Can Restaurants Even Be Profitable?

Paralee · January 2018

I finally got around to playing around with owning a restaurant but i feel like having a profitable one is next to impossible.
No matter how much i praise or criticize or promote, meals go to the table unfinished and NOBODY pays for anything. Hardly ever. Like do i have to remove their ability to order drinks with their food to get anything done? ALL the chefs are useless most of the time.
It wouldnt be so bad if making their order a priority actually did something but if their drink is missing, they sit until they get mad and leave and nobody pays for anything, not even their friend who got their stuff. There is aaaabsolutely zero way to have whats missing made.
And several times the waitress took the food to the table and nothing appeared EVEN THOUGH i was charged for it to be made.
Completely ridiculous. Retune it or something. No employee could get by being that "special" and im going to end up hiring and firing the whole town

icmnfrsh · January 2018

I haven't been able to do it, and that's with paying customers and a 4-star rating. The turnover is terrible even if I have many tables and chairs, and that's very vital to being profitable. It's as if my game set this customer limit even though my hardware is pretty good.

Paralee · January 2018

icmnfrsh wrote: »

I haven't been able to do it, and that's with paying customers and a 4-star rating. The turnover is terrible even if I have many tables and chairs, and that's very vital to being profitable. It's as if my game set this customer limit even though my hardware is pretty good.

The games time mechanism alone makes it nearly impossible. By the time the first customers interact with the host, sit, give their order and get their food the restaurant has been open for 2 to 3 hours (and ive paid 2-3 hours in wages for no profit). I dont think it can happen in a world where they operate at normal human speed but a sim minute is a second lmao i mean its a universe where taking a ten minute walk down the hallway is normal.
I dont think they thought very well about how some of these concepts work with their game at all. They have to halve the rate of time passage to make most of the ownable businesses and probably other concepts even worth bothering with.
Id use MCCC to slow it down more but then the needs decay at the same rate and my sim will be tired by mid day

MDianaSims · January 2018

It has been some time since I played restaurants, so it might have become messed up in one of the patches (not unlikely), but I was able to have several profitable 5-star restaurants. It takes a lot of investment, you need to keep offering your staff trainings - and promote them to keep them satisfied. Help out with cleaning the dishes, this'll free up one of the waiters for other tasks. Also, I've found the best thing is to have one chef station, two waiters and 6 or 7 tables accommodating various party sizes (although, I don't think I've ever seen more than 4 Sims come in together). Don't have anything that distracts customers, no radios, no tv's, certainly not a bar. Keep your restaurant open for about 8-9 hours, but disallow customers at around 6 hours after opening. From that moment the game will no longer send new guests, the ones that are already on their way at that point will still arrive and ask for a table.

As for it taking too long before customers can eat and pay - open your restaurant before travelling there. Once you get there, one or two tables will already be occupied and ready to order/awaiting their food.

But I'll fire up that old save and see if running a restaurant is more difficult now.

Paralee · January 2018

I read somewhere that a lot of problems come from the chef station not having everything programmed in it and you need additional things to fulfill all the menu items. But ive tweaked the menu and some stuff still isnt coming and theres no way for me to tell what stuff needs what item and what the chef station has. So complicated lmao
i know icecream desserts need the icecream maker, popcorn appetizer needs the popcorn machine, microwave dinner needs the microwave, coffee/espresso drinks need the appropriate machines aaaand bar drinks need a bar and thats all i know

FKM100 · January 2018

@somethingstellar, this is what I wrote a couple of years back. I'm repeating it here, in the hopes that it may be of some help to you:

"I have finally managed to create a high-end restaurant (self-built), which makes over 2000 simoleans net profit a day. This is my advice for maximising profitability, based on what I have learned:-

1. Hire only one of each type of employee (at least to start with) and invest in their training. In particular, get your chef to max out his skills ASAP and promote him (or her) accordingly, to keep up morale. Once his skills are at level 8, set him to cook quickly. I am not sure whether it is worth maxing out your host's and waiter's skills. They seem to do fine at a skill level of around 6/7 (mine are maxed out now, but it does not seem to have made a significant difference to their performance).

2. Buy the inspirational speech perk ASAP and use it on each employee daily. Systematically buy every other perk that will have a positive impact on the restaurant's finances - ingredient discounts, well-heeled customers, bigger tips, etc. Get the patient customers perk too, to stop your customers getting fed up and walking out when service is slow.

3. DON'T waste points on the customers-eat-faster perk (whatever it's called). It doesn't seem to have any discernable effect on turnaround and IMHO is not worth it.

4. Buy the cheapest advertising package (silver). The more expensive packages are not worth the extra cost, but you do need some advertising in order to attract enough customers to ensure a high turnover.

5. Set your mark-up to 300% - yes, really! Your customers won't mind (this is supposed to be a high-end restaurant after all).

6. As your chef's skill level increases, customise your menu by progressively removing the cheaper options and offering only the most expensive food and drinks your chef can produce. Eventually, you should offer nothing below a difficulty level of 4. Your customers won't mind or even notice the more limited choice. You can include dishes that are slightly above your chef's current skill level. Ignore the warnings. Customers will still pay. This might be a bad strategy in RL, but it works fine in the game.

7. Don't comp anything. Comping affects your ratings, but does nothing for profitability. The game is geared to make you focus on ratings, but higher ratings do not necessarily mean better profits (in fact, I have seen no connection between higher ratings and profitability at all, but that might just be me). If it is profitability that you want, then it is on profitability that you need to focus. There is none of this 'do the right thing and the profits will surely follow' that you get in RL. This is not RL.

8. Now for the crunch: You must stay open late, because the majority of your customers will arrive in the evening and your profitability depends on how many customers you serve. Your employees are only equipped to work for 12 hours before their morale suffers (talk about exploitation!), so don't open until noon, then you can stay open until midnight. Your employees won't mind the late hours, but your managing sim will get tired, so make sure there is somewhere private for them to take an afternoon nap when things are quiet. Or let different household members take shifts.

9. Make sure you have enough tables (I had ten). The secret lies in the number of individual tables, not the amount of seating generally, so most of your tables should be two-seaters, since customers will generally arrive in pairs and these tables will fill up first. Put them closest to the chef's station for quicker service and make sure that there is plenty of space to walk around them so that the area does not get too congested if/when your customers decide to play musical chairs.

10. Don't enlarge your staff complement too much, or too quickly. I have tried having one chef and I have tried having two. Having two chefs at a pay-grade of 5 was hugely expensive (especially when you include the training costs) and, even with maxed-out skills and set to cook quickly, service speed did not improve all that much - at any rate, not enough to warrant the added expense. My current restaurant has only one chef and he seems to manage perfectly well. But I do have the patient customers perk too.

11. I have not decided yet whether it is better to have one or two waiters. I managed perfectly well with only one waiter for a while, but she has started slacking off and it might be time to replace her with someone new and more motivated, so I have brought in a second, more junior waiter to start training and will see how things go from there. If you only have one waiter, though, your managing sim needs to help out. Apart from welcoming guests and checking on tables, there is only one thing that they can usefully do and that is to clear tables. Make them do this.

12. One last tip - hire the youngest staff you can get, especially as hosts and waiters (and especially if you have aging allowed, which I don't at the moment). For one thing, they move faster and (unless it's my imagination) they seem to tire less quickly. For another thing, if you have aging allowed, they will live longer and therefore offer better value for your investment in their training."

A couple of extra things I have learned since writing the above: Don't put in music. You don't want customers standing around dancing. And you probably shouldn't put a bar in either. I think some of the worst problems that came from doing that have probably been ironed out by now, but it's probably best to avoid it in any case. And good luck!

Paralee · January 2018

FKM100 wrote: »

@somethingstellar, this is what I wrote a couple of years back. I'm repeating it here, in the hopes that it may be of some help to you:

"I have finally managed to create a high-end restaurant (self-built), which makes over 2000 simoleans net profit a day. This is my advice for maximising profitability, based on what I have learned:-

1. Hire only one of each type of employee (at least to start with) and invest in their training. In particular, get your chef to max out his skills ASAP and promote him (or her) accordingly, to keep up morale. Once his skills are at level 8, set him to cook quickly. I am not sure whether it is worth maxing out your host's and waiter's skills. They seem to do fine at a skill level of around 6/7 (mine are maxed out now, but it does not seem to have made a significant difference to their performance).

2. Buy the inspirational speech perk ASAP and use it on each employee daily. Systematically buy every other perk that will have a positive impact on the restaurant's finances - ingredient discounts, well-heeled customers, bigger tips, etc. Get the patient customers perk too, to stop your customers getting fed up and walking out when service is slow.

3. DON'T waste points on the customers-eat-faster perk (whatever it's called). It doesn't seem to have any discernable effect on turnaround and IMHO is not worth it.

4. Buy the cheapest advertising package (silver). The more expensive packages are not worth the extra cost, but you do need some advertising in order to attract enough customers to ensure a high turnover.

5. Set your mark-up to 300% - yes, really! Your customers won't mind (this is supposed to be a high-end restaurant after all).

6. As your chef's skill level increases, customise your menu by progressively removing the cheaper options and offering only the most expensive food and drinks your chef can produce. Eventually, you should offer nothing below a difficulty level of 4. Your customers won't mind or even notice the more limited choice. You can include dishes that are slightly above your chef's current skill level. Ignore the warnings. Customers will still pay. This might be a bad strategy in RL, but it works fine in the game.

7. Don't comp anything. Comping affects your ratings, but does nothing for profitability. The game is geared to make you focus on ratings, but higher ratings do not necessarily mean better profits (in fact, I have seen no connection between higher ratings and profitability at all, but that might just be me). If it is profitability that you want, then it is on profitability that you need to focus. There is none of this 'do the right thing and the profits will surely follow' that you get in RL. This is not RL.

8. Now for the crunch: You must stay open late, because the majority of your customers will arrive in the evening and your profitability depends on how many customers you serve. Your employees are only equipped to work for 12 hours before their morale suffers (talk about exploitation!), so don't open until noon, then you can stay open until midnight. Your employees won't mind the late hours, but your managing sim will get tired, so make sure there is somewhere private for them to take an afternoon nap when things are quiet. Or let different household members take shifts.

9. Make sure you have enough tables (I had ten). The secret lies in the number of individual tables, not the amount of seating generally, so most of your tables should be two-seaters, since customers will generally arrive in pairs and these tables will fill up first. Put them closest to the chef's station for quicker service and make sure that there is plenty of space to walk around them so that the area does not get too congested if/when your customers decide to play musical chairs.

10. Don't enlarge your staff complement too much, or too quickly. I have tried having one chef and I have tried having two. Having two chefs at a pay-grade of 5 was hugely expensive (especially when you include the training costs) and, even with maxed-out skills and set to cook quickly, service speed did not improve all that much - at any rate, not enough to warrant the added expense. My current restaurant has only one chef and he seems to manage perfectly well. But I do have the patient customers perk too.

11. I have not decided yet whether it is better to have one or two waiters. I managed perfectly well with only one waiter for a while, but she has started slacking off and it might be time to replace her with someone new and more motivated, so I have brought in a second, more junior waiter to start training and will see how things go from there. If you only have one waiter, though, your managing sim needs to help out. Apart from welcoming guests and checking on tables, there is only one thing that they can usefully do and that is to clear tables. Make them do this.

12. One last tip - hire the youngest staff you can get, especially as hosts and waiters (and especially if you have aging allowed, which I don't at the moment). For one thing, they move faster and (unless it's my imagination) they seem to tire less quickly. For another thing, if you have aging allowed, they will live longer and therefore offer better value for your investment in their training."

A couple of extra things I have learned since writing the above: Don't put in music. You don't want customers standing around dancing. And you probably shouldn't put a bar in either. I think some of the worst problems that came from doing that have probably been ironed out by now, but it's probably best to avoid it in any case. And good luck!

So useful thank you for this

MDianaSims · January 2018

My old restaurant worked perfectly fine. But I just started a brand new one in Brindleton Bay. What I noticed when putting together the menu is that the foods from the Cats & Dogs pack are rated as 0/5 - which is weird. And now, I'm having three tables (one of them a food critic...) where Sims got a plate with food but no drink. All of them have ordered food from the C&D pack (two popcorn shrimp, one haddock sandwich). Their tablemates have food from other packs and they do get their drinks and eat/drink it.

So, my guess is something is wrong with the dishes. I'll try and see what happens if I remove them from my menu the next shift.

Paralee · January 2018

MDianaSanders wrote: »

My old restaurant worked perfectly fine. But I just started a brand new one in Brindleton Bay. What I noticed when putting together the menu is that the foods from the Cats & Dogs pack are rated as 0/5 - which is weird. And now, I'm having three tables (one of them a food critic...) where Sims got a plate with food but no drink. All of them have ordered food from the C&D pack (two popcorn shrimp, one haddock sandwich). Their tablemates have food from other packs and they do get their drinks and eat/drink it.

So, my guess is something is wrong with the dishes. I'll try and see what happens if I remove them from my menu the next shift.

I noticed the 0/5 thing too. And im having the exact same problem. Most meals are missing sooomething. Either the drink. The meal. Sometimes both. The haddock sandwhich i noticed gets made and served so i honestly dont know 🐸🐸🐸🐸 is the matter with this thing. But everything else shows up. I even made sure i added all the appliances and STILL nothing.
Ive never had a more frustrating time using what are supposed to be features of a game. Any game. Ever.

Pegasys · January 2018

I have managed to get a profitable restaurant, but I haven't played managing a restaurant since C& D. If that's true that the C&D meals are glitched, it's worth reporting. There's a bug forum here and you can also check at: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/bd-p/The-Sims-4-Bugs

Sha2520032003 · January 2018

I haven't played as a restaurant owner in ages. But when I did I had a very profitable restaurant following tips that have already been mentioned in this thread.
But I quit playing restaurants as the musical chairs was driving me nuts. Sims wouldn't stay seated long enough for a waiter/waitress to take their order & customers only wanted to socialize. I'm not sure if that has been fixed or not, but my restaurants became unprofitable quickly when the musical chairs started happening.

paradiseplanet · February 2018

Sha2520032003 wrote: »

I haven't played as a restaurant owner in ages. But when I did I had a very profitable restaurant following tips that have already been mentioned in this thread.
But I quit playing restaurants as the musical chairs was driving me nuts. Sims wouldn't stay seated long enough for a waiter/waitress to take their order & customers only wanted to socialize. I'm not sure if that has been fixed or not, but my restaurants became unprofitable quickly when the musical chairs started happening.

I noticed this tends to get really bad if all the tables are really close together with no dividers or walls to keep them separate. This is prevalent if you play the Hogan's Burger Bar as one of the premade restaurant lots. Boy do they not want to sit still! They always stand up to talk to other tables and ever since installing Parenthood, they're also now getting up to dance more often if there's a radio present, which I noticed immediately after installing the GP. It's not been as much of a problem in the other premade lots however.

Andiratyme · February 2018

FKM100 wrote: »

@somethingstellar, this is what I wrote a couple of years back. I'm repeating it here, in the hopes that it may be of some help to you:

"I have finally managed to create a high-end restaurant (self-built), which makes over 2000 simoleans net profit a day. This is my advice for maximising profitability, based on what I have learned:-

1. Hire only one of each type of employee (at least to start with) and invest in their training. In particular, get your chef to max out his skills ASAP and promote him (or her) accordingly, to keep up morale. Once his skills are at level 8, set him to cook quickly. I am not sure whether it is worth maxing out your host's and waiter's skills. They seem to do fine at a skill level of around 6/7 (mine are maxed out now, but it does not seem to have made a significant difference to their performance).

2. Buy the inspirational speech perk ASAP and use it on each employee daily. Systematically buy every other perk that will have a positive impact on the restaurant's finances - ingredient discounts, well-heeled customers, bigger tips, etc. Get the patient customers perk too, to stop your customers getting fed up and walking out when service is slow.

3. DON'T waste points on the customers-eat-faster perk (whatever it's called). It doesn't seem to have any discernable effect on turnaround and IMHO is not worth it.

4. Buy the cheapest advertising package (silver). The more expensive packages are not worth the extra cost, but you do need some advertising in order to attract enough customers to ensure a high turnover.

5. Set your mark-up to 300% - yes, really! Your customers won't mind (this is supposed to be a high-end restaurant after all).

6. As your chef's skill level increases, customise your menu by progressively removing the cheaper options and offering only the most expensive food and drinks your chef can produce. Eventually, you should offer nothing below a difficulty level of 4. Your customers won't mind or even notice the more limited choice. You can include dishes that are slightly above your chef's current skill level. Ignore the warnings. Customers will still pay. This might be a bad strategy in RL, but it works fine in the game.

7. Don't comp anything. Comping affects your ratings, but does nothing for profitability. The game is geared to make you focus on ratings, but higher ratings do not necessarily mean better profits (in fact, I have seen no connection between higher ratings and profitability at all, but that might just be me). If it is profitability that you want, then it is on profitability that you need to focus. There is none of this 'do the right thing and the profits will surely follow' that you get in RL. This is not RL.

8. Now for the crunch: You must stay open late, because the majority of your customers will arrive in the evening and your profitability depends on how many customers you serve. Your employees are only equipped to work for 12 hours before their morale suffers (talk about exploitation!), so don't open until noon, then you can stay open until midnight. Your employees won't mind the late hours, but your managing sim will get tired, so make sure there is somewhere private for them to take an afternoon nap when things are quiet. Or let different household members take shifts.

9. Make sure you have enough tables (I had ten). The secret lies in the number of individual tables, not the amount of seating generally, so most of your tables should be two-seaters, since customers will generally arrive in pairs and these tables will fill up first. Put them closest to the chef's station for quicker service and make sure that there is plenty of space to walk around them so that the area does not get too congested if/when your customers decide to play musical chairs.

10. Don't enlarge your staff complement too much, or too quickly. I have tried having one chef and I have tried having two. Having two chefs at a pay-grade of 5 was hugely expensive (especially when you include the training costs) and, even with maxed-out skills and set to cook quickly, service speed did not improve all that much - at any rate, not enough to warrant the added expense. My current restaurant has only one chef and he seems to manage perfectly well. But I do have the patient customers perk too.

11. I have not decided yet whether it is better to have one or two waiters. I managed perfectly well with only one waiter for a while, but she has started slacking off and it might be time to replace her with someone new and more motivated, so I have brought in a second, more junior waiter to start training and will see how things go from there. If you only have one waiter, though, your managing sim needs to help out. Apart from welcoming guests and checking on tables, there is only one thing that they can usefully do and that is to clear tables. Make them do this.

12. One last tip - hire the youngest staff you can get, especially as hosts and waiters (and especially if you have aging allowed, which I don't at the moment). For one thing, they move faster and (unless it's my imagination) they seem to tire less quickly. For another thing, if you have aging allowed, they will live longer and therefore offer better value for your investment in their training."

A couple of extra things I have learned since writing the above: Don't put in music. You don't want customers standing around dancing. And you probably shouldn't put a bar in either. I think some of the worst problems that came from doing that have probably been ironed out by now, but it's probably best to avoid it in any case. And good luck!

I used to own a 5 star restaurant and could make a couple thousand a day, but something has happened since then and I'm having trouble. Going to go back and see if I can apply this to my game and hope it works. Thanks for sharing!

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Can Restaurants Even Be Profitable?

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