Optimal dinning room layout?

[deenahax]

Originally my restaurant had mostly corner booths and few tables. I had the problem with a lot of standing around (I found that booths can only have 2 people max so there just weren't enough tables for groups), so I got rid of all but two booths and put down more tables. This seems to help some. My question is do you find tables or booths easier to manage? Also, has anyone played with bar top seating - how does the routing with those?

[Playalot]

I have found that the simpler the layout the better. I made a very simple restaurant layout with a mixture of all the types of seating and have had no issues at all. I prefer using tables though as I find the booths can be tricky to build with and best if there is only a booth on one side of a table (which detracts from the whole 'booth' feel.)

I have enough decor that the sims get a Happy buff/moodlet but not so much that it makes the restaurant glitchy.

You can make your restaurant look 'fancy' without actually cluttering the tables and staff podiums which only leads to issues with hosts seating customers etc

It's also important to keep light placement in mind as hanging lights over a table can also stop the host from seating customers and waiters doing their thing!

[deenahax]

I dumped the booth and moved to all tables in the dinning room and bar tops in the lounge. Thank you for the tip about the lights. Moving those around helped with some of the routing.

[Tygresa]

This information here is good to know. I will implement the ideas here in my own game.  Thanks.

[CuriousSim]

I changed the Solar Flare into a restaurant. The configuration seems fine. It's autonomous, so I don't know if it's a money maker. The speed seems fine. The kitchen was added to the roof, and is up the stairs. The host station is on the ground floor. The only thing I modified, is I added a third chair to the tables. One time, the entire Goth family came in, and they hung around the couches. I realized that all the tables only had two chairs. That's when I added the third chair. It's not ideal for larger parties, but it's a nice additional choice to the Chez Llama.

[deenahax]

I think that's a great idea - I think there are a few places that could easily convert to a restaurant. Do you notice a ton of people sitting on couches? I found that people were getting assigned the couch as the table and they never got served.

[Playalot]

It's probably better to remove most if not all couches in a restaurant as sim will sit there instead of doing the 'restaurant actions'.

[CuriousSim]

The tables seem to fill up first, and it seems to work well for parties of 3 & under. For others, they hang around the couches. Since they aren't my party I don't worry so much. Also, it's an autonomous restaurant, so visually it's like lounging. Sims seem to have drinks on the couches. It doesn't get too crowded.

[coolsim9999999]

It's probably better to remove most if not all couches in a restaurant as sim will sit there instead of doing the 'restaurant actions'.

That happened sometimes in one of my smaller restaurants.  However, in my largest restaurant, the dining room is on the second floor, and the bar is in the basement, and Sims don't stop to sit down in the lobby.  So, maybe it just depends on the size of the restaurant, your game file or some random factor.  That's interesting, though.

[Playalot]

It seems to occur mostly when the NPC sims have had a bit of  jam at the restaurants door while waiting for the host to seat them. They seem to get into conversations then that are not interrupted by the process of being seated. That means that once seated they will get up and try to continue the conversation and will end up on a couch if there is one as they can both sit there together. Sims are programed to always sit to talk wherever possible. Weird but true. 

[coolsim9999999]

Oh, I've seen them talking all in a bunch before the host could seat them, but I've never noticed them not staying at their table once the host has seated them.  I will watch out for that, now!

[Dadjokes502]

Do covered tables (tablecloth) make a star rating go up.
I can’t get my restraint past three stars.
I’m making $1000 a night.
My restaurant is a dive restaurant called the Crooked Cactus

What else besides foods attribute to star rating

[Brian_Z]

Do covered tables (tablecloth) make a star rating go up.
I can’t get my restraint past three stars.
I’m making $1000 a night.
My restaurant is a dive restaurant called the Crooked Cactus

What else besides foods attribute to star rating

As your controlled sim, who isn't allowed to do anything but wash dishes-- chat with your customers, they love getting personal attention from the restaurant owner.  Other than that, do what you can to make sure any Critics leave happy.
$1000 a night?  I gave up long before that.  I just set up interesting restaurants, and let the game run them.  They're usually a bit TOO "interesting" for this forum lol.