How customers choose what to order

A dish can be on your menu and in stock, and still get no orders at all from one customer group. It comes down to how customers choose.¹

Every customer belongs to one customer group, and the game scores each dish separately for each group. A customer who goes out to eat makes two choices: which venue, then what to order there.^1,2,3

Step 1: pick a venue

A customer who wants to eat out only looks at venues in the district they are in. A venue counts only if:^1,4,5

• its menu is not empty,
• it is taking new customers: its staff for both cooking and serving are on shift (the overlap of their hours), and more than 1 hour of that overlap is left,
• it has a free seat. On rain or storm days a customer only takes a covered seat (under a roof, or at a table with an umbrella), unless they are very hungry. Snow does not limit seats: snow by itself never sends a customer looking for cover.

Each venue that counts gets a weight: its popularity with the customer's group plus a small distance adjustment, from +0.1 for a venue right next to the customer down to −0.1 for one far away.

A venue whose weight is 0 or less is never picked. Among the rest, the chance of being picked is proportional to the weight. See Popularity.

The example menu

Our customer has picked a venue with this menu. All four items are in stock. The scores are made up for this example: they are one customer group's satisfaction with each item at your menu price, from 0 to 100.^1,2,3

Step 2: which items can be picked

The customer compares every item in stock, dishes and drinks together. The best score sets a line. An item can be picked only if it is in stock and scores less than 30 points below the best in-stock item. We call these items "in the running". An item exactly 30 points below the best is out.¹

in the running = in-stock items where (best in-stock score − item score) < 30¹

The soup is 31 points below the best, so this group does not order it at all. Another group may score the soup differently.

Step 3: pick one item

The customer picks one item in the running at random, each with the same chance. Here the noodle dish, the soda and the fried rice each get one third of this group's picks. An item 29 points below the best would be picked just as often as the best one.¹

Step 4: maybe add a drink

If the pick is a dish, there is an 80% chance the customer also adds one drink, picked at random from the drinks in the running. If the pick is a drink, that drink is the whole order. So an order is at most one dish and one drink, however long the menu is.¹

In the example, the soda is the only drink in the running. Out of every 15 orders from this group, on average 5 are the soda alone, 5 start with the noodle dish and 5 with the fried rice. 8 of those 10 dish orders also add the soda. So the soda is in 13 of 15 orders, and each dish in 5. A drink can sell more than any dish because it is also added to dish orders.

A drink can also push out every dish. If a drink scores 30 or more points above every dish for a group, that group's customers order only drinks.

When the best item runs out

The line is set by the best item in stock, so running out moves it. When the noodle dish runs out, the soda (80) becomes the best. The soup is now 19 points below the best, which is less than 30, so it is back in the running. The soda, the fried rice and the soup each get one third of the picks.¹

When a price changes

The score is worked out at your menu price, so a price change moves it, and that can move an item into or out of the running. Say a price change lifts the soup's score for this group from 61 to 63 while the noodle dish is still in stock. The soup is then 29 points below the best and back in the running. See Dish satisfaction and the price cliff.^1,2,3

There is no separate budget check. An item priced above a group's budget is still in the running if it scores less than 30 points below the best in-stock item.^1,3

Not covered here

How often customers decide to go out and eat at all is not part of this rule, and we have not traced it in the game code.

On this site

• Load your save under My Save and open the menu page. It shows each group's score for every item and greys out the items a group won't pick.
• Try menus and prices in the Planner.
• The venue's popularity with each group is explained on Popularity.