Review stars and level-ups
Every customer leaves a review when they finish. Your average rating gates the top venue levels and feeds into popularity. The good news is that stars follow a clear formula. When we checked it against one venue's real reviews, it predicted an average of 3.20 stars, and the actual average was 3.20.
The formula
First, every dish the customer received gets a score from 0 to 5:
dish score = 2.5 × taste + 1.5 × meal quality + 1 × freshness
Then the review:
stars = 0.5 × average dish score + service quality + 0.75 × cleanliness + 0.75 × comfort − 0.75 × max(rain, snow discomfort) − penalties ± 0.25 random
Taste is that customer's satisfaction with the dish at the price they paid (see Dish satisfaction explained). Everything else is on a 0–1 scale, but staff skills can push meal quality and service quality above 1.
Where your stars come from
| Factor | Stars at 1.0 | Raised by |
|---|---|---|
| Taste satisfaction | 1.25 | Menu, prices, local favorites |
| Meal quality | 0.75 (up to about 1.13) | Your cooks' cooking skill |
| Freshness | 0.5 | Fresh ingredients |
| Service quality | 1.0 (up to 1.4) | The serving skill of whoever serves |
| Cleanliness | 0.75 | Cleaning staff |
| Comfort | 0.75 | Comfortable tables, chairs and decor |
| Total | 5.0 |
Taste is worth at most 1.25 stars. A perfect menu can't carry a venue on its own. Service, comfort and meal quality are usually what holds a venue back.
Penalties
- Incomplete order: if the customer didn't get everything they ordered, the review loses a random 0.5 to 1 star (0.75 on average). Unlike the other factors, it hits every customer whose order runs short, so it adds up fast on a busy day.
- Order never taken: the whole review is replaced by a random 0.6–2 stars.
- Very dirty venue: if cleanliness falls below 0.3, the review loses another 0.4–0.8 stars.
- Rain or snow: up to −0.75 stars, depending on whether the customer's seat is covered. See Weather and market events.
Comfort in reviews
The comfort a reviewer feels is the average of two things: the comfort of the table they sat at (its comfort rating ÷ 3), and the venue's overall comfort. Overall comfort is the average comfort of your tables and chairs (÷ 3), plus a small bonus from decor, capped at 1. One cheap table can drag down every review from customers who sit there.
A worked example
Taste 0.85, meal quality 0.8, freshness 0.9, service 0.7, cleanliness 0.9, comfort 0.6, no rain, every order delivered:
| Change | Predicted stars |
|---|---|
| Starting point | 3.94 |
| Service 0.7 → 1.0 (a serving level 6 server) | 4.24 |
| Comfort 0.6 → 0.9 (better furniture) | 4.46 |
| Meal quality 0.8 → 1.0 (a cooking level 5 cook) | 4.61 |
Taste didn't change at all, yet the venue went from just under 4 to above 4.5.
Stars and level-ups
In the current game data, the venues you can buy or rent follow the same pattern:
| To reach | Needs |
|---|---|
| Level 2 | Meals served only (10–100, depending on the venue) |
| Level 3 | Meals served only (50–300) |
| Level 4 | Meals served (150–500) and an average of 4.0 stars |
| Level 5 (top) | Meals served (300–1000) and an average of 4.5 stars |
The level-up check uses the plain average of your latest 20 reviews. Each review is clamped to 1-5 and then rounded to a whole number of stars, up or down at random by its fraction: a 3.7 becomes a 4 seven times in ten and a 3 otherwise. The average stays the same, but single reviews jump around, and there's also a ±0.25 random swing before rounding. Aim your predicted stars a little above the target.
Leveling up also raises the price cap (see Dish satisfaction). Levels 1 and 2 have their own menu, table and staff limits, for example 2 menu items at level 1 and 5 at level 2. From level 3 on, every venue allows 20 menu items, 20 tables and 10 staff. Dishes and drinks both count toward the menu limit.
Fix things in this order
- Incomplete orders. Keep dishes in stock, and add cooks or servers if orders back up.
- Service quality. Put your best servers on serving. See Staff.
- Comfort. Replace the least comfortable tables and chairs first.
- Meal quality. Put your best cooks in the kitchen.
- Weather. Add covered seating if rain or snow is common in your area.
- Taste. Fine-tune the menu and prices last.