Tips for Usability of Restaurants (Thanks to Playalot!!)
Some ideas that might help with running a bug-free restaurant Open your owned restaurants from another lot. That way all the customers will already be seated by the time your sim gets there.
Place all restaurant items to lock to grid and do not use MOO or hold the Alt key down.
Keep the area round the Hosts Podium clear of clutter, decor and other furniture.
Consider the placement of hanging lights as these can cause issues when above tables, hosts can not seat customers and wait staff can not take orders or serve food.
Only have one center piece on any table as there needs to be space for plates and glasses. A blocked plate space will cause problems with hosts and wait staff.
Have the wall space around and above the Chefs Stations clear and free of decoration as the food slots need to be clear so the chef can place down cooked food and the wait staff need to be able to reach the food too.
Wait Staff use the Waiters Station as a dish washer so be sure to have a few of the stations well placed around your restaurant.
If you are having problems with booths, side step the issue and use tables and chairs. Seems obvious but why be frustrated when tables and chairs work well anyway. (Hopefully the functionality of booths will be given a tweak by the dev's.) The corner booths only fit the 1x1 table and the longer booth fits with the 2x1.
Don't be tempted to place too many bar stools, couches or garden seats on your restaurant lot. They only encourage customers to wander away from their table.
If you see uncleared plates or stack of dirty dishes drag them to a Waiters Station as sometimes the wait staff 'time-out' when clearing many tables in a row. Or send your own sim to clear the pile of plates away.
Try placing the outdoors rubbish bin right at the back of your lot. This helps to 'hide' it from angry or hot headed customers who would love to kick it over. Repeatedly.
Watch the timing of your interactions with your staff. If you interrupt one of them (particularly the host or wait staff) it can result in customers not being served or seated.
Welcome customers once they have been seated by your host.
Be careful not to welcome customers when wait staff are heading towards their table to take their order etc. This will cause these customers to have to wait for a very long time before eventually being served. (Sometimes it causes them to be missed out completely!)
If there is a jam around the hosts podium generally if given enough time the host will eventually seat everyone. Try not to interact with your host or wait staff until this jam of customers has been cleared.
Customers leaving books on tables? Pause your game and quickly hop into build mode and delete the book. If you leave it the book will cause that seat to be unusable and can cause issues with the host and wait staff as they attempt to use the table.
Try buying the perk Patient Patrons first. That way your customers will be very happy waiting forever to be served. Well, not 'forever' but for a lot longer anyway!
Save your game before buying the Faster Eaters Perk, there have been reported issues around this perk. If you experience adverse game play after buying it quit without saving. (Main issues is a version of musical chairs where customers forever roam your sims restaurant chatting to other customers.)
After using the 'Disallow New Customers' interaction any sims already on their way to your restaurant will still appear. This can take some time in Windenburg in particular so use this interaction earlier rather than later.
Once you have hired your staff place them unplayed into a household or households. This will protect them from mysteriously disappearing. (Being culled.)
Not getting the sims you want to hire as staff? Seed your Unplayed Not In The World menu will your own highly skilled sims and then you can choose the sim you want.
To do this play some sims and either skill them up in game or use cheats. Or place previously skilled-up sims into your game from your library and house them. Mark the household as 'unplayed' and delete any other game generated sims that you don't want to keep.
Now when you go into your 'Hiring' menu your sims will appear as potential employees.
Sick and tired of your sims being asked out and yet being stuck with the bill? Buy water for everyone else and a meal just for your sim. The non-played sims seem just as happy with a cheap glass of water as with a three course meal.
For Carl's guide to Dine Out click here
