Dining Out : Business tips and helpful hints «12...Next Go

CorkysPetals

I thought I'd start a thread for people to post helpful suggestions about running a restaurant. Since some of us have successful restaurants, we can share ideas for simmers starting out.

Here are two from me:


Start out with some cash in the bank. It may take a sim week or two to get your restaurant earning enough §§§ to feed your sims and pay the bills. You may need a cushion while business improves.


If you're a hands-on greet every customer kind of manager, group your restaurant tables together so that you can watch them all at one time. It helps to keep track of the unhappy customers waiting for their food.

MVWdeZT

Praise all your employees and train and promote them. Check up on your employees too -- it'll give you an idea of who to keep and who to fire. Check out the perks -- Patient patrons is probably the best one to get first.

CorkysPetals

I used the small ingredient discount perk and was making maybe §100 a day. When I added the large ingredient discount perk I started making §1000+ a day.

lmusic

I agree, train them as fast as possible.

Make sure you prioritize the critic's meal!

mcrudd

My two sims stand and wait in the restuarant, then I click open and the workers start arriving. As they arrive my sims sort out training if any is needed and they praise and inspire the workers. They do the host first so she can start seating customers. Once a customer arive the table gets welcomed and then if the order is taken then their food are prioritized. As a next table arrive I keep an eye on the order of arrival I will welcome them, as the first table gets their food I prioritize the next table's food and then go and check on the table that just got their food. I repeat that process throughout the opening hours. My other sim helps out if its too busy or he usually goes around and inspires and praises the staff one at a time as the option comes up again. I usually open my restaurant at 7/8am and disallow customers at 1/2pm (depending how busy) and close the restaurant at 4/5pm if really busy 6pm. The first perk I bought was the eat faster one, I find that helps a lot to not have waiting customers everywhere

ST7_MTNMAN

Every so often during this training period sit at a table where you can watch your employees!

See reaction of customers when the Host/Hostess greets them!

What are their thoughts of the waitstaff when they do get their food?

Order the food see how the chef is actually doing?

You can still mix and mingle with customers as a visitor manager so if you see something that could cause rating to go down Interact with the customer and fix the problem.

Audio_5urf

no music! music in restaurants doesn't keep customers/staff well behaved

CorkysPetals

Audio_5urf wrote: »

no music! music in restaurants doesn't keep customers/staff well behaved

Yes, I took my music away because everyone kept dancing (staff, customers, my sims) and it seemed to slow down or complicate the whole thing.

Sha2520032003

Adjust the chef's cooking speed as needed. My chef is level 10...& I make her cook quickly during meal rush time and then put cooking back to normal when there's not as many customers.

Spend perk points wisely. As @MVWdeZT stated, patient patrons is the first one I always get. & then ingredient quality. & at some point, I get the perk where customers eat faster. The ingredient perks do stack. So if you have the ingredients discount (large) perk and then add 'surplus harvest' ingredients will be very cheap. I also like curious customers perk as it allows you to recommend a dish. I always go for the most expensive items on the menu.

I always praise my employees as soon as they come in at the start of the shift. & I use 'give inspirational speech' at some point once it gets later in the day like 10 hours+. I try not to work my employees more than 12 hours, but try to stick to an 8-10 hour day.

I always greet customers (i.e. cheerful introduction, etc.) as you get perk points for this interaction. & then I welcome, check table all in one interaction before going to my next table.

After a Sim week, I finally am making a profit of $4000 per day. Thinking of opening a new restaurant!

Audio_5urf

@Sha2520032003
How are you making 4k a day? I'm only managing 1500-2000.. and that's when everything works as intended.

Lost 1400 last shift for 4 missed tables, a cook who wasn't cooking, and 2 waiters doing nothing

BlkBarbiegal

I hired a host who showed up the first day, but second day she did not which slowed business. I fired her after an hour or two of her not showing up then quickly hired a new host. This new host has been coming to work daily. A keeper.

Good tips everyone.

Sha2520032003

Audio_5urf wrote: »

@Sha2520032003
How are you making 4k a day? I'm only managing 1500-2000.. and that's when everything works as intended.

Lost 1400 last shift for 4 missed tables, a cook who wasn't cooking, and 2 waiters doing nothing

From what I can tell, the biggest cost is the ingredients. Once my chef was level 10, I changed the ingredient setting from to grade F setting, which reduces ingredient cost by 25% less, but drops food quality. I also have the ingredient discount (large) perk & use surplus harvest, which drops my ingredients cost to almost nothing. My markup is 300%. I customize the menu to have all difficult/expensive items 4 or 5 with very few options for 1-3.
I have the fast eaters perk and my chef cooks on quick. So the restaurant is constantly moving. I have my Sim recommending dishes, greeting customers, welcome, and check on table interactions to stock up on perk points.

It's taken awhile to get that much a day. When I first started out, I was losing money due to advertising, training employees, etc. Once I was able to get my employees all to level 10, and my restaurant above 3.5 stars, I didn't need to spend money on training or advertising, which is huge. My main focus was lowering the ingredient cost.

CorkysPetals

I just broke 4000 and did almost everything Sha2520032003 did. Only differences, I never bothered with advertising and I'm not using the fast eaters perk. The only time I tried it I ended up with the musical chairs thing, I swear. I went back to a previous save before I got the fast eaters perk and the musical chairs bug went away.

At first I kept my prices low and my rating went up quickly. I tried to avoid the %300 markup, but my own greed got in the way. The funny thing is, I still get customers who have the "great price" icon, so I guess %300 isn't so high.

Audio_5urf

Well, I got my crew to maxed skills and was finally able to put level 5 on the menu and my profits shot up a good amount thanks to recommendations.. only problem is that a lot of the skipped customers tend to be those recommendations.

I have all the Perks now as well. 300% markup, normal ingredients, and gold package advertising (20/hr isn't half bad)

Only issues I have now is skipped tables, rock star employees who are sometimes useless, and making good money within the 8hr window.

Knoxhood

Step 1. Make an extremely empty restaurant by putting in the bare minimum tables chairs, chef station etc and don't put any other useless junk in the restaurant. Also leave large spaces in between each of the tables and chairs because the routing issues are terrible/10.
Step 2. Get all perks.
Step 3. 300% price mark up and use the el cheapo cheapest of ingredients.
Step 4. Profit. I made 15k in 1 session.

Edit: Another SUPER 🐸🐸🐸🐸 method is to make a random group with Get Together and then make them go to your restaurant. Once they are at your restaurant order for the table and order the most expensive stuff on the menu but don't order anything for your sim.

midnightpearl

And finally, make sure the workers are not old either so they don't just drop dead in the middle of service-hire young and fresh workers! That's my suggestion!

mamatried

I am having an issue with keeping employees. I have to hire brand new ones before every shift because the ones that I hired for the previous shift just don't come back the next day, no matter how much I praise or give them raises. It makes it impossible to improve my staff and training them is pointless if they aren't going to be back the next day. Any suggestions?

crinrict

When you manage a restaurant, open it from any other lot and then travel there.

When you arrive, all Sims will already be seated and you avoid the initial seating mess at the podium.

CorkysPetals

mamatried wrote: »

I am having an issue with keeping employees. I have to hire brand new ones before every shift because the ones that I hired for the previous shift just don't come back the next day, no matter how much I praise or give them raises. It makes it impossible to improve my staff and training them is pointless if they aren't going to be back the next day. Any suggestions?

Is that 1 or 2 employees each day or all of them? Is there anything about the restaurant that might be unpleasant for them? Do you have any mods?

mamatried

CorkysPetals wrote: »

mamatried wrote: »

I am having an issue with keeping employees. I have to hire brand new ones before every shift because the ones that I hired for the previous shift just don't come back the next day, no matter how much I praise or give them raises. It makes it impossible to improve my staff and training them is pointless if they aren't going to be back the next day. Any suggestions?

Is that 1 or 2 employees each day or all of them? Is there anything about the restaurant that might be unpleasant for them? Do you have any mods?

It's every single employee, every single time. I have mods but they aren't currently being used. I don't know if there is anything about the restaurant that they don't like. When I use the "Check Up On" interaction, they don't say anything about being dissatisfied with the work or the restaurant. I'm really not sure what's going on. I might try to build a restaurant from the ground up and see if that helps. I just bought a residential lot with a house already on it and converted it into a restaurant.

CorkysPetals

I've heard of 1 or 2 employees not showing for a shift, but not all of them. That definitely sounds like a mod conflict.

MarleyTheWizard

do you usually hire one or two chiefs?

crinrict

I have just one chef but I think it depends on the business of your restaurant. Mine doesn't have that many tables and one can cope just fine.

If you're guest start complaining .. hire more.

Don't hire for the sake of it, they are expensive.

CorkysPetals

I started out small too. 7 tables, 1 chef and 1 waiter. I only added a second waiter when customers complained, and later a second chef.

Audio_5urf

I have a full staff.. i don't necessarily need 3 waiters, but it's nice having that third one in case one of the others takes a sick day.

mamatried

CorkysPetals wrote: »

I've heard of 1 or 2 employees not showing for a shift, but not all of them. That definitely sounds like a mod conflict.

I don't know. I built a new restaurant from the ground up and am still having the same problems. I just deleted all of my mods and am going to try to repair the game in Origin. Hopefully that will fix the issue.