Restaurant Simpossible

[Elinoee]

Congratulations @Isabelabebe ! You got so much perk points,it's amazing.

My sim never slept,never ate ,never went to bathrooms and nearly never washed himself: he was member of a small group  and used the "rally the troops" interaction as often as needed.
So he kept doing interactions with customers: welcome,check on table,prioritize food,recommend dish,and,often,offer drinks,desserts or even the entire dish.
@Isabelabebe,could you tell me what "comp food" means? (my game is in french)
When I had no interaction with customers available he went to his employees to congratulate them or offer them promotions,to keep them happy all the time.

My sim was outgoing,cheerful and self confident. I put the lot traits homey,convivial and chef's kitchen for all the restaurants.
I placed all five restaurants in Newcrest:maybe it was a mistake because I felt I didn't have much customers,even with the highest level of advertisement.

I divided the two weeks equally between the 5 restaurants,so 2,8 days per restaurant approximately then sold it and got the next one.
The members of the little group had to clean up and repair broken things,which was quite useful. They also had to paint so that my sim had a little money: the restaurants didn't give him any at all!
The restaurants were opened most of the time,I only closed once per 24 hours,for one hour or so. Maybe it was a second mistake?
I put some music on in all restaurants,added great decoration items,a stove for the second chef and refurbished those that were not ergonomic for the waiters (deleted stairs and put all the tables in the same area for example)

The first I got was Hogans Burger,then Sunnyside up Dinner,then chez Llama,then L'attente Bistrot,then Villa Bovine (no strategy in there).
Only Villa Bovine and Sunnyside up Dinner managed to get 5 stars,the other got 4 or 4.5 stars.

As many of you,I got a lot of glitches,it was terrible,especially the bad reviews from customers who never sat down!
The customers always complained about the waiting time,though I had 2 chefs and always ask them the highest speed.
The employees didn't work very well,despite the fact they were always happy...

[coolsim9999999]

Congratulations Isabelalabe .  Great strategy!

[SoulGal7]

@Elinoee - "comp food means" le repas est gratuit

[SoulGal7]

Well, here was my strategy. I bought my home lot in Newcrest - Comfy Cubby and put nothing on it. First restaurant, Hogan's Burgers, was in Oasis Springs on the Pebble Burrow lot. I downloaded all the Maxis restaurants unfurnished and built them up from there. My sim lived at the restaurant, and I put in a shower and a bed in the kitchen. Hogan's Burgers was made into a starter restaurant. Since it was so cheap, to build up the room scores, I went collecting and collected frogs and fossils and put them on display. Both automatically give an environment score of 3, and they were free! Any decor items that were placed had to give a room score. I also joined the Goodtimers Club and only called them when I needed to rally the troops. I trained all my staff, and added a 2nd chef first. When I had enough simoleons, I opened a second restaurant, Sunny Side Up in Willow Creek on the Bargain Bend lot. So, would basically run one restaurant and then head to the other one. When Hogan's Burgers got 5 stars, I demolished it and then placed Villa Bovine on the same lot. This restaurant was my favorite and went up to 5 stars rather quickly. Then when Sunny Side Up got 5 stars, I demolished it and placed L'Attente Bistro. I was lucky to be able to hire some of the same staff, although sometimes they were not in the same categories that they had been when they were in the previous restaurant. I did not hire elders, as during my trial run, I had 2 of my elder servers die in the restaurant. For the last restaurant, Chez Llama, I built a restroom downstairs, so customer and staff would not waste time heading upstairs to go to the restroom. By this point, I had almost all the perks, except Chef Hat and Good Management. I had a few problems with critics who would just leave, even though there were seats available, also customers not getting served. And a chef and server not showing up for 2 days straight, although they were happy. I used meal rush quite a bit in the last two restaurants. I always made sure my sims greeted customers, and try to make a meal recommendation -- sometimes they got up from the table and walked off somewhere - check on table. For the two critics that actually gave reviews, I had given them either free drinks or free desserts. I watched the customers and if they weren't happy offered free drinks or free dessert and a few times free meals to get their reviews to 5 star. My markup from the start was the highest (300%?) and made sure food in the 2 lower restaurants were Level 1. The last 2 restaurants, because I had trained staff, I could offer level 4 and 5 dishes. It was a wonderful challenge, but too bad about the glitches with restaurants.

[Deklitch]

Ah, I thought

* You must place Hogans Burger Bar, Sunnyside Up Diner, L'attente Bistro, Villa Bovine, and Chez llama.

Meant you had to place all five of them at the start of the game, but obviously not.

I don't get the process of playing the restaurants despite reading up on it, as demonstrated by my handful of points at the end of week 1.

Thanks for sharing your strategies.

[Isabelalabe]

Glad to hear strategies from others. I just want to add few things.
- I did put all five restaurants in the beginning but demolish it one by one after they are sold.
- I felt like 'giving free drink" (or desserts) is not worth it. The customers will take time to order again and the chefs cook again, the waiter serve again and they eat.. all these processes for just 25 extra perks. I felt that letting them finish and leave means new customers will come in and 135 perks per table is a better deal. That is why I only 'comp food'.
- All my restaurants only have one big open space, no second floor. I put two chef stations in the middle of the room and put tables around them.
- I don't use any music because some customers/workers got distracted by it.
- Only a couple customers died in my restaurants and it was near the end of the shift so I just close.
- I don't have club content. 
- I only use 150% price (or lower) in the first four restaurants. Again, my idea was to get 5 stars as fast as possible and move on. It would have been harder if we start with less money. Here I don't feel money is the issue at all. 

[coolsim9999999]

I used the Bargain Bend lot for all 5 restaurants because of the great constant spawning of Sims behind and in front of Garden Essence and in front of Bargain Bend (before they disappear over the bridge.)  I knew about that lot from Honey Money, and last year, I did a Rags to Riches character on my own, and I found out about that lot for selling stuff, and it worked for restaurants, too!  I also looked at the winning strategy from the last time we did Restaurant Simpossible, and I followed it closely.  Both of those things helped a lot to increase my score.

My Sim lived in Oasis Springs on a very cheap empty lot with only a few items on it, but she slept, etc. at the restaurant, so, it didn't matter, anyway.  She was cheerful, self-assured and a dance machine.

[techiechick]

I'm sorry to have missed out on this challenge - I started it and got to about day 3 and then real life got in the way. Curses!

I liked hearing about your strategies. I was going to do the "buy an empty lot for your home and then live in the restaurant" strategy too, but didn't think of using multiple shifts per day to get the employees trained faster. I bet that made a lot of difference to the star ratings really fast!