Manage and improve your restaurant

Cooking Simulator is a paid simulation title where you’re employed at a low-rating restaurant, and it is your job to boost its abysmal ratings and make it the epitome of prestige. It features Career mode and Sandbox mode. The former lets you grow your restaurant from the ground up, whereas the latter tickles your creativity and imagination. 

Apart from its wide selection of recipes and equipment, the meal preparation process also feels realistic—requiring time and attention, just like cooking in real life. However, Cooking Simulator’s clunky controls and collision issues make the game frustrating to play.  

Prepare gourmet meals for customers

In Big Cheese Studio’s Cooking Simulator, the player finds themselves in a kitchen with sticky notes and malfunctioning kitchen equipment. From here, you’ll need to hire a company to get the equipment back up and running. As with real life, repairs cost money. Hence, keeping an eye out on your balance and spending wisely are habits you should develop from the get-go. 

You’ll also need to purchase more kitchen essentials, such as knives and spices. As you progress further, you can add more recipes to your ever-growing cooking arsenal. New orders will appear on the upper left corner of the screen. The orders have time limits, though—so don’t take too long or else the customer will leave. On the plus side, you can take photos of your finished dishes.

In addition, you’ll be presented with a progress report that details your expenses, number of completed orders, total income, and many more. Fame points are earned, too, bringing you closer to your goal of reaching a five-star fame rating. The Sandbox mode, meanwhile, lets your imagination run wild. Whether it’s setting everything ablaze or experimenting with all the available ingredients, the kitchen is your playground.

Immersive title with poor controls

Overall, Cooking Simulator does an excellent job of delivering a realistic cooking and restaurant experience to the average gamer. The Sandbox mode, though, is where the game shines. As it is a virtual playground, you are free to do anything you want—from experimenting with your cooking to burning the whole kitchen. Despite its fun, immersive gameplay, the title’s clunky controls can make players lose interest.