When every other gamer in the world is enamored by ARPGs and close-combat action games, are there any takers for restaurant games? Of course there are! A lot actually! These games are attracting even the ARPG crowd these days.

Restaurant games such as Star Chef and My Cafe are striking a chord with the young and the old alike. These combine the visual appeal of food with the pacing thrill of timely completion. Sometimes they also have the action-packed nature of an RPG! The colorful graphics and the hooking nature of these games have a spellbinding effect.

Let’s understand restaurant games and see what drives users to play these games so intently. We’ll also explore the cognitive benefits of such games and take a look at some popular restaurant and cafe games on the Play Store.

What are restaurant games?

Restaurant games are a broad category of the cooking games genre. These games take users on a whirlwind journey where they have to handle a lot of things simultaneously. From rebuilding a restaurant or cafe to pleasing customers with delicious cuisine and extraordinary service – there’s so much going on in these games!

Here are some common features of restaurant games:

• Growing fresh food –managing a farm and growing veggies and fresh crops
• Building a restaurant –designing the interior space, layout, and menu
• Order flow and customer management –keeping the customers engaged in the ambiance as well as delivering orders as quickly as possible
• Gourmet meal simulation – preparing chef-style gourmet meals within time constraints
• Extending Bar services –having a bartender man the bar station to make innovative cocktails
• Managing distractions and hazards –dousing fires all over the place, sometimes literally!

What’s the appeal behind a restaurant game?

In the popular sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, there’s an interesting banter involving a restaurant game between the show’s two main characters, Captain Holt and Gina Linetti. The solemn Captain Holt is addicted to a particular restaurant game but won’t admit he loves the game. Gina catches him enjoying the game and the Captain casually says he can quit anytime he wants!

But he couldn’t. Similar is the story of people who start playing such interesting restaurant games! The Holts of this world may or may not admit it, but there’s a quaint charm about these games. They have a simple setting and gameplay and have a relatively simple progression.

Another reason behind their appeal is the diverse activity in these games. One moment you’re preparing a meal out of a limited set of ingredients and in another moment you’re out on a global cruise journey!

The spontaneity of these games along with their comprehensive features give you a fulfilling experience. Players get a holistic culinary experience through these games. You are engaged in a 360° farm-to-table activity. This involves growing your own food and preparing your meal from scratch.

The best part about these games is that you’re not just involved in the cooking side of things but also in management. A common theme of these games is ‘building my cafe’. The game’s backstory would be a cafe that once flourished but now lies in disregard. You, as the main character, would have to spring life into the cafe and make it popular once again.

This involves executing a lot of managerial tasks that would need you to go out of your comfort zone. It would put your communication and leadership skills to the test.

How does playing restaurant games benefit you?

Playing restaurant games bring you a lot of benefits with a spillover effect in real life. Here are some of the major benefits of playing such games:

• Cognitive development:These games involve you in a lot of mentally demanding tasks but in a fun way. They develop your cognitive thinking skills as a result.
• Enhances creativity and imagination:Restaurant games are set in a fantasy world where you can put your imagination to good use. This inevitably expands your creativity.
• Develop fine motor skills:Games such as Star Chef and ‘My Café’ require you to have good spatial awareness and quick reflexes. This helps you develop your fine motor skills to a large extent.
• Broadens mental horizon:You get a lot of exposure to the world through these games. You get to learn a lot about different cuisines of the world and culinary history in general. This expands your mental horizon.
• Builds leadership and management skills:The various managerial tasks you have to undertake throughout these games give you a taste of leadership and management.

Key Takeaway

Restaurant games are really engaging and interesting once you start playing them. Their wide-ranging options, simulation challenges, and simple gameplay mechanics make them an ideal pastime. Playing these games brings a lot of benefits to the players in terms of cognitive development, spatial awareness, and creative thinking. They also instill a sense of discipline and time-bound competition among the players.