Restaurant Wars: What's on the Menu?

[rokrchik]

Man I am glad that challenge is over. It was fun but got a little stressful and kinda boring those last few Sim weeks. My sim, Aubrie O'Connor, and her restaurant was worth 90,632 at the end. 5 stars too!

Kerry

[Metropolis Man]

This event is now closed. Congratulations to oshizu on the win.

Everyone is now free to discuss strategy.

[oshizu]

I'd never managed a restaurant before though I'd watched Sim Supply's Let's Play series on Youtube, so I really enjoyed this challenge.

Menu Planning
I already had lists of the Cooking and Gourmet items from the No Takeout for You challenge, so I added lists for Baking, Mixology, Experimental Foods, Mixology, ice cream maker, popcorn maker, tea brewer, and espresso machine.
Checking the restaurant menu, I added Difficulty values to all the menu items then planned out my six-week menu.

Preparation
My sim and his tent practically lived at Windenberg's gym initially, where he used the bar, kitchen, bathroom facilities, and TV.
He brewed tea at the Pancakes and made specialty coffee at the Bjergsens. (For this, he needed the Always Welcome trait.)
He bought the ice cream maker and popcorn machine for the restaurant, eventually buying the cheapest fridge as well.
He quit Baking at Level 5.We never bought the cupcake factory. At Chez Llama, he practiced mixing drinks/bar tricks while waiting for his food.

Restaurant Build
I gave my sims the Loves the Outdoors trait and built an outdoors restaurant because he was so poor.
The best early find was a Science painting with Environment 4 for $115.
My sim was too poor to really start decorating until Week 4 because he'd already hired a second chef and two additional waiters by the end of Week 1 (unwise).
We later fired the third waiter.

Business Hours
What made the biggest difference for me was opening the restaurant twice a day, which I started in Week 4.

*At 11 am, my sim opened the restaurant from another lot then arrived immediately after. When he arrives, all the guests are already seated.
He disallowed new customers at noon, and closed the restaurant and 2 pm (a 3-hour shift). He did the Welcome and Check on Table socials, then Praised his staff.

*After a meal and a nap, he opened the restaurant again at 6 pm, this time while at the restaurant. This requires the hostess to actually seat the guests.
He disallowed customers at 8pm and closed the restaurant at 2 a.m (8-hour shift).
This time, he praised his staff first and added the Prioritize Food social for every table. The cooks don't care if you Prioritize Food for all tables without waiting in between.

Staff
My waiters remained the same (since I'd fired one Adult waiter in Week 3), but I went through 5 cooks and 3 hosts. In the middle of Week 6, a cook and the host aged up to elder then died immediately after. This has only ever happened at a restaurant. Why no elder stage?

---

I'm sure all of us followed a pretty similar strategy. What really boosted my earnings, though, was starting a separate 3-hour lunch shift from a different lot.
Also, I purchased the Meal Rush, Surplus Harvest, and Tidy Tippers perks whenever they became available.

In retrospect, I wish I'd given my sim the Dance Machine trait for disco naps.
Near the end of Week 3, he bought a computer and tried the adopt-then-cancel trick in hopes of spawning some young adult sims (mothers) to hire as the host and cooks, but all he got was adult sims.

[MarianT]

Really interesting tips, @oshizu. My dynasty Sim will be owning a restaurant soon -- I definitely like the idea of two shifts. Were you able to make it to 5-star, incidentally?

[oshizu]

Really interesting tips, @oshizu. My dynasty Sim will be owning a restaurant soon -- I definitely like the idea of two shifts. Were you able to make it to 5-star, incidentally?

Yes, the restaurant earned five stars near the end of Week 2, even though the restaurant still wasn't that profitable. The three waiters probably contributed to both the rating and low profits.
The rating thereafter fluctuated between 4.5 and 5 stars. A new cook is always requested to "Cook carefully."

During Week 6, even with the Difficulty-5 menu and the unexpected loss of the cook & host, we managed to end the challenge at 5 stars.

Edited to add: From the middle of Week 2, my sim stopped using the "Recommend Dish" social though he'd bought both the Curious/Curiouser Customer perks.
                     If a waiter arrived to take a table's order while my sim was recommending a dish, the waiter left and no waiter ever returned to take that table's order.
                     I don't know if this is a general Dine Out glitch or just my game.

[MissZoef]

@oshizu Haha, I watch the Sim Supply's let's plays as well.

I actually put a small house on the restaurant lot for my sim to live in with a fridge, a shower, a bed, a bar and later a coffee machine and the cupcake factory. I gave her the happy, dance machine and creative trait if I remember correctly.

I tried to keep the same host, waiters and cooks during the whole challenge. My first waiter was a klepto and stole some small things once in a while, but I felt it was worth it it to keep him because he was better at his job than the rest. I had one cook that quit when she was completely skilled up (I still don't know why, I checked on their happiness every time) so that was a small set-back. I purchased all the rewards you can have except for the last two (i believe one is a chef's hat and the other makes the restaurant run better when you are not around). Instead of having multiple shifst a day I had one long shift of 10 - 12 hours. When everything was going well I would make about 5000/6000 simoleons a night. Because of a few glitches and bug this was not always the case. People were not being seated and a lot of people showed up with just half of the group. So when the first half of the group got their food, the other people showed up and sat down. This resulted in people not getting served and whatnot. However I figured out when I had a long shift I usually managed to serve those people too and don't lose much profit.

I think my biggest strategy was to look at the menu and look up what drinks/food would make the most profit if you sell it and try to make that in at night when the restaurant was closed. I managed to get the reward trait that is called frugel I believe? The one that makes sure you don't have to sleep as much. In combination with the dance machine trait my sim didn't need to sleep much.
I also made sure to have as little choice on the menu as possible. Every week I tried to get a few of the most expensive items on the menu and hope that they would choose that over the cereal or something. They usually did, especially because people ask for recommondations quite often. In combination with my markup being at 300% the profits per meal were quite high.

Congrats to @oshizu for doing so well! I too didn't really run a restaurant before, but it's one of my most favorite things in the sims 4 right now.

[oshizu]

@MissZoef

How did you manage to keep the employees at Neutral with such long shifts? After about 9 hours, the staff would send the "Tired" message and one cook would feel Unsatisfied.
That's the main reason I switched to two shifts. I also liked that, for some reason, sims stopped coming to the restaurant after 2 pm. for a short but lucrative shift.

My sim was a cheapskate and never bought a bar, though he did have his own room at the back of the restaurant.
Besides the shower and tent/bed, it also had a kitchen counter/bar stool, since he couldn't eat at a dining table, even in his room.

[MissZoef]

I kept praising them every day and giving them motivational speeches. I also waited quite a long time with promoting them unless they were (very) unsatisfied. So if the praising and motivational speeches didn't work I could make them happy that way. I also used the interaction to check on them to see how they were doing. I don't know if that changes anything.

[lesleyj42]

My strategy was similar to those already described.

I managed to keep the same 4 employees for the entire challenge. Ran one 10-11 hr shift per day. Used inspirational speech perk to keep them going and gave them raises based on skill rather than mood. I've had staff quit with no "unsatisfied" warning in other saves and didn't want that to happen during the challenge.

I also offered limited choice on the menu and went with the most expensive options my chef could cook well. I had the recommend dish perk but stopped using it halfway through because of how buggy it seems to be.

The only other strategy I employed that hasn't been mentioned was sticking to renovations in build mode rather than buy mode once I had enough tables, toilets,   decor, etc. Because walls, windows, pools etc. don't depreciate, the restaurant was worth more in the end than it would have been if I had added better tables, living quarters for my sim or other furniture/appliances/decor.

[MissZoef]

@lesleyj42 Yeah that part about depreciation is smart too. I think I thought about that in week 5 or 6. I had totally forgotten about it at first.

[oshizu]

@lesleyj42

I could never figure out why some purchases detracted from resale value and others didn't, so thank you for explaining that.
Besides aesthetic appearance, though, what do upgrading windows/doors/floor and wall coverings do for a restaurant, since they don't have environment ratings?
Do you mean that higher-priced Build Mode stuff boosts the resale value but never depreciates?

[lesleyj42]

@oshizu
Build mode purchases don't do much for environment but do boost resale value. And since they don't depreciate, no profits went to waste.

[oshizu]

@lesleyj42

That's so helpful to know for the Mansion Baron aspiration, too! Thank you!

[coolsim9999999]

Congratulations, Oshizu!  Your strategy sounds very efficient.  Wow!  There were a lot of close and high scores in this challenge.

I started this challenge, but it wasn't going very well.  I will keep trying other challenges, though!

[rokrchik]

I too had several deaths on our lot. I had the same chef, waitress and hostess for the first 4-5 weeks. Then the chef died in the middle of her shift. Couple days later the waitress, then a couple days later the hostess. That was when everything got hectic and trying to bring in fresh staff and everyones traumatized. There were also two customer deaths. I had a tidy little graveyard behind the building, lol!

I'm afraid my strategy consisted of: let's mash buttons and try things and hope I survive. I didn't really think out long term goals. I too had a little living area above the restaurant so my Sim stayed on that lot all the time. Never got around to experimental dishes.

Kerry