How review stars are calculated
Taste is only one part of a review. Meal quality, freshness, service, cleanliness and comfort add stars too, and rain, a storm or a blizzard at a seat without cover takes some away.1,2,3,11,14,15
The game adds up the dishes the customer received, the service, cleanliness and comfort, subtracts weather discomfort and penalties, adds a small random swing, and keeps the result between 1 and 5 stars.1,2,14
The formula
First, each dish the customer received gets a dish score:1,2
dish score = 2.5 × taste + 1.5 × meal quality + 1 × freshness
Then the review averages those dish scores and adds the rest:1,2,14
stars = 0.5 × average dish score + service quality + 0.75 × cleanliness + 0.75 × comfort − 0.75 × rain or snow discomfort − penalties ± 0.25 random
- Taste is that customer's satisfaction with the dish at the price they paid, on a 0 to 1 scale. See Dish satisfaction and the price cliff.4,5,6
- Meal quality and service quality are the staff member's skill value times a happiness factor of 0.7 + 0.5 × their satisfaction (0.7 when miserable, 1.2 when fully happy). With skilled, happy staff they go above 1: up to 1.8 for meal quality and 1.68 for service.2,7,12,14
- Taste and freshness are at most 1, so with top staff a dish score can pass 5 (up to 6.2). Only the final review is limited to 1 to 5.1,2
The most each factor can add
| Factor | Most stars it can add |
|---|---|
| Taste | 1.25 |
| Meal quality | 1.35 |
| Freshness | 0.5 |
| Service quality | 1.68 |
| Cleanliness | 0.75 |
| Comfort | 0.875 |
Taste has the largest weight when every input is 1, but service and meal quality can add more because skilled, happy staff push them above 1. Which factor holds a venue back depends on its own numbers; My Save shows the breakdown for yours.1,2,7,12
Penalties
| What happened | Effect on the review |
|---|---|
| Some items never arrived | Loses a random 0.5 to 1 star1,2,14 |
| Nothing arrived | The dish part and service both count as 0, on top of the 0.5 to 1 star penalty, so the review ends at 1 star in practice |
| The order was never taken | The formula is skipped; the review is a random 0.6 to 2 stars before the 1 to 5 limit |
| Cleanliness below 0.3 | Loses another random 0.4 to 0.8 stars |
In one save we checked, all 295 reviews where nothing arrived, across all venues, scored 1.
Complaints and how staff handle them (or a customer being thrown out) move the review further by a random amount. They are not covered on this page, and the formula above leaves them out.
Weather
Only seats without cover lose stars to weather. The review takes 0.75 × the rain amount (only when it is above 0.35) or 0.75 × the blizzard intensity while it snows, whichever is larger, so at most 0.75 stars. A seat at a table under a roof or with a table umbrella loses nothing.3,11,14,15
| Weather | Amount | Stars lost at an open seat |
|---|---|---|
| Rain | 0.40 to 0.70 | 0.30 to 0.53 |
| Storm | 0.85 to 1.0 | 0.64 to 0.75 |
| Light blizzard | 0.4 to 0.7 | 0.30 to 0.53 |
| Heavy blizzard | 0.95 to 1.0 | 0.71 to 0.75 |
| Snow without a blizzard | 0 | 0 |
Comfort in reviews
review comfort = 0.5 × (0.5 × (chair comfort ÷ 3 + table comfort) + venue comfort)7,12,16
- Table comfort averages the table and each item on it with comfort above 0 (umbrellas included), each ÷ 3.
- Venue comfort averages comfort ÷ 3 over every movable table, chair and decoration in the venue, comfort 0 included, adds 0.1 × comfort ÷ 3 for each decoration, and is capped at 1. Built-in tables are left out.
- The seat part has no cap, so review comfort can go above 1. The best seat is a comfort-4 bench at a comfort-3 long table with one comfort-5 item on the table (such as an umbrella): 1.17 when venue comfort is 1.
The comfort percentage in the game's venue panel is this venue comfort. Popularity uses a different comfort value: see Popularity.8,17
Rounding
After the 1 to 5 limit, the review is rounded to a whole number of stars at random by its fraction: a 3.7 becomes 4 seven times in ten and 3 otherwise. The average stays the same, but single reviews jump around.1,2,14
We checked the formula against the latest 80 reviews of one venue in a save: it predicted an average of 3.70 stars, and the actual average was 3.70.
Example: one review, three improvements
Taste 0.85, meal quality 0.8, freshness 0.9, service 0.7, cleanliness 0.9, comfort 0.6, no weather discomfort, every item delivered, random swing left out. Each row keeps the changes above it.1,2,14
| Change | Stars |
|---|---|
| Starting point | 3.94 |
| Service 0.7 → 1.0 | 4.24 |
| Comfort 0.6 → 0.9 | 4.46 |
| Meal quality 0.8 → 1.0 | 4.61 |
Stars and venue levels
A venue levels up when its total meals served reaches the next level's target. Levels 4 and 5 also need a review average: at least 4.0 stars for level 4 and 4.5 for level 5, over the newest 20 reviews. Exactly 4.0 or 4.5 is enough. The average uses the whole-star scores, after the rounding above. The game checks each time a meal is served, and venues don't lose levels in the current version.9,13,18
| To reach | Meals served (venues for rent) | Meals served (starting venue) | Review average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 2 | 50 to 100 | 10 | none |
| Level 3 | 100 to 300 | 50 | none |
| Level 4 | 200 to 500 | 150 | 4.0 or more |
| Level 5 | 300 to 1000 | 300 | 4.5 or more |
Each level also raises the price cap: see Price caps by venue level.10
On this site
- Load your save under My Save. The venue page breaks your recent reviews into these factors.
- Try different factor values in the Planner.
Sources
Each number in the text points to a source below. Tap a number to jump to it.
From the game code
- ↑How a review's stars are calculated
- ↑How staff skill and happiness set meal and service quality
- ↑How rain and snow lower a review, and which seats count as covered
- ↑How the game combines the parts of a dish score into one satisfaction value, and where it is used
- ↑How each customer group scores a dish: price, value, rarity, local favorites
- ↑How a customer picks items from a venue's menu
- ↑How seat and furniture comfort count in reviews
- ↑How venue comfort for popularity is calculated, and how it differs from the comfort shown in the venue panel
- ↑How a venue levels up: meals served, review average and rewards
- ↑The highest price the menu screen lets you set, by venue level
From game data (build 25680465)
Checked in a save file
- ↑Reviews recorded in one save (day 10), compared with the formula
- ↑Rain and snow penalties recorded in one save's reviews, compared with that save's weather
- ↑Review comfort in one save (day 10) compared with the seat values computed from its furniture
- ↑Venue comfort recomputed from the furniture in a saved game
- ↑Venue levels on one save (day 10) compared with the level table