts with higher buzz and less patience, you will need to start juggling the holding stations to refresh timers and keep sides up. At the start of the day, try to get all the foods with long cook times up before the first order of that kind arrives. Get at least one side (e.g. a Potato Salad if it exists) ready before you're forced to start refreshing timers. When the customer's patience runs out and the orders start retracting, you'll need to use a free holding station or trash one holding a side dish to refresh the patience on those retracting orders; if there are multiple orders for multiple foods, you'll need to immediately trash the same station and repeat the same process. Once your side dishes buy you more time the orders should start evening out, and you can free up that holding station for something else.
  • When you're running out of servings, make sure you still have all your sides up before trashing those holding stations (or serving the rest, if you're feeling confident) to maximise waiting time while you're cooking the next batch. If you can get them cooking before new orders come in you'll also have a refresh available.
  • It usually won't be as stressful as described above, but you may have to trash a side and refresh timers every now and then. If you're low on servings, make sure you know which orders still have a refresh available before serving and remaking. This is especially necessary for Ribs, and to a lesser extent Chili and Sandwiches.
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 14 of Slammy's BBQ yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 59.
Burrito Time
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Unlocked At:
16
18
22
28
35
40
46
49
50
52
53
57
Buzz %:
25
30
35
40
40
45
55
60
70
75
80
85
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
8
8

Entrees
Burrito, Breakfast Burrito, Tamales, Enchiladas, Tacos, Quesadilla, Stadium Nachos, Milkshakes, Glazed Donut
Side Dishes:
Specialty Fries, Refried Beans, Black Beans, White Rice, Brown Rice, Mexican Rice
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Beer, Craft Beer, Horchata, Fresh Lemonade
  • Esteban's, part two! Burritos or Breakfast Burritos will be a staple dish in every shift - being able to prepare them quickly is a must. Tacos also make a reappearance.
  • The main challenge with Tamales is internalising the meat/chile keybinds. After that, it's a matter of doing H -> M -> (meat/chile) -> W six times. Since it's a holding station food, there's little penalty to getting it wrong.
  • Enchiladas are always F/O -> C -> [sauce]. Once again, Corn is bound to O. The rest should be easy to memorise, just note that there aren't many servings per holding station.
  • A large portion of the new drinks in the Barista Update require you to place a cover on (C) before blending. This is extremely easy to forget, and can likely cost you a perfect day!
  • The first of those drinks are the Milkshakes. Every recipe begins with Ice (I) and Milk (M), then a number of candies and scoops. The scoops are easy to remember (the first letter of their names), but the candies are less so - it's not hard to get confused between Choc. Chip., Choc. Car. Bits and Cookie Bits. There's no way around practising and being able to quickly distinguish between the three. Be sure to place the cover before blending!
    • Note that these take a very long time to freeze and have no additional prep step, so you can let them take up a prep station spot for a while if the orders are coming in too quickly.
  • The final shift will test how well you can deal with Burritos and Tacos. Try and keep two of every holding station and side dish up, especially for rush hours.
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 6 of Burrito yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 40.

Contrast Coffee Company
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
6
8
10
19
23
30
37
43
49
59
64
69
72
76
Buzz %:
20
25
25
30
35
40
45
55
65
75
80
90
95
100
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
7
7
8
9
9
10
10
11
12
13
14
Holding Stations:
4
5
5
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Frozen Lattes, Iced Lattes, Hot Lattes, Espresso Shots, Smoothies, Specialty Donuts, Organic Salad, Club Sandwich, Brownies, Ice Cream Scoops, Cinnamon Buns, Breakfast Sandwich
Side Dishes:
Fruit Spread, Cookies, Marshmallow Squares, Side Oatmeal, Kale Chips, Croissants
Drinks:
Hot Tea, Coffee, Juice Bar, Fresh Lemonade, Iced Tea
  • This restaurant opens at level 6, but ends at level 76, making it take the longest number of levels out of all restaurants for all of its shifts to unlock. The last shifts are also bit of a difficulty spike compared to the restaurants around it, so don't feel bad if it's too hard the first time you encounter them.
  • The placement and progression of this restaurant is deceptive in terms of difficulty - while it's one of the middle restaurants and finishes at level 76, it also ends with an unprecedented 100% buzz and 14 prep stations! This is the first time you'll see 13 and 14 prep stations being used, and it will be for quite a while.
  • Espresso Shots are extremely simple; just remember to serve them as soon as they're done because they don't take long to burn.
  • Frozen Lattes are far simpler than their Iced or Hot counterparts, with only a single page of actual ingredients and intuitive keybinds. Mocha (O) is the only keybind that isn't immediately obvious, but confusing it with Milk (M) isn't that bad as the latter is locked away until Ice is added. Be sure to place the cover on before blending!
    • Note that these take a very long time to freeze and have no additional prep step, so you can let them take up a prep station spot for a while if the orders are coming in too quickly.
  • Smoothies are the healthy [citation needed][en.wikipedia.org] counterpart to Milkshakes, and function similarly, though with more familiar keybinds in general. Every order contains Ice (I), as well as a number of liquids, fruits, and/or vegetables. Blueberries (L) and Avocado (V) are the only ingredients that aren't on a first-letter basis, but you'll have seen the same keybinds in previous foods. Be sure to place the cover on before blending!
    • Like above, Smoothies take a very long time to freeze, so don't rush to serve them if you're overwhelmed.
  • Hot Lattes appear to have an overwhelming number of ingredients at first, but most of them are on a first letter basis. It also helps to know that Caramel and Caramel Drizzle share the same keybind (C), as does Cinnamon and Cinnamon Drizzle (I). Watch for the difference between Vanilla (V) and SF Vanilla (S), and the different types of Chocolates (Dark and White are D and W respectively, while the Drizzle is H). Always end with a Lid (L) and a Sleeve (S).
  • Frozen Lattes are very similar to Hot Lattes in that almost all of its ingredients are the same with identical keybinds, but the ingredients appear at different pages or steps. Always end with a Lid (L).
  • The Organic Salad has just about as many ingredients as the regular Salad does, but the keybinds for them are (hopefully) more intuitive. The additional things to watch out for are Tangerines (N instead of T), Blue Cheese (B instead of C), and the Balsamic and non-Balsamic Vinaigrettes.
  • By default the 13th prep station is bound to [, and the 14th prep station is bound to ]. These are on the row under all the other prep stations, so it may be difficult to get used to - indeed, how well you're able to adapt to the new prep stations will determine in part how difficult these last shifts - and in future, the last restaurants - will be. However, by the time you've unlocked these shifts you'll have just unlocked all 14 prep stations in your CSD restaurant, so you can always practice there to get the hang of it - in fact, you'll probably need to do that anyway in order to level up enough to unlock the final shifts in the game.
  • The last shift features most of the new drinks from the Barista Update, plus the new salad to boot plus Specialty Donuts, as of v2.5. Luckily, you have three side dishes to make some extra time - in fact, this is the only final shift that has three sides. Try to have at least two of each side prepared at any given time, as you'll probably need them all ready when the rush hour comes.
    • The Frozen Lattes and Smoothies can be left freezing on the prep stations for a very long time, which you can take advantage of to slow down the rate of orders coming in. This leaves three entrees with which you'll need to spend a majority of the time preparing or to dedicate extra time to memorising their ingredients, plus the Espresso Shots which you'll need to pay attention to. Then, this shift becomes a matter of keeping an eye on the prep stations at all times, to see what needs priority in preparing or serving. The warning sound for burning/freezing orders is useful to determine when you need to check the prep stations, but be careful that you don't get confused in the mess of orders or select the wrong prep station. Keep in mind that the Frozen and Hot Lattes need additional preparation, and Espresso Shots burn quickly, so you may need to check the prep stations and get to them well before the warning goes off. The shift is quite a bit easier as of v2.5, since Organic Salads were replaced by Specialty Donuts, which are far simpler to prepare - though at the same time it's another thing you have to keep track of such that it doesn't overcook.
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 14 of Contrast Coffee Company yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 76.
Planet Blue
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Unlocked At:
34
38
47
61
63
65
73
77
78
84
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
55
65
75
80
90
95
Prep Stations:
6
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
5
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8

Entrees
Japanese Crepe, Rote Grutze, Frozen Bananas, Htapothi sti Skhara, Organic Salad, Gazpacho, Meatloaf, Steak, Spinach Veggie Pasta, Tabbouleh
Side Dishes:
Side Chowder, Side Soup, Croissants, Specialty Fries, Peas, Tuscan Beans
Drinks:
Red Wine, White Wine, Hot Tea, Beer, Horchata, Soda Fountain
  • Gazpacho asks for two or three ingredients after the soup is cooked: the soup, then one or both of the garnishes or flowers. The flowers are indexed by first letter. Keep in mind that the key for avocado soup (A) is different from the avocado garnish (V), and same for cucumber (C, then U). Tomato soup exists in two different forms (T for regular tomato, Y for yellow tomato).
  • Tabbouleh can be confusing as many ingredients on the second page don't have intuitive keybinds, though it isn't required for the final levels, and as an HS Required dish you won't have to prepare these often and there's no penalty for failing. If you really want to learn it there's not much other than learning which ingredient uses which key.
  • Steaks don't require seasoning this time around; you select the cut and that's it. However, they do have variable cooking lengths, so pay attention to those rare Steaks.
  • You've encountered most of the ingredients in the Spinach Veggie Pasta, and they've got the same keybinds as they always do (again, check the universal keybind list in the general tips section). Not all recipes ask for oil and shrimp prior to cooking, and while it might seem logical that you can just not add it afterwards, the reality is that you'll net a bad order anyway. Pay attention to when they've finished cooking as they don't take long to burn.
  • New to the Barista Update, the Japanese Crepe starts with Whip (W), two to three toppings, and an Ice Cream Scoop or Whip Top, all bound to their usual places. After that, fold (F) then roll (R) three times.
  • The rest of the Barista Update foods - Frozen Bananas, Htapothi sti Skhara and Rote Grutze - are easy to prepare and don't need additional prep after cooking. You may wish to use them to pad out the prep stations during the busier shifts. Htapothi sti Skhara particularly can be left cooking for a long time before it begins to burn.
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 2 of Planet Blue yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 38.
SubSolutions
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Unlocked At:
17
21
26
28
37
38
41
43
44
48
Buzz %:
25
30
40
45
50
55
60
70
70
85
Prep Stations:
6
7
8
6
7
8
8
9
9
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
5
6
7
7
7
8

Entrees
Sub Sandwich, Small Custom Sub, Salad, Soup, Club Sandwich, Breakfast Sandwich
Side Dishes:
Potato Salad, Side Salad, Fruit Spread, Cookies
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Iced Tea
  • As you approach the halfway mark, you should have some knowledge of certain ingredients that are often present from food to food: onions, tomatoes, cheese, beef, and lettuce, to name a few. There's still many foods that have yet to be encountered, and a sizeable number are going to be quite technical, but learning these foods shouldn't be as difficult as when you've started out as those aforementioned ingredients will continue to appear with the same keybinds (in most cases). By the time you reach the later restaurants there won't be as much to say about these foods other than to look back upon previous foods that have similar preparation steps, and to recall the ingredients that seem to universally have the same keybind. Indeed, you've probably seen this same tip stated in earlier restaurants, and you're going to see it restated later on, but it's imperative that you keep these ingredients in mind, because it constitutes a large part of learning all the foods in the game.
  • An example: the only new foods in this restaurant you'll need to deal with are Sub Sandwiches and Small Custom Subs. They're both technical foods, with all three ingredient pages fully used, but doesn't it feel similar to previous foods you've prepared? Club Sandwiches, perhaps? A lot of ingredients in these two foods were present in the Club Sandwich (which were in turn present in previous foods, such as side Toast and Hamburgers). In fact, the Sub Sandwich is exactly the same as the Small Custom Sub, except the former has fixed recipes (too many to remember individually, however) and the latter is random. There's only a few additional ingredients you'll need to keep track of: some extra meats on the first page, which have intuitive or consistent keybinds (note that tuna is N and will be N in future), an extra cheese (provolone, bound to V), and an extra type of bread (rosemary, bound to R); everything else shouldn't be difficult to take in.
  • Continuing with the technical theme of this restaurant, Club Sandwiches, Soup, Caesar Salad and Breakfast Sandwiches make a reappearance. They've all got their own quirks, but they also share a similar pool of ingredients to the Sub Sandwiches and to each other. Again, mind the parmesan (R) on the Caesar Salad.
  • The only entree in this restaurant that requires HS is Soup, and the only entree that has a cooking period on a prep station is Breakfast Sandwiches.
  • You'll need to have mastered every food to have a shot at beating the final shift. Instant sides are a double edged sword - easy to set up but quick to run out or spoil. Keep two sets of soup (feel free to make them early), then fill the rest of the holding stations with an equal split of Potato Salads and Side Salads. You'll need to keep an eye on the status of your holding stations, and remake them when you get a chance. Try to have your holding stations with at least one copy of each side dish at all times, otherwise you'll feel the effects of lower customer patience very quickly.
The World Tour
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Unlocked At:
15
16
18
30
33
35
37
39
43
46
50
53
Buzz %:
25
25
35
40
40
45
50
55
60
70
80
85
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
11
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Pig's Blood Cake, Samosas, Pancakes, Salisbury Steak, Steamed Momos, Sopapillas, Tabbouleh, Chimichanga, Fresh Fish, Sausage and Sauerkraut
Side Dishes:
Black Rice, Sauerkraut, Broccoli, Side Soup, Stuffed Artichokes, Refried Beans, Brussels Sprouts, Brown Rice
Drinks:
Iced Tea, Red Wine, Pineapple Juice, Soda Fountain
  • All the HS Required dishes can be served immediately, so don't take more than one holding station for them.
  • I prefer to keep Fried Fish on a holding station for the same reason as Griddle Eggs - no chance of cooking the wrong fish and making mistakes.
  • Chimichangas have a single recipe that is 'C' by itself, otherwise the formula goes C->G/R/Q->US.
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 10 of The World Tour yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 46.
  • The final shifts are of similar difficulty - none of the foods are particularly tough, and the major ones (Samosas and Steamed Momos) have keybinds that are on a first letter basis. Steamed Momos are always DF->Space->[filling]->W.
Oooh, Organic!
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Unlocked At:
30
32
35
38
42
44
47
50
Buzz %:
25
30
35
40
50
60
70
80
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
8
8
9
10
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
7
8
8

Entrees
Carpacchio, Bean Burger, Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Pork Loin, Quiche, Gazpacho, Spinach Veggie Pasta
Side Dishes:
Kale Chips, Roasted Cauliflower, Fruit Spread, Black Beans, Brussels Sprouts, German Red Cabbage, Broccoli, Corn on the Cob, Asparagus
Drinks:
Iced Tea, Juice Bar, Pineapple Juice
  • Pork Loin follows the same procedure: PC -> Space -> [filling] -> Space -> WS. The fillings are all on a first letter basis, so they should come easily.
  • Some ingredients in the Carpacchio are unintuitive for consistency in other foods, so take note of beetroot (R), pineapple (I) and tuna (N). Truffles are still bound to T, despite all its prefixes.
  • Quiche, Gazpacho and Spinach Veggie Pasta make a return; I hope you've remembered those recipes.
  • Yet another burger/sandwich type meal in the form of Bean Burgers. The less familiar keybinds will be for sprouts (P), pineapple (I) and avocado (V).
Poppers & Crunchies
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Unlocked At:
27
33
36
40
43
45
50
52
55
Buzz %:
25
30
35
45
55
60
70
80
85
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
9
10
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
5
5
6
6
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Chimichanga, Steak Fingers, Fried Chicken, Fried Shrimp, Chicken Strips, Chicken Nuggets, Fried Fish, Funnel Cake, Sopapillas
Side Dishes:
Fried Seafood Sides, Tater Tots, Fries, Onion Rings
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Fresh Lemonade
  • Full of fried foods. They're not difficult to prepare, but you'll be doing a lot of dunking of one or four servings of foods. Technically you could prepare everything manually and leave the holding stations full of sides (if there are any), but I'd at least leave the Fried Shrimp and Fish up there. You may have to manually prepare some foods at the start of the day as you approach the final shifts.
  • If you're using holding stations for HS Optional foods, pay attention to the number of servings left before you serve a batch of orders. Otherwise, you may find yourself in an unexpected situation needing to manually prepare an HS Optional food.
  • This restaurant is otherwise fairly reasonable. Keep those holding stations filled if you're using them, since they tend to run out quickly, and just make sure you're selecting the right prep stations.
  • Again, if you're having trouble with the final level, you may wish to use the Biggs Burger 09 strategy and leave the holding stations alone, to give some breathing room while all the prep stations are cooking.
The Deep All-You-Can-Eat
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Unlocked At:
29
35
38
46
48
51
56
58
61
64
Buzz %:
30
35
45
50
55
60
65
70
80
85
Prep Stations:
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
7
8
8

Entrees
Fresh Fish, Fried Fish, Crab Cakes, Gumbo, Spinach Veggie, Crab Legs, Fried Shrimp, Yakizakana
Side Dishes:
Side Salad, Steamed Vegetables, Side Gumbo, Wild Rice, Fried Seafood Sides
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Fresh Lemonade, Iced Tea
  • Not a difficult restaurant; the new foods aren't hard to pick up and you should be acquainted with Gumbo and Spinach Veggie Pasta (see FireKickers and Planet Blue). You'll also have more holding stations than you'll need by the end, so I'd toss an extra Gumbo, one or two of each HS Optional dish, and the rest with sides.
  • Watch out for the strange keybinds for Crab Cake sauce, which are inconsistent even for ingredients that are common between dishes. There are a lot of first letter conflicts (lobster -> O, lemon aioli -> A, lettuce -> L) and it's easy to get confused.
  • Crab Legs are a freebie - it's always CL. If you ever make an imperfect order with these it's probably because you've served it early (or you forgot the lemons).
  • There's now a selection of Fresh Fish to choose from, so memorise them. You may wish to rebind the cutting keys to three adjacent keys on the same row so you can cut faster (or the arrow keys, for nostalgia's sake). Don't forget to season the fish afterwards.
  • Yakizakana is Fresh Fish without the cutting and seasoning.
The Far East
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Unlocked At:
31
37
39
45
49
53
57
60
62
67
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
Prep Stations:
7
7
8
8
8
9
10
10
11
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
7
8

Entrees
Yakizakana, Agedashi Tofu, Sashimi, Okonomiyaki, Ramen, Hiyayakko Tofu, Yaki Tomorokoshi
Side Dishes:
Tazukuri, Edamame, Japanese Fried Rice Side, Side Chow Mein, Brown Rice, Kimchi, Broccoli, Egg Rolls, White Rice
Drinks:
Craft Beer, Red Wine, Soda Fountain
  • The procedure for Hiyayakko Tofu is a sauce + tofu, then two condiments. The keybinds are almost all indexed by the first letter of the ingredient name, save for tentsuyu (N) and green onions (N, as always).
  • Agedashi Tofu is the same as Hiyayakko Tofu, but has a cooking stage beforehand. The keybind for placing tofu afterwards is also changed accordingly.
  • Ramen starts with RO, then asks for one or two main ingredients, which have logical keybinds (if it's one ingredient then it's kakuni or pork). Once cooked, you'll be pressing every available ingredient on the first page, then whatever the recipe asks you. If there are three ingredients on the third page to be added, then they're scallions (C), salt and pepper (P), and togarashi (T). The rest is better off learnt through experience.
  • The pre-cooking phase for Okonomiyaki is EWPC[H/Q] -> Space -> STB, where H is shrimp and Q is squid. Recipe-wise, Gold and Silver require shrimp, while Jade and Onyx require squid. After cooking, every recipe asks for okonomiyaki (O), okonomiyaki sauce (S), hot sauce (H), and aonori (A); every recipe except Onyx also asks for mayo (M). Additionally, the Gold recipe asks for bonito flakes (B), Silver asks for chives (C), and both Jade and Onyx asks for sea strips (T).
    • Another way to distinguish between recipes: if it's only one line long, there's sea strips and no mayo; else add mayo.
  • There's really no tricks for Sashimi; every recipe has eight unique ingredients which are probably overwhelming initially. Drill those keybinds into your head: (S)almon, mac(K)erel, skipjack (T)una, surf (C)lam, sea (U)rchin, (O)ctopus, s(Q)uid, (W)asabi; sea (B)ream, s(H)rimp, tu(N)a, s(C)allop, (G)inger. Notice that you've encountered some of those ingredients before with the same keybinds (e.g. the last four ingredients), and how others are bound to the first letter of the second word instead. When you've got a basic understanding, try not to look at the ingredients list and place them by only looking at what the recipe asks and recalling those ingredients from memory.
Good Japan
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Unlocked At:
32
37
40
43
48
51
55
59
63
65
70
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
80
85
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
11
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Okonomiyaki, Wok Dish: Beef & Pork, Wok Dish: Chicken, Wok Dish: Shrimp and Veg., Egg Drop Soup, Japanese Fried Rice, Yaki Tomorokoshi, Chow Mein
Side Dishes:
White Rice, Japanese Fried Rice Side, Egg Rolls, Edamame, Onigiri, Broccoli
Drinks:
Soda Fountain, Fresh Lemonade
  • There are no new foods in this restaurant; in fact, you could consider it as Chinese Food 2.0 (despite Japan not being China). You'll have to deal with all three Woks on multiple shifts (including the last one), so you'd better have them mastered by now. Depending on how well you handle Wok dishes, the final shift may even be easier than Chinese Food's, since it's the same buzz but one less prep station.
E
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Unlocked At:
33
39
42
47
49
52
54
57
60
63
68
71
73
75
77
79
Buzz %:
40
45
45
50
55
60
60
70
70
70
75
75
80
80
85
90
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
10
11
11
12
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Eggplant Parmigiana, Steamed Momos, Salad, Sliders, Tabbouleh, Pasta, Dessert Shooters, Pot Pie, Quiche, Sizzling Fajitas, Beef Wellington
Side Dishes:
Side Soup, Side Salad, Dinner Roll, Stuffed Artichokes, Asparagus, Corn on the Cob, Peas, Green Beans
Drinks:
Red Wine, Iced Tea, Juice Bar, Craft Beer, White Wine
  • E is the fifth letter of the alphabet.
  • Sliders are a strange meld of Hamburgers and Bean Burgers, with ingredients from each. Most keybinds are the same, but mind bacon being bound to A rather than B (which is reserved for beef patties). This food appears in the last few restaurants, so learn it well.
  • The procedure for Beef Wellington is P -> (VR)/(DB) -> WS -> Space -> US. Chronologically these are also the first food that have variable cooking lengths, from a few seconds for a blue rare Beef Wellington to half a minute for a well done Beef Wellington. The amount of time you can serve it before burning is also adjusted accordingly, so pay attention to rare orders and don't get tunnel-visioned by existing orders. If you've only just noticed the warning that a blue rare order is about to burn, you have already failed.
  • You can consider Pasta as an upgrade to the Spinach Veggie Pasta - it's a more technical dish, but like its predecessor, you should have seen a lot of the ingredients in previous foods by now, and fortunately they're all bound to their usual places. You should be able to recall their keybinds and fire them off without issue, so all that's left is learning the pasta types. You'll want to master this food as it appears a lot in the last few restaurants.
    • Broccoli is bound to R on Pasta but P on Quiche and Salad, so don't get confused when you have to contend with a combination of those.
Sushi Nest
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Unlocked At:
21
31
36
41
53
58
66
69
72
78
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
70
75
80
Prep Stations:
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
9
9
Holding Stations:
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
6
6

Entrees
Sushi, Sashimi, Agedashi Tofu, Ramen, Egg Drop Soup, Hiyayakko Tofu
Side Dishes:
Onigiri, Japanese Fried Rice Side, White Rice, Soup, Egg Rolls
Drinks:
Craft Beer, Soda Fountain, Iced Tea, Fresh Lemonade
  • There will never be more than three entrees, but Sushi will always be on the menu. You'll need to go from total unfamiliarity to complete mastery in ten shifts.
  • Sushi always starts with rice, and ends with rolling (x2) and cutting (x9). There's a fair number of ingredients that you've seen before which are bound for consistency between foods, rather than convenience for this dish specifically; you may wish to rebind them if you prefer the latter. As for learning the food itself, it's Sashimi all over again: study the ingredient keybinds, then ignore the list and recall them entirely from the recipe itself. For this food in particular, you'll might also want to memorise some of the recipes themselves - the faster you can serve these by any means, the better.
    • Some of the easier recipes to remember: California Roll (REVS Y), Spider Roll (REV YF), Drum Roll (RAH AN), Salty Roll (RACH YA), Splatter Roll (REA YWA), Slaughter Roll (RSC WEN), Champ Roll (RESC F)
    • Sushi is now an HS Optional food as of version 2.51, giving two servings per station. This may seem paltry, but since there's no cook time associated with it it's strictly more efficient that preparing two sushi orders individually, so long as you have the holding station space. Every shift in Sushi Nest also has an extra holding station now, which allows for playing with the Sushi change.
  • The other foods aren't pushovers either; you can find tips for them at Good Japan above. You'll need to master Sashimi in particular for the final shift.
  • The final shift is one of the hardest shifts in the game (though later patches have made it a little easier). There are no breaks, and once you hit the first rush hour you'll probably be playing catchup for the rest of the day. Trash and dishwasher chores will be huge issues; if you're lucky you can get them out of the way before rush hour starts, otherwise you'll have to try and find a period where multiple orders aren't receding past halfway. You may wish to keep drink orders and other chores on prep stations for as long as possible, as they're far easier to make then either Sushi or Sashimi (and have longer patience in the case of drink orders). Keeping the Onigiri side dish up is essential; you should be able to remember the combo by now (RISHN) and get it out in a split second. Keep at least two sets up at all times; fill perhaps four holding stations with them an hour before rush hour and they should last the hour without expiring or being completely used up. Try and fill the rest with Sushi, and get into that habit of serving two of them through holding stations rather than having to prepare both of them manutally. Try and space out your orders; having one or two orders constantly retracting is far more manageable than five orders retracting at once. Finally, don't panic if things start to get chaotic; misreading a recipe or accidentally placing an ingredient on impulse is the most common way to ruin your perfect day.
  • Getting a gold medal on Shift 10 of Sushi Nest yields an achievement; it is obtainable at level 78.
Welcome to Tasteville
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
46
50
56
61
64
69
72
74
76
80
82
84
86
89
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
60
60
65
70
70
75
75
80
85
90
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
10
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Chili, Traditional Hot Wings, Baked Hot Wings, Soup, Hamburger, Sausage Slices, Brisket Slices, Steak, Pizza, Salad, Corndog, Lasagna
Side Dishes:
Corn on the Cob, Baked Potato, Potato Salad, Steamed Vegetables, Mashed Potatoes, Fries, Side Gumbo
Drinks:
Beer, Soda Fountain, Iced Tea
  • This restaurant has a mishmash of foods from previous restaurants; some of which are all the way from the start of C4H. The foods that pose the most issues are Hamburgers, Whole Pizzas, and Salads, though you should be quite familiar with them at this point and you won't have to deal with more than two of them at a time. Refer to the notes for the previous restaurants if you need a refresher.
XLR Purple

Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
39
41
52
54
62
65
67
70
74
81
83
87
90
92
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
60
60
65
65
70
75
80
80
85
90
Prep Stations:
6
7
8
8
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
11
12
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Pasta, Salad, Veal Marsala, Bananas Foster, Souffle, Tiramisu, Lasagna, Chicken Breast, Spaghetti, Risotto, Pork Loin
Side Dishes:
Pakora, Broccoli, Side Salad, Tuscan Beans, Fruit Spread, Black Rice
Drinks:
Coffee, Craft Beer, Red Wine, White Wine, Iced Tea
  • Bananas Foster is much easier this time around; the procedure is simply USBR.
  • The first page of ingredients in Risotto are all indexed by first letter (sans the R. part). The rest of the ingredients are mostly the usual ones, though watch out for scallops (C), carrots (A) and lobster (B). Also be careful when Salad is added, as the parmesan keybinds are different (R in Risotto and P in Salad). Risottos take long to cook, but not long to burn, so pay attention. There are six recipes for Risotto, and each of them use a unique type of rice. It would help to internalise them for the later restaurants.
    • The Classic and Mushroom Risotto recipes are the same except for the type of rice used on the first page (O[rice] -> Space -> OCMP -> Space -> R).
    • The Red Wine Risotto uses the left side of ingredients in the second page (OR -> Space -> OCAB -> Space -> R).
    • The Tomato and Pea Risottos have a similar combo: OT -> Space -> BP -> Space -> SR; OP -> Space -> KP -> Space -> SR respectively.
    • Finally, the Butternut Risotto is: OB -> Space -> AKS -> Space -> R.
  • Souffles ask for one batter pre-cooking phase and one topping post-cooking phase. Unfortunately, most keybinds don't make sense in the latter phase and ingredients common between both phases aren't necessarily consistent. In particular, cinnamon is I before cooking (C is reserved for cheese) then N after cooking (I is reserved for ice cream), chocolate is H before cooking and is both C and H after cooking (so you'll need to double-check what the recipe is asking for), and powdered sugar and creme anglaise are indexed by the second word instead (S and A respectively). Souffles take a short time to burn which is made worse when coupled with the post-cooking prep phase, so unless you're confident with that part don't cook many of these at once (and never start a dishwasher chore in the meantime).
  • Like always, for the final shifts you don't want to be making more foods on holding stations while in a rush hour, so fill them up with duplicate HS Required foods and the rest with sides. Space out those pasta and souffle orders; don't have many of them going at once or it'll be difficult to serve them all before they burn.
Secrets of the Deep
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Unlocked At:
44
48
51
55
57
66
68
73
75
78
80
85
88
91
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
60
60
65
65
70
70
75
80
85
90
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
10
10
11
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
7
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Fresh Fish, Pasta, Lobster, Crab Legs, Gazpacho, Steamed Mussels, Oysters, Yakizakana, Crab Cakes, Chowder
Side Dishes:
Side Chowder, Fried Okra, Fried Seafood Sides, Broccoli, Wild Rice
Drinks:
Fresh Lemonade, Iced Tea, Red Wine, White Wine
  • The majority of dishes take a long time to cook, so orders won't be coming in as quickly as other restaurants. The final shift in particular has a lot of waiting for things to cook and your prep stations will constantly be full; you're more likely to be overwhelmed trying to select the right prep station than you will by the buzz and the orders themselves.
  • Lobster makes its reappearance, with an extra lobster type and additional sauces added to it. The keybindings are slightly different from the first game.
  • The procedure for Oysters is Y->(A)->[sauce]. If there are three ingredients required then Caviar (A) is one of them. Careful with the mignonette sauce, as they exist in two versions (indexed by first letter).
  • Mussels are always [sauce]->Space->ML. Get the sauces figured it and this should be another easy dish.
  • Once again, many ingredients in Chowder are bound to familiar keybinds; take note of lobster (B) and clam bits (L). There are four recipes in total; the first recipe asks for everything on the first page except for carrots. The Side Chowder is the same.
Absolutely
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Unlocked At:
45
47
51
54
58
66
71
76
77
79
81
82
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
60
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
11
Holding Stations:
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
7
8
8
8

Entrees
Crème Brulee, Gazpacho, Club Sandwich, Stew, Gumbo, Chowder, Chili, Soup, Egg Drop Soup
Side Dishes:
Side Chili, Side Soup, Side Gumbo, Side Chowder, Side Stew
Drinks:
Craft Beer, Iced Tea, Red Wine, Coffee
  • Soup, it's (almost) all soup! It's a little like Slammy's, but with more complex dishes that have less servings. Allow one holding station for each HS Required soup and side dish, and use the rest for whatever soup is low on servings. For the final shifts you don't want to deal with making more HS Required soups in the middle of a rush hour.
  • Along with Club Sandwiches (of which you should be quite experienced with by now), Crème Brulee is the other non-soup in this restaurant. The torching stage functions much like Beer, except it's in discrete stages like in the original game. Not much to say, other than to get the timing down and anticipate when it becomes perfectly browned. Don't do anything else that occupies a fair amount of time, and don't cook many of these at once as they don't take long to burn and torching takes a while. You may also want to wait until the rush hour text disappears before torching unless you think you've got the timing down (or turn the text off).
Sebucosto 1991
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Unlocked At:
48
55
56
59
62
65
68
74
80
83
86
93
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
85
90
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
12
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Chicken Fried Meats, Shish Kabob, Quesadilla, Beef Wellington, Ribs, Deluxe Nachos, Prime Rib, Chicken Breast, Dessert Shooters
Side Dishes:
Side Chili, Side Salad, Dinner Roll, Red Cabbage, Roasted Cauliflower, Green Beans, Broccoli
Drinks:
Coffee, Beer, Red Wine, White Wine
  • There's no way to screw up Prime Rib, as the game won't let you cook or serve them until they're perfectly made. Similarly, there's no way to screw up the post-cooking phase of Chicken Fried Meats.
  • Kebabs are probably the second most complex food in this restaurant after Deluxe Nachos, although that's not saying much. Other than squash (Q) all the ingredients and their keybinds should be familiar by now.
UEIYAV
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
Unlocked At:
56
60
63
64
67
71
75
81
82
85
87
94
95
97
98
Buzz %:
40
50
55
60
60
65
65
70
75
75
80
85
85
90
95
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
11
11
12
12
13
Holding Stations:
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Steamed Mussels, Pasta, Pot Pie, Steak, Shish Kabob, Beef Wellington, Gazpacho, Lobster, Bananas Foster, Sliders, Bean Burger, Steamed Momos, Escargot
Side Dishes:
Roasted Cauliflower, Kale Chips, Black Beans, Brown Rice, Black Rice, Grilled Fennel, Stuffed Artichokes
Drinks:
Craft Beer, Coffee, Iced Tea, Red Wine, White Wine
  • More of a recap restaurant than a thematic one; this features a selection of foods mainly from the later restaurants, and has a fairly easy new food in the form of Escargot. None of the entrees require a holding station to be prepared, though you can choose to do so with the Bean Burger; none of the foods are notoriously difficult either. This is also the last time you'll have to serve Beer.
  • Again, mind the different keybinds for multiple ingredients within Gazpacho, and for bacon in Sliders (A) compared to the other foods (B).
  • You'll be back to 13 prep stations again for the final shift. Hopefully you've gotten some practice in since Contrast Coffee Company.
  • With all these prep stations in combination with foods that have a variable cooking time or take a short time to burn, it's imperative that you select the correct prep stations and glance at the list of stations every now and then to see the status of orders. If you've stocked up on sides before rush hour (about three each will do), you can afford to take your time ensuring you're about to select the right prep station - more of my time was spent doing that than preparing the orders themselves.
Executive's Decision
Shift
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Unlocked At:
70
73
79
80
84
88
89
91
92
93
95
96
97
98
99
100
Buzz %:
40
45
50
55
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
Prep Stations:
6
7
7
8
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
11
12
12
13
14
Holding Stations:
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
8
8

Entrees
Pasta, Risotto, Sushi, Crème Brulee, Sliders, Beef Wellington, Omelette, Veal Marsala, Souffle, Bananas Foster, Oysters, Meatloaf, Fried Chicken, Escargot, Filet Mignon
Side Dishes:
Mashed Potato, Grilled Fennel, Dinner Roll, Roasted Cauliflower, Tazukuri, Stuffed Artichokes, Green Beans, Boiled Eggs, Peas
Drinks:
Red Wine, White Wine, Iced Tea, Coffee
  • The final restaurant. It's the last thing you'll unlock and the last thing you'll probably finish. It's another recap restaurant, but few of these foods would be considered easy to prepare. Out of all the entrees only the meatloaf uses holding stations in any way, so there's few opportunities to stall for time. Basically, you need to know every food inside and out to complete this restaurant.
  • Once again, remember the different keybinds for bacon in Sliders (A instead of B), spinach in Omelette (P instead of S) and everything in Souffle.
  • Right off the bat you're introduced to Filet Mignon, the only new food in this restaurant. It's another variable cooking time food and none of the ingredients or recipes are difficult (except for a questionable sauce keybind as A), except this one has a preparation stage after cooking. This means you can't serve it in the middle of doing something else, so if you've got a blue rare Filet Mignon needing to be finished while you've started a dishwashing chore, you're pretty much out of luck. Between this, Crème Brulee and Souffle you'll need to pay extra attention to the state of your prep stations, and you may even want to sit idly waiting for those foods to be cooked instead of starting another order.
  • From Shift 14 onwards you'll be dealing with more starting buzz than in any other shift, and an increasing number of prep stations. Under no circumstances should you let any side dish run out completely - try and maintain two of each side at all times, and prepare some more in anticipation of rush hour. None of the sides in this restaurant are instant, so prepare new batches well before the old ones run out. Surprisingly, you may also find yourself doing less chores, as food orders begin to fill up your prep stations (you can see in the final shift video I ended up doing zero dishes).
  • Shift 14 is tough due to the inclusion of both Filet Mignon and Crème Brulee - you'll want to space these orders out as best you can, but you also don't want your entire column of prep stations filled with them. Fried Chicken and Meatloaf can be used as buffers, as they're easy to prepare and don't need urgent attention when cooking. Keep at least two holding stations filled with Meatloaf as they don't have many servings and they take a while to cook.
  • Shift 15 adds the thirteenth prep station again, but the combination of foods themselves are arguably easier than the previous shift since most of them don't have post-cooking phases and you won't have to consciously space out certain orders. Sushi is probably the most time-consuming food of the bunch, so try not to let those orders accumulate.
  • The final shift has every prep station in play and starts with 110% buzz. Customer patience starts at a base of 2.50 seconds and reaches its 1.00 second minimum at some point in the day, so sides are your only saving grace. The start of the day is potentially one of the hardest parts; you'll have a period where your sides haven't finished cooking and orders are coming in at a fairly fast pace, so you'll need to quickly attend to all of them until you get a patience boost once your sides are ready. The number of orders you'll have to deal with initially can vary greatly, and scenarios may even be impossible to complete without orders burning or being missed, so reset the day and hope you get a better start. Afterwards, you'll mainly be responding to orders that are beginning to retract or have finished cooking and require serving/the next stage of preparation. You should be able to hammer off the combos for Risotto and Beef Wellington without any trouble by now, assuming you've learnt the recipes. Otherwise, most of the previous tips still hold: don't have too many foods cooking at once that require post-cooking preparation, especially since none of the foods in this shift take long to burn; always keep an eye on the status of prep stations and make sure to select the correct one. You may also wish to keep drink orders and certain chores occupying prep stations for as long as possible, as they're easier to complete than food orders and are on a fairly long timer. Finally, don't panic and misread recipes - you'll probably have several close calls with orders that are almost burnt or running out of patience, and you'll need to keep a level head to devise a path through these orders that maintains your perfect day.

And with that, you've completed one of the hardest shifts in the game and conquered Chef 4 Hire mode, so congratulations! Now you can spend some time playing around with your own restaurant - or just take a break; that was a lot of shifts you ended up doing.
Changelog and Admin
This changelog documents major changes; minor changes and fixes won't be logged.
2018-10-24: Updated restaurant items and Beer description for version 2.60.
2018-08-11: Updated guide to reflect balance changes in version 2.51.
2018-08-07: Updated a few sections for version 2.5.
2018-07-04: Completed Planet Blue. Guide fully updated for version 2.01.
2018-07-03: Completed Contrast Coffee Company.
2018-06-30: Changed videos to be hosted on YouTube, after reports that Streamable videos were missing.
2018-06-24: Completed Burrito Time.
2018-06-19: In the process of updating guide for the Barista Update (version 2.0). Thanks to chubigans for listing the level requirements of the shifts in the new restaurants!
2017-12-20: Updated guide for version 1.5.
2017-12-02: Compatibility check for version 1.12.
2017-11-22: Slightly updated guide for game version 1.11.
2017-11-16: Full buzz/prep station/holding station information added to restaurants. Version 1.1 content mostly completed; remaining minor information to be added over the next few days.
2017-11-15: In the process of adding information relating to version 1.1. 'Cook, Serve, Delicious!' Section repurposed to 'CSD Mode' and split across two sections (due to the character limit of a section).
2017-10-07: Completed UEIYAV and Executive's Decision. Chef 4 Hire mode finished. Further details and milestone information added for CSD mode. Guide complete for now.
2017-10-05: Completed Welcome to Tasteville, XLR Purple, Secrets of the Deep and Sebucosto 1991.
2017-10-04: Completed E.
2017-10-02: Completed Far East, Good Japan and Absolutely.
2017-10-01: Updated guide to adjust for changes in game version 1.04. Completed Sushi Nest.
2017-09-30: Completed SubSolutions, Oooh, Organic! and The Deep.
2017-09-29: Completed Food Shackers and FireKickers. Added initial restaurant information for Executive's Decision.
2017-09-27: Completed Esteban's and Poppers & Crunchies.
2017-09-26: Initial guide with 12 restaurants completed and 29 restaurants with basic information.

The logos of every restaurant were taken from CSD2; otherwise the restaurant descriptions and gameplay mechanics were all independently researched. Please refrain from reposting content or videos in this guide to any website or otherwise publicly viewable location without permission or proper attribution.

If you've made it here, thanks for taking the time to read this guide - I hope it helped even if it was just a little bit. If you've got any corrections or suggestions then feel free to leave a comment; I read that section every now and then. Or, if you just want to show your appreciation then it's enough to leave a thumbs up on this guide (though I'll accept trading cards as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
34 Comments
Techhead7890 8 Nov, 2024 @ 2:07pm 
This is a great list of mechanics and the stores, thanks a ton!! This will be super helpful.
Gotta be honest about the controls though, I used to be a Keyboard player (especially back in CSD1) and I actually found the controller to make a lot more sense for the control scheme the dev designed in 2, for example flipping through pages for everything. Especially compared to having random keyboard binds on the right-hand side that are hard to get to. Some recipes are still diabolical either way though!
BottomScorer 7 Mar, 2023 @ 7:27am 
Chicken Nuggets are unlocked after earning 2 gold medals.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2943609748
BottomScorer 7 Mar, 2023 @ 5:41am 
Please rewrite the guide from default hotkeys to ingredients and actions.
scheiß auf mein chungus leben  [author] 8 Dec, 2020 @ 5:36am 
If I recall correctly, other than buying them you can unlock certain foods by getting gold medals in Chef 4 Hire or completing challenges in your own restaurant. The unlocks are all random, though.
we love casting spells 27 Nov, 2020 @ 11:05am 
How do you unlock different fishes for your own restaurant?
What 11 Jun, 2019 @ 2:50pm 
You better watch out, @Rurune
Sopapilla just got a prep phase. It's easy to get through, but now it will cost extra seconds before it can be served.
Jamtown 24 Apr, 2019 @ 10:44pm 
Can you add a quick reference FAQ providing all the food symbols and their meanings.
I often get hung up selecting my menu by some of these icons not being able to remember what they all mean.
nohat. big floppa 18 Sep, 2018 @ 7:37pm 
Poll: What's your top 3 favorite restaurants? Mine are:
Secrets of the deep
Esteban's
Sushi nest/chinese food/good japan/far east (anything asian food xd)
BranjoHello 12 Aug, 2018 @ 2:58am 
Thank you very much! Your advice helped me a lot to get the gold in Biggs Burgers Shift 09. That one was giving me so much pain as it was logical to me to put those 3 fried stuff into holding stations but it's actually better not to do so for that level. :steamhappy:
Zoutje 29 Jun, 2018 @ 10:52am 
Awesome. Thanks for this you rock! I have mastered 14/15 restaurants, so I am getting pretty close! :golden: